Neo Geo
Peter Altamore
these outrageous claims quoted from one of their ads..
'today's most advanced 4-dimensional graphics, with vivid detail and effects,
65,000 colors and an amazing 15-channel real voice stereo sound track. All
pumped out by 330 meg hardware!' The guy on the other end was a real scream,
telling me it had 24bit graphics! The palette is 65,000, onscreen colors are
4096 at once. We all know that the 330 ain't megaBYTES. You shoulda heard
him try to explain what 4-dimensional graphics are.. talk about double talk.
I like the text on the front of this game console the most..
NEO GEO
MAX 330 MEGA
Pro-Gear Spec
Advanced Entertainment System
Too bad there are only 6 games out for this beast, and too bad it costs $600+
It looks pretty nice, but not at the price of a 500!
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Roger Uzun
I have written quite a few amiga games, and have some technical
junk about the NEO-GEO.
Its video and animation capabilities are unsurpassed (the NEO GEO, that
is). It is just a console, not a real computer per se, but it does have
both a Z80 and a 68000, the 68000 runs the game code. It can have like
41+ MBytes/cartridge and has a larger palette with much less restrictions
than the Amiga. Sprites are arbitrarily large and have their own palettes.
I did not think you could buy one in the US.
It is a lot of hardware, but you have to be a bit of a gaming fanatic
to spend this much on a console system.
-Roger
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Ross Goldberg
>I did not think you could buy one in the US.
>
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Yep, quite a few of the video game stores (such as our local babbages) stocks
the neo-geo.
later,
Ross
Parik Rao
SNK is currently selling the Neo-Geo in two
configurations; a silver and gold. One is about
$350 and the other about $600. Games are about $200
each.
SNK's aim is to have this as a rental unit (for
now). Already many stores are beginning to rent the
unit and games (baseball, motorcycle were two I
saw). There are a few good games [magician lord is
very impressive!] but all are quite short.
BDaltons in Galleria Mall, Dallas, Texas and Home
Express in Sacramento, California are two of the
stores that carry the units. There are many that
carry it in new york, la, sf, etc also...
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Moriland
>I called the Neo Geo hotline (800-800-Neo-Geo) to ask them about a few of
>these outrageous claims quoted from one of their ads..
>
>'today's most advanced 4-dimensional graphics, with vivid detail and effects,
>65,000 colors and an amazing 15-channel real voice stereo sound track. All
>pumped out by 330 meg hardware!' The guy on the other end was a real scream,
>telling me it had 24bit graphics! The palette is 65,000, onscreen colors are
>4096 at once. We all know that the 330 ain't megaBYTES. You shoulda heard
>him try to explain what 4-dimensional graphics are.. talk about double talk.
I have a friend (a rich friend) who owns the Neo Geo and not all of
the claims are so outrageous. It doesn't have 24 bit graphics, but it
can display 4,096 colors at one time WITHOUT using the trickery that
HAM mode uses. The large palette makes from some nice screens. And
yes, it can address up to 330 megaBYTES. One ROM cart can have that
much stored in it. Thats ADDRESSABLE ROM if you read the front cover
of the box properly. The 15 voices (with 7 reserved for speech samples
only) make for some killer sound. It uses (surprise!) a 68000
processor and a Z80 processor.
I must admit, that in my opinion, it is the ultimate home video game
system out at the moment. They primiarly plan to do their games on a
rental basis. Seeing as the same hardware is what they are using in
the arcades, they plan to have the arcades as well as video stores et
al rent the carts to overcome the high price of them. Using thier
special ROM Game Memory card you can save your position in over 27
games to pick up later on with either at the arcade or at home. It is
expensive, but if you want the best there is you have to pay the
price.
Personally I'd LOVE to have an Amiga with the graphics and sound
capabilities that machine has. It's a killer..
>
>I like the text on the front of this game console the most..
>
>NEO GEO
>MAX 330 MEGA
>Pro-Gear Spec
>Advanced Entertainment System
>
>Too bad there are only 6 games out for this beast, and too bad it costs $600+
>It looks pretty nice, but not at the price of a 500!
