Wizard Tilting Lible: The Last Odyssey for Last Odysseys

[TonK]

I do not understand how or why it would be an issue on the actual verification materials were printed?

Where would you expect them to come from? The verification process is a courtesy to owners of the KOF 2000 due to the recent development of full blown counterfeits of the product.

We originally utilized the stickers and the stamp to provide a level of comfort to the customer that the games originated from NGF stock. We have seen many reproductions, which are just photocopied NGF inserts in the past, but the KOF 2000 reproduction was full blown, including fake stamp, sticker, manual, insert, and insert. Pretty amazing, but considering people are now selling offset printed art packs for metal slug, ninja masters, turf master, stakes winner, and who knows how many other games right on ebay, it is pretty much a huge gamble to buy any game worth over a couple hundred bucks without being able to inspect it in person IMO.

What we came up with was similar to what PCGS or NGC use for coins, which is a true registry so even if someone were to reproduce the matching serial number stickers, certificates, etc. they can never reproduce the registry entry which matches the serial number, and changes every time the cartridge may change hands, along with the double signed certificates.

You can call it whatever you want, but debating value of the game is moot. If it is worth $50 or $5000, the important thing to us is for the owner to feel confident they have a true original release from 2000.

We provide this service to protect the owners.

If you own one and choose not to participate, what do we lose or gain? Nothing.

If you own one and choose to participate, what do we lose or gain? Nothing.

The bottom line is nothing about the neo geo makes me "mad" or "angry", I really just do not spend much time on the hobby, as there really is nothing left to do. I enjoy participating in a thread here now and again, and keeping up on recent events every few weeks, but all in all, that is it for me. The counterfeiting of the KOF 2000 US though for me was upsetting, because it is in my opinion our greatest legacy. A truly unique product that came about for no other reason that our hard work to convince SNK to produce the game for us alone. I will not waste the time rehashing the arguements, but just like I said earlier, if the game is worth $50 or $5000, I really do not care, it is important to me that the people that wanted the game at the time, and paid the $500 for it, at least will not have to fight with people about the authenticity of the game being the original year 1999 release.

I have seen the fake first hand, and if you owned the original it would be obvious, because even though it is professionally printed, it is still a scan of the original, and not anywhere near as clean and clear. Also, the sticker and stamp are not exact as well. The real shame though is people that will not know they have a fake until they might try to sell it and end up with something worth nothing.

If you want to laugh at the game and complain about it having the NGF backbox, complain to SNK for letting it happen. We paid for SNK to produce the ENTIRE run of 100, hence my feeling was at the time, and still is, they really did not care what we requested was put on the insert and manual.

If you want to call it tainted, ruined, fake, whatever, that is completely irrelevant to the people that choose otherwise. I could believe an Acura is a fake Honda, but in the end, I am just another consumer who chose not to buy an Acura, the reason really does not matter.

The fact remains it was the game produced and released in 1999 by SNK Japan to us for distribution. And, on the cartridge side of things, that is our biggest accomplishment IMO.

That's your only accomplishment, enjoy it while it lasts.

Shawn released Metal Slug 3, Rage of the Dragons, Metal Slug 4, Matrimelee, Sengoku 3, Metal Slug 5, Samurai Shodown 5, KOF2k3, Samurai Shodown 5 Special, KOF2k1, KOF2k2.

Do you see any of this verification shit or constantly bringing up a 12 year old game?

Did he sticker or stamp any of the games he released?

That what honesty brings.

 

[Viewpoint]

Took you until page 125 to grow your ballsack chris after you were caught in a lie about owning the proto for Last Oddesey?

 

[SonGohan]

I cringe whenever I see a sticker on a cartridge, especially carts that are nice, like Neo Geo carts. It's just awful.

 

[chrisr]

That's your only accomplishment, enjoy it while it lasts.

Shawn released Metal Slug 3, Rage of the Dragons, Metal Slug 4, Matrimelee, Sengoku 3, Metal Slug 5, Samurai Shodown 5, KOF2k3, Samurai Shodown 5 Special, KOF2k1, KOF2k2.

Do you see any of this verification shit or constantly bringing up a 12 year old game?

Did he sticker or stamp any of the games he released?

That what honesty brings.

Didn't this entire thread start with YOU bringing up a 12 year old game? And when you did not get a response you evidently lied to all these nice people about LO.

Correct, SNK released additional games after the KOF 2000 in English format. But what you might not have been around to remember is SNK announced they were ENDING production of English packaged games before the KOF 2000 was released. It was never originally going to be released in English, nor where any of the games you mentioned.

