Everything I read is negative, and I certainly don't want to drag the thread down into that kind of shit-slinging. I've got one side of the story and now I'm interested in hearing Dion's. Is it accurate to say that anyone who bought games from you had the option of keeping the original insert as well as the NGF one? That would seem to me the right way of going about things.
The negativity was spread by one site and one group of people. NGF English & Corrected Inserts Yes, everyone had that option to buy a game with the original insert or with the NGF insert, if the game so needed. We even offered our NeoGeoFreak inserts for outside sales. Some people would by an aes cart that was released only in japan with japanesed insert, but they wanted an English insert for their collection (including Chris and myself). So we came up with the idea to acquire the art files from snk and start offering english variants to many of the japanese only releases, and to games that didn't have the correct genre stripe or if they didn't have the classic style insert. It was all a very simple idea. We were doing things so ahead of our time that people didn't know what was going on. NGF was the first to start doing and offering conversions with full artwork, that was also 100% official/authorized. Now, even sites like ng.com got into the idea of offering "classic style" inserts. Its yet another thing that NGF thought of and pioneered. Fan -made inserts Also, 10-15 years ago, "conversions" and fan-made" inserts seemed taboo. Now so many people do/offer conversions and so many people make fan-made inserts for both aes and mvs. (I've seen some amazing fan-made inserts too). Disclaimer Not all games received an insert variant. The only games we offered corrected inserts on were games that needed the genre stripe or if they were japan only releases. example: games such as AoF, KoF, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, and all fighting games needed nothing and came fully original. Same with most shooters and sports titles. We did corrected inserts mostly for action, puzzle, and racing titles.
Do you have pics of his collection ? It's one of the few collection pages I cannot access to on neo-geo.com.
What about customers who specifically asked for an original cart, not tampered with? Did you honor their requests? Say, for example, I asked you for a Samurai Shodown 2, all original, no stamps or stickers, would you honor that request?
I think we can ask more interesting questions than inserts. YES it is controversial YES some people are upset We are not here to discuss that, for the love of jobe ask the man some original and interesting questions. Dion I'll ask you to ignore any questions about inserts from now on. QUESTION: When you got the prototype games, were they on the large prototype MVS, AES or loose eproms? Were they on a computer you got in the deal? What is your earliest memory of encountering neo geo? What made you take such a liking to it? How much money have you spent on NEO GEO? As you get older, do you find yourself thinking about selling your collection or will you always keep it?
Question: After the 100 copy limited release of the NGF King of Fighters U.S., you stated that no more were available, but yet you had a stack of inserts, manuals and a roll of cart stickers in your garage. Can you make more?
Hi Mike, Shito here. I can give you a flat and square answer to this from my own experience. I had some deals with Chris Ray during times. I asked for 100% unstamped, untouched Japanese carts, actually brand-new ones. I got exactly what I asked for, and what Chris had promised to me. Those deals have always been perfect, smooth, and Chris proved to be a true lover and connoisseur of the system as well as a great fellow. I would say he's one of the best person I got in touch with in the Neo scene as a whole. I have never personally dealt with Dion though.
Question: How were repairs handled? I notice some games had updates to the P roms on the MVS side of things, would SNK send you the files to burn new eproms or did they do the repairs in house?
As I, and others have attested to, if someone wanted a game with no stamps or warranty stickers, they received it as such. But they had to request it as such and give up the Fully Transferable Lifetime Warranty that only NeoGeoFreak offered. (Read the details below) History of the NGF Stamp and NGF Warranty Sticker: I personally think this would be self explanatory, but people still ask the questions as to why and of the origins, so I'll explain. When we first started doing retail sales, we didn't have or use any type of verification of origin stamp and/or warranty stickers. This came about out of necessity from a few dishonest buyers trying to pull a fast one on returns or exchanges. I remember the first instance vividly. I received an order for an english Top Hunter cartridge. I sent a NEW/NEVER PLAYED/MINT condition Top Hunter to the buyer, and all was well. All of a sudden the buyer sends me an email stating the game looked used and the insert had a rip, and that he wanted a refund. I didn't really know what to make of his claim because I knew the game was new and in excellent condition. The emails went back and forth, back and forth, and finally the buyer and I came to an agreement that he could send the game back and I would honor an exchange. When I received the game and opened the box, I was a bit taken back by what I saw. Low and behold... he sent back a game that I KNEW was not sent from me. With no way to prove he was pulling a scam and doing a switch on me, I honored the exchange. To prevent these types of situations in the future, I came up with the idea of a valid proof of original, the infamous NeoGeoFreak/NGF Stamp for the insert, and the NeoGeoFreak/NGF Warranty Sticker for cartridges. If a customer didn't want NGF stamp validation of origin or the NGF warranty sticker, they would be forfeiting their rights to an exchange or repair if there was ever a problem. This is very similar to companies today that sell items ranging from mobile phones to automobiles. Once the warranty has been voided, the original company won't do any repairs or offer any refunds.