When you consider what it does and how well it does it and the fact
that the A500 can't come close to it, it will be a good reason for
those people who were going to buy an A500 for games to switch to the
Neo Geo instead. It only has 6 games because it's brand new. It's
selling like mad in Japan.
-Moriland
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david r watters
>I have a friend (a rich friend) who owns the Neo Geo and not all of
>the claims are so outrageous. It doesn't have 24 bit graphics, but it
>can display 4,096 colors at one time WITHOUT using the trickery that
>HAM mode uses. The large palette makes from some nice screens.
The color on the games is outstanding, especially Ninja Combat!
>yes, it can address up to 330 megaBYTES. One ROM cart can have that
>much stored in it. Thats ADDRESSABLE ROM if you read the front cover
>of the box properly.
This is incorrect. The golf game is listed at 56Mega on the box. It has two
courses and is Awsome! However, it is obviously not 56 megabytes in size.
It is 56megabits, which makes it a 7MegaByte game, which I can believe.
>The 15 voices (with 7 reserved for speech samples
>only) make for some killer sound. It uses (surprise!) a 68000
>processor and a Z80 processor.
The sound is incredible, but the samples in some of the games are quite corny!
Baseball has some of the best, eg.:
"It's a homer out of here, the crowd is going _crazy_, and as he rounds the
bases, he just loves to eg that crowd on, and proud he should be he hit
that ball a country mile, he just loves to hit homers in this stadium!"
-close enough anyway. :-)
>I must admit, that in my opinion, it is the ultimate home video game
>system out at the moment.
I agree totally.
>>Too bad there are only 6 games out for this beast, and too bad it costs $600+
>>It looks pretty nice, but not at the price of a 500!
Super Spy
Golf
Baseball
Ninja Combat
Nam '75
Magician Lord
Riding Hero (motorcycles with com-link between to units for dual play)
Cyber Lip (any second now)
Considering the HUGE amount of detail in the artwork and sound, and the fact
that it has been on sale in this country about two months, and that the games
are $110-$200, The number of games is not a factor.
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Stephen Scheck
>I have written quite a few amiga games, and have some technical
>junk about the NEO-GEO.
[some of the specs deleted]
>41+ MBytes/cartridge and has a larger palette with much less restrictions
41 megabytes on a little cartridge? I was unaware that memory density
technology was advanced enough to fit 41 megs on a little cartridge,
especially for a consumer product.
>-Roger
-Steve
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Roger Uzun
[]
41+ MBytes on a cartridge, but from the pictures I have the "game cartridges"
are larger than VHS videotapes. So they are not that small
Joseph Hillenburg
[...]
>>41+ MBytes/cartridge and has a larger palette with much less restrictions
>
>41 megabytes on a little cartridge? I was unaware that memory density
>technology was advanced enough to fit 41 megs on a little cartridge,
>especially for a consumer product.
Little?! I should say not! Neo*Geo carts are the size of VCR tapes.
*THATS* why they hold so much. They're bigger than some computers!
>
>>-Roger
>
>-Steve
>
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david r watters
>In article <45...@vela.acs.oakland.edu> hast...@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Moriland) writes:
>>yes, it can address up to 330 megaBYTES.
>assume that the 330M (which frankly I do not believe) is only either
>addressable by the graphics and sound hardware, or by bank switching.
>Another thing that makes me very suspicious is that 330M is not a power
>of 2. My information is that the current carts contain up to 6Mbytes of
>ROM.
Although I have said that it is 330megabits, The 68000 is there to execute
code and such. There is an array of custom graphics and sound support chips
that do all the important stuff including hardware scalling.
>I don't. The games, at the moment, are pretty dismal, and the actual
>animation hardware is reportedly not that hot. As for the claimed
>"wonderful graphics", all the games I have seen seemed to be badly drawn
>and particularly poorly animated.
BOO HISSS! The animated characters in baseball are unsurpased in any baseball
I have seen! Such as the guy running back to catch a fly near the warning
track. You can make him climp up the wall to try and stop a homerun. If you
keep going up he will fall into the stands. If you don't make him go up the
wall, he will slam into it and fall down.
