NeoGