Neo Geo Pocket Color Countdown to Complete Collection (ngpccd)

[Press_Start]

Collecting is one of my favorite pastimes in gaming. Nothing screams Nerd-pride than showing off to your friends your sealed Chrono Trigger or that CIB Stadium Event or one of 26 Golden Nintendo World Championship 1990 cartridges in existence literally cost you an arm and a leg. Needless to say, none of these gold bricks are in my possession. v_V; But no prob, the great thing about collecting is the hunt and sharing the experience with you guys. This will be a series of blogs depicting my ventures in obtaining a complete boxed collection. Where every game is accounted for box, manual, case, and game and featuring all 32 games (offically its 30 but that's for another time) counting down to a complete zero. Without further ado, let's me introduce the star of the show...or blog, the Neo Geo Pocket Color.



When you hear Neo Geo, the thought instantly pops in of those 4-in-1 game machines found at your local arcade, movie threatre, or department store. (My local Bradlees had one, when they were around.) SNK, the same guys behind the Neo Geo AES and MVS, decided to take on Nintendo's behemoth color handheld with their color handheld. Originally, the handheld was like the GBC's predecessor, it was monochrome. Properly named Neo Geo Pocket (sans Color), the device was only available in Japan. They added Color to the end of the name by the time it reached the states a year later.



At first glance, the NGPC looks like a shrunken Game Gear. Fortunately, two AA batteries and a sub-battery (more on that in a minute). There's a small grove behind on the bottom, makes a resting place for your fingers and give ya a good grip.

Now onto the front, it has A and B buttons and OPTION for your pseudo-start button. Unlike the Gameboy, SNK replaced the D-pad with an analog stick. Kinda weird. Guess they wanted the player that joystick motion feel experience as if they were at the arcade. Arcade on the go! That's a great way to describe this device. It requires little effort to move and does make a clicking sound everytime but doesn't bother me too much. And finally the power button.

Besides playing games, SNK tacked on a few other features including:

-calender
-clock and language settings
-alarm clock
-horoscope

Yeah, that's right a horoscope, take that Gameboy. These additions run on the sub-battery and not something to fret over. As it's not necessary because the double AA supply the power to play the games.

That's enough with the introduction. Let's get to the games!

Metal Slug 1st Mission....(complete w/box)



Every gamer loves Metal Slug (except blowing your whole allowance on it). Majority of NGPC titles are throwbacks to the great staples in the Neo Geo library. For the case of Metal Slug, it is an original title and does hold the same run n' gun charm with several exceptions.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ngsvL451s (Video by toneman)

Unlike its arcade counterpart, players have a life bar and won't die from one shot. Picking up dropped hamburgers and canned food restore health the same way gas restores your vehicles's vitality. You only have one life and pay up in 10 coins to continue. It's not necessary game over as long as there's coins to spare and continue from the last saved point.

1st mission's non-linear progression has lots of replay value and a great plus, IMO. Though most of the missions require to find the POW with a flash without fighting a boss. The biggest gripe from the game is the absense of a pause button. Yeah, there's an OPTION button in there for its switching between your bombs and main weapon. Inconvinent if someone's at the door and got to take a call. Don't get me started on the parachute mini-games.

The soundtrack is great considering it's a handheld game. The theme from the Metal Slug series sounds alright supporting that militia upbeat well.

That's all for now. One down...

[megasdkirby]

I only need one game to finish my US CIB set....Magical Drop Pocket. It's been a complete bitch to get...sure, I can get it right now, but at an isanely high price. So I hold off until another copy surfaces.

At the same time, I am trying to obtain those UK games not sold in the US, or those that are sought after, like Faselei! and Last Blade. So far, I manage to snag those two mentioned previously, Coolboarders, Evolution, and Cotton. Still missing a few here and there.

In the future, I plan on getting those Japanese titles not released either here or in the UK. I know this will be very hard, though.

Speaking of which, I need to catalog which games I have repeats of, which I plan on selling. Repeats like Sonic, Dive Alert Matt, and Dark Arms.

Good luck on the collection!

[Tupin]

I only have Match of the Millennium, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Fatal Fury: First Contact, all of which are loose. Not that many Neo-Geo Pocket Color games around here, but I hope to acquire a lot more, great system.

[old_skoolin_jim]

I used to have a decent, albeit small, NGPC collection in very good shape, but I sold the lot on GameTZ.com back in 2002 for a heck of a lot less than it was worth, because I needed money to buy my first car. I was 18 at the time and needed $600 for an '88 Chevy Celebrity— with a brand-new CD player— and I wound up selling my whole lot for I think $150 or 200 to some lucky person.
My collection, all CIB, included:
Black ("Anthracite" was its pretentious color, I think?) NGPC system & inserts
Nyko Worm Light accessory
King of Fighters R-2
SNK vs Capcom: MotM (still my fave portable fighter; I wish I still had it!)
SNK vs Capcom: CardFighters SNK version, with every card obtainable w/o a Capcom version to link to
Faselei! - Euro import
Ogre Battle - JP import (I was so mad this didn't get an english translation)

I thought I had more than that, but I guess it was actually really small... heh. Oh well.
On a side note, my friend still hates me because I convinced him to buy an NGPC and the week after SNK recalled all their games for it... to this day, all he had was Metal Slug 1st mission and Pac-Man.

