Actually they did have to keep the price down. The average person would not buy an expensice system from a no name company like SNK. Even then actually with some tricky programming the thing could look quite good.
For instance they could have double layered sprites for 7 colors but they never did. The only other thing I really blame them for is the lack of variety, the games are great but their almost all fighting games. Nam and sengoku wouldvr made the system a shitload better.
If I was prez at SNK I would have designed the NGP as an exact equal to the AES in terms of power. Games could be made cheaper to thanks to a flash rom nature and prices on hardware would fall in time. Portable Neo Geo vs. GBA well I already now who has better graphics..I can alwasy dream.
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-Shuuchan