Being that Dion and I at the time were rabid collectors of English language AES games, and given our relationship with SNK, we made the KOF 2000 happen. And, even though you will claim I am bragging, the truth is, NONE of those other released would have happened in English if it was not for us first getting the ball rolling and showing it WAS possible for SNK to still produce these games.

We ended our AES relationship with SNK after Nightmare in the Dark because they became unrealistic in what they were asking for in terms of cartridge production. We knew from experience it would be a financial disaster to release those games in the quantities they wanted us to pay for, so we refused.

Shawn stepped in, and I have never had one bit of problem to say that without him, as you said, none of the games you mentioned would have been released in English. Great job for him, I congratulate him, though I feel for his financial loss.

He chose to go the volume production route, which gave him no control over the artwork, we chose to pay through the nose for the print run from SNK and thereby only have to purchase the limited number of cartridges we did. Different philosophies. Some see the value in the mass release of the games like Shawn did, some feel it is boring and prefer a limited release. The great thing is people could chose.

 

[ReplicaX]

Thread ain't over. NGF still claims that something is going to be in the next MAME update.

MAME .145u1


New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Winning Run [gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Oozumou - The Grand Sumo (DECO Cassette)
[Charles MacDonald, Dr. Spankenstein, Kevin Eshbach, T. Huff,
SteveS, E. Page-Hanify, Hikari, ArcadeDude, F. Bukor, N. Francfort,
jmurjr, arcade-history.com, ThumB, Hurray Banana, Paratech, Xiaou2,
Cornishdavey, A. Costin, M. Ponweiser, Tormod, Rambo, Smitdogg, The
Dumping Union]
Diet Family [Dr. Spankenstein, Paratech, joe35car, tormod, M. Hoenig,
Mosquito2001, M. Ponweiser, M. Viste, Phil Bennett, N. Francfort, A.
Costin, J. Finney, gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Kung-Fu Roushi [hap]
Winning Run Suzuka Grand Prix [Phil Bennett]
Winning Run 91 [Phil Bennett]

New clones added
----------------
Space Invaders Part II (Brazil) [Marcello Mancini]
Print Club 2 Earth Limited Kobe (Print Club Custom) (J 970808 V1.000)
[f205v, ranger_lennier, dopefishjustin, Yohji, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Eyes (bootleg set) [f205v, Antro]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (990927) [Layne, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Wyvern Wings (alt) [RetroRepair]
Dynamite Baseball [Layne, Yohji, hap, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]

Came out today and I don't see shit.

 

[TonK]

Didn't this entire thread start with YOU bringing up a 12 year old game? And when you did not get a response you evidently lied to all these nice people about LO.

Correct, SNK released additional games after the KOF 2000 in English format. But what you might not have been around to remember is SNK announced they were ENDING production of English packaged games before the KOF 2000 was released. It was never originally going to be released in English, nor where any of the games you mentioned.

Being that Dion and I at the time were rabid collectors of English language AES games, and given our relationship with SNK, we made the KOF 2000 happen. And, even though you will claim I am bragging, the truth is, NONE of those other released would have happened in English if it was not for us first getting the ball rolling and showing it WAS possible for SNK to still produce these games.

We ended our AES relationship with SNK after Nightmare in the Dark because they became unrealistic in what they were asking for in terms of cartridge production. We knew from experience it would be a financial disaster to release those games in the quantities they wanted us to pay for, so we refused.

Shawn stepped in, and I have never had one bit of problem to say that without him, as you said, none of the games you mentioned would have been released in English. Great job for him, I congratulate him, though I feel for his financial loss.

He chose to go the volume production route, which gave him no control over the artwork, we chose to pay through the nose for the print run from SNK and thereby only have to purchase the limited number of cartridges we did. Different philosophies. Some see the value in the mass release of the games like Shawn did, some feel it is boring and prefer a limited release. The great thing is people could chose.

lol, your NitD conversions?

And Zupapa conversions?

I don't give a fuck what you think those court docs say - you, Dion and maybe 2 other people actually care about your shit "fan art" games.

