100,000 + 1 things you never new about neo

[DZ]

For those who haven't seen this before. BUNG made a ROM loader cart for Neo back in the 90s. A decent amount of early titles were supported, but load times are a nightmare. I finally did a video of the cart to show how it works.

How much Last Resort Disk 3 and 4 ship to the Congo?

 

[Westcb]

I have old game mags with it advertised in the back, but those are packed away... I remember it being very expensive.

Yeah, I should experiment a bit with cooling. It lasts a little more than 10 minutes before you feel the heat billowing out of the vents. Once it starts glitching out, you have to power it down to cool before you can play glitch free. I originally though my roms were bad until I realized letting it sit for about 5 minutes stopped the glitches.

I remember those being for sale at the golden shopping building in Hong Kong just get off the subway at sham shui Po at fuk wah street. At the time I think a 18meg ufo (classic Chinese move over stating the mem count to make theirs look better but was really 16) for snes was like 130-160 USD (exchange rate at that time was about 7.8 to 1) and the game Doctor version being basically the same price. There was a neo copier there for more then double but no one ever had it in stock while I was there. I think the Dr. Series supported just about every system at that time with different modules for it including the neo, but the only booth that had it said it was there only one and they just kept it in the case for conversation pieces not for sale. It did not look like yours though it was beige colored and had several adapters with it. Maybe it was a prototype? At the time the guys working in there had a CD drive that would load the Roms on the snes via parallel port on one unit but wasn't made available for sale till about a year later so I'm guessing that was ground zero in that building for game copier development as well as sells.

Back then though you had to dump your own games as there was no World Wide Web yet :-) at least not a version you could access through aol or prodigy. I was told later about BBS's that swapped Roms but I never found a non long distance number so I had to just go to block buster for new ones.

 

[uiengineer]

So rad!
I want to strip naked and rub those all over my body.

i found you

 

[Hellfromabove]

I remember those being for sale at the golden shopping building in Hong Kong just get off the subway at sham shui Po at fuk wah street. At the time I think a 18meg ufo (classic Chinese move over stating the mem count to make theirs look better but was really 16) for snes was like 130-160 USD (exchange rate at that time was about 7.8 to 1) and the game Doctor version being basically the same price. There was a neo copier there for more then double but no one ever had it in stock while I was there. I think the Dr. Series supported just about every system at that time with different modules for it including the neo, but the only booth that had it said it was there only one and they just kept it in the case for conversation pieces not for sale. It did not look like yours though it was beige colored and had several adapters with it. Maybe it was a prototype? At the time the guys working in there had a CD drive that would load the Roms on the snes via parallel port on one unit but wasn't made available for sale till about a year later so I'm guessing that was ground zero in that building for game copier development as well as sells.

Back then though you had to dump your own games as there was no World Wide Web yet :-) at least not a version you could access through aol or prodigy. I was told later about BBS's that swapped Roms but I never found a non long distance number so I had to just go to block buster for new ones.

Very interesting. I take it no one really does NG copying anymore over there and that these items are pretty much very scarce even over there now. Did you live in Hong Kong at the time or just travel a lot for business?

 

[Westcb]

Very interesting. I take it no one really does NG copying anymore over there and that these items are pretty much very scarce even over there now. Did you live in Hong Kong at the time or just travel a lot for business?

My dad flew all the time (still does till this day) so he had Tons of flyer miles and Marriott points so we would go to Hong Kong every year or two for awhile. Most people would go to like Disney but this was cheaper for us as the exchange rate back then was awesome. (I remember super sizing my McDonalds for the US equivalent of 14 cents when it was 39 cents here). One time he had way too many points that we got to fly Singapore airlines first class and they had Super Nintendos built into the armrests where you would pick a game on the screen and it would load instantly. I put 3 hours on Zelda for the snes and found out afterwards that it didn't retain your saves :-/
I did a quick Google search and apprentice they still do games.

As far as neo stuff it was pretty non existent everyone was all about snes Genesis PC engine and then eventually ps1. Once ps1 was in full swing I was picking up used PC engine and new sealed supergrafx games for next to nothing. At first they didn't have mod chips for ps1 yet so they would burn the games to cdrs and give you a spring that would let you open the tray while the game is Reading so you could load a real game like tekken and then pull it out after it checked to see if it was a real game then you would put in your CD-R and play.
Last time I was over there the halo edition Xbox 360 just came out so it's been awhile now since I been. I think if I went now it would be no big deal as there's nothing there you can't just buy online anymore :-/ seems like Japan would be way more interesting now especially with the cool neo stuff that seems to keep coming out of there.

