What kind of person bought Neo Geo?

[XYXZYZ]

Remember back in the 16 bit era, you had a well established Sega Genesis/Megadrive market, the SNES was the hot new system everyone was after. The battle between Sega and SNES fanboys raged on, and the Turbo Grafx 16 even had it's little niche. (outside Japan)

Then high on some out of reach pedistal, you had the Neo Geo. The gaming community knew that it's power blew away anything the SNES or Genesis had to offer, and we knew the games rocked, as we played them in the arcade. We also knew that the prices were INSANE. The system was $600.00? The games were $200.00 each?!! The kids I knew all had either a Genesis, or a Super Nintendo, not many people had both. It blew my mind that you could buy a whole game system for what one single Neo Geo game costs ($200.00 was a big deal to the average kid back then!) Now, the Neo Geo was marketed to us. We'd see ads and reviews of Neo Geo games right along side the SNES and Gensesis coverage. Granted it wasn't as much, but all of us middle-class game nerds aware of the Neo Geo. It had a distinct image of being the Lamborghini of video games; many of us would fantasize about actually owning a Neo Geo. Not so much fantasize about playing the games, just owning one.

Supposedly, the ideal Neo Geo gamer was an arcade connoisseur; a purist who would pay top dollar for true arcade quality. After all, the price was a hell of alot cheaper than a $5,000.00 MVS cabinet. (And if I remember correctly an operator paid about $600.00 for a new MVS cartridge back then.)

But to the average gamer, the Neo Geo had one market- spoiled rich kids. It was more of a status symbol than a video game console. But come to think of it, I never met anyone who had a Neo Geo. You always had that lying ass-hat at school who says his "older brother" has a Neo Geo, keeps it in a glass case and plays his secret "Street Fighter 3" prototype on it. And I've met people who claim they had one back in the day, but they know nothing about video games so I just assume they're talking about a Genesis.

So is that "rich kids deal" image true, or was the Neo Geo's primary market actually die-hard gamers (with jobs) who would drop serious cash for their hobby, like many of us turned out to be? Did you have one? Did you know anyone with a Neo Geo? (We're talking early 90s here)

[cyberfluxor]

I didn't know about the SNK Neo-Geo systems until the 21st century! I remember people talking about the ports on the PS1 but never knew of their console, let alone the price. The first day I discovered the AES I was blown away and still am especially from the cost per game! I'm only 22 now so I might have been a tad too young and didn't subscribe to any game magazines until the late 90's.

[Lemmi_Is_God]

What kind of person bought Neo Geo?


the kind with money to burn is my first guess

because when i started collecting in 1997 the damn things were still selling for $300+ and this was at fleamarkets and Funcoland

[Kevincal]

Yes...Back in elementary school in the early 90's...The talk of the playground and school bus was the mystical Neo Geo. We all used to argue about how many bits it had. For some reason I think it was known as 64-bit to all of us. But it was a long time ago and my memory might be foggy. I never saw one back then but I think I may remember one or two kids claiming to have one. Another system in the early 90's that was somewhat mystical was the Sega CD...almost no kids had that puppy either. I did know one kid that had one. Never played it back then though.

I bought myself a Japanese AES about a year ago and got 9 of the cheaper games (still $15-$40 a pop used....) I have come to find out the type of games on the system don't really suit my tastes. If you aren't a harcore fan of fighting games or shmups...It's not that special. The graphics and sounds are outstanding though. The jostick is regarded as one of the best, but I myself am not too fond of using a joystick on games other than fighters. And even then, I prefer a pad...I also have a Sega CD now too. :D

[Kevincal]

And as far as who bought 'em...Ritch parents and single guys in their 20's and 30's. :D

[wallydawg]

My friend had at work had one when he was a kid, although he was living in Hong Kong at the time so that might not count for this.

[Habeeb Hamusta]

Yeah, just rich kids and die hard arcade collectors. I mean, 600 dollars now is still very steep to most people for a video game counsle. Back then I can't imagine what it looked like...I was only 4 and playing my SNES. Like nobody had one back then in a common cummunity and very very few do now.

