What was so good about the Neo-Geo?

Pretty much all the pro/cons of the machine have been mentioned in the posts above but my own personal recollection of the Neogeo comes from the early 90s when I was at high school

There was one guy at school who had a Neogeo AES everyone who was into gaming knew about it (even then it held a pretty mythical status) but he was always lending it out in return for a SNES or Megadrive. I guess this was down to him only having a couple of games when most people had a plastic bag full of SNES or MD carts.

I think that still pretty much sums the AES up to this day; a great machine to have a quick blast on but I found long-term ownership slightly disappointing. Its Arcade basis is both its strongest selling point and its weakest link, not much in the way of story in many games and replay-ability is often lacking with save options/features erratic. With the exception of the KOF and Metal Slug series I think the SNES and Megadrive both have better games in all genres.

I owned an AES but sold it after struggling to come to terms with the cost of owning it, I bought a NEOGEO X and unlike 99.9% of people I really like it, but as others have mentioned other emulation options are available and many of the very best games are on a myriad of other systems now.

Go for a few of the compilations etc to experience the games and decide if you like them and maybe then want to go down the AES or MVS hardware route

 

It was officially supported with new games for over a decade and a half! New games are even being released for today via homebrew. I think that speaks for its long-term ownership.

Yeah, it's bread and butter were fighting games, but outside of the console style RPG (and eventually the 3D action/adventure genre), it has games in each genre that could rival games through the 32 bit era.

/SNK fan boy rant

 

Interesting but maybe I wasn't particularly clear about 'long term ownership' of a console. It certainly isn't simply down to many years of new releases its about the variation and quality of the library (the quality of the actual hardware cannot be questioned as it's very good!). Okay the next bit is pretty subjective but hear me out ;-) Taking the Platformer as an example I don't think the best of the NeoGeo is a match for the best of the Megadrive or SNES

Top Hunter
Spin Master
Blues Journey
Magician Lord

all good games but better than?:

Sonic 1-3
Rocket Knight Adventures
Castle of Illusion
Strider
Ristar
Decap Attack
QuackShot
Earthworm Jim


Super Mario World 1+2
Donkey Kong Country 1 - 3
Super Ghouls N Ghosts
Buster Busts Loose
Super Star Wars
Sparkster
Megaman X Series
Aladdin

To me many NeoGeo games feel slightly lacking, they have impressive sprites and on screen detail, usually have interesting gimmicks like moving between different plains or huge screen filling special attacks but for me they somehow lack that little spark.

It definitely has more 'unique' games like Super Spy for example which I think would have been very poor imitations on other machines. Viewpoint is absolutely superb but the cost of the AES version spoils the fun. Windjammers is such an awesome game that I have my Neogeo CD bascially just for that Rally Chase and Neo Drift Out. I think I would get bored with the available AES library quicker than most other era comparable machines.

Everyone is different but because of the sheer cost of getting into Neogeo (talking AES here) then I would still recommend a try before you buy policy and try alot not just the marquee titles.

I still really like the NeoGeo by the way and urge the OP to really have a good go in whatever way possible!!!

 

I think we're the only ones that like it! For Xmas I asked my wife to buy the Mega Pack, and I have no regrets at all.

To continue with my story, just last week I picked up a top-loader CD unit from Japan, which means I have the trio now! I'm pretty happy that I now have instant access to almost every NG title, even though I will continue to collect games for all 3 formats (I challenge anyone for begrudging me a little bit of ISO burning when I own 2x MVS, AES, NGCD, NGX and a bunch of games)! Actually, in truth the impetus for the NGCD was the ability to burn my own homebrew, not commercial titles.

Anyway, clearly I'm hooked!

 

I'd be more concerned about wearing out the laser unit.

 

all the lasers will wear out eventually saturns ps1's dreamcasts, ps2s etc are all starting to drop like flies.