 

[Hellfromabove]

My dad flew all the time (still does till this day) so he had Tons of flyer miles and Marriott points so we would go to Hong Kong every year or two for awhile. Most people would go to like Disney but this was cheaper for us as the exchange rate back then was awesome. (I remember super sizing my McDonalds for the US equivalent of 14 cents when it was 39 cents here). One time he had way too many points that we got to fly Singapore airlines first class and they had Super Nintendos built into the armrests where you would pick a game on the screen and it would load instantly. I put 3 hours on Zelda for the snes and found out afterwards that it didn't retain your saves :-/
I did a quick Google search and apprentice they still do games.

As far as neo stuff it was pretty non existent everyone was all about snes Genesis PC engine and then eventually ps1. Once ps1 was in full swing I was picking up used PC engine and new sealed supergrafx games for next to nothing. At first they didn't have mod chips for ps1 yet so they would burn the games to cdrs and give you a spring that would let you open the tray while the game is Reading so you could load a real game like tekken and then pull it out after it checked to see if it was a real game then you would put in your CD-R and play.
Last time I was over there the halo edition Xbox 360 just came out so it's been awhile now since I been. I think if I went now it would be no big deal as there's nothing there you can't just buy online anymore :-/ seems like Japan would be way more interesting now especially with the cool neo stuff that seems to keep coming out of there.

Oh, that's pretty cool man. Yeah, my dad used to go over seas and got my PSX modded back in the day. Would bring back a FAT stack of PSX games with him and would pay next to nothing for them lol.

 

[suicidekiller]

I noticed something you may not see at a first glance. The majority of the english AES spines follow a color-scheme. The main colors for the logos of the game are red and yellow. Some titles do add another color (like blue), but red and yellow are present almost all the time. This also seems to be inspired by the 'genre color' color of the game. Aero Fighters 2 for instance uses a blue colored label, Windjammers and Super Sidekicks 1+2 use green logos.

I wonder if SNK had some kind of rule for creating the logos of the game. It's especially interesting that 3rd party game developers also used this 'code'.

*There are exeptions (Viewpoint & Last Resort for instance) and it does not apply to the early titles (since the logos did not use color)

Some good example pictures from user k1ngarth3r

 

[oliverclaude]

Phrenology was discredited eons ago, so was color scheme'ology... along with any try to "correct" it. You said it yourself, there are too many exceptions to call or it a rule or to find one. Here's another theory: The only color present in all title designs seems to be white, all the while black is the most omitted one -- racism?

Every developer wants his game to be recognized and stand out from all the others. That starts with the title and its graphic design. Yellow & red are just obvious choices to deliver that recognition. But to call obviousness a rule is like... focusing on measurements of the human skull to seek moral philosophy.

If, for a short time, there was any other color concept, it was intentionally extended in such a manner as to contradict itself with the aim to loose just another boring dogma.

 

[aha2940]

Phrenology was discredited eons ago, so was color scheme'ology... along with any try to "correct" it. You said it yourself, there are too many exceptions to call or it a rule or to find one. Here's another theory: The only color present in all title designs seems to be white, all the while black is the most omitted one -- racism?

Every developer wants his game to be recognized and stand out from all the others. That starts with the title and its graphic design. Yellow & red are just obvious choices to deliver that recognition. But to call obviousness a rule is like... focusing on measurements of the human skull to seek moral philosophy.

If, for a short time, there was any other color concept, it was intentionally extended in such a manner as to contradict itself with the aim to loose just another boring dogma.

The reason for the colors maybe has something to do with yellow and red transmitting a feeling of action and quickness, that is good for a game, while blue transmits peacefulness, therefore almost no logo has blue, most are red and yellow. There are exceptions of course like aerofighters, but they might have chosen the color because of the sky or something.

 

[oliverclaude]

The reason for the colors maybe has something to do with yellow and red transmitting a feeling of action and quickness, ...

It definitely has. That is, among other things, what I meant, when I spoke of yellow & red delivering the needed recognition. Nothing beats the perceptual values of those two combined or stand alone. Just look at the hat of your avatar .

Now if SNK USA didn't use those colors at all, we could discuss on some hidden, yet calculated form of color scheme. Luckily, they didn't intend to be that "original".


Edit...

My first reply was maybe expressed in a too decisive way. On a very common level I do agree with suicidekiller, as everything around us was designed intentionally, also SNK lost a thought or two about what colors ought to be used on their covers. But these preconceptions are so general and broad minded, that it just isn't enough for me to agree on more than a generic and particularly tentative approach on their side. One, that offers not enough to be called a scheme.

