If you turn your nose up at the cost of video gaming in the modern era, with its rising software prices, expensive accessories and exploitative mid-cycle system upgrades, then it's almost certain that you never owned SNK's wallet-busting early '90s console, the Neo Geo .
Launched alongside the likes of the Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, it was quickly dubbed 'The Rolls Royce of gaming systems' by the specialist press of the period – a fitting monicker given the incredible specs and outlandish cost of ownership associated with what was then the most powerful home console available.
SNK – short for Shin Nihon Kikaku Corporation – was one of many Japanese companies that had benefitted from the arcade explosion of the 1980s, but it had grander plans than simply pumping out a series of coin-op hits and licensing them for console conversions.
The aim was to conquer both amusement centres and the home market, and to achieve the first of those goals SNK created its own arcade standard, known as MVS, or Multi Video System.
The Neo Geo console shipped with gamepads that were almost as big as the Mega Drive console
Offering cutting-edge power and robust, easily interchangeable cartridges, MVS quickly found favour with amusement operators who were keen on reducing their reliance on expensive and often fragile arcade boards.
The 'domestic' part of the strategy, meanwhile was the AES – short for Advanced Entertainment System – which was a home console based on the exact same technology. SNK was doing the unthinkable: shrinking down a powerful coin-op cabinet for your living room.
The appeal of this concept was simple. Instead of having to make do with scaled-down domestic ports blighted by missing animation, cut content and weaker presentation, Neo Geo AES owners would benefit from truly perfect ports of the latest and greatest arcade releases.
Today, AES software prices are generally higher than their arcade (MVS) equivalents
The games were entirely identical, with each title having coin-op and domestic settings to suit both environments. The key difference was the cartridges themselves; while both standards contained the same code, the connectors were engineered to be incompatible, to prevent naughty arcade operators from buying the cheaper AES variants and using them in their cabinets.
A console for the one percent
Of course, when it comes to the world of Neo Geo the term 'cheaper' is relative. Even though AES editions were priced lower than their MVS equivalents, they still retailed for around £200/$200 a pop, while the console itself cost approximately £450/$650. To put those prices into perspective, back in 1992 the Sega Mega Drive cost £125/$190 with Sonic the Hedgehog, while the SNES retailed for £150/$199.
It goes without saying that from the off the Neo Geo was a niche platform, despite the incredible amount of coverage it received in gaming magazines of the time.
The console's notoriety was enhanced further by the fact that in the arcades, SNK's games – such as Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown – were growing in popularity to the point where they were being ported to other home systems, with mixed results. The Neo Geo was seen as the only way to play these must-have titles, but it was out of the price range of all but the most affluent gamer.
Those who were flush enough to be able to afford to join this most exclusive of clubs were graced with some of the defining titles of the '90s. When Street Fighter II became a worldwide phenomenon in 1991 it spawned a legion of imitators, and SNK was at the front of the pack when it came to exploiting this new-found public adoration of one-on-one brawlers.
Takashi Nishiyama – co-director of the original Street Fighter in 1987 – jumped ship to SNK prior to the development of the sequel, and would oversee the production of series such as Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters, the latter of which would briefly become more popular in its native Japan than any of Capcom's offerings.
These games – as well as titles such as World Heroes, The Last Blade and Savage Reign – were considered to be at the forefront of the genre, and the Neo Geo quickly became the go-to system for fighting game addicts.
While it certainly found favour with players of a pugilistic persuasion, the system was also home to many other game styles. Perhaps the most famous is Metal Slug, which took the run-and-gun approach popularised by the likes of Contra and Gunstar Heroes and added layers of intricate graphical detail, as well as a healthy dose of humor.
Sports fans, meanwhile, were catered for by the excellent Neo Turf Masters, Soccer Brawl, Super Sidekicks and 2020 Baseball, while 'flying disc game' Windjammers – recently updated for the PlayStation 4 – became something of a cult classic. Shooter addicts had titles like Blazing Star, Viewpoint and Pulstar to keep them occupied, and puzzle lovers could entertain themselves with Puzzle Bobble and Panic Bomber, two third-party hits which used the Neo Geo hardware to superb effect.
The budget model
Despite its amazing stable of titles, it was obvious to everyone at the time that mainstream success would elude the Neo Geo while it remained such an outlandishly expensive proposition, so in 1994 SNK released the Neo Geo CD, which had the same internal technology but used compact discs in order to dramatically bring down the cost of software.
The idea was sound but the timing was all wrong; in the same year Sony and Sega released their much more powerful 32-bit consoles – the PlayStation and the Saturn – which put SNK's console well and truly in the shade.
Despite this, the Neo Geo outlived both of those systems; Samurai Shodown V Special was the final official release, while indie developer NG:DEV.TEAM was producing software as late as 2012.
While it never sold in large numbers – unofficial estimates suggest that the entire Neo Geo console range shifted less than a million units worldwide – the fanbase which grew up around the console kept it alive for much longer than expected.
Despite a fumbled attempt to resurrect the brand with 2012's Neo Geo X handheld – in reality an emulation-based system with a lackluster LCD screen – SNK's thoroughbred console remains something of a cult classic.
Casual players can now experience most of its truly essential games via download services such as Nintendo's Virtual Console or Sony's PlayStation Network, leaving the task of collecting the original hardware and cartridges to only the most dedicated of fans – and this in itself is one of the most expensive undertakings in the world of interactive entertainment, with some super-rare AES releases – such as the European version of Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle – costing as much as £10,000/$12,000.
Ironically, it's actually cheaper to collect the arcade-based MVS standard these days; while MVS carts were more expensive than their AES equivalents back in the day, large production runs mean these are now more abundant on the secondary market and are therefore significantly cheaper. As a result, many collectors choose to invest in 'consolized' MVS systems – basically arcade hardware that's been removed from a cabinet and converted for home use.
An enduring legacy
While the Neo Geo doesn't have a massive library, grabbing a complete collection is still the kind of venture that, for most people, will require re-mortgaging the house or selling a kidney – but therein lies the intrinsic appeal of SNK's legendary home system. Even at the time of its release it was alluringly unobtainable, a console which many had heard tell of but had never actually seen in the flesh.
The relentless march of technology means many of the systems we were so overawed by in the '90s now look pathetically weedy by modern standards, yet the Neo Geo – with its silky-smooth animation, CD-quality audio and screen-filling, hand-drawn sprites – has managed to retain its ability to dazzle – and that timeless quality is likely to endure as the decades roll by and the cost of ownership continues to rise.
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