Hello. First-time poster here but I've been around other forums pertaining to video games.
I researched this topic, of when the Neo Geo (AES) was released, because I had noticed conflicting info around various sites and was researching other matters related to historical accounts of video games and tv shows/broadcasts, so figured why not. It was one of many questions, mysteries, etc that I looked into.
Broadly, a lot of older release dates can be wildly off, Sega Genesis in particular (I've found mentions of games being on sale and detailed discussions of how the game plays, hidden things, stage names, whatnot *months* before the listed release dates on sites like Gamefaqs, Wikipedia, et al). Same thing goes for very old syndicated tv shows and synd. cartoons through the '90s with a few exceptions (like Beast Wars). Some of the information is egregious in how wrong it is (no series has the perception of when it aired FUBARed more than Thundercats). Some famous info made the rounds on other video game sites regarding Nintendo of when exactly did Super Mario Bros come out and debunking the notion of a full, nationwide release for the NES in October 1985, not to mention finding errors in Nintendo's official historical documents, contradicted by games being listed for sale, complete with the proper box art shown, in newspapers dated months to over a year before its listed release. I looked into those subjects a bit after I saw their articles (I found basically the same conclusions) and expanded it to look into many other consoles and games.
Be forewarned, my posts can be long, though they are packed with info. I was curious about when the Neo Geo launched, where it was sold, and when did it get discontinued (besides the long tail as a mail-order system). What I've found regarding the Neo Geo that early on (digging mainly around old Usenet newsgroups because it's the best fossil bed on the internet going back to the early-mid '90s strata, Internet Wayback caches, and a few other sources. I don't have magazine sources like EGM, which would be very good for pinning down info since I do remember Neo Geo getting magazine coverage in the early '90s)...
- A Nov 1990 topic mentioned the Neo Geo will be sold for $400 or so with games costing $200, though another poster said that was outdated info and it would be $500 with $225 games. The posters knew the Neo Geo was arcade-perfect. Another topic this same month said some arcades plan to buy the Neo Geo MVS 'as soon as it is available' from Japan. The posts were writing in future tense about Neo Geo.
- A Dec 1990 topic mentioned 2 bars having Neo Geo coin-op machines and a local store selling the Neo Geo gold system for $599. The poster then knew the package came with 2 controllers, a choice of Nam-75 or Baseball Stars.
- Off of memory (have the notes in another file somewhere), someone in Florida ordered a Neo Geo in Dec 1990. They mentioned this years later and posted a scanned copy of a receipt to prove it, dated to 12/90. It seemed like they had it special ordered, not picked up at a store.
- A 1/6/91 topic (that's Jan 6th) mentioned some stores (Babbages was named) stocked the Neo Geo. One poster who was from UC Santa Barbara said 2 versions were on sale, explicitly mentioning a silver version selling for ~$350 (another said $399) and a gold version selling for ~$600 with games costing $200 each. The topic mentioned about 6 games were out or 14 games (yeah... dealing with fossilized traces of old internet discussions, you're going to get a lot of conflicting info and uncertainty). Someone there said SNK aimed to have it as a rental unit for now and many stores were renting the unit and the games but some stores were obviously selling it. The info was very muddy on the rental subject.
(Yes, when I found these topics, I was surprised the Neo Geo AES was for sale *in stores* in the US long before the formal July 1991 release. People were indicating Neo Geo was on sale in stores and arcade units were out by Dec 1990. I do wonder if July 1991 was the national launch and these earlier indications are in select markets like California or not. I don't know any more about the geographic distribution than what I listed)
- An April 1991 topic mentioned Toys R Us selling Neo Geo with 7 games seen on shelves.
- A Sept 1991 topic inquiring about reputable mail-order companies for video games mentioned Electronics Boutique (noting their stores also carried Neo Geo games), Gametronix, Micro Marketplace, which were selling Neo Geo games for $199, $179, $162 respectively.