[grimbal]

We had a little indie game shop back in the early 90's that carried the Neo Geo and most of the games. They always had one set up for people to demo. I remember looking at the price and thinking WTF? Nobody I knew ever had one, and during all the time I was in that store I never saw anybody buy one.

The store had some heavy markup on a lot of items. Genesis games were always $50 regardless of title or age, and they were really bad about marking up high profile SNES games. I remember them charging $70-$75 for Street Fighter 2 when it was brand new.

No surprise the store didn't last long.

[Kevincal]

The first time you see a Neo Geo and a NG cart...you will be FLOORED at the staggering size of them. I know I was. I just started laughing when I saw a Neo Geo cart for the first time because I had no idea how big it was. They are so heavy they cost $9 to ship USPS Priority Mail!!!

[DreamTR]

grimbal: Uh, Genesis games were standard at $50 new back in the day, and even places like Kay-Bee stores had MSRP of $74.99 for SFII for SNES when it came out. We should all feel so lucky we are spoiled by pricing nowadays with inflation.

I knew one person who had a Neo Geo. I was about to enter college, so it was already out for a couple of years back then, and he had some type of inheritance, and around 15-20 games, but he was definitely a richer type of guy, and arcade fanatic. EVen to this day, he still is emphatic about the Neo Geo, and is a regular on the NeoGeo.com Forums. I did not get my Neo Geo until 1995, I was lucky someone was selling one in the paper for $250, a steal back in those days.

[§ Gideon §]

Back then, I played video games instead of reading about them, so I had no idea the Neo Geo even existed.

I did have a friend, though. His parents were quite divorced, but there was apparently enough child support for separate homes. When he'd come back from a visit to Dad's place, there'd be stories about this mystical video game machine from the future that's like an arcade game you plug into your TV.

I never realized it, but he was probably talking about a Neo Geo. He said that it was the best video game system money could buy.

So, apparently wealthy, middle-aged men who had been divorced bought Neo Geos. I bet Flava Flav had a Neo Geo, too.

[Steven]

Yeah, the Neo Geo was like a drop of water in the Sahara desert for me back then. We had this one kid claim he owned it, the TC is right... it was a status symbol among other things. However, whenever me and my best bud Nellie would question this guy, asking if we could come over and play, he'd always turn us down, so I doubt his validity

At any rate, I finally played some AES last year when I dropped by this guy's house. I played WH2 for 10 minutes. Ironically, I prefer the SNES conversion.... that's just me, though. Playing the Neo Geo wasn't as awe-striking as I always thought it might be.

[GuyinGA]

I knew one guy at school who had a Neo Geo (he even brought a controller to school), but when pressed on which games he had, he couldn't name one. So his parents bought him the system, but that was it.

[insinion]

I knew one guy at school who had a Neo Geo (he even brought a controller to school), but when pressed on which games he had, he couldn't name one. So his parents bought him the system, but that was it.

that's pathetic lol :x I've always been interested in the neogeo scene but it's too expensive for me. The only one i collect for is the neo geo pocket color :p

[Nicola]

After many months of asking, my parents bought my Neo Geo with Robo Army during xmas 1991 or 1992.
I'm not poor, nor in a rich family. That was my xmas present. And these days I had just one interest: videogames.
I was enough informed, thanks to the various mags. I'm born in 1980, just in case you don't know. And I live in Italy.
So, the Neo Geo costed about 500,000 Lire - like 500 Euros today - and Robo Army was 250-300,000 Lire.
The highest I've paid for a game, was for King of the Monsters 2, 350,000 Lire.
I remember clearely the seller offering me Art of Fighting for 500,000 Lire and Fatal Fury for 900,000 Lire.

These are the games I've bought back then:
Robo Army
King of the Monsters 2
Mutation Nation
3 Count Bout

Yes, I was the only one here, and I have yet to meet someone who bought it around my town.
I had already some consoles: NES, Mega Drive, SNES, GB, Lynx.
...and It was when I first started to collect, since during 1992 I've bought my first Atari 2600.