>>Seeing as the same hardware is what they are using in
>>the arcades, they plan to have the arcades as well as video stores et
>>al rent the carts to overcome the high price of them.
>So what? There are A500 motherboards in lots of arcade machines too.
True. This doesn't say anything about either. You all know what an
amiga can do, so just go to an arcade or store and check out the NeoGeo.
>Except for the number of colors, the Amiga *does* come close.
This is obviously a religious statement and should be weighed as such.
david r watters
>
>41 megabytes on a little cartridge? I was unaware that memory density
>technology was advanced enough to fit 41 megs on a little cartridge,
>especially for a consumer product.
The cartidges are enormous! The have two edgecard connectors that plug into
the main unit. The largest game to date has been about 7megabytes.
Stuart Pierce
joysticks and a multi-megabyte game cartridge. The Neo-Geo by itself lists
for $399. My spec sheet says: 14 MHz 68000 CPU, 320 x 224 resolution, 4096
colors on-screen from a 65,536-color palette, 380 sprites, sprite size is
programmable, 15-voice sound (7 of which are dedicated to speech), ability to
network multiple units, and accepts cartridges of up to 330 Mbits. Currently
the largest cartridge is 62 Mbits. I have seen 14 cartridges, which range in
price from $199-$209! Has RGB output in addition to composite output.
The Neo-Geo is available for sale/rent in my area.
Stuart W. Pierce
David Salas
> incompatible consoles at market. The market is already showing signs of
> gross oversupply, and there has got to be a correction (ie. a crash)
> soon. Before you buy a Neo Geo (or any other console), think about that.
>
But you seem to forget who is behind this stuff... The japanese DO KNOW
the capacity of the market. At those prices they are assuring a rapid
return on their investment, specially through rental of the equipment.
Look at how far the Nintendo rentals have gone, just imagine the same
on games that are technically a million light years better than the
Nintendo.
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Moriland
%>>HAM mode uses. The large palette makes from some nice screens. And
%>>yes, it can address up to 330 megaBYTES.
%>
%>Well, as the Neo Geo uses a 68000, which can only address 16M, we can
%>assume that the 330M (which frankly I do not believe) is only either
%>addressable by the graphics and sound hardware, or by bank switching.
%>Another thing that makes me very suspicious is that 330M is not a power
%>of 2. My information is that the current carts contain up to 6Mbytes of
%>ROM.
Perhaps I am wrong on the mem size, but it still does have a hell of a
lot to play around with.
%>
%>>I must admit, that in my opinion, it is the ultimate home video game
%>>system out at the moment.
%>
%>I don't. The games, at the moment, are pretty dismal, and the actual
%>animation hardware is reportedly not that hot. As for the claimed
%>"wonderful graphics", all the games I have seen seemed to be badly drawn
%>and particularly poorly animated.
I disagree. The games I have seen were amazingly good for anything in
the way of a home machine and certainly beat most of whats out for the
Amiga with the possible exception of the Psygnosis titles which are so
hard you generally don't play them for long anyways.
>
>>Seeing as the same hardware is what they are using in
>>the arcades, they plan to have the arcades as well as video stores et
>>al rent the carts to overcome the high price of them.
>
>So what? There are A500 motherboards in lots of arcade machines too.
So far I have seen ONE arcade machine that layed claim to having an
A500 motherboard in it and ONE that said it's graphics were drawn on
the Amiga. Outside of the Battletech center in Chicago (which uses
some heavily modified A500s) I can't think of many machines using
A500s and those games that were released on the Amiga that were
supposedly IN these arcade machines have been less than awe inspiring.
(I couldn't believe the rave reviews New York Warriors recieved.
YUCK!)
>
>>When you consider what it does and how well it does it and the fact
>>that the A500 can't come close to it, it will be a good reason for
>>those people who were going to buy an A500 for games to switch to the
>>Neo Geo instead. It only has 6 games because it's brand new. It's
>>selling like mad in Japan.