- A May 1992 topic had 1 man who claimed to have a friend who worked for SNK in Torrance and he said SNK's home division formed about 8 months ago. If true, that would put the formation around Sept 1991. But I've read that SNK of America formed in 1981 in Sunnyvale but relocated to Torrance when it outgrew its offices in 1991 and SNK Home Entertainment formed ~1986 in Torrance originally to focus on home consoles (probably in advance of Ikari Warriors & Athena?). The timing involving this move may tie in with the formal July 1991 release date so widely touted. If there were some way to iron down the dates, we might get a clearer picture.
At this same time, it was said the CompUSA in Torrance was selling the Neo Geo. Games mentioned as being seen were Baseball 2020, Ghost Pilot, Cyberlip, SuperSpy, Blue's Journey, King of the Monsters, Golf, Sengoku.
- Topics still listing Neo Geo for sale were dated to June 1992 (Babbages), July 92 (EB), June 93 (Software Etc in NJ, but not TRU in Houston anymore).
- As of April 1993, the old 1-800-800 NEOG number no longer worked (the 1st mention I found of this number was Jan 1991).
- Around 1993, there were a handful of topics indicating stores clearing out their Neo Geo merchandise because it wasn't selling that well. A FAQ posted 8/93 stated the Neo Geo "is now mostly a mail-order item" but back in 1991 it could 'be found almost everywhere'. Electronics Boutique was still selling it, but not at all locations.
- By Nov 1994, no stores in the San Fernando Valley appeared to be selling Neo Geo games according to a poster in a topic dated to then who called all around looking for games.
Best I can tell of when it ended commercially was absolutely by 1996 though after 1993 it seemed to be limited to only a few chains and only some, not all, of their stores. My notes about the Neo Geo CD launch and what I could find about it are someplace else that I can't find at the moment. I've read that SNK Home Entertainment division was shut down in 1996, reverting everything to mail-order. And SNK stopped manufacturing Neo Geo AES sometime in 1997, MVS in early 1999 from what I can tell.
And just to put some information I've dug up out there:
About the MVS, a Nov 1991 topic had someone asking for MVS prices and here's what was posted there:
1-slot- $2295
2-slot- $2495
4-slot- $2995
6-slot- $????
1/2-slot came with 1 game, 4/6-slot came with 2 games. It also said the MVS games cost $350, but used was $99-250.
I researched this topic, of when the Neo Geo (AES) was released, because I had noticed conflicting info around various sites and was researching other matters related to historical accounts of video games and tv shows/broadcasts, so figured why not. It was one of many questions, mysteries, etc that I looked into.
Broadly, a lot of older release dates can be wildly off, Sega Genesis in particular (I've found mentions of games being on sale and detailed discussions of how the game plays, hidden things, stage names, whatnot *months* before the listed release dates on sites like Gamefaqs, Wikipedia, et al). Same thing goes for very old syndicated tv shows and synd. cartoons through the '90s with a few exceptions (like Beast Wars). Some of the information is egregious in how wrong it is (no series has the perception of when it aired FUBARed more than Thundercats). Some famous info made the rounds on other video game sites regarding Nintendo of when exactly did Super Mario Bros come out and debunking the notion of a full, nationwide release for the NES in October 1985, not to mention finding errors in Nintendo's official historical documents, contradicted by games being listed for sale, complete with the proper box art shown, in newspapers dated months to over a year before its listed release. I looked into those subjects a bit after I saw their articles (I found basically the same conclusions) and expanded it to look into many other consoles and games.
Be forewarned, my posts can be long, though they are packed with info. I was curious about when the Neo Geo launched, where it was sold, and when did it get discontinued (besides the long tail as a mail-order system). What I've found regarding the Neo Geo that early on (digging mainly around old Usenet newsgroups because it's the best fossil bed on the internet going back to the early-mid '90s strata, Internet Wayback caches, and a few other sources. I don't have magazine sources like EGM, which would be very good for pinning down info since I do remember Neo Geo getting magazine coverage in the early '90s)...
- A Nov 1990 topic mentioned the Neo Geo will be sold for $400 or so with games costing $200, though another poster said that was outdated info and it would be $500 with $225 games. The posters knew the Neo Geo was arcade-perfect. Another topic this same month said some arcades plan to buy the Neo Geo MVS 'as soon as it is available' from Japan. The posts were writing in future tense about Neo Geo.