So, this is the kind of person:
A young Italian with no brothers or sisters that did nothing other than playing vidoegames.


huh, and just to let you know, the AES wasn't advertised here in Italy. Nobody knew about it. Yes, it was in arcades as MVS, but nobody knew it was also a console.

[CosmicMonkey]

So far I've had a consolized 2-slot MVS, a SuperNeo 29 Candy with 4-slot MVS and now, finally, I have an AES. Oh, and I'm still lovin the NGPC.

I finally decided to go AES as I had to sell the Candy, so rather than go back to a consolized unit I sold all the MVS games. The price of AES games isn't too bad really. To me, anything upto £100 is normal for an AES game. So far the only games that have cost over a ton are Garou, KoF '03 and Last Blade 2. Let's just be thankful we're not paying $359 full retail for AES games now, many games are very cheap now (sealed SamSpirits2 @ $20!) and it's only a certain few games that have gone to silly prices.

It really boils down to the fact that there are only so many Neo games actually worth owning, especially when you're talking AES prices. I've had the luxury of trying out the cheap MVS versions of over 50 games, and it's helped me decide upon the titles that are worthy of getting in AES format.

Puzzle Games - Never understood people wanting to sit at a cab to play a puzzle game, or indeed buying an incredibly expensive home cart of one. Fair enough if puzzle games are your thing, but to me puzzle games are hand-held games. I have Puyo Pop, Magical Drop etc on the Pocket.

Sports Games - Again not really my thing, but I do like a good hand-held Golf or Tennis game. The NGPC sorts this out quite nicely. And there are many better games out there than NTM or W11, especially as these are vastly expensive on home cart. Windjammers (Flying Power Disk) FTW.

Action Games - Blazing Star and Pulstar are very good shooters, but not £450 good. Normally I don't take the price of games into account, but in this case I have to. There's many better shooters out there for much less than a monkey. I can get an Armed Police Battrider PCB for £50 and the DC has enough good shmups. Last Resort is decent though and Viewpoint is a good game too. But lets be honest here, Zed Blade is crap. I've seen better looking games on the MD than ASO 2 and Andro Dunos and they're both shite too. There's cheaper versions of Strikers 1945/AeroFighters available on other consoles and Ghost Pilots is terrible. Twinkle Star Sprites may grace my AES cart slot, but the DC version is much cheaper. The scrolling beat-'em ups aren't exactly wonderful either (that's why I have a PGM), with Sengoku 3 being the best. This leaves us with the Metal Slugs.........

Fighting Games - Yep, this is what the Neo is all about. However, many of the earlier games aren't the best. If you're going to the effort and expense of owning an AES, you want the best looking, best playing games on the system: Last Blade, Last Blade 2, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Rage of the Dragons, Matrimelee, KoF '03.

So yeah, that's my view on the Neo. There's really only about 25 or so games worthy of my cash, and that's including all 10 KoF and 6 Metal Slugs. I may end up with Samurai Spirits Zero, but imho, LB > SS.

[FABombjoy]

They are so heavy they cost $9 to ship USPS Priority Mail!!!

Most NG carts are 2lbs, which is around $5 Priority ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

<-

Funny thing is, I don't think I paid much less around 2002 than I would have in the 90s. Although $500 (that's stretching it) for a gold system with two controllers and two games is less than $700 or whatever it retailed for, especially after inflation.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I just picked up a Neo Geo AES system and 2 games in trade for a Nintendo DS and $100. I think that I got a good deal. While I suck at fighters, I do enjoy collecting.

JY

[mailman187666]

I remember playing the MVS in arcades back in the early 90's but in 06 a buddy of mine had an MVS which included samurai shodown, World Heroes 2, Baseball Stars Prof., and fatal fury 2 for $400. Of course I bought that shit as soon as I could and threw it in my basement. So now when I have people come over for partying, you know that shits gettin' turned on. I tell everybody that as long as I have a job, playing it is free. If I got no job you better bring some quarters.

