Why was the NGCD created?

LoneSage · May 1, 2005

The other day I was thinking about this...if the NGCD's purpose was to provide a lower cost for the consumer because of the insane AES prices, and it's basically the same as an AES game but with load times, why was the NGCD created? Why couldn't SNK have just lowered the prices for the AES games instead of creating a whole system for the purpose of getting more consumers to buy their products?

lithy · May 1, 2005

-Hibikster- · May 1, 2005

Perhaps it was just a fad for everyone to jump on the CD bandwagon back then because it seemed like the cheapest alternative choice to have CD based gaming which can hold a lot more memory than cartridges for alot cheaper, and can give leeway to having more FMV's, better soundtracks, and things like that. Sega did it, Nintendo almost did it, and Sony blasted it off with PSX.

Another thing, cartridges are retardedly more expensive than CD's or DVD's will ever be. If SNK really decided to lower their price of AES, they would have surely lost money.

I guess one good thing that came out of it though was all the great ASTs that came from the CD version of the KOF games and others. :mr_t:

Mark of the Wolves · May 2, 2005

LoneSage said:
The other day I was thinking about this...if the NGCD's purpose was to provide a lower cost for the consumer because of the insane AES prices, and it's basically the same as an AES game but with load times, why was the NGCD created? Why couldn't SNK have just lowered the prices for the AES games instead of creating a whole system for the purpose of getting more consumers to buy their products?

According to G4 because of slumping AES sales and the current Arcade slump, they did. So I'm guessing they would come out better simply porting somewhat old games to CD's, which were as Goenitz said all the rage. The future if you will.

BIG · May 2, 2005

Mass-market accessibility?

B-

Weevus · May 2, 2005

Cheaper and the cd craze. If SNK had made cd games alla long they might have done better with that format.

Mushiki · May 2, 2005

LoneSage said:
The other day I was thinking about this...if the NGCD's purpose was to provide a lower cost for the consumer because of the insane AES prices, and it's basically the same as an AES game but with load times, why was the NGCD created? Why couldn't SNK have just lowered the prices for the AES games instead of creating a whole system for the purpose of getting more consumers to buy their products?

To make the games cheaper, a lot cheaper.

CD media costs pennies, while building actual ROM carts is extremely expensive.

Problems here where that, load times were huge, because the drives were terribly slow and games got bigger with time - so big, that the system's 56Mbit of RAM started to fall short, and games had to get cut in terms of animations/sprites.

So, with time, it turned out as the same system, but with cheaper games, unbearable load times and cropped games.

All this made the Neo-Geo CD unpopular, so SNK just stopped supporting it.

galfordo · May 2, 2005

There was no way SNK could've been competitive without switching to CD media, due to the high cost of rom memory at the time. They saw what was about to happen with the PS 1 and the Saturn .... well, not so much with the Saturn, but you get the idea.

Big Shady · May 2, 2005

If SNK dropped their AES carts to the $70-$80 they would be hemoragging money. There is a reason why the games were $225-250 at release, cause they were damn expensive to make. In all reality, the MVS games were MORE expensive then AES games. That's why they didn't let AES carts work on MVS machines because the AES games were cheaper.

Tung Fu ru · May 2, 2005

Big Shady said:
If SNK dropped their AES carts to the $70-$80 they would be hemoragging money. There is a reason why the games were $225-250 at release, cause they were damn expensive to make. In all reality, the MVS games were MORE expensive then AES games. That's why they didn't let AES carts work on MVS machines because the AES games were cheaper.

Then why isn't there a AES (cart) to MVS (pcb board) adaptor????

(I'm not trying to argue with you, I've just kinda wondered this for a while)

ForeverSublime · May 2, 2005

Tung Fu ru said:
Then why isn't there a AES (cart) to MVS (pcb board) adaptor????

(I'm not trying to argue with you, I've just kinda wondered this for a while)

There are - modified home consoles stuffed in cabs.

Most arcade ops just aren't savvy enough to think of that, though. How many arcade ops do you think know that the arcade data is also stuffed into the carts?

Jedite · May 2, 2005

SNK wanted to reduce the production of AES carts, because of the high price of production for them. So, SNK pushed the NGCD as its mainstream system, to lower costs and also, because of mostly all the systems around that time started to use CDs rather than carts. But, it was to no avail.

Big Shady · May 2, 2005

Tung Fu ru said:
Then why isn't there a AES (cart) to MVS (pcb board) adaptor????

(I'm not trying to argue with you, I've just kinda wondered this for a while)

I haven't even thought about that, good question. I do know that it is a fact that the AES carts were purposely made not to work on the MVS slots. Maybe arcade operators weren't motivated enough to create convertor. The Phantom MVS -> AES is a recently new addition, it took some guy with enough spare time to make one.

Curt · May 2, 2005

Does anyone have the photo from that "Cab" ized AES unit that was on ebay a few months ago?

It had a custom built harness, was VERY dusty, and had a really old euro copy of World Heros in it.

Why was the NGCD created?

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