NEO-GEO AES CES 1991 VIDEO WITH BETA/PROTO FOOTAGE

TMOSteel

,
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Johnny arcade was the host of Video Power, a super cool show about video game tips and tricks that went through 2 formats before ultimately failing. I was obessed with the game show version they did second season.

Ah, thanks man, so this was like a local show, or syndicated?

If that was me, I'd ask to take home one of those big reds in lieu of getting paid for that episode!
 

Fygee

Bewbs! Z'OMG, Teh BEWBS!,
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I dig all these old Neo videos coming to light, check this one out:


I have no idea who this "Johnny Arcade" dude is but I'd love to know where this was shot.

Also, dude completely fails at his mission to educate you on the use of the memory card.

Holy shit! I actually have a vague memory of watching this back when it first aired in 90 or 91! One of those childhood memories that stays in the back of your head, and as time passes you're not even quite sure if it was real or if what you remember is accurate at all.

Some backstory. Like so many other kids at the time, I only knew of video games being associated with Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, and Konami. Had no idea who SNK was or what games they made. I had played Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier in the arcades a few times, but never put two and two together on who made them until MAME and Neo-RageX came out in the late 90s. Once the Neo cabinet started popping up in arcades, I came to know SNK as the company that made "that really awesome arcade cabinet with that one game with the fighting samurai, the one with the blond pizza delivery dude that beat up the old guy that hulked out, and the other with the blue and purple cowboy that shrank after he died fighting a floating skull with a giant wooden spoon".

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to play video games most of the time due to having extraordinarily superstitious parents back then and, admittedly, it affecting my grades. They seriously thought video games were a form of Japanese mind control. A lot of WWII era prejudice still stuck around in their heads. Watching shows like this was my way of getting my video game fix when I wasn't playing at a friend's house, a school field trip to Scandia, or the rare time I'd whine enough to grease some quarters out of my mom or grandparents' pockets while waiting to get seated at a restaurant. Because of that, my knowledge and visibility in the video game world was really limited, until some thing called "the internet" became available in my high school.

Anyways, from what I recall (I was 10 at the time), Video Power used to air right after the Super Mario Super Show Saturday mornings on Fox. I remember thinking whatever this "Neo-Geo thing" he was talking about in that episode was so freaking cool because of the multiple games and being able to save your game in an arcade. It was so cutting edge and unique that I couldn't stop thinking and talking about it for weeks (much to the annoyance of everyone around me who couldn't care less).

Finally got to see it in person for the first time a few months later when a local, long gone restaurant had a rev. 1 4-slot cabinet in their waiting area. It had Sengoku and the kids there had a blast playing it. It was such a super weird game with all the Japanese imagery and shrinking sprites that it would be impossible for any regular video game loving American kid to forget.

Thanks so much for sharing this! 29 years later it turns out my brain hasn't been playing tricks on me all this time. Pardon my nonsensical babbling, but this totally made my day and brought back some nice memories from my brain's old, dusty archive. Right in the feels.

Ah, thanks man, so this was like a local show, or syndicated?

If that was me, I'd ask to take home one of those big reds in lieu of getting paid for that episode!

It was syndicated.
 
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