[Damaniel]

When I was growing up, a video store down the road from me had a Neo-Geo AES and more than a dozen games available for rent; even though it cost 10 bucks a day (with no games included!), it was a way for the 'unwashed masses' to experience the system in the comfort of our own homes. My family rented that system at least 3 times, and I was always amazed by how detailed the graphics were (and of course, how big the cartridges were ;))

As for who owned one back in the day, I work with a software engineer, currently in his very late 30's (so in his 20's and making a lot of money when the AES was out) who bought one to play Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters at home. He had a pair of *very large* arcade controls for it too (not just the stock controllers, which were pretty cool themselves) and about 10 games or so.

Actually, he still has the entire setup, and I've tried many times to get him to sell. Maybe someday I'll have some luck :)

[Kevincal]

Most NG carts are 2lbs, which is around $5 Priority ;)

$5? No... When you add in packaging material, it takes it over 2 pounds which raises the rate from $6.05 to $9... ;)

[Kevincal]

I just picked up a Neo Geo AES system and 2 games in trade for a Nintendo DS and $100. I think that I got a good deal. While I suck at fighters, I do enjoy collecting.

JY

And all of the fighting games I've played for the Neo are hideously difficult... :/

[FABombjoy]

$5? No... When you add in packaging material, it takes it over 2 pounds which raises the rate from $6.05 to $9... ;)

I just sold several CIB AES titles & packed them in the large Priority boxes. They all came in at a hair under 2lbs. Maybe snaplock-era games weigh more, but they're all not that expensive to ship. Even Maine to California is 6.05 @ 2lbs. Meh, it's all semantics anyway - they're all colossal sized.

On topic note: In high school, I knew one family that had a Neo. I'm pretty sure they bought it 'because they could'. I persuaded them to let me borrow it once in trade for a Genesis, SNES, and TG16. Years later, I bought it from them - they still had the same 4 titles that they had when it was new. Once the novelty wore off, I think the $200/title price got old for them.

[xtremegamer]

I remember shopping in a mall in AZ when I lived there, it was early 90's, I seen the AES system with I think the NAM game for about $700 in the local game shop. I remember showing it to my dad and him telling me I would never get one because of the price. I'll show him one day! LOL.

[Aswald]

1) Someone who absolutely just HAD to have the very best of the moment.

2) Someone who had plenty of disposable income and liked to show it.

[Habeeb Hamusta]

And all of the fighting games I've played for the Neo are hideously difficult... :/

It takes some getting used to. Yeah some games are more bastard like in detecting command inputs...but once I got use to the stick I enjoyed playing on a stick much more. Made me live a little bit longer against those asian guys at the arcade.

[alec]

Good lord I love Neo Geo. One of my favorite game systems ever. However the insane pricing kept me from owning one until 2003. After wanting one for 11 years, getting it was the greatest feeling in the world.

I never knew anyone who had one back in the day. The first person I knew to own one probably got his around 2001 or so.

I was in Toys R' Us the first time they ever sold a Neo Geo game (months after the systems release). The employees couldn't believe they actually sold one and shouted it out for the whole store to hear. "OMG WE SOLD A NEO GEO GAME!!!"

I remember just staring at the thing in that glass case...wow...arcade perfect...

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Heh, this is sort of funny.

I don't know if it's really true or just some odd opinion I formed based on my own skewed experiences, but the impression I've always had was that the people who owned Neo Geo systems back in the early '90s were not simply rich kids, but a specific type of rich kid. The aggro rich kid, a wimp posing as a bully. He would generally be older, like 17 to 21, though still pretty much supported by his parents at that age. He would wear shirts with the sleeves cut off to show off his not-very-impressive biceps. He drove a lame muscle car like a Firebird or something, but tweeked it out with all sorts of after-market parts. He listened to heavy metal, but the sort of stuff with a glam edge and really way after that could have been considered cool.

