Relic: NEO-GEO

Words by Jose Alvarez

The year is 1990, and the video game industry has recovered quite well from the video game crash of 1983. Nintendo and Sega are about to enter the “console wars” era of gaming. Shin Nihon Kikaku (New Japan Project) had just become the SNK Corporation in 1986 and was consistently releasing games for the arcade in both Japan and North America. In fact, SNK had developed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, the NEC’s PC Engine, and the TurboGrafx-16 in the late 1980s. However, they wanted to also enter the console market and thus introduced the Neo Geo in 1990 in Japan and North America. But unlike Sega and Nintendo, SNK had primarily focused on arcades.

SNK had dabbled with creating a modular cabinet for arcades as early as 1988. Previously, arcade cabinets held only one game; to completely switch or replace the game, the internals of the existing cabinet or exchange the whole cabinet for another game. This became very costly, so SNK developed the Neo-Geo MVS (MultiVideo System), or the Neo Geo. For arcade cabinets, one could place one, two, four, or six games in a single cabinet. All the arcade operator had to do was swap out cartridges just like consoles. This halved the cost for arcade units to only USD 500 at the time.

SNK wanted to bring arcade-quality games to home consoles without sacrificing CPU or memory performance. One major reason for the video game crash of 1983 was the porting of Pac-Man to the Atari 2600 in 1982, which highlighted the issue of quality control and assurance in the video game industry. SNK brought the Neo Geo to home markets for USD 649.99 (USD 1,279.13 in 2020 dollars). While the high price point turned off many consumers, especially in North America, it did come bundled with Magician Lord and Fatal Fury.

The system benefited from using multiple specialist processors for visual, audio, and gameplay, making it truly more advanced than any other console available at the time as a 24-bit system, compared to the Nintendo Entertainment System’s 8-bit and Sega Genesis’s 16-bit systems. The cartridges were also enormous, measuring 19 cm by 13.6 cm (7.5 inches by 5.4 inches). The Neo Geo is also the first system to have a swappable memory card system. Players could save the game and return at a later time; this predated other consoles with swappable memory cards such as the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, predating both by around five years.

Many amazing yet unheralded franchises also came from SNK and the Neo Geo system. The aforementioned Fatal Fury was one of these franchises, and later on Samurai Shodown, Metal Slug, and The King of Fighters became well-known in the arcades but greatly unappreciated on home consoles, although later consoles would also release these games as well. As 3D graphics became the norm on other consoles, the Neo Geo would be unable to keep up yet retained profitability throughout the 1990s. SNK would continue to support the original Neo Geo all the way until 2004 while stopping maintenance and repairs in 2007. The Neo Geo had a lifespan of 14 years, only second to the Famicom’s run in Japan, which lasted from 1983 to 2003.

SNK franchises continue to be popular to this very day. The company recently confirmed The King of Fighters XV for a 2020 release along with a reboot of Samurai Shodown porting to the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2020 as well. The Neo Geo was more well-known in arcades but appreciated by few due to the futuristic specifications at the time, as well as its focus on mainly fighting games. The Neo Geo did create innovation in the arcade industry even though it did not translate well to home console audiences, yet it outlasted its competition into the new millennium.