NGF history and snk buyout details

Discussion in 'Neo Geo Discussion' started by Dion, Mar 6, 2011.

  1. ASSEMbler

    ASSEMbler Administrator Staff Member

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    I wasn't aware of that. I am sure people can read properly here so don't mind it.
     
  2. Dion

    Dion Robust Member

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    My posts were being edited and merged together by:
    Last edited by LeGIt; 1 Day Ago at 11:01 AM. Reason: i r the merginator

    I would even go back and delete some of my replies cause it looked like I had written a novel. He would merge my replies/answers to 3 or 4 different people (and my replies are very detailed and long as it is).

    It would then appear that even more questions were being ignored.

    That's why I asked for people to let me reply and give an answer to one person's questions before someone else would ask the next set of questions. I was afraid my answers would all be merged together, as well as me maybe missing a question due to it getting lost and buried.

    Hello Ben, I'll try my best to answer your questions and hopefully they'll be of some interest to other neo fans as well.

    I covered the beginnings and how NGF came to be when I started this thread. (1st post, page 1).

    NGF History
    I started buying/selling aes cartridges from snk back around 1994. It was nothing more than buying extra quantities as to offset the costs for my own personal collection.

    So after many years of doing business with snk, we developed a good business relationship together. I would frequently see snk-japan and snk-america employees at the various trade shows, plus I would visit the offices in california from time to time.

    Around that time, Chris and myself were taking things to a higher level, buying more and more quantities. From then on, we made agreements that we would be an authorized distributor for the aes consumer market. This led to the development of NeoGeoFreak/NGF-USA as a name, and later a brand, circa late 1996/97. These deals would eventually lead to NeoGeoFreak/NGF-USA becoming the exclusive and only consumer aes distributor for the entire US market (snk had agreements with another distributors for europe, south america, africa, etc...)

    To elaborate, it meant that for every title snk would release for the neogeo aes, NeoGeoFreak would be the exclusive and only ones selling it (we would buy the inventory and then sell to other retailers nationwide/north america). SNK did this with their mvs division as well, but we were not involved in arcade sales.

    Meaning, SNK could/would only sell directly from their own web sites to consumers at full retail, but they would not sell mass quantities to other retailers. NeoGeoFreak/NGF-USA was the middle man for wholesale aes sales. We were both a wholesaler and also a retailer. We sold wholesale quantities to retailers and various online sites, and we also sold one off orders to consumers.




    NGF visits SNK and NeoGeoWorld
    That is a very good question and brings back memories I may have otherwise forgotten.

    As I said before, since I lived in the usa, naturally, I started visiting the snk-america offices first . After I developed the relationship with them and started buying/selling aes carts, the visits and my orders became more and more frequent. Soon I was big enough to start talking distributor prices, rather than wholesale prices (this means buying very large quantities per title). This is when NeoGeoFreak came to be and Chris and myself partnered up.

    As a neo fans and collectors, we always enjoyed visiting the snk offices and warehouses. And as NGF became a bigger distributor, we were personally invited to snk-japan and the for the grand opening of NeoGeoWorld in February 1999.

    [​IMG]


    Here I am in full staff uniform for grand opening day.
    Chris and myself were there not as fans, but as the NGF delegation and to speak on usa distribution and talk of the gorwing collectors market, which I personally felt was being overlooked by the SNK Corporation.
    [​IMG]


    Chris Ray with two neogeoworld greeters for the grand opening vip invite.
    [​IMG]

    Being personally invited to NeoGeoWorld as a vip for grand opening day was a very gratifying experience for us. It reinforced our own beliefs that chris and myself that we were doing a great job with NGF and the neo market. And with all the money SNK invested in the NGWorld theme park, we felt the future would be looking even brighter.


    crashing down: SNK closed!!
    When snk were closing their offices, it was a very lull moment for sure.
    The negotiations actually started over the phone (they would call me way into the midnight hour to discuss NGF buying their remaining inventory. (I covered that somewhere in this thread too).

    I visited snk-america the week they were moving out of the office/warehouse they rented. By the end, everything was looking like any other business that was in the process of closing down. Desks, computers, etc... were being sold/taken away. Toilets, water coolers, doors,.. you name it. There was a japanese representative that told me I could have all their office printers they had 3 of them (huge commercial office style laser b/w printers)(i didn't take them).




    Neo during the days of yore
    The neo was really at it's peek during 1996 in terms of new games that were introduced. Around that time a lot of people were just learning about the internet and a whole new slew of collectors gathered up thanks to news groups and email lists (before the advanced social networks of today). These were the beginnings of making new friends that all shared the love for the neogeo. (the internet also spawned the creation of NGF)

    The neo scene in terms of fans and collectors reached it's peak during 2001-2004. After NeoGeoFreak was sold out, I didn't post much, and the hype, excitement, and drama really died down.

    In my opinion, and I really do think I bring valid points, me leaving the neo scene really led to the collapse of interest amongst gamers and collectors in the usa, uk, france, germany, greece, and australia. I may be wrong, but I do think NGF, me in particular, really brought out the interest in the neogeo.

    I marketed the neogeo scene in such a unique way, that once "NGF" left, the interest in the neo left with us.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2011
  3. Xian Xi

    Xian Xi Rising Member

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    From what I heard Diggerman is a homebrew game and the maker used music from Gururin and that is the only tie to Face there is.

    There is no way Diggerman was an official title. I highly doubt Face would put out such a low grade game such as that. They would have at least spruced up the graphics with their own creatures. If you look at Dangerous Dungeons it is obvious that someone just converted it to the Neo. At that time a lot of people were making homebrews for the Neo.

