Neo Geo Tate

[Tarma]

Ok, I know the Neo Geo never offered a tate video output - but why, and what if it had?

Given the versatility of the MVS carts system I'm actually surprised SNK didn't put a rotating monitor into their candy cabs like Taito did with the Egret 2.

Would we have seen more 3rd party games if we'd have had tate for Neo Geo? Maybe Toaplan or Cave may have been tempted to use the hardware as neither were majorly fond of horis.

It always makes me laugh when I read shit about the Neo Geo being a great system for shmups... because it really wasn't. Yes, there are some great titles like Blazing Star, Pulstar and Last Resort... but that's three games out of a library of 130+ titles.

Perhaps it could have been a truly great system for shmups (as well as fighters) if it had had a tate ability.

PS. Fuck verti-zontal.

 

[Heinz]

Doesn't it have something to do with how it draws sprites in vertical (from horizontal perspective) strips? Dunno I'm taking a pot shot here.

 

[egg_sanwich]

Great question. Considering the prevalence of single slot MVS, even if SNK didn't offer rotatable cabinets operators would have had no problem running tate games on their existing universal jamma cabs.

The IGS PGM offered at least one tate option, from no less than Cave themselves. That was more powerful hardware however...

 

[Tarma]

Great question. Considering the prevalence of single slot MVS, even if SNK didn't offer rotatable cabinets operators would have had no problem running tate games on their existing universal jamma cabs.

The IGS PGM offered at least one tate option, from no less than Cave themselves. That was more powerful hardware however...

Good points!

And of course tate was nothing new by the time the PGM rolled around... tate arcade games predate Neo Geo, so why did SNK ignore this mode, especially when the system was touted as a one-size fits all answer for arcade operators??

 

[The Chief]

Because of all the multi-slot boards where it wouldn’t work to have horizontal and vertical games loaded at the same time.

 

[wataru330]

Good points!

And of course tate was nothing new by the time the PGM rolled around... tate arcade games predate Neo Geo, so why did SNK ignore this mode, especially when the system was touted as a one-size fits all answer for arcade operators??

This^ …and…
not for nothing, one of SNK’s biggest properties just prior and into the Neo•Geo era was a series of tate games. Ikari Warriors!

 

[SignOfGoob]

Because of all the multi-slot boards where it wouldn’t work to have horizontal and vertical games loaded at the same time.

Also, zero home cart sales.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Stuff like Neo XYX shows that there was no technical issue with the neogeo having a tate shmup. Agree with all the other points made about how it would have been clunky to have such games mixed in with other non-tate MVS titles on a multi-slot board. Use of the tate aspect ratio for games, other than shmups, seemed on its way out in the early 90s too, I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

 

[wyo]

Also, zero home cart sales.

Over a quarter of the library had zero home cart sales. The market for vertical games may have been more limited but still worthwhile IMO.

 

[neo_mao]

Also, zero home cart sales.

The Japanese were tatin' their Saturns back in the mid 90s

 

[SignOfGoob]

The Japanese were tatin' their Saturns back in the mid 90s

The gamer hardcore enough to have a Neo and be tating would just be using MVS in the first place and have a tate ready RGB display.

 

[Tarma]

This^ …and…
not for nothing, one of SNK’s biggest properties just prior and into the Neo•Geo era was a series of tate games. Ikari Warriors!

lol, yes, I totally forgot about the Ikari series - plus Guerilla War!!

Yeah, it would have been awkward on a multi-slot, but there was the single-slot, and once there were a few tate games multi-slots could have then been implemented.

Let's not forget Irritating Maze - you couldn't put that in a multi-slot!

Homecarts... there were plenty of games never had a home release - including Shock Troopers, Prehistoric Isle 2, Money Puzzle Exchanger, Zupapa!, Neo Driftout... to name a few... plus Strikers 1945 - which was butchered into a verti-zontal.

 

[Neo Alec]

Doesn't it have something to do with how it draws sprites in vertical (from horizontal perspective) strips? Dunno I'm taking a pot shot here.

No, all hardware worked that way. They had to because that's how all CRTs refreshed the screen.

There's really no reason a developer couldn't have made a tate game to run in 1-slot jamma setups. Perhaps SNK wouldn't have allowed it.