>
>Except for the number of colors, the Amiga *does* come close. Extra
>sound channels can be simulated on the Amiga (albeit using some
>computational overhead), and HAM can be used in moving graphics if you
>are clever enough (ie. background is all straight from the pallette and
>moving objects start with a pallette color and do not overlap.
If all of this can be done, then why aren't people doing it? I have
seen one Amiga game in HAM mode and it was another less than great
game. (Pioneer Plague) I haven't heard a single Amiga game which
simulates etxra sound channels. Sound and graphics wise, the Amiga
doesn't come close to the Neo Geo. This is coming for a long standing
Amiga fanatic as well. (Ask any of my friends.)
>This may
>sound limiting, but remember that the *best* arcade-style game on the 2600 was
>Demon Strike, and it's graphics were *much* more limited than this. It
>was just so well done that nobody noticed. Demon Strike, BTW, is still
>the best shoot-em-up I have ever seen.)
If you think Demon Strike is the best shoot 'em up you've ever seen,
then I can't really put much faith into the rest of your comments.
Sorry, but although it was impressive for the old 2600, it is not the
best shoot 'em up I've ever played. Rather simple if you ask me.
Moriland
>of time and huge budgets. And pigs fly, too. Most Amiga games,
>particularly ports, do not even know about most of the Amiga's
>hardware anyway.
Thats mostly why I buy most of the games that are made in the UK.
There are some good programmers over there doing some great work. Pain
in the butt for imports though.
>>If you think Demon Strike is the best shoot 'em up you've ever seen,
>>then I can't really put much faith into the rest of your comments.
>>Sorry, but although it was impressive for the old 2600, it is not the
>>best shoot 'em up I've ever played. Rather simple if you ask me.
>
>I'd call it elegant. Anyway, you're entitled to your opinion, as I am
>to mine.
Elegant? Okay. For a 2600 I suppose it was. For an Amiga, I doubt it
would sell. At least we agree on one thing, and thats the right to an
opinion.
Gregory James Legowski
itself is no more powerful than older systems (it's main CPU is a 68000, and it
also has a Z80. This is IDENTICAL to the setup used by the SEGA Genesis,
although the 68000 does have a higher clock speed.)
The graphics and sound are good, but I'm mot impressed by pretty pictures; I
like gameplay, and personally I just don't like the games for it right now.
For $600, I'd rather get a machine that does more than just games (like, say,
an Amiga :-)
And the ads are terribly misleading. What the hell is "4-dimensional realism"?
And the "bar graphs" they show to compare against the NEC TurboGraphix-16, SEGA
Genesis, and Nintendo are downright wrong--for the "sprites" and "sound
channels" graphs, they reversed the NEC and SEGA bars (minor but annoying...)
Overall, I don't think the NEO*GEO is worth it--the system (once you get a
controller and a game so you can use it at all!) costs more than an Amiga 500
and only plays games; EACH game costs as much as or more than the next most
expensive game CONSOLE (the SEGA Genesis costs about $180 including 1 "joypad"
and an admittedly sucky game, and has been on sale for as low as $135 new (!)
at Ames; the TG16 is <=$150; the base Nintendo is about $80)
The NEO*GEO may find a market with incredibly rich game fanatics with nothing
better to waste money on, and definitely DOES have a use in arcades, but as a
general home system I don't see the point (and if SNK isn't pushing it as a
home console then why have they been placing ads in video game magazines?)
Note: Between me and my brothers we own a SEGA Genesis, NEC TurboGraphix16, an
Amiga 2000, and a cheap IBM clone. But we will NOT be getting a NEO*GEO
anytime in the near future, unless they drop the prices of the console and
games by at least 50% (not likely in light of the amount of ROM going into the
carts...)
All these are of course my own strongly biased opinions, but there they are.
Greg Legowski | gl...@andrew.cmu.edu | Whatever it was, I didn't do it...
Jeff Sullivan
I have not seen the Baseball game playing, but it's the only one that
I'm interested in. I;ve seen the others, and, frankly, the graphics
don't impress me. They flicker with 2 players, and look, well,
game-machiney. The sounds are fine, but you can get that on a mac or
Amiga for the most part.
However, a killer baseball game would lead me to rent it a few times.
;-)
jas
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