What if some of us...

distropia

SouthTown StreetSweeper
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What if some NG lovers with enough resources and money to do it:

1.- Locate former SNK programmers and regroup them for working in new NG titles with the same ol' feeling the original library have.

2.- Contact SNK and associated companies to buy the IP and unfinished software to finish it. I'm specifically thinking in Last Odyssey, but also in titles that we may not know ever existed.

All of this is speculation, just to dream a bit. Albeit sometimes from dreams born ideas or fundraisers...
 

dspoonrt

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I'd be all for it if you and/or other rich, powerful folks tried to do something like this - finishing and releasing Last Odyssey, Garou MOTW 2, and Last Blade 3 would rock. Unfortunately, I am neither rich nor connected enough to help out, other than providing moral support.
 

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
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We should do a kickstarter to raise funds to see if we can get MOTW2 released. There's got to be at least 1 SNK programmer out there that would want some money to get it done.
 

theMot

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We should do a kickstarter to raise funds to see if we can get MOTW2 released. There's got to be at least 1 SNK programmer out there that would want some money to get it done.

Judging by the level of support the last kickstarter on here received.... not gonna happen.
 

hyper

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didn't ms1 cost millions to complete?
 

RabbitTroop

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I'm all for trying to get the games from SNK, but I have a feeling if there were any unreleased titles up for grabs NGF, NCI, or someone in France already bought them long ago. Dion and Chris were on that shit like rabbits back in the day. Say what you will, they still took the initiative to contact SNK about doing a US KOF2K. Shawn too, with the later home cart runs. That was probably the time to do it. Now... I can't see it happening. Still, if you guys want to try and get some unfinished or unreleased games out of them, I'm good for some cash into a Kickstarter project :D
 

distropia

SouthTown StreetSweeper
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Before making a kickstarter, we should contact programmers and get unfinished code price, to know how much we have to ask in the fundraiser.
Also, maybe some user reading this with resources to spend, can "enlighten" us.
 

Takumaji

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What if some NG lovers with enough resources and money to do it:

1.- Locate former SNK programmers and regroup them for working in new NG titles with the same ol' feeling the original library have.

Former SNK programmer: "Do I have to go back to this hell again?"...

Seriously though, I doubt that we could raise the money needed to make them go back to m68k assembler coding in this day and age.

And you'd also need Shinkiro, because Neo games just don't feel right without him, and this most probably won't happen.
 
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stormy

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Would be interesting but I don't see this being successful.
 

distropia

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Former SNK programmer: "Do I have to go back to this hell again?"...

Seriously though, I doubt that we could raise the money needed to make them go back to m68k assembler coding in this day and age.

And you'd also need Shinkiro, because Neo games just don't feel right without him, and this most probably won't happen.

Today it could be easier to code for the 68k, there's more high level tools for this cpu and after all, if the programmer already coded for the Neogeo it shouldn't be that hard to remember. In this "dream", we're talking about a full time job, and well paid. Not like the poor former SNK programmers back in the days.
 

SNKorSWM

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Now that the programmer's guide has been released, anyone could pose as a former SNK employee and churn out stuff like Le Cortex does.
 

hoop-jones

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How many programmers would be needed to finish an existing title?
How long would it take?
I would not expect former SNK folks to be unemployed and just "waiting" for a chance like this...

Would it be even possible if affordable to buy some of the IPs?

There is a big number of questions coming to my mind when thinking about this...i really like the idea though...:).
 

Takumaji

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How many programmers would be needed to finish an existing title?
How long would it take?
I would not expect former SNK folks to be unemployed and just "waiting" for a chance like this...

Would it be even possible if affordable to buy some of the IPs?

There is a big number of questions coming to my mind when thinking about this...i really like the idea though...:).

Every coder or dev team has its own style, it can be quite difficult to pick up the pieces of an unfinished project and bring it to an end. In 5 cases out of 10, the old code gets dumped and rewritten from scratch.

Yeah, there are better dev environments available for m68k coding than back in the day but you'd still need people experienced in taming the ol' Motorola workhorse, it's not as simple as it seems. Then there's FM music, lo-fi samples, the custom chips, etc.

Don't get me wrong guys, I like the idea as well but don't think it's feasible.
 

tcdev

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As much as I like the thought of it, I think the chances of it happening are very close to zero.

Even if you could round up enough of the old talent, and acquire the IP, and find something worth finishing, you're talking a significant amount of money to get it off the ground. Chances are those guys have gone on to successful careers in the industry, and they're not going to drop everything to dig up some old 68K code without it being well worth their while... I'd imagine even for a small team (4) you're into it for well over a quarter of a million for 6 months of programming salaries alone just to get them interested. Add the cost of IP, production and packaging costs, some marketing... you could easily burn half a mill' making it happen...
 

LoneSage

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Sounds like an idea an 8 year old came up with.

"Hey guys, if we pool together enough money, maybe we can have SNK make another Neo-Geo game again!"

Dude. Move on.
 

distropia

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Sounds like an idea an 8 year old came up with.

"Hey guys, if we pool together enough money, maybe we can have SNK make another Neo-Geo game again!"

Dude. Move on.

"Thoughts determine what you want, ACTIONS determine what you get". If nobody does anything, things doesn't happen. Meanwhile, we, the NG community, can relax and sit until the end of the days. Is easier.
 

distropia

SouthTown StreetSweeper
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As much as I like the thought of it, I think the chances of it happening are very close to zero.

Even if you could round up enough of the old talent, and acquire the IP, and find something worth finishing, you're talking a significant amount of money to get it off the ground. Chances are those guys have gone on to successful careers in the industry, and they're not going to drop everything to dig up some old 68K code without it being well worth their while... I'd imagine even for a small team (4) you're into it for well over a quarter of a million for 6 months of programming salaries alone just to get them interested. Add the cost of IP, production and packaging costs, some marketing... you could easily burn half a mill' making it happen...

Remember we're talking about a "dream". Well, a wierd mix between dream and a somehow feasible future if people would have the will. Said that, what if in that dream some NG lovers with enough resources (money + contacts + the will to make it well) join their forces to make it happen?
That former coders can have successful careers, but they can also have spare time to spend on a personal project. Some of them probably would have fun doing that. Instead 4 programmers working for 6 months, it could be 2 guys working for 1 year, ala NGDevTeam. There's a lot of possibilities, all of them depending on how many coders we could locate and their real-life situation. For example, how do you know some are not unemployed right now? I mean, we don't know anything about them because nobody has contacted them.

As a sidenote, aside the NG world there's a lot of coders with long experience in the 68k. That CPU was used in a lot of arcade PCBs, the Amiga, the first Macs, a plethora of devices...
 

Geddon_jt

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Don't mean to rain on the parade, but finding "old SNK employees" to answer even the simplest of questions about Neo Geo and its history is mind-boggingly difficult almost to the point of futility.
 

aria

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Don't mean to rain on the parade, but finding "old SNK employees" to answer even the simplest of questions about Neo Geo and its history is mind-boggingly difficult almost to the point of futility.

Not if we find this midget and his crew:

kHehDmx.jpg
 
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