I know that seems like a very specific description and as I said it could have just been based on my own experiences (and prejudices and jealousies). I knew one person in ther neighborhood who had a Neo Geo. He was 18, but liked to have us kids (around 14 or 15) over so that we'd be impressed by him since kids his own age probably weren't very impressed by him. Later, when I got onto the Internet I found that not a few of the Neo Geo people online in that mid- to late-'90s era struck me as more or less the same. I'm not just talking about Dion Dakis, though he's certainly an example, a lot of the people on the old Neo Geo mailing list seemed like that kind of asshole.

Sorry to anyone here who owned a Neo Geo at the time. Unless you were an aggro rich kid, in which case you suck.


...word is bondage...

[BocoDragon]

Hell yeah to this thread.... Neo Geo was a legend. I never knew anyone who had one... even the rich kid with every SNES game would be in awe of its myth.

I imagine anyone who ever owned one has an 80% likelihood of owning several Japanese arcade machines today.

[Ed Oscuro]

Sorry to anyone here who owned a Neo Geo at the time. Unless you were an aggro rich kid, in which case you suck.
What did this guy DO to you? But...yes, they certainly catered to their advertised audience, didn't they?

[Greg2600]

I'm sorry, I don't want to insult anybody, but people who would go out and spend hundreds of dollars on systems like Neo Geo, 3DO, and CD-I, from companies with no track record were not smart people. Whenever one of those came out, I would say, well, that thing will sucker in a few thousand people. I had similar feelings about Sega's systems following the ridiculous bombardment of the 32X, SegaCD, and that portable Genesis thing. So when the Saturn and Dreamcast came around, I knew Sega would bail on the customers after a year. I knew the Jaguar would flop, given Atari's ineptitude on the Lynx.

[TurboGenesis]

when I was growing up 2 kids in my neighborhood owned a Neo Geo. One was a spoiled brat and the other was a boy who's parents split up and they used to always try to buy his love so to speak. The latter kid was a pretty cool cat and used to have us over to play League Bowling and Baseball Stars pro. He also had Ninja Combat and Nam 75. The other dude was a prick and used to brag about all the stuff he had. To top it off he sucked at video games (we used to call him "the kid that sucks at Nintendo". We joked that every time he turned a game on the screen instantly said game over!

I also worked at a video game store in the early 90's and we had a system for rent. for $20 you would get the console, both arcade sticks, and 2 games for 2 nights. This is also how I logged some time in the Neo.

I didn't get my AES until 2003 when I treated my self with tax money and finally fulfilled my childhood dream - owning a Neo Geo AES!

[mb7241]

As for me, growing up, the Neo-Geo was but a mythological beast. No stores around here carried it, except for a local Wal-Mart that carried it for all of about 2-3 months. The games for it there were somewhere in the $120 range, though, as I recall, while the systems were the full $700. It was sort of a backburner-type want for me, "I'll get it when I can afford it and get around to it"-sort of thing. Well, for Christmas 2005, I decided I'd buy one as a (somewhat expensive) Christmas present to myself (thanks, Six Switch!). Of course, I was more than amazed at the size of the darn thing (as I was amazed at the size of the first game I got for it about a year and a half prior)... It now rests comfortably in my collection.

[XYXZYZ]

No stores around here carried it, except for a local Wal-Mart that carried it for all of about 2-3 months.

Seriously? Wal-Mart actually had a Neo Geo?

[cessnaace]

In addition to the Neo Geo, which had a 16 bit processor and an 8 bit co-processor (I DO remember seeing it referred to in magazines as a 24 bit system), there was also the Hyper Neo Geo 64, which was a 64 bit system (natch. But only about 7 or 8 games were released for it).

I can't afford either one.

[smork]

Geez, I don't remember it being all that exotic a system. Then again, I wasn't a kid when it was released either. I was a poor Grad School student at the time so I didn't play anything other than a few SNES and cheap compu games, but I knew more than one person who owned one and none of them were rich types.

