I now have a Neo-Geo Pocket Color... so what should I do with it?

[Edmond Dantes]

The story: A friend of mine had this for years, didn't play it much, recently sold it to me to help pay for a move into a new house. It's gray or silver, and came with the following games, all carts with plastic cases:

Dark Arms - Beast Buster 1999
Fatal Fury First Contact
King of Fighters R2
Metal Slug 1st Mission
Metal Slug 2nd Mission
Samurai Shodown 2
Pac-Man
Picture Puzzle

He tells me he thought he had more games and if he finds them he'll let me know. Personally, I almost feel like I short-changed him--he only charged me $50, but I slipped him an extra $10 due to his circumstances, and I'm sure this lot is worth much more than I gave him.

But anyway, onto the system itself. The screen has scratches, but they're not apparent during gameplay. There's no backlighting (so I guess its unmodded) and the first thing I had to do was replace the memory battery (not hard at all). Then I played me some rounds of Fatal Fury and I freaking loved it. Dark Arms came next and I'm kinda not in the mood for a Zelda-style game right now. Metal Slug... whoa boy. Even the Pac-Man version is good.

So, what games should I religiously seek out for this thing? I'm aware that there's an Ogre Battle game (not a huge fan but for some reason I like to collect that series). What else?

[Kiddo]

SNK Vs. Capcom: Match of the Millenium and/or SNK Vs. Capcom: Cardfighters Clash
And if you enjoy that you may as well get all the NGPC fighters.
Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
Puzzle Bobbe/Bust-a-Move Mini
... heck, if you can actually name an NGPC game that seriously sucked, I'll be surprised. I'm just trying to name some "Cream of the Crop" titles here.

[Press_Start]

So, what games should I religiously seek out for this thing?

Baseball Stars Color
BioMotor Unitron
Bust-a-Move Pocket
Cardfighter's Clash SNK ver.
Cardfighter's Clash Capcom ver.
Crush Roller
Faselei
Gal Fighters
Last Blade
Magical Drop Pocket
Neo Geo Cup '98
Neo Turf Master
Pocket Tennis Color
Puyo Pop
Puzzle Link
Puzzle Link 2
SNK vs Capcom
Sonic the Hedgehog

Excluding the one you named, the Neo Casino ports, and Dive Alert, here's the whole Neo Geo Pocket Color library for USA. It had a relatively short lifespan thanks to SNK's horrible mismanagement but other than that it's the Gameboy equivalent of the Neo Geo console w/library and probably the only system with more good titles than bad. So, you can't really go wrong even if you tried. :)

If you want more, there's Cotton, Evolution, Pocket Reversi, and Cool Boarders you can possibly buy in English across the pond in UK but it's expensive and not for faint of wallet. You can also import Rockman Battle, Dynamite Slugger, Infinity Cure, Memories Off Pure and Ogre Battle like you mentioned but I've never dealt with the Japanese side of NGPC and therefore have no clue what they are. :P

But if you want to get the best out of the system, I suggest picking a 2nd handheld, a friend, and the link cable cheap. The device was purposely designed to be the "arcade on the go" simply by the fact there's so many competitive 2-player games and so few specifically tailored for one-player in mind. It'll also require 2 copies of all games, on the other hand, Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters and Fatal Fury are dirt cheap and easy to find online. So, that's my two cents. Hope that helps.

[Edmond Dantes]

Is it possible to get a replacement screen? The scratches aren't bad and they're barely noticable when actually playing the game, but I'm a nut for aesthetics. I was thinking of replacing the screen with a less-scratched one and then buying a screen protector (or even just using a spare one that came with my PSP--I think that will fit).

I heard its possible to mod it to have backlighting too, but I have concerns about how that might affect battery life. And so far visibility hasn't been an issue.

So far, I like all the games. Even Picture Puzzle, which I expected to be the one clunker in the lot but once I learned the rules, it wasn't so bad.

[Sailorneorune]

I had Rockman Battle & Fighters and really enjoyed it. While you may not be able to understand the little bits of story, it's a genuinely fun game and worth picking up if you can find it reasonably.

There's a local game store that has most of these games (some like Crush Roller are complete), but I'm not sure how the prices would compare to what you'd find online.

[Vectorman0]

The domestic games you don't have that I would most recommend are:

Magical Drop Pocket
SNK vs. Capcom Match of the Millenium
SNK vs. Capcom Cardfighters Clash

Beyond those, everything is still good.


Is it possible to get a replacement screen? The scratches aren't bad and they're barely noticable when actually playing the game, but I'm a nut for aesthetics. I was thinking of replacing the screen with a less-scratched one and then buying a screen protector (or even just using a spare one that came with my PSP--I think that will fit).

I heard its possible to mod it to have backlighting too, but I have concerns about how that might affect battery life. And so far visibility hasn't been an issue.

So far, I like all the games. Even Picture Puzzle, which I expected to be the one clunker in the lot but once I learned the rules, it wasn't so bad.

There was a replacement screen lens made by Madcow, but I doubt you will be able to find one. It would be easier to just hunt down a system with a nice looking one and sell your other one afterward to help pay for it.

[MachineGex]

As far as the screen, are you talking about the plastic cover over the screen or the actual screen? They use to make the screen cover, just like the Gameboy. They are only a few bucks if you can find them.

[XYXZYZ]

I keep mine in a cabinet next to the toilet in my bathroom. I think the batteries are dead.

[c0ldb33r]

There was a replacement screen lens made by Madcow, but I doubt you will be able to find one. It would be easier to just hunt down a system with a nice looking one and sell your other one afterward to help pay for it.
And sell me (or give me :D) the battery cover, mine's gone missing :(

[tofu]

Somebody already mentioned the Mad Cow replacement lens (the plastic on top of the actual screen). They are no longer being produced and Mad Cow has no interest making more so they can get really hard to find. I would imagine it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to make your own. Most replacement lens are just plastic with printed logos and lousy glue.

[Kiddo]

I could go for some replacement battery covers, myself. Both the AA cover and the Save Battery cover. Urrfff.

[Edmond Dantes]

As far as the screen, are you talking about the plastic cover over the screen or the actual screen? They use to make the screen cover, just like the Gameboy. They are only a few bucks if you can find them.

I believe I'm talking about the plastic cover.

[MachineGex]

They use to sell them for $4-$5. They pop off and the new one has self-sticking screen, just like the GameBoy.

[megasdkirby]

The NGPC is a great little system and fairly easy to get a complete US CIB set. Only a few games are a pain to get, particularly Magical Drop Pocket which ended up being the last game I obtained to complete my set...and I was extremely lucky when it appeared, cheap too.

You can try to get some of the UK exclusives, like those mentioned above, but be forewarned: they are very expensive. I don't know how much they fluctuate now, but I recall spending around $60 for minty copies of Evolution, Cotton, etc. a few years ago.

[Edmond Dantes]

I decided I'm not gonna stress too much about the cover, but if anyone ever has a line on one (maybe two since I might get a second NGPC down the line) lemme know.

[mugenmidget]

I'd like to bump with my own interest for a replacement AA battery compartment cover. :) I'd also like to know if there's a place to get screen protectors, I see some on Amazon by Lexerd, but they're kind of expensive.