 

[TonK]

MAME .145u1


New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Winning Run [gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Oozumou - The Grand Sumo (DECO Cassette)
[Charles MacDonald, Dr. Spankenstein, Kevin Eshbach, T. Huff,
SteveS, E. Page-Hanify, Hikari, ArcadeDude, F. Bukor, N. Francfort,
jmurjr, arcade-history.com, ThumB, Hurray Banana, Paratech, Xiaou2,
Cornishdavey, A. Costin, M. Ponweiser, Tormod, Rambo, Smitdogg, The
Dumping Union]
Diet Family [Dr. Spankenstein, Paratech, joe35car, tormod, M. Hoenig,
Mosquito2001, M. Ponweiser, M. Viste, Phil Bennett, N. Francfort, A.
Costin, J. Finney, gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Kung-Fu Roushi [hap]
Winning Run Suzuka Grand Prix [Phil Bennett]
Winning Run 91 [Phil Bennett]

New clones added
----------------
Space Invaders Part II (Brazil) [Marcello Mancini]
Print Club 2 Earth Limited Kobe (Print Club Custom) (J 970808 V1.000)
[f205v, ranger_lennier, dopefishjustin, Yohji, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Eyes (bootleg set) [f205v, Antro]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (990927) [Layne, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Wyvern Wings (alt) [RetroRepair]
Dynamite Baseball [Layne, Yohji, hap, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]

Came out today and I don't see shit.

I'm sure there will be an excuse for this as well.

 

[TonK]

This is what happened with the NGF KOF2K:

If NGF had not altered the artwork, it would be a legit game.

The problem here isn't the game itself - its a 100% authentic King Of Fighters 2000.

NGF asked how much it would cost to make a US version if they bought a good number of Japanese copies.

At the time SNK's sales were tanking hard due to the MVS being bootlegged 3 days after release.

The AES market was the last chance to push the roms they had left.

SNK made many more rom sets than they sold so the parts were already there.

When NGF agreed to buy a good number and pay for the printing SNK was glad to take them up on it.

SNK simply didn't care, they had 500-1000 carts and simply wanted them gone.

You could have called them and asked for a neon glow in the dark version and if you were willing to pay to have it done they would have.

SNK made the art and sent digital files to NGF in normal resolution to proof the design.

NGF insisted on higher resolution versions to make sure the quality was equal to that of other english releases (they use a template so it's always high quality).

SNK sent the files and NGF approved them.

The files they were sent were not the masters meaning they couldn't load QuarkXpress and mod the template (most SNK files are done in QXP btw).

They got a tiff or bmp of the file which was high enough to print from but couldn't be changed as easily as the master. You could use the file in Photoshop and simply overlay your name like they did.

At this point it went to press and the first few carts were made to confirm consistant quality.

Note that if any problems were found at this late stage SNK would normally sell the game as is but when you have a 3rd party paying for it you need to make sure it's right.

The job was approved by SNK Japan and out of the ones that were made in Japan one or more were sent to NGF for final approval.

I don't know for sure how many were sent to them but they only needed 1. NGF approved it and 200 art sets were sent to them.

In the sets they had 200 - US gold warning stickers, cart stickers with rounded corners, inserts, manuals.

No manual bags were given since they were already with the Japanese carts.

Maybe NGF kept the gold stickers for other conversion since that sticker normaly would require a higher dollar sac cart.

So now we have the original sets paid and shipped plus the carts made for approval.

We also have the over run stock which no one has found.

It takes on average 500 sheets on a press just to hit the color so trust me when it was done they had a lot more than 200.

SNK normally did 4 up on a plate not 2 like NGF is showing so going by NGF's 2 up thats 1000 inserts before the 200 even starts. SNK also out sourced the work and didn't keep their printing plates.

The gold warning label missing on all KOF2K's is a dead give away.

Now after all of this NGF clearly took the digial proofs and made changes.

They may not have had the proof of the cart sticker which is why they had to make their own rather than wait for the order to arrive.

That's the true story right there.

So make whatever you want out of it.

I was sold a copy of the NGF 2K by Dion - it did look fantastic, but was still fake.

People with more money than brains will spend whatever to get any game in their collection. Hence the $600+ price. No NGF KOF2K has sold for more than that.

 

[SSS]

Hey guys, I'm running out to kinkos to print up some "certificates of authenticity" for some of my scratched to shit MVS carts.

Anyone have any requests. I can number them 1 out of a million if you want.

 

[Kinneth]

Didn't this entire thread start with YOU bringing up a 12 year old game? And when you did not get a response you evidently lied to all these nice people about LO.

Correct, SNK released additional games after the KOF 2000 in English format. But what you might not have been around to remember is SNK announced they were ENDING production of English packaged games before the KOF 2000 was released. It was never originally going to be released in English, nor where any of the games you mentioned.