And the Neo CD is and was downright affordable, no idea why that wasn't more popular. Guess it all depends on what kinds of games you like to play.

[6502]

Seriously? Wal-Mart actually had a Neo Geo?

Anything is possible. LOL I've had some people not believe that I bought my TurboGrafx-16 at Wal-Mart. Yep, Wal-Mart carried the Turbo at least briefly (even the CD attachment!). They dropped it after the Christmas '89 season in my area (I think I was the only person to actually buy a Turbo and any games at the Wal-Mart in my hometown).

Anyway, I never knew anyone who owned a Neo Geo in the first few years after it came out. The only place nearby that even carried it was a Babbages. Besides (possibly) spoiled kids, I imagine a lot of older gamers with real jobs and disposable incomes bought them. I bought a Turbo in '89 for $200, then the CD player for $400 in '90, so that's almost the cost of a Neo Geo right there (and I was only sixteen at the time, but I also bought that with my own money from my first job). So a system in that price range was within reach of crazy game fanatics, even teenagers, but I think the cart prices were the real killer. Up to $200 for a game was just...unreachable, especially for anyone who was not well-heeled. I had a hard enough time paying $50-60 for Turbo-CD games after dropping $600 for the system, if I had had to pay up to $200 for games...

[XYXZYZ]

Cool, Ys Books I & II alone makes a better deal than Neo Geo!

One thing I also thought about back then was that Neo Geo games were way too simplistic for their price; Super Metroid and Zelda III were a hell of alot more fun than some Street Figher clone. I always wondered why with that kind of power, Neo Geo didn't have great RPGs, or someting more comparable to the hot SNES games at the time. Of course, now I realize it's about arcade game hardware, we're only talking arcade style games here.

Oh, and I forgot to mention I do own an MVS cabinet and an AES with some of the lower end games now. Sure I paid a hell of alot of money, but they were "fulfilling a lifelong dream" investments.

http://videogamecollectors.com/albums/XYXZYZ-s-gaming-setup/neogeo.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/MAMEcab.jpg
:D

One of these days I need to pony up and pay $100.+ for one of the more recent Neo Geo games, just for the whole experience, you know? Kind of like a rite of passage thing...?

[samuraiX]

To a 2D fighting game fan you will never find a better system. At least that's my opinion. I didn't get a Neo until around 1994 with a couple of the (then) less expensive 1st release games. I later sold it and repurchased another one in 1998 after I started collecting games. I drove my collection up to a peak of 107 titles and then... I stopped playing games. I just didn't have the drive after a few realizations in my life. So I've been in the process of selling off all my Neo (and other) games for the past year or so. As of right now my final system and games are on e-bay. It's kind of sad but on the other side of the coin, the money is nice.

At least I still have my MVS and Atomiswave cabs!

[RadiantSvgun]

Cool, Ys Books I & II alone makes a better deal than Neo Geo!

One thing I also thought about back then was that Neo Geo games were way too simplistic for their price; Super Metroid and Zelda III were a hell of alot more fun than some Street Figher clone. I always wondered why with that kind of power, Neo Geo didn't have great RPGs, or someting more comparable to the hot SNES games at the time. Of course, now I realize it's about arcade game hardware, we're only talking arcade style games here.

Oh, and I forgot to mention I do own an MVS cabinet and an AES with some of the lower end games now. Sure I paid a hell of alot of money, but they were "fulfilling a lifelong dream" investments.

http://videogamecollectors.com/albums/XYXZYZ-s-gaming-setup/neogeo.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/MAMEcab.jpg
:D

One of these days I need to pony up and pay $100.+ for one of the more recent Neo Geo games, just for the whole experience, you know? Kind of like a rite of passage thing...?


Good #$T!T... I hope I can afford stuff like that when I get out of college..... I've always wanted a NEO GEO, its 2nd behind my US turbo duo wanted list. I have to agree, the arcade experience is a life long dream for me too. I knew NO ONE in my school, neighborhood, ect that had one. Man, look at that cabinet! (Drools....)