 

a well made and taken care of console lasts forever

 

CD-R(W) < Original pressed Discs

 

There's only a few consoles can read CD-RW and there's no point, especially with NGCD when there's less than 100 games. Speaking of lasers and CD-R - quality CD-Rs are almost the same as pressed discs. NGCD got a laser similar to those old CD players which work like charm since early 80s.

 

I've seen no credible proof at all that CDR's cause any more wear on a laser than pressed discs, other than hearsay on various forums etc.

Reports that the laser has to 'work harder' imply some sort of feed-back loop, power gain control, and are by and large absolute rubbish.

The only possible explanation is that the less-reflective surface of the CDR causes more errors, enough so to cause constant re-reads. Though it's likely that you'd notice your unit was retrying more and games would load a lot slower. Besides, NGCD games are generally fairly light on loading, unlike some DC and NGC games which seem to keep the disc spinning continuously.

In truth I'll probably use it more for homebrew testing than playing Ironclad (though it does look pretty nice)!

FWIW It's a fact that every laser in every console will eventually die. It's a fundamental law of nature.

 

The PlayStation2 is the absolute proof that it's your comment which could be qualified as "rubbish". It can even detect certain kind of media and force even more the laser to achieve reading. It was even advertised as such. They never warned people that using writable/rewritable discs would destroy the units, though.

It stared sometime around 1996 or 1997 when a technology called "Multiread" had it's standard defined. Before that, there were no RW discs and laser feedback sole purpose was allow the drive to adjust itself to changes on the environmental temperature. Stuff built after 1996 (particularly PC drives at the start) and by 1999 everything was using that technology.

Dreamcast was one of the last things to be released without such mechanism. (that's why people would "tweak" the laser pickup to read RWs as it would not crank up the laser to allow RW reading by it's own)

Using pirated games on the Dreamcast is a different matter of problem though. You would cause the MOTORS to wear out faster due to the disc having lower density on it's tracks (that causes the laser to need to move more through the disc as the tracks are further apart than they would be on a GD)...

Using pirated discs DO destroy hardware. Using originals do destroy the hardware too. Just play your games and be happy lol

 

And I was talking about the NGCD... so... how am I talking rubbish?

 

The problems with PS2 lasers & DVDR's was done on purpose by Sony. Some models have hidden fuses that get tripped by installing a mod chip too.

 

Ok, i'll make it clear - NGCD uses THE SAME OP model as many CD players which works for decades. If you'll try to make it read RWs - it's your own fault considering the fact that NGCD library isn't huge, and if you want to make homebrew stuff you can test it with the emulator first.

PS2? 70xxx? That's what i call rubbish. Laser will die even if you'll use only originals, and i have at least 5 with broken mechanic parts.

 

If you like fighting games, the NG has a tone of them all which have there own style, I remember Breakers Revenge, FF series and Last Blade 2, probably one of the best looking titles IMHO.

 

It has less to do with tech and more with SNK talent back then.
By the time SNK released stunning games like Metal Slug 3, Garou MotW, Last Blade 2 the Neo Geo itself was a pretty old hardware that had the advantage to access any part of the rom quickly.

 

Both. Even Saturn can't handle some Neo-Geo games.

 

Not really. Even Neo Geo CD can't handle some Neo Geo games.

 

Everything's been covered but there was something about going to Incredible Universe and drooling over an arcade perfect machine that we could never afford at $600 for machine and $100 per game, with actual joysticks as controllers.

The big game for us was Samurai Shodown. We had to play on the SNES and not only did the graphics pale in comparison (and character size) but it lacked the "zoom" in and out feature of the arcade as the characters got closer or father away from each other. I was in my 20's with kids by then and there was just no way I could swing it.

So like many things as I've gotten older and have a little extra $ in my pocket...i'm enjoying those things I couldn't have before and taking some nice trips down memory lane. Plus....what's a better system if you love fighting games?.....none. (picture below is SNES vs the AES. pictures could be clearer but you get the idea).

 

great games. arcade games so if you love those its a must have or was back in the day. no compromises. god i miss mine. hoping to someday do a consolized mvs or grab an actual arcade machine