Being that Dion and I at the time were rabid collectors of English language AES games, and given our relationship with SNK, we made the KOF 2000 happen. And, even though you will claim I am bragging, the truth is, NONE of those other released would have happened in English if it was not for us first getting the ball rolling and showing it WAS possible for SNK to still produce these games.

We ended our AES relationship with SNK after Nightmare in the Dark because they became unrealistic in what they were asking for in terms of cartridge production. We knew from experience it would be a financial disaster to release those games in the quantities they wanted us to pay for, so we refused.

Shawn stepped in, and I have never had one bit of problem to say that without him, as you said, none of the games you mentioned would have been released in English. Great job for him, I congratulate him, though I feel for his financial loss.

He chose to go the volume production route, which gave him no control over the artwork, we chose to pay through the nose for the print run from SNK and thereby only have to purchase the limited number of cartridges we did. Different philosophies. Some see the value in the mass release of the games like Shawn did, some feel it is boring and prefer a limited release. The great thing is people could chose.

Ill give NGF credit for KofF2000US, but it still doesnt explain the poor NGFinserted games I bought. All the BS claiming the game sale never happened. Have you ever wonder why some people dont buy from you anymore? Its because of me.

From an Irritating Maze US NGF that does not work to a fake Kizuna Encounter US that Dion waved at me, I(we) know. I do have a Kizuna Encounter US, and noticed yours look like a fake, this was 2 years before Shawn ripped you 2 on the inconsistencies. I even tried to buy a KE from Dion, so I(we) can laugh at it. My KE is on the website videomuseum site, and is what everybody is using to print their fake copies.

Chris, you are a liar. $2,200 for the 2 shitty games you sold me, or Ill write more NGF "inner circle" BS stories.

 

[2D_mastur]

Hey guys, I'm running out to kinkos to print up some "certificates of authenticity" for some of my scratched to shit MVS carts.

Anyone have any requests. I can number them 1 out of a million if you want.

Cool can I please get a holo sticker that reads ""Historic ★ ★ ★ ★ " ?

 

[chrisr]

This is what happened with the NGF KOF2K:

snipped wall of double spaced text.

cool story bro.....

We released KOF 2000 a couple days BEFORE the JPN version. I wonder how SNK would think they had "extra carts"?

The rest of this has been gone over ad nauseum. Make up your own mind if you care to, but really, if you never plan on or aspire to own the game WHY would you care so much?

I provide the information, people will decide for themselves, and really and truly, I only care that the people that own the game are happy and know that they have what they bought.

 

[TonK]

cool story bro.....

We released KOF 2000 a couple days BEFORE the JPN version. I wonder how SNK would think they had "extra carts"?

The rest of this has been gone over ad nauseum. Make up your own mind if you care to, but really, if you never plan on or aspire to own the game WHY would you care so much?

I provide the information, people will decide for themselves, and really and truly, I only care that the people that own the game are happy and know that they have what they bought.

I figured you wouldn't try to discredit any of my claims.

 

[chrisr]

Something very very interesting came about from my analysis of the fake KOF2000 I had in my possession recently. When I looked at the printing, especially the insert, the very first thing that popped into my head was the printing reminded me of the Euro DD and Kizuna Encounter. It really got me wondering about that and the printing. In both the games I have always said that the printing is different than the SNK Japan released games, in that if you look very closely at the insert, you notice it looks like "circle dot" printing. The KOF 2000 US fake had the exact same type of printing, and knowing that it was definitely printed in Europe, it made me wonder about the DD and Kizuna. I personally think they were printed in Europe and some were sent back to Japan, as they did in fact end up in our first "rebirth". But I verified this with my original first copy of Kizuna that I bought from Justin Ong, if anyone remembers that guy, many many years ago.

Offer still stands on those two games you like to bring up, but I am guessing since you now value them at 2200, you will be happy to keep them. Nice return on your investment!

 

[evil wasabi]

Something very very interesting came about from my analysis of the fake KOF2000 I had in my possession recently. When I looked at the printing, especially the insert, the very first thing that popped into my head was the printing reminded me of the Euro DD and Kizuna Encounter. It really got me wondering about that and the printing. In both the games I have always said that the printing is different than the SNK Japan released games, in that if you look very closely at the insert, you notice it looks like "circle dot" printing. The KOF 2000 US fake had the exact same type of printing, and knowing that it was definitely printed in Europe, it made me wonder about the DD and Kizuna. I personally think they were printed in Europe and some were sent back to Japan, as they did in fact end up in our first "rebirth". But I verified this with my original first copy of Kizuna that I bought from Justin Ong, if anyone remembers that guy, many many years ago.

