I just received a random email from Retro Gamer Magazine about an upcoming Neo Geo article

greedostick

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Weird thing happened today. I opened up my email and noticed I received an email from a fella named Damien McFerran from retro gamer magazine. Here is what it said....

"Hello there!

I spotted your amazing Neo Geo guide on the web and wanted to get in touch. I'm writing a feature for UK magazine Retro Gamer and I'm looking for Neo Geo experts to contribute to it.

Would you be willing to answer a few questions via email? I promise not to take up too much of your time!"


So.... I guess there's an upcoming Neo article in retro gamer. I haven't heard back yet, but obviously I want this article to be pretty awesome. I'm not sure if this is an interview type thing, or if I am just answering questions and he will just turn it into an article with no mention of me.

But, he said he needs experts. I told him I am no expert by any means, but I will do what I can to help. I think I may recommend some other people here to help with this who are experts. Razoola comes to mind, as well as Xian Xi, and Vanilla Thunder.

I guess I am kind of jumping ahead of myself here, but who should I recommend if we need more expert advice?
 
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Geddon_jt

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I wrote a Neo article for them back in 2009. He must not have liked it because he didn't write me, lol! Seriously though, it may be easier to know what kind of article it will be so you can help determine who can help you... Aes/mvs/cd/all of the above? Technical stuff or more about the games? Anyhow, good luck :)
 

greedostick

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Wasn't one of their employees or editors involved in a legendary thread on here?

Edit: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showt...gazine-s-terrible-Metal-Slug-feature-reviewed!

Anyway, good luck if you decide to help them out. I have no horse in this race.

Well that's an interesting read. I made it to page 3, but I really need to finish this stupid Afghanistan paper for school. Although that guy did seem to fly off the handle, everyone made good points, at least until I quit reading. I imagine it gets worse in the next pages. I personally don't think any of that stuff will keep me from reading retro gamer, or helping them in any way if I am able to.
 

Tehcno

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Yeah many years ago my Card Fighter Project was in the magazine as well, only they forgot to include the web address. Then they tried to pursuade me to send them a full set of cards and they would run a full article on it.
 

Xian Xi

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Yeah many years ago my Card Fighter Project was in the magazine as well, only they forgot to include the web address. Then they tried to pursuade me to send them a full set of cards and they would run a full article on it.

What ever happened to the project? I think the last I heard of it were people asking for you to print them out for them.
 

NGT

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Just post their questions on here and then take from that what you want.
 

gusmoney

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I wonder if their inquiry back in July was regarding the issue hitting the newstands now:

Retro Gamer Issue 146

Doesn't seem like a lot of lead time but what do I know. How many NG articles can they have. Any follow-up on this greedostick?
 

Xian Xi

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I remember when Racketboy was doing some kind of Neo Geo article asking for Neo guys to contribute. They turned me down but took Christoph. Go figure.
 

greedostick

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I wonder if their inquiry back in July was regarding the issue hitting the newstands now:

Retro Gamer Issue 146

Doesn't seem like a lot of lead time but what do I know. How many NG articles can they have. Any follow-up on this greedostick?

I emailed that guy a few page paper a few months back and asked him to let me know if it was going to be published. He said my answers were exactly what he wanted, and never responded again..

Looking at the title of that issue I would say that is it. One of the questions was why do I think the Neo is still desirable today. All of the questions, there we maybe 6 of them, were about my past, present, and future experiences with the Neo.

I guess I will have to put ck that issue up and see if it's it. When does that one drop in the USA?
 

greedostick

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I remember when Racketboy was doing some kind of Neo Geo article asking for Neo guys to contribute. They turned me down but took Christoph. Go figure.

Xian, I plugged your excellent supergun making services in my answers. Hoping it gets published and you get some biz!
 

gusmoney

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I guess I will have to put ck that issue up and see if it's it. When does that one drop in the USA?

I went to Barnes & Noble in Center City Philly tonight and only found the previous issue (selling for a whopping $12.99).

I think subscribers in the US have received the NG one so it shouldn't be long now before it is in the wild.
 

greedostick

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Judging from the title and the description on that page it looks like it's going to be about the Neo being expensive and unobtainable. Hopefully that's not what they took from my responses, because that would only be a very small part of it.

Please keep me posted if it drops on newsstands.
 

xsq

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If you're really anxious to know, you could ask Bill Kilgore to have a look/send you some scans.
 

Sherlin

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I ordered mine online last Saturday. It's in the mail as of yesterday.
 

GadgetUK

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Got my copy a few days ago, it seems OK. Haven't read all of it yet. There are a few inaccuracies etc but for the most part it's OK. I wish there was more about the neo geo in there, maybe they will do one of those ultimate guides like they did for the NES / Master System.
 

greedostick

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Got my copy a few days ago, it seems OK. Haven't read all of it yet. There are a few inaccuracies etc but for the most part it's OK. I wish there was more about the neo geo in there, maybe they will do one of those ultimate guides like they did for the NES / Master System.

