Slashdot Mirror

Not true on the N64! Check the Neo-Geo master list. They measure in Mbits so you have to divide by 8, but the biggest Neo game is KOF 2003 at 716Mb or 89.5MB. It looks like the Neo first passed 64MB in 1998 with Shock Troopers 2 (64.25), KOF '98 (85.375), Last Blade 2 (69.25) and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 (67.375), while RE2 on N64 came out a year later in 1999. 64MB was pretty huge for a mainstream home console cart at the time, though.

are doomed to repeat it.

Anyone remember the NeoGeo?

Well anyway it was set to debut at $599 want to know why it didn't do so well? Due to the price. $500 and up game consoles don't sell that well. Sony needs to find a way to lower the price to $299 on the base model and $399 on the advanced model or else the Wii and XBox 360 will eat their lunch.

Don't disagree with you much but... Baldur's Gate? Now that was one of the worst games I ever played. It may have been beautiful and immersive or whatever if you played it 'for fun', but if you played it to beat the game, it wasnt hard to get hold of a magic sword spell that flew out to beat up your foes; from that point until the final battle, the solution was to stand behind a wooden box (which all the monsters were too stupid to break) while your magic sword does its thing. Mostly I played the game while watching TV, only briefly flicking back to move on to the next box.

Of course, I could just fight the monsters properly, but anytime things got remotely awkward there'd always be a box lying around, tempting you in...

For me... Ico? maybe. GTA? right up there. Crystal Castles - fab. But lets see, a game that keeps bringing you back for more...got it.

Money Puzzle Exchanger!

I have a really hard time getting my wife into any game with any learning curve so we have a steady diet of Tetris (every variant you can think of), Dr. Mario, Puzzle Bobble, and Magical Drop 2 when we play together.

I've recently gotten her interested in Blazing Star (just keep pressing A!) and will probably try to get her into beat-em-ups at some point. I definitely agree with whoever said co-op games are a good idea. If you're not playing against her, she can't lose and get frustrated ... and if she does lose, she'll resent the game, not you.

Also, this Official Guide to Getting a Girl to Play Samurai Shodown V With You looks promising, though I haven't tried it myself.

Time to add AOL to the list of great moments in pricing failures.

ikari warriors ruled!

I always liked Time Soldiers better. Those rotary joysticks were a bitch, though!

Also, my roommate's talking about Neo Geo, which I recall in name only. Any thoughts on that? I'm FASCINATED.

I would guess you're talking about the Neo Geo AES, the home version of their arcade hardware. These things still fetch a pretty penny on eBay, and with good reason. First of all, they sold for $700 initially just like the 3DO. Secondly, despite what a lot of people think the system is still being supported by developers and in fact has had one of the longest lifespans of any console (the last game I know of - Rage of the Dragons - was released in Sept. 2002. The system these days generally gets about 2-4 new games per year). SNK never intended this system to be mass-market - it was always a niche console. It was priced to be profitable right from the start, as were the games, which sold for $300 and up initially and still do. The idea was to generate buzz for the company's arcade business by getting systems into the hands of high-class buyers who would then spread word of mouth about the games and drive people to the arcades where average people could afford to play them - the exact opposite of what most other arcade publishers do today.

The reason for the high game prices? The games were literally the exact same games as you'd find in the arcade. Only the pin-outs of the carts were different (in fact, you can buy adapters now so that you can use the cheaper arcade carts in your home AES system). Lots and lots of RAM, and this back in the day when RAM was not cheap. As RAM came down in price, the games didn't because SNK just kept adding more memory to the games.

A CD-based system was released several years after the AES in order to try to make it more mass-market. But it still wasn't really supposed to compete with the likes of the PlayStation or Saturn - more to just satisfy less cash-rich Neo Geo fans and open up new lines of revenue. The system was still expensive, though the games dropped to around $50. Load times were a major problem, though, and real Neo Geo afficionados avoided the system because of the lack of arcade perfection. Some games were actually enhanced with new redbook audio, but again, it was arcade-perfection that Neo Geo fans wanted. The system was a failure even by SNK's modest standards. (A second version of the system was released to try to fix some of its problems, but it didn't really help.)

There is still a large and thriving Neo Geo community - as you'd expect from a fully alive and thriving console. Neo Geo systems are no longer produced and SNK themselves went bankrupt about a year ago - but not because of the AES system (their arcade business - the core part of the company - fell apart). The system itself, though, is still supported with new titles periodically and is considered by many probably the best 2D system ever. That is, of course, if you're a fan of Neo Geo games - there's always a debate among the "classic gaming" community as to whether SNK ever actually put out any good games or not (most of them were fighting games that didn't differ all that much, though I personally find more variety in the company's titles than most, and enjoy a lot of the smaller, lesser-known games that the company released).

As a Neo Geo owner I have to say that it's still one serious system. Everything about it just feels quality - at least if you have one of the original packages with the old-style large controllers. It's a large system but doesn't look it - with its clean, elegant, bat-wedge design. The cartridges are absolutely monstrous and most of them come in high-quality clamshell cases. Holding one in your hand is like holding a brick. Truly a unique system and one that I definitely recommend owning - no way it belongs on this list of failures.