Offer still stands on those two games you like to bring up, but I am guessing since you now value them at 2200, you will be happy to keep them. Nice return on your investment!

Cool story bro.....

 

[abasuto]

Soooo. if SNK did give chrisr and dion permission to redo the inserts, then why the later lawsuit ?

Were they only given permission to do so on KOF2k0, then they took it upon themselves to start it up on other titles ?

EDIT :

You don't get sued and then settle out for nothing, so obviously you there was something not allowed going on.

I'd really love for Chris to explain a dead honest reason for the lawsuit and settlement.

If you did something "wrong" (aka..against SNKs permission or wishes), fuck it man, just say it. We're just human, we all fuck up from time to time and most of us have allowed our ego or personal desires to lead us into doing things we knew we shouldn't of.

 

[evil wasabi]

Soooo. if SNK did give chrisr and dion permission to redo the inserts, then why the later lawsuit ?

Were they only given permission to do so on KOF2k0, then they took it upon themselves to start it up on other titles ?

Zupapa was not on the list of authorized games.

 

[abasuto]

Zupapa was not on the list of authorized games.

Ah, that's what I always thought. They crossed the boundaries of permission(s) they had.

That in itself could be forgivable. "Yeah, we just kinda ran with it". What's pathetic is the fact chrisr won't even admit it.

10 years later and would still rather lie than just admit one simple thing.

 

[TonK]

MAME .145u1


New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Winning Run [gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Oozumou - The Grand Sumo (DECO Cassette)
[Charles MacDonald, Dr. Spankenstein, Kevin Eshbach, T. Huff,
SteveS, E. Page-Hanify, Hikari, ArcadeDude, F. Bukor, N. Francfort,
jmurjr, arcade-history.com, ThumB, Hurray Banana, Paratech, Xiaou2,
Cornishdavey, A. Costin, M. Ponweiser, Tormod, Rambo, Smitdogg, The
Dumping Union]
Diet Family [Dr. Spankenstein, Paratech, joe35car, tormod, M. Hoenig,
Mosquito2001, M. Ponweiser, M. Viste, Phil Bennett, N. Francfort, A.
Costin, J. Finney, gamerfan, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Kung-Fu Roushi [hap]
Winning Run Suzuka Grand Prix [Phil Bennett]
Winning Run 91 [Phil Bennett]

New clones added
----------------
Space Invaders Part II (Brazil) [Marcello Mancini]
Print Club 2 Earth Limited Kobe (Print Club Custom) (J 970808 V1.000)
[f205v, ranger_lennier, dopefishjustin, Yohji, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Eyes (bootleg set) [f205v, Antro]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (990927) [Layne, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
Wyvern Wings (alt) [RetroRepair]
Dynamite Baseball [Layne, Yohji, hap, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]

Came out today and I don't see shit.

Chris, where's the protos?

 

[abasuto]

Chris, where's the protos?

It's on there.

Only big tymers have the NGF certified MAME version to even see it.

 

[werejag]

maybe he thought mame would pay him for the protos and when he asked for payment they laughed at him like we all do. as he has never done one thing for anyone for free

 

[SonGohan]

stfu

 

[chrisr]

Soooo. if SNK did give chrisr and dion permission to redo the inserts, then why the later lawsuit ?

Were they only given permission to do so on KOF2k0, then they took it upon themselves to start it up on other titles ?

EDIT :

You don't get sued and then settle out for nothing, so obviously you there was something not allowed going on.

I'd really love for Chris to explain a dead honest reason for the lawsuit and settlement.

If you did something "wrong" (aka..against SNKs permission or wishes), fuck it man, just say it. We're just human, we all fuck up from time to time and most of us have allowed our ego or personal desires to lead us into doing things we knew we shouldn't of.

I will try to be as precise as I can, and this can be backed up by Bobak at least, since he was a one of the driving forces of poor information Playmore received that lead to the lawsuit, which ended in disaster for them (make your own decision).

The suit has ZERO to do with KOF 2000, nothing. It started with a call from an executive from Playmore to Dion after they bought everything they could from Aruze in the auction. He scheduled a call with both of us where the Playmore executive did in fact complain to us about our continued release of games in the US market under the NGF distributor tag. He claimed we no longer had the rights since Playmore had bought them. I explained to him that our agreements were with SNK-Japan, and had no limit included, and he was free to check SNK Japan contract records. I am sure he was not pleased, but that is the way it went.

