Just because SNK/Playmore gave the response that "Atari was never asked to distribute the Neo-Geo in the United States" does not mean that this was not the result of some sort of bastardized collaboration between the two companies.
For one, SNK is no longer SNK just as Atari is no longer Atari. SNK was acquired by Playmore in recent years and is a far cry from the original SNK of the late 1980s. Today's Atari bears little resemblance to their former being and retains little knowledge of the past aside from what legal documentation they have and what Curt may contribute from his vast knowledge. SNK/Playmore would be no different. Bottom line... what the hell do they know first hand?
Secondly, from everything I've heard from former employees about the Mirai and it's suspected tangled relationship with SNK, the "Mirai/SNK" scenario does *NOT* call for the Mirai to be a "rebodied" Neo-Geo to be sold under the Atari name. This was not to be like the 1983 Nintendo Famicom deal where Nintendo asked Atari to distribute the NES in America as an Atari system, simply folding the Famicom down into the 2600jr's case. People seem to think that the Mirai WAS a Neo-Geo and from what I know this is not true.
The "Mirai/SNK" scenario I've come across that holds more water than others presents us with a game system being developed between 1987 to 1988 (same development as the Neo-Geo MVS arcade unit and identical AES home console, and same time period the XEGM styling was prevalent within Atari). Jack had seen Nintendo turn the industry around and was interested in creating a game machine out of the ST to beat Nintendo to the next generation system. (A game machine had been created out of the XE line so why not an STGM?)
At some point early on SNK (which had made Ikari Warriors for the 7800) and Atari began some sort of cross-pollination between companies. The relationship was casual and arose out of a relationship between the Tramiel family and the Barone family. Ask any Atari enthusiast who the Tramiel family was and they will go off on a rant. Ask any SNK enthusiast about the Barone family and they will do the same. The Tramiels and Barone's shared a great deal in common, as do the stories of their respective corporations. This was not some super high level corporate agreement made through lawyers. This was personal. It's a little sketchy but it seems like Atari would share some of their intellectual property with SNK USA and in return SNK would share some of their technology with Atari, technology that would allow Jack to create an ST-based game system that was way more advanced than anything Nintendo or Sega had to offer at that time. The Neo-Geo was an arcade system first and a home system second, and at that, the Neo-Geo was a niche market product with an MSRP over $500, not something that would need to compete with the $199 system Jack wanted to make. SNK and Atari would not be in each other’s way. Two separate game systems. Totally separate market share. It was technology (most likely surrounding the Neo-Geo's cartridge capacity and dual-board pinout) that was shared, not the system its self.
Ultimately in this scenario, the relationship between SNK and Atari (and the Barones and the Tramiels) came to an end shortly after it had begun. Not sure if this was a nasty breakup or if the two just couldn’t prove beneficial to one another, but it ended. The ST-based system was passed over by the end of 1988 to begin work on the Panther (which I'm pretty sure was loosely based on the ST/TT line) and ultimately to the Falconish Jaguar.
Keep in mind this is just a *scenario* put forth to try to connect the dots and make sense of the Mirai. I've been told this story by four people, all with first-hand knowledge at Atari in one way or another, but none of them could claim to have worked on the Mirai, just that "this is what I heard around the watercooler" stuff. If all this is incorrect then oh well.
What's sad is that if Jack hadn’t been jerking around with things so much on the computer end of things and could get his act together instead of fiddling with the Panther for so long, Atari could have had a great 16-Bit system out around the same time the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 came out in Japan, well before the SNES or Genesis. 1985 (ST) to 1989 (TG & Gen) is a hell of a lead time.
As for SNK, they can claim that "Atari was never asked to distribute the Neo-Geo in the United States" all they want because it's true. I don't question that for a second. Atari didn't have great distribution channels by 1990 when the Neo came out, besides the Neo-Geo went into stores like Bloomingdales, not Sears. That being said, SNK/Playmore would likely have no record of what the Barone family did on the side.
A final thought - The word Mirai apparently is the Japanese word for "Future" or "Tomorrow"...can't back this up first hand because I dont speak Japanese, but if it's true, what would provoke an Atari project to be given a Japanese name? Short of Nolan playing GO while drunk, SNK seems to be a viable causation.
Okay... now tell me how wrong I am.