[Bojay1997]

Properly named Neo Geo Pocket (sans Color), the device was only available in Japan. They added Color to the end of the name by the time it reached the states a year later.

Actually, the NGP was released in the United States, but it was available mail order only from SNK. They basically produced an English version for Asia, Europe and the US and five English version games. I have a near complete set (four of the games and a sealed console) that I bought from SNK back in the day.

[Press_Start]

Actually, the NGP was released in the United States, but it was available mail order only from SNK. They basically produced an English version for Asia, Europe and the US and five English version games. I have a near complete set (four of the games and a sealed console) that I bought from SNK back in the day.

You sure?

For what I've read, the NGP got discontinued before the NGPC was released due to poor sales numbers. Only four games for NGP were distributed: Neo Turf Masters, Puzzle Link, Pocket Tennis, and Neo Cup 98. A Baseball Star colored version was released. Still, if they intended to bring the NGP over, wouldn't King of Fighters R-1 and Samurai Showdown 1 be on the official US release list?

[Mayhem]

There's still debate about exactly where SNK released the NGP and the English language games; some claim only Asia/Hong Kong, some claim that they made it into Europe and the US. One thing for sure, I got all of my English language NGP titles from people in Europe.

There are five English language NGP games: Baseball Stars, KoF R1, Pocket Tennis, Samurai Shodown and Neo Geo Cup 98 Plus. The last one is unusual in the fact that while a colour version was later made, the b/w version is ONLY available in the English release; there was no Japanese release of the game.

There are a few Japan only b/w titles also such as Master of Syougi and Melon Chan for example.

[smork]

I've got an Asian NGP + Asian Neo Geo Cup 98, FWIW. Bought in Malaysia maybe 4-5 years ago for $10 or so as they were sitting at the bottom of some junk cabinet at a junky store.

Still occasionally see NGP systems running around dark corners of electronics shops in SE Asia now and then.

[swlovinist]

Good luck with Neo Geo Pocket. It is a fun collection to do. I am two boxes away from a CIB set. I have had a blast collecting it.

[PapaStu]

Just so you know, you've got a European copy of Metal Slug in your US box.

Every time i see these threads as of late, I get a little jab in my side to wrap up the system box variants I need. I guess its time to polish them off.

[Press_Start]

Just so you know, you've got a European copy of Metal Slug in your US box.

You're right! Can't believe I let that slip!

You'd think an American box would come with an American manual and an American game. Man, the NGPC is more deceptive than I thought.

[Mayhem]

I have complete European and Japanese sets myself... debating whether to go for a US set or not heh...

[Spazmonkey]

I have a pocket tennis cart I got at a play and trade for a dollar. It's the black and white version, so I'm pretty sure it was released here, what idiot would import and then let something go to a game store for pennies.

[Aussie2B]

I'm kinda, sort of done with my Neo Geo Pocket Color collection. I still need to get the packaging for Sonic and replace my UK Neo Cherry Master with a US cart, but other than those bits and pieces, I'm sitting on a full CIB US set.

[megasdkirby]

I'm kinda, sort of done with my Neo Geo Pocket Color collection. I still need to get the packaging for Sonic and replace my UK Neo Cherry Master with a US cart, but other than those bits and pieces, I'm sitting on a full CIB US set.

I actually have a spare box and manual for Sonic, but the box is pretty beat up and old, unfortunately.

I will however check to see if I have another spare around here. I thought I did...

[The 1 2 P]

My NGPC collection is a mixture of US and Japanese releases. It's far from done though. It is my most played handheld system even to this day.

[Mayhem]

I have a pocket tennis cart I got at a play and trade for a dollar. It's the black and white version, so I'm pretty sure it was released here, what idiot would import and then let something go to a game store for pennies.

Well I can't speak there, but I have found a Japanese b/w version of Pocket Tennis in a US gamestore during my travels.

[megasdkirby]

So how is the collection comming along?

I was finally able to snag a CIB copy of Magical Drop Pocket for $15! So when the game arrives (when it's in my hands), I would have finally finished my NGPC collection!!!!

But yeah, Magical Drop is by far, IMO, the hardest game to get for the system. I pray everything pans out, because once it's in my hands, I am going to throw a beer party at home.

However, I am still looking for certain UK and JPN games, as well as those multicart pirate games. I would love to get those pirated games...maybe one day.

[Mayhem]

I might still have a loose copy of one of the pirates here, will have to check my trades box.

[megasdkirby]

Sweet!

But they came with boxes? Would love to see a picture of that!