A few months later Dion sold an NGF Shock Troopers AES to someone in California which turned out of be an employee of EEI (what was Playmore's US arm at the time). They used that cartridge as the pretext to include us in the lawsuit they also has with arcade distributors over "counterfeit" MVS cartridges.

The brutal truth is they sued in an attempt to intimidate us, as well as grey market importers of THEIR OWN cartridges! Remember, Playmore is owned and backed my millions and millions of $$$. For our part they sued us for 2 million dollars.

They inflated everything so they could get the judge to sign off on sending federal marshals to "raid" these businesses. They came to Dion's house and confiscated pretty much everything.

lots more drama, I was added to the case, we went to California many times, along with a full entourage of Playmore execs from Japan, interpreters, etc etc. It was a real circus. They tried every lawyer trick in the book to intimidate us into giving up on the case and getting railroaded into a horrible settlement (this is pre-discovery). The other two defendants had lawyers and were bleeding cash, while after the first visit to court, and some research into the FRCP, I knew I could write all the required briefs and court documents required for us to defend our case, since it was a slam dunk.

Since everyone seems to have access to the court documents, please order up a copy of the transcripts to read through our preliminary hearings, they were fun, and embarrassing to Playmore.

Once the threats ended, and the documents were produced in court, the judge I think could see the writing on the wall, and ordered a settlement conference with an ex judge. We were resigned to go to full trial at that point, knowing we would win. The settlement happened, and the only parts that can be disclosed are the press releases on the Playmore website, which BTW, there are two, the one you see with all the games, then the second one with the remaining games (like Zupapa). They are both out there.

I could seriously write and entire book on the experience, but it is not a priority.

That is the straight truth, and it is not any different than what I have said before a thousand times.

 

[TonK]

I will try to be as precise as I can, and this can be backed up by Bobak at least, since he was a one of the driving forces of poor information Playmore received that lead to the lawsuit, which ended in disaster for them (make your own decision).

The suit has ZERO to do with KOF 2000, nothing. It started with a call from an executive from Playmore to Dion after they bought everything they could from Aruze in the auction. He scheduled a call with both of us where the Playmore executive did in fact complain to us about our continued release of games in the US market under the NGF distributor tag. He claimed we no longer had the rights since Playmore had bought them. I explained to him that our agreements were with SNK-Japan, and had no limit included, and he was free to check SNK Japan contract records. I am sure he was not pleased, but that is the way it went.

A few months later Dion sold an NGF Shock Troopers AES to someone in California which turned out of be an employee of EEI (what was Playmore's US arm at the time). They used that cartridge as the pretext to include us in the lawsuit they also has with arcade distributors over "counterfeit" MVS cartridges.

The brutal truth is they sued in an attempt to intimidate us, as well as grey market importers of THEIR OWN cartridges! Remember, Playmore is owned and backed my millions and millions of $$$. For our part they sued us for 2 million dollars.

They inflated everything so they could get the judge to sign off on sending federal marshals to "raid" these businesses. They came to Dion's house and confiscated pretty much everything.

lots more drama, I was added to the case, we went to California many times, along with a full entourage of Playmore execs from Japan, interpreters, etc etc. It was a real circus. They tried every lawyer trick in the book to intimidate us into giving up on the case and getting railroaded into a horrible settlement (this is pre-discovery). The other two defendants had lawyers and were bleeding cash, while after the first visit to court, and some research into the FRCP, I knew I could write all the required briefs and court documents required for us to defend our case, since it was a slam dunk.

Since everyone seems to have access to the court documents, please order up a copy of the transcripts to read through our preliminary hearings, they were fun, and embarrassing to Playmore.

Once the threats ended, and the documents were produced in court, the judge I think could see the writing on the wall, and ordered a settlement conference with an ex judge. We were resigned to go to full trial at that point, knowing we would win. The settlement happened, and the only parts that can be disclosed are the press releases on the Playmore website, which BTW, there are two, the one you see with all the games, then the second one with the remaining games (like Zupapa). They are both out there.

I could seriously write and entire book on the experience, but it is not a priority.

That is the straight truth, and it is not any different than what I have said before a thousand times.

I'll bite.

If this was such a slam dunk, why not provide the settlement documents?

I mean, you guys walked away unscathed, be a badass and post that shit up.

 

[abasuto]

..snip....

Thanks for wording it in a summary.

Given that as truth, there had to be some point where you're just thinking "fuck it, this isn't even worth it". I mean, it's not like the Neo Geo in the US was a money cow, plus the fact everyone had to know arcades were dying, which was going to kill money in the MVS market.