 

[SignOfGoob]

lol, yes, I totally forgot about the Ikari series - plus Guerilla War!!

Yeah, it would have been awkward on a multi-slot, but there was the single-slot, and once there were a few tate games multi-slots could have then been implemented.

Let's not forget Irritating Maze - you couldn't put that in a multi-slot!

Homecarts... there were plenty of games never had a home release - including Shock Troopers, Prehistoric Isle 2, Money Puzzle Exchanger, Zupapa!, Neo Driftout... to name a few... plus Strikers 1945 - which was butchered into a verti-zontal.

If you were a producer on a video game and it was your job to have that game make money, would you risk your career on a tate game?

Most home carts didn’t make much money, but what if you created the greatest Neo shooter ever, as popular as Fatal Fury Special, and when people started asking about a home version you have to say there can never be one unless they wait for the PlayStation port you haven’t paid anyone to make yet?

 

[SignOfGoob]

No, all hardware worked that way. They had to because that's how all CRTs refreshed the screen.

There's really no reason a developer couldn't have made a tate game to run in 1-slot jamma setups. Perhaps SNK wouldn't have allowed it.

I would bet money they wouldn’t allow it. It’s a feature SNK didn’t support, therefore it would not be allowed. That’s the Japanese corporate line on basically everything.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Sounds more than reasonable to me. Look at the Aerofighters series, the earlier and later entries that weren't on neogeo hardware were tate games. Why wouldn't they do the neogeo ones in tate style?

 

[Tarma]

If you were a producer on a video game and it was your job to have that game make money, would you risk your career on a tate game?

Most home carts didn’t make much money, but what if you created the greatest Neo shooter ever, as popular as Fatal Fury Special, and when people started asking about a home version you have to say there can never be one unless they wait for the PlayStation port you haven’t paid anyone to make yet?

Three words: Bust-a-Move

Where was the homecart for that?

Besides, if it made a ton of money in the arcade I doubt either SNK or the developer would care all that much about a home release. There was no golden rule that every MVS game would be ported to the home console (AES / CD).
Also, ports for 32 bits consoles, like DoDonPachi, offered tate, but you didn't have to play it in tate. There's no reason why these verti-zontal approaches couldn't have been taken for home console, especially on NGCD.

I'm sorry, but I find your argument weak as vicar's piss.

 

[wataru330]

The Ray games on Saturn have tate mode, even a warning about the potential ‘rainbow effect’ after leaning your tv, and advice on how to degauss w/out a wand.

A few lines of code, for the screen flip.

SNK missed a big opportunity here.

 

[kernow]

The shmups on neo are a bit ... Ehhhh

 

[sirlynxalot]

The Ray games on Saturn have tate mode, even a warning about the potential ‘rainbow effect’ after leaning your tv, and advice on how to degauss w/out a wand.

A few lines of code, for the screen flip.

SNK missed a big opportunity here.

Ngdev team put in a screen flip option for the dreamcast port of neoxyx, but said they couldn't have that feature on the neo geo version - that it would require a complete rewrite of the game to display it 90 degrees differently (and I guess scaled down graphics too so that it will fit within the height of the 4x3 screen).

 

[Tarma]

Meh, fuck ngdev and their euro trash.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Not to be confused with Neo Geo Tat

 

[Neo Alec]

The Ray games on Saturn have tate mode, even a warning about the potential ‘rainbow effect’ after leaning your tv, and advice on how to degauss w/out a wand.

A few lines of code, for the screen flip.

SNK missed a big opportunity here.

A few lines of code? ....what? On a newer console, sure, but on the Neo you'd be rewriting the whole game.

 

[Tarma]

Not to be confused with Neo Geo Tat

Fight Fever.

Even tate wouldn't help that pos.

 

[kernow]

Confused as to why people think the hardware couldn't run in Tate

You're just rotating the controls and you can draw anything you want on the screen. Can you rotate fix rom fonts for score and such? Probably, never seen vertical text on neo tbh but just do it another way I suppose.

I have some neo homebrew of a pretty accomplished shooter that you can rotate the screen with the d button before starting a credit. Just flips it in real time