 

[sylvie]

the colors are mostly dependent on the name and theme of the game. when people desire or think of something violent/destructive they often think of blood, fire, general intensity. all of those names beg for a fiery scheme, but you'll notice slightly more modest titles rely more on gold and/or a shimmering/plated effect. it would be dumb in most cases not to use red or gold. you'll see that the more sports oriented games will rely on cooler colors and white.

 

[ResO]

Lol, NGF made corrected cheap inserts to corect the spine stripe colors of later games. Those inserts were so bad, I bought a Zupapa cart and the ink on the insert flaked, chipped and had lots of crazing. I only played it a couple of times, so this just happened naturally. Total junk.

 

[Jontox]

How much Last Resort Disk 3 and 4 ship to the Congo?

Amazing, didn't know this was existing! And not all games were working?

 

[Sword dude]

So I bought this neo geo cd lot All us versions for an excellent deal can't complain but i noticed something 2 US games from the lot have Japanese discs

Mutation nation and Ninja commando I do know for these games it isn't a big deal but I was really suprised even though it was a very nice deal.

Is it normal for japanese discs to be in such games, these games are a bit more uncommon than the usual suspects but I have seen mutation nation with an english disc.

Maybe the owner got new discs because the original ones are broken or was it a mistake from Neo geo them selves I have no clue, has anyone else come across this issue?

I was a bit bummed but than again I can't complain for the price that I paid. first 2 neo geo cd us games that have japanese discs at least for the ones that I have seen.

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

Neo Turf Masters/Big Tournament Golf was tentatively named "World Tour Golf". Below is a screenshot of the prototype.

You can see the differences from the above proto. Looks like there was a slightly larger character sprite and the rest of the overlay graphics are slightly different. Some of the background graphics changed too.

 

[vaanen]

I never knew that Neo Geo games were intended to have "cardboard" cases at first before they had to go for plastic cases

 

[CrystalCore]

The Metal Slug tanks are lifted from the 1980s anime "Dominion Tank Police," by Shirow Masamune.

Shirow is best known outside of Japan as the creator of Ghost in the Shell.

 

[sylvie]

The Metal Slug tanks are lifted from the 1980s anime "Dominion Tank Police," by Shirow Masamune.

Shirow is best known outside of Japan as the creator of Ghost in the Shell.

im so happy i'm not the only one who recognized this

 

[CrystalCore]

im so happy i'm not the only one who recognized this

And that's not all. SNK games borrow heavily from anime:

Geese Howard is heavily inspired by Souther from the 1985 anime "Fist of the North Star."

Athena in SNK vs Capcom Chaos is based off of Athena from the 1980s anime "Saint Seiya." Same purple hair and all.

Kim Kap Hwan's "Hoo'kyaku" DM is borrowed from Kenshiro's (also from Fist of the North Star) Hyakuretsuken punch attack where he yells "WATATATATATA"!

Ryo from Art of Fighting is a dead ringer for the character "Ein," who is also from Fist of the North Star.

 

[sylvie]

And that's not all. SNK games borrow heavily from anime:

Geese Howard is heavily inspired by Souther from the 1985 anime "Fist of the North Star."

Athena in SNK vs Capcom Chaos is based off of Athena from the 1980s anime "Saint Seiya." Same purple hair and all.

Kim Kap Hwan's "Hoo'kyaku" DM is borrowed from Kenshiro's (also from Fist of the North Star) Hyakuretsuken punch attack where he yells "WATATATATATA"!

Ryo from Art of Fighting is a dead ringer for the character "Ein," who is also from Fist of the North Star.

someone give this noob a blowjob before i do

 

[CrystalCore]

This will probably be the first and only time on any forum that knowing random trivia about old anime would get that kind of reply.

 

[sylvie]

you're a chill specimen

 

[kernow]

Neo Turf Masters/Big Tournament Golf was tentatively named "World Tour Golf". Below is a screenshot of the prototype.

You can see the differences from the above proto. Looks like there was a slightly larger character sprite and the rest of the overlay graphics are slightly different. Some of the background graphics changed too.

Oh my that's a good one!

 

[massimiliano]

I never knew that Neo Geo games were intended to have "cardboard" cases at first before they had to go for plastic cases View attachment 41119

for whole 1990, AES games were plastic, then in July 1991 SNK introduced a price drop and carton boxes, to return back to plastic few months later!

 

[MrWunderful]

I just sat here and read this entire thread straight, so much great info.