I've always been a fan of the Neogeo arcade systems and games, but it was always out of reach during the hayday for me due to the extreme cost of the hardware and games. These days I see cartridges (at least in the USA) to be a lot more palateable and I was curious as to the costs I should expect to pay for games such as the KoF series, Samurai Showdown series and Metal Slug etc. and what kinds of hardware I should buy. I know you can get ROM upgrades for base consoles to allow arcade-like dipswitching and added features but what else is on the market? Also, is it worth buying a CD system? I realise the loading time can be terrible, but is that the only main problem? Some titles didn't make it to CD either I guess, but I'm weighing up whether I should take the plunge!
A lot. Try to get a hold of a Neo Geo AES system before every collector ends up buying one and starts selling the sy stems at twice the cost they go for these days. General consensus among Neo Geo collectors is that the CD system is cheap and plentiful.
Systems go for about 200 on average, half the time sold with a mod of some sort. Fatal Fury and Samurai showdown carts seem to go for 20 or less on average when it come to earlyer games in the serise.
I say get an AES. The only way the CD based ones may compesate for their terrible loading times is the fact you can dowload and burn the games, but thats kinda unethical to do...
Why not a supergun w/ a Neo Geo motherboard. That's MVS I believe. Not a big fan of the system, although I think most of the games are pretty amazing looking. Not into the whole 2D fighting thing, so never bothered.
If you want to play fighters, you need an MVS or AES. If you hate fighters (like me), CD is great and much cheaper!
If you're just looking to play the games go MVS...you can even have it consolized if you wish to make connection and storage easier. If you just want to play the games and don't mind loading....Neo Geo CDZ unit is the way to go (dual speed drive makes it a little quicker)....only if you're really into collecting should you go AES. Although I haven't been in the scene lately I can tell you that most of the super games you're prob drooling over will go for 150+ (US dollars) a pop for AES. -Jason
No, but there's a DVD version. ;-D Yes, I forgot to mention the loading times of the NCD Metal Slug games are a bit long. So, fighters and MSlug are out. MSlug 2 is a bit better.
Ive had all neo geo set ups (sans cab) and have sold them all, always keeping and going back to CD. The biggest problem is KOF's 95 onwards, and the Last Blade games.......just dont play them without expecting long loads. Other than that i cant recomend it highly enough, especially for classic neo geo games & Real Bouts. Best games systme for music ever....imo yes. MVS is way to go for cost effectivness & games cataloguie tho.
not so sure i find the NeogeoCD load times to really bother me a lot. I have the fiJP frontloading model, as well as cart based AES unit, and while its true it loads for ~20 seconds in between levels, i am just not that bothered by them. In fact, with the AES, you are missing out on the fabulous juggling "now loading" monkey I would say if you are serious about the neogeo, you should get both systems, theres also a limited selection of Neogeo games that were only ever released on CD, and soundtracks of e.g. Viewpoint kick the cartridge systems ass. best tubo
I've had my AES since 1997 and have loved every minute of it. That said, its hard for me to recommend going this route. The insanity of the prices and the constant paranoia of dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars on a worhtless bootleg cart is enough to drive a person crazy. I think the best route is to buy either a full cab, or a consolized MVS. You get the same games for a fraction of the price and none of the drama/headaches of AES collecting.
NeoGeo isn't my console but i'd a CD and AES console in the past. I couldn't recommend the CD version because loading times are pretty awful. If you decide to go for a cd system you should get a CD-Z. Double cache cuts loading times to the half. AES is o.k. - it's top collectors stuff and great hardware. BUT look at the software lineup and decide if it's really worth to spend so much money on a bunch of "the same" 2D Fighters. My recommendation: Get the SNK games you like as PS2 or Xbox version. They are cheap, they are as good as the original version (if not better) and they are easy to get. If you're not done after playing ten SNK games you should decide to get the real stuff. In that case i would invest money in a MVS system + cool arcade cabinet. That rocks, it's good for eternety and you could connect all other systems like ST-V Titan, Naomi ....
Yeah, go for the CDZ. The prices have fallen quite a bit over the last 1-2 years. It used to be a $240 console on eBay, now you can get one for under $200, sometimes under $150 for a non-boxed model.
