SNK Dropping Traditional NeoGeo Hardware

Thanks to GameSpot for its news discussing SNK's decision to shift its arcade development platform from the original NeoGeo MVS cartridge format to Sammy's Atomiswave. A spokesperson for Sammy commented: "The NeoGeo's games have been played worldwide, but it ran on a 16-bit board that had reached its limits", and the SNK Playmore development chief lamented: "There have been talks in the past about when we'll stop supporting the NeoGeo, but this is going to be the real end. And that's really an indescribable feeling." Fan site NeoGeo For Life points out current NeoGeo MVS title Samurai Spirits Zero Special, the last in an era for SNK, while the GameSpot article explains: "Three new titles have been announced for release on the Atomiswave: The King of Fighters 2004, Samurai Spirits AW, and Metal Slug 6."

Comments

Farewell.

[cableshaft]

*plays Taps* It was bound to happen sometime. Farewell, Neo Geo. You lasted longer than most of the consoles out there. You'll be missed. And played :).

Metal Slug 6?

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember the original one, MS2, MS3, and MSX. But that leaves out a fifth title.(fourth one too, if you only count MSX as a remake)

What gives?

Re:Metal Slug 6?

[Fred Or Alive]

Metal Slug 4 and 5 exist as well. SNK Playmore's official sites are at:

Metal Slug 4 (Japanese)
Metal Slug 5

I suppose it was inevitable...

[Fred Or Alive]

Someday it had to stop, but it's been a bloody good run for the system, outlasting just about any other platform ever, or at least 16 bit ones (I think the Famicom outlasted it.) And quite a few very good games. Metal Slug, King Of Fighters, League Bowling, Real Bout etc. Now if only I could afford one...

it probably makes better business sense too, seeing as emulation and piracy might become a bit less of a problem, at least until a Dreamcast emulator is playable (Atomiswave is basically a cartridge based Dreamcast[1].) Sega's last console platform's afterlife is continuing...

[1] Which has been done before, as Sega Naomi arcade boards are basically a Dreamcast + extra RAM (Naomi 2 has an extra PowerVR GPU and a T&L chip as well.)

Re:I suppose it was inevitable...

[Ayaress]

Actually, the NES (Famicom/FDS) and SNES (SFC) were both discontinued in 2003, around September or so. They didn't sell outside of Japan, but you can still find new games comming out for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. They're mostly cheap two-week development cycle Hentai games, but still, when it comes down to it, the Famicom wins.

Remakes please?

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering the cost of a NeoGeo system and the games, its not suprising it didn't catch on too easier (ease up on the flames).

I hope Playmore gets around to making remakes and selling them on more mainstream systems since they stand up to well even against modern graphics.

Re:Remakes please?

[Jeff Reed]

The problem is that they've been trying to release a lot of their newer games (Samurai Shodown 5, SvC Chaos, Metal Slug 3) on the Playstation 2 in the US, but Sony has told them to take their 2D games and shove 'em, from all indications. This is, of course, business as usual for Sony. Why approve some excellent 2D games, after all, when you can approve the latest movie-licensed shoveware?

SNK did somehow convince Sony to let them release The King of Fighters 2000 & 2001 as a bundle pack for PS2 recently, but I doubt they'll be able to do that for many more of the games they want to release, sadly.

Last I heard, though, Microsoft wasn't against 2D games if they were good, so SNK's porting them to X-Box for a US release. Kind of bad news for someone like me who lacks an X-Box, but at least there'll be a legal way to play SNK's games and still support their US operations.

Re:Lasted longer than all?

[Fred Or Alive]

The Famicom (Japanese version of the NES) was apparently in production from 1983 to 2003. I think Neo-Geo was actually availible in 1989, or at least that's the earliest game copyright dates for the system.

MSGC

[paradesign]

I want metal slug for GC, and i want it now! And i want it 2D, none of this cheesy 3D stuff should mess up a good 2D classic, ya hear that Nintendo?

Interesting

[VGMSupreme]

Well, it was nice to see the old Neo Geo arcade machines in the arcade from time to time, brought back moments of nostalgia, which I will apperciate, but now it is time to move one to better times.

To be honest, they should also start porting those games over to consoles. I have heard many people complain about not being able to play Metal Slug anywhere but some random arcade machine in a car wash or a bowling alley. They would make a killing on that.

Re:cheaper games?

[Black Hitler]

Most older Neo-Geo games have been going down in price for a while (not surprising). Newer ones, on the other hand, are not particularly likely to drop below current levels, since only an extremely small amount of the home cartridge versions were produced. Games that came out just 2-3 years ago already sell for between $500-$1,000. So if you ever hope to get your hands on an SvC Chaos or Metal Slug 5 cart you may as well do it now.

It's not enough

[mangamuscle]

The reason they are moving to Atomiswave hardware it is because the Neo Geo hardware is fully emulated by several emulators (mame, finalburn, nebula, kawaks, etc.) and rom kiddiez were dumping any new game that were released for this platform. But the atomiswave is bound to be emulated in a couple of years and the cycle will start again. Atomiswave's hardware is a slightly improved dreamcast, they should at least have used hardware based on the PS2 or the Gamecube (those won't be emulated any time soon). If they didn't want to pay royalties they had time to design their own hardware, throw in it a PowerPC cpu, some nVidia graphic chips and linux to run the whole thing and Voila, you have a pretty fast, cheap and propietary system that can't be emulated with present hardware. Sigh, as things stand now we will have history repeat all over again -_-