Good stuff. Thank you for sharing. It always seemed to me that the issue of 3rd party support for the NGPC was on its way to being solved had the unit been allowed to continue rather than getting pulled back by Aruze. Sega, Namco, and Capcom IP’s had already made appearances on the system shortly after its debut.
I’ve seen gaming websites cite pokemon as the nail in the coffin for the NGPC, but the NGPC launched well after pokemon had shown up on store shelves and was gaining in market share despite pokemon’s presence. We of course know it was Aruze that killed the unit and it’s interesting to learn that the system was profitable when Aruze decided to axe it. The NGPC would never have come close to the gameboy, but I agree that it would have coexisted just fine for a bit. At least it would have been long enough for us to get the Magician Lord and World Heroes Pocket titles.
Square and Bandai were already were supporting the Wonder Swan in japan. The NGPC audience in the west could have been another viable market for them and other publishers. Prior to its demise Atari had a few ngpc titles on the way in the form of NFL Blitz and Mortal Kombat.