    If you know what games Face released before they supposedly "released" Diggerman it would be obvious that it wasn't made by them. How does a company go from Nostradamus to Diggerman?
     
  4. Dion

    Dion Robust Member

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    From what you heard?
    Where did you here these things?
    Who are these people that are so called experts in every game ever made?
    Why did you ask me the question if you have your own ideas and answers?

    I didn't make/program the game, so I don't care one way or another.

    Maybe it was made long before gururin.
    Maybe it wasn't finished.
    Maybe it wasn't released because FACE didn't feel it was worth it.

    A lot of video games are semi-programmed and later scrapped and/or unreleased. That is how many protos are found for systems such as the 2600, colecovision, and many more.


    Contempt of Court
    All I know is what we've found out through playmore papers and us district court papers per inquiry and discovery. Diggerman copyright is own by FACE, as submitted by playmore.

    If playmore lied and/or provided false documentation during the discovery process, they would be found in contempt of court. And that's a far more serious offense than what they tried to take us to court for.

    It seems to me that some people still question legal court findings, discoveries,verdicts, and settlements.

    These issues shouldn't even be brought up!!

    I don't care who or what company programs or releases a game. Be it snk, alpha/adk, saurus, nasca, alpha mission, video system, visco, yumekobo, taito, pallas, technos, sunsoft, hudson, data east, tecmo, wave, or FACE.

    It shouldnt', and I'm sure it doesn't, matter to neo fans and collectors as to who/what company programmed any game released or unreleased for the neogeo.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2011
  5. LeGIt

    LeGIt I'm a cunt or so I'm told :P

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    I have been merging since your first post - I'm surprised it took you this long to realise or moan, even given I have already stated it in the unmoderated thread that the triple posting.... eugh :p It is nothing personal - I am an equal opportunties offender and anyone who cares to read your posts will read them in their entireity.

    With all your quoting and headings and the fact people are literate I doubt that it will be a problem. Alas I too suffer from novel syndrome when writing stuff for hospital or angry letters lol. Maybe once you've done your fill, the whole lot can be collated elsewhere and actually published as a PDF or something?

    Anyhow I look forwards to an answer to my questions so that I may be able to ask you more.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2011
  6. Alchy

    Alchy Illustrious Member

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    Of course it matters to collectors and fans that they know who developed what. If you care about videogames at all those are absolutely key facts. It's the reason that Miyamoto, Kojima, Molyneux, etc etc are so well known among the gaming fraternity, it's the reason why people get so bent out of shape about this developer vs that developer (Nintendo vs Sega, or whatever).

    Why wouldn't you care who made the game? It sounds like you're just trying to bluster over the fact that it's a homebrew game, to be honest.
     
  7. Dion

    Dion Robust Member

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    MAZE PHOTOS ADDED!!
    Irritating Maze Damage Photos I promised last week have been added.
    Go back and check page 2.
     
  8. ASSEMbler

    ASSEMbler Administrator Staff Member

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  9. Core

    Core Active Member

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    Ugh. That poor IM maze cab got face fucked.
     
  10. Neo-Alec

    Neo-Alec Rapidly Rising Member

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    People want to know if it was just some hackers messing around, perhaps for a quick buck, or if it was made by a legit game company. I've leaned toward it being an unfinished game by Face, but looking at pictures of Dangerous Dungeons, I don't know.

    This question was very strange. Are you saying an "otaku" is someone fluent in Japanese? I've assumed the manuals and packaging must have come already translated from the company for the most part.

    Why are you sure there would have been a converter for AES? That's a bold statement. I doubt there is any market for such a device.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2011
  11. neogeocdworld

    neogeocdworld Spirited Member

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    Dion Could you speak of the neogeo CD in the USA and the 94/95's
     
  12. Xian Xi

    Xian Xi Rising Member

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    Same thing as if I said I'm sure we would have seen MOTW2, LB3, WindJammers 2 and so on.

    SNK was competing with Nintendo for the handheld market, Nintendo released the Super gameboy, why do you think SNK wouldn't follow suite?
     
  13. Stellaking

    Stellaking Member

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    Rare story us do :thumbsup:
     
  14. Christer-swe

    Christer-swe Fiery Member

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    Well, there were so many other things Nintendo did. Did SNK release a NeoGeo Pocket Camera? How about a printer to said camera?
     
  15. LeGIt

    LeGIt I'm a cunt or so I'm told :P

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    Not directly no but one would assume one so infactuated by Japanese culture would get around to learning the Japanese language sooner or later, or at last try and fail :p
     
  16. spoonman

    spoonman Rising Member

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    Wow, Neo-Alec. Now there's an old Neo-Geo fan that I haven't seen in years. How's it going man? You're old web link has been my featured link for the past 12 years, hehe. :p

     
  17. Xian Xi

    Xian Xi Rising Member

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    I think you missed a word, I said "would".
     
  18. Alchy

    Alchy Illustrious Member

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    Threads sometimes go a little off topic here. You'll get used to it.
     
  19. Neo-Alec

    Neo-Alec Rapidly Rising Member

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    Accessories weren't being made for the home system anymore, only games. There's no point in making something like that for a niche system. It would've surely had no effect on the handheld market.
     
  20. Core

    Core Active Member

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    ?????
    Alec, I don't think you are getting the grasp of the time frame he was using.
    We are talking about a prototype piece of hardware that was devised over a decade ago. No one here is making business proposals for the prestent day.
    A cart that would allow you to play NGP(C) games on a Neo home cart system would have been a great idea.....way back when.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2011
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