- A Dec 1990 topic mentioned 2 bars having Neo Geo coin-op machines and a local store selling the Neo Geo gold system for $599. The poster then knew the package came with 2 controllers, a choice of Nam-75 or Baseball Stars.
- Off of memory (have the notes in another file somewhere), someone in Florida ordered a Neo Geo in Dec 1990. They mentioned this years later and posted a scanned copy of a receipt to prove it, dated to 12/90. It seemed like they had it special ordered, not picked up at a store.
- A 1/6/91 topic (that's Jan 6th) mentioned some stores (Babbages was named) stocked the Neo Geo. One poster who was from UC Santa Barbara said 2 versions were on sale, explicitly mentioning a silver version selling for ~$350 (another said $399) and a gold version selling for ~$600 with games costing $200 each. The topic mentioned about 6 games were out or 14 games (yeah... dealing with fossilized traces of old internet discussions, you're going to get a lot of conflicting info and uncertainty). Someone there said SNK aimed to have it as a rental unit for now and many stores were renting the unit and the games but some stores were obviously selling it. The info was very muddy on the rental subject.
(Yes, when I found these topics, I was surprised the Neo Geo AES was for sale *in stores* in the US long before the formal July 1991 release. People were indicating Neo Geo was on sale in stores and arcade units were out by Dec 1990. I do wonder if July 1991 was the national launch and these earlier indications are in select markets like California or not. I don't know any more about the geographic distribution than what I listed)
- An April 1991 topic mentioned Toys R Us selling Neo Geo with 7 games seen on shelves.
- A Sept 1991 topic inquiring about reputable mail-order companies for video games mentioned Electronics Boutique (noting their stores also carried Neo Geo games), Gametronix, Micro Marketplace, which were selling Neo Geo games for $199, $179, $162 respectively.
- A May 1992 topic had 1 man who claimed to have a friend who worked for SNK in Torrance and he said SNK's home division formed about 8 months ago. If true, that would put the formation around Sept 1991. But I've read that SNK of America formed in 1981 in Sunnyvale but relocated to Torrance when it outgrew its offices in 1991 and SNK Home Entertainment formed ~1986 in Torrance originally to focus on home consoles (probably in advance of Ikari Warriors & Athena?). The timing involving this move may tie in with the formal July 1991 release date so widely touted. If there were some way to iron down the dates, we might get a clearer picture.
At this same time, it was said the CompUSA in Torrance was selling the Neo Geo. Games mentioned as being seen were Baseball 2020, Ghost Pilot, Cyberlip, SuperSpy, Blue's Journey, King of the Monsters, Golf, Sengoku.
- Topics still listing Neo Geo for sale were dated to June 1992 (Babbages), July 92 (EB), June 93 (Software Etc in NJ, but not TRU in Houston anymore).
- As of April 1993, the old 1-800-800 NEOG number no longer worked (the 1st mention I found of this number was Jan 1991).
- Around 1993, there were a handful of topics indicating stores clearing out their Neo Geo merchandise because it wasn't selling that well. A FAQ posted 8/93 stated the Neo Geo "is now mostly a mail-order item" but back in 1991 it could 'be found almost everywhere'. Electronics Boutique was still selling it, but not at all locations.
- By Nov 1994, no stores in the San Fernando Valley appeared to be selling Neo Geo games according to a poster in a topic dated to then who called all around looking for games.
Best I can tell of when it ended commercially was absolutely by 1996 though after 1993 it seemed to be limited to only a few chains and only some, not all, of their stores. My notes about the Neo Geo CD launch and what I could find about it are someplace else that I can't find at the moment. I've read that SNK Home Entertainment division was shut down in 1996, reverting everything to mail-order. And SNK stopped manufacturing Neo Geo AES sometime in 1997, MVS in early 1999 from what I can tell.
And just to put some information I've dug up out there:
About the MVS, a Nov 1991 topic had someone asking for MVS prices and here's what was posted there:
1-slot- $2295
2-slot- $2495
4-slot- $2995
6-slot- $????
1/2-slot came with 1 game, 4/6-slot came with 2 games. It also said the MVS games cost $350, but used was $99-250.