You wanna post some screenshot of the article with your phone?
 

Sherlin

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greedostick

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OK, so I guess they did quite a few things I posted. I guess I will have to pick that issue up. It is a tad bit twisted the way they quoted my stuff. I'll have to post my entire response tonight after work.

I'm a tad bit disappointed the article is more focused on independent development, and expensive custom mvs systems. I wish it would have been more about why the system is so loved and has such a loyal fan base.
 

greedostick

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OK, so I guess they did publish quite a few things I posted. I guess I will have to pick that issue up. It is a tad bit twisted the way they quoted my stuff. I'll have to post my entire response tonight after work.

I'm kinda disappointed the article is more focused on independent development, and expensive custom mvs systems. I wish it would have been more about why the system is so loved and has such a loyal fan base.

Mine are the Jeremy quotes if anybody cares
 
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Sherlin

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There are some other cool pages, but they're just full of pics. I didn't want to be too image heavy. The pics I posted were for article content. I haven't actually read it yet. Just flipped through it. Looks great on the coffee table!
 

greedostick

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What are your earliest memories of the Neo Geo? I have so many early memories of Neo Geo, but you have to remember in the 90’s in the United States arcades were still pretty common. This was a time when a line for a popular game could be 20 deep with hungry teenagers whose pockets were full of a week of saved lunch money. Neo Geo was literally everywhere! I would go to the grocery store with my parents and Ninja Combat was there. When I would go to the laundry mat with my parents, Metal Slug was there. When I would sneak deeper into town than I was supposed to, crossing dangerous intersections against the will of my parents, it was because League Bowling, Samurai Shodown II, and Neo Geo were there at the bowling alley! There are two early Neo Geo memories that stick with me the most though. The first is Super Saturday at Putt Putt Golf n’ Games in Springfield, Ohio. Every Saturday my mom and my aunt would drop myself, my cousin Kevin, and our best friend Martez off while they went to the mall. For $10.00 you would get 2 rounds of Putt Putt, and more importantly 100 tokens to play video games in the arcade. This is where I first discovered games like Magician Lord, Samurai Shodown, and Nam 1975. These are staples of the early games in the library, that almost every Neo Geo fan cherish. That time in my life, in that stuffy arcade full of stinky teenagers “running the sticks” is not only one of my most memorable Neo Geo memories, but one of my happiest childhood memories. Super Saturday was the best!
My second memory of the Neo Geo actually came quite a few years later, around 1999. This is when I was finally able to afford a Neo Geo AES console on eBay. I joined the www.neo-geo.com forums and met two of my now best friends, Jon Maxwell and Kurt Pyron, who turned me onto some of the later releases in the library I never knew existed like The Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Pulstar. I knew Jon for a few months, and one day he was like “let’s go meet my friend Kurt in Columbus, he’s a huge Neo Geo fan.” When we made it to Kurt’s, after drooling over his insane AES collection he asked me if I ever played The Last Blade, and I explained to him that I never heard of it. He went on to tell me how The Last Blade was one of the later releases that had to be ordered directly from SNK over the telephone and went on about how amazing it was. We ended up playing it all day, and from the first 10 minutes I played it I was already thinking to myself how I would play Neo Geo till the day I die. That day, playing The Last Blade, is the day I went from Neo Geo fan to full blown Neo Geo addict.


What makes the Neo Geo so special to you personally? Definitely the games! There are approximately 150 games in the Neo Geo MVS library, and although the library is incredibly small compared to pretty much every main stream console, the library is strong. I could easily say well over 50% of the library consists of solid titles. There are only a select few games in the library that are total garbage. You just don’t get numbers like that with other consoles like NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis. The games also still look good today, have deep character relationships, epic soundtracks, and solid controls. When I play Neo Geo I don’t feel like I’m playing old games, because they still run smooth, look good, and feel polished. Only recently have 2D fighters started to blow away the graphical capabilities of the Neo Geo. The Neo Geo in some aspects is still better visually than modern 2D fighters. For example, play Ultra Street Fighter IV and take a good look at the backgrounds. There isn’t much there. Neo Geo went above and beyond to offer more than just the gameplay. You can play any King of Fighters game, and I guarantee if you take the time to look at the backgrounds you will discover something you never noticed before every single time. SNK really went all out in the detail department with their backgrounds, and I feel that adds a lot more charm to the games.