Dion, Just wondering how you decided on the Neo-Geo Freak company name. Was the magazine of the same name out already out, and if so, did SNK ever give you grief about it? PS: Neo-Geo freaks may find this interesting. A picture of me unwrapping my Neo-Geo AES Gold System Xmas 1990 (Ignore the chubby kid with glasses.. I have no idea what happened to him. ) http://www.videogameobsession.com/videogame/boxed_setup/Neo-Geo_Unwrapping_Xmas_1990.jpg PPS: Dion, please check your PM when you get a chance.
http://digitalbullet.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/7/2277892/ngf.pdf This makes me feel not good about you guys tampering with my cart Vanishing post. Awesome. Anyhow: http://digitalbullet.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/7/2277892/ngf.pdf This makes me highly concerned about my Puzzle Bobble.
I believe there were official carts that had an EEprom or two in them. I have one or two myself but I don't know more beyond that.
My question, as I would genuinely like to hear your view. Are there business practices you employed back then that you now regret in any way? Where I'm coming from is as follows. I am not talking about inserts, stickers, stamps etc. There are many documented occurences where people claim you stole from them, ripped them off, filed chargebacks, didn't send items etc. Now it can be argued that that is all one-sided. I would like to hear your side if that's ok. I fully appreciate that any business has disgruntled customers, but from what I've read, inserts, stickers, stamps aside, NGF appears to have way more disgruntled customers than most other businesses. I would really like to hear your spin on this, in this non-hostile environment.
Just curious about a couple things posted on that pdf. Maybe Dion can weigh in. First and foremost this caught my eye. So according to this document Metal Slug 1 was NEVER RELEASED FOR HOME USE. This must be wrong. Otherwise every AES copy was a reproduction cart. Also, Dion, did they ever return the items that were seized from you?
Wow!! That was such a blast from the past to read. Thank God the neo fans were so obsessed with neogeofreak, cause a lot of these great history articles and stories would be forever lost with them. I actually forgot how bad that frivolous attempt at a lawsuit was. Playmore bought the SNK company and rights and took over. And of course they wanted to protect their interests. But instead of looking through their documents of even contacting us and questioning us, they just hired some beginner lawyers and attempted to beat us at a case. We needed no lawyers The interesting part is, our case was so strong, we didn't even hire a lawyer. Lol. Proof of unreleased games via Playmore inspectors and Court records We won a HUGE settlement, all items had to be returned via US Court Order, and playmore was forced to issue that press release on their site. AND the documents showed we had such games as warlocks of the fates, crossed swords 2, and many more (but some people won't even accept US court records as proof). The court records speak for themselves. Offer to sell NeoGeoFreak and NGFUSA web sites to Playmore I remember playmore (read that pdf) wanted to take control of our www.NeoGeoFreak.com and www.NGFUSA.com web sites during the initial frivolous allegations against us. During our settlemt hearings, they made a generous offer for us to drop counter-suit proceedings. During the negotiations for our settlement, we still were willing to let them take control of both our domain sites, but we asked for $500k each ($1million total) on top of what they were giving us (per the court order, the settlement issued to NGF by playmore is sealed). (plus we would also have relinquished any left over stock, art files, and all repackaging rights as well) . But we accepted their generous offer to just walk away and not counter-sue them. All in all, it was very, VERY lucrative for us. Whenever I reflect and read the documents I have (i have copies of the private depositions), it amazes me how it all transpired. Well Adrian, sometimes I can reflect and I can think of a few things I would have done a lot differently, but hindsight is 20/20. But for the most part, I wouldn't change a thing. I still think we did everything for the better of the neo scene. You'll never make all the people happy all the time. A few people that wanted to compete against us, or fans that for some reason had a blind fury towards us (without ever meeting us) just went on tirades. Not true. You're the neo scene is very small, and it's only the same 3 or 5 people that make the same accusations. If they don't care for the NGF inserts, that is fine. But they shouldn't condem and alienate people that do like them. It's probably why so many of the bigger collectors world-wide remain anonymous.
