Classic Gaming: The Neo Geo

There was a time that Neo Geo basically invaded arcades by storm and this was due to a rather inventive system that the company (SNK) designed to attract purchases on the part of an arcade owner. They made it possible to swap carts inside the machine and cabinets were now capable of playing 4 (and later 6) different titles.

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This seems like a rather silly advancement in today's terms since it is possible now to purchase an arcade cabinet that has hundreds if not thousands of games pre-installed. However, in 1990 having a cabinet that could play 4 different titles for just slightly more than a single-title cabinet, was a very big deal.

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Games like Fatal Fury were wildly popular and for the most part were graphically superior to most other fighting games that existed. Of course Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 were definitely the kings of the arcades at the time, but Fatal Fury and a number of other similar fighting games were always part of every arcade lineup. The Neo Geo machines were a much safer investment on the part of the owners since other titles could be bundled in as well and even swapped out when new, more popular games were released rather than being forced to purchase an entirely new cabinet.

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Most of the units would also feature Magician Lord as an option as well, which was an extremely well done action-adventure platformer that at least at the time, was one of the most graphically appealing titles of its type.

This is all fine and dandy but one thing that not many people had the resources to take advantage of was this: You could buy a stand-alone console for your house and the games were EXACTLY the same as their arcade counterparts since the technology behind the hardware was nearly identical.

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This monstrosity was not held by very many people because in 1991 it had a MSRP of $650 dollars which today is more than a cool grand. The fun doesn't end there as far as expenses are concerned since each additional title would set you back around $200 each!

Ridiculous! Right? I mean what kind of nerd would buy this thing? My next door neighbor did and even though I loved video games (still do) this seemed an exceptionally crazy amount of money to spend on games. I dunno how dude even had that much money.

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_{look at that monster. you would never misplace your Neo Geo carts since they were the size of a toaster and weighed 20 pounds}

Obviously, the Neo Geo home consoles didn't exactly sell like hotcakes. This turned especially bad for SNK when the industry switched over to 3-D games at the start of the first person shooter age because the system was incapable of switching over to 3-D as the hardware was always intended to be a super-crisp 2-D engine. Despite this, Neo Geo remained a decent force in the arcade industry until the mid-to-late 90's.

However, one could argue that the arcade industry as a whole was dying right around that same time.

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There is one particular game that saw very limited release called Neo Turf Masters that if you have it at all you can easily sell it for over $10,000. An unopened new cartridge setup will earn you over $50,000. Can't find the cart but you have the box it came in? That alone will fetch you a cool $900.

I love video games too, but this is just nustso in my book :P