If you had to choose just one, which Neo Geo title would you rank as your personal favorite, and why? This is hard. You might as well ask a mother which child is her favorite, because to a Neo Geo fan this question is in the same ballpark. I have so many favorite games on the Neo Geo. Some of my favorites are Mark of the Wolves, Windjammers, Magical Drop III, Samurai Shodown II & III, Pulstar, Magician Lord, the list goes on and on… If I could only pick one though it would have to be The Last Blade 1. The Last Blade is just amazing! All the characters are appealing and fun to master. The animation is smooth, and the controls are spot on. I also absolutely love the deflection system, it makes the game so much more tactical. A once thought inevitable victoly! can be instantly denied with a calculated deflection. One of my favorite parts of The Last Blade though is the music, or lack of. Some of the stages have no music at all, and all you can hear is the crunching of the autumn leaves, and blades clashing. The first time I noticed this I was blown away. How could no music be this good? It just works! To me The Last Blade is one of the few games of the era that transcend just being a game, and experimented being a work of art. Whoever made The Last Blade had this vision in their mind, and they put their heart and soul into that damn game, and for that I am thankful. In a time when games were just trying to be profitable, The Last blade was trying to be an interactive, masterful work of art.

Why do you think the system has remained so beloved with gamers, even today? A lot of Neo fans would tell you Neo Geo is special to them because it represents something they could not obtain as a child. In a way I can understand this because I remember as a kid begging my parents to get me one, and the feeling I received after obtaining one as an adult. However, I feel the console is still beloved today because the Neo Geo has such a solid library of games. If the console consisted solely of titles like 3 Count Bout and Legend of Success Joe we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Ultimately I feel the system is so popular today because of the community. The forum community is passionate about keeping Neo Geo alive. The forums are always active with dedicated Neo-ites working on projects like the Universe Bios, MVS converters, Big Bear Shockbox’s, and converting exclusive Neo Geo CD games to MVS, like that was seen recently with Crossed Swords 2. The community is also very close-knit. Some of us like myself have been on the forums for well over a decade. Some people were even members of the community before Shawn, the owner of the forums created www.neo-geo.com. Myself, and many other members are on a first name basis. We have traveled long distances to meet each other and play Neo Geo. For this reason the Neo Geo has turned us into lifelong friends. Neo Geo brings people together, and in the community you are like part of a family whose sole purpose in life is keep the Neo Geo alive and well.

If someone wanted to get into collecting for the Neo Geo today, what tips or advice would you give to them? Collect MVS! Home cartridge games are way too expensive. You will spend more money on a MVS setup opposed to an AES setup, but it will pay for its self when you save thousands of dollars on games, and it will allow you to play other arcade games. Neo Geo collecting is a gateway drug to arcade JAMMA board collecting, so just get a MVS setup now. Arcade cabinets are great, especially Japanese sit down candy cabs like the Sega Blast City and Taito Egret II. If space is a limitation though I highly recommend a supergun. This is a homemade console that lets you play arcade games on a standard television. There are many for sale out there, but by far the best quality superguns are made by a member of the Neo Geo forums called Xian Xi. This isn’t even a debate, Xian Xi rocks! Seriously contact him on the forums, or even better visit him on his website @ http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/index.html


What are your thoughts on SNK Playmore's attempts to keep the Neo Geo brand alive in recent years? There are attempts to the Neo Geo brand alive… LOL? I guess the answer to that is pretty weak. There just hasn’t been much attempt at all lately unless you count re-releasing games on mobile phone, PC, and pachinko machines. I mean KOF XIII was one of the better titles in the series in quite a while, but since then I just haven’t seen much of anything. In my humble opinion, SNK died right after the release of Samurai Shodown V Special. The Atomiswave was a failure, and the very small amount of original releases on next gen consoles has been pretty much non-existent. They haven’t really tried to compete with Capcom or Aksys at all, even though they have the skills to make just a good of game, if not better than anything Capcom has put out the last few years. I know that’s a bold statement to the majority of readers that are likely Capcom fan boys, but it’s true. If SNK Playmore actually put forth some serious effort, and released something like a Garou: Mark of the Wolves 2, or The Last Blade 3, and advertised on television, they would probably be in a much better situation right now. Hell, they could even tap into the action RPG market and do a new Crystalis. The way things are looking now we might have the next Konami on our hands real soon.
Do you think we'll see a system as irresistibly exclusive as the Neo Geo ever again? I would have to say in our lifetime no. A lot of things made the Neo Geo irresistibly exclusive. Mainly the price of the console, the price of games, and the inability for youngsters to obtain it. It was also marketed as more of an adult oriented console which was appealing to some people like myself. Furthermore, it brought the arcade experience home, which isn’t an issue anymore. The market is pretty competitive now, unlike the SNES and Genesis days when it was still blooming, and people had the balls to try and take a share of it. Also pretty much everything is on disc based media, so there wouldn’t be a way to release an overly-powerful console, jack up the price, and expect people to develop for it. I mean these days the arcade experience is at home! You can’t go out to an arcade like you use to, and come home to your vastly underpowered NES longing for more. The dream isn’t there anymore to bring that type of experience home, so I doubt anything will be released anytime soon, if ever, that compares to the Neo Geo.
 

Fritz

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Figures the anal log interactive would be in there. That slimy fuck probably hit up retrogamer as part of his advertising campaign. Being none the wiser, one would think Christoph 'created' the CMVS after reading that paragraph.
 
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