Neo-Geo
Neo-Geo is the name of a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system created by the Japanese game company SNK. The system was years ahead of its time, offering a huge colorful 2D graphics and high-quality sound. This system wasn't years ahead of its time because of any innovations, but because it simply was the current standard of arcade hardware, but available for home purchase. The downside for this was that it cost almost a thousand dollars at the time, and each game cost around two hundred dollars. The arcade machines had a memory card system by which a player could save a game to return to at a later time, or remarkably, to be used to continue play on the SNK home console of the same name. (The arcade version of the hardware is often referred to as the "MVS" system to distinguish it from its console counterpart, the "AES".)
SNK continued to produce arcade systems (and limited console cartridge runs) using the same 1980s technology all the way through 2002, proving the longevity of its forward-thinking design, although critics consider this a negative issue. The last game for the system, Samurai Spirits Zero Special, is scheduled for release in Q3 2004. One downside of the system's staying power is that it has no effective copy protection; although this was not so much a problem when the system debuted in the early '90s, it is now an issue of very real concern to SNK. To this end, SNK's most recent releases, including SNK vs. Capcom Chaos and Samurai Spirits Zero have been originally released only as complete JAMMA system boards that incorporate both the MVS and cartridge circuitry into a single unit. This has failed to protect against ROM pirating.
Several home console systems were created based on the same hardware as the arcade games, as well as two handheld systems under the name Neo Geo Pocket.
Other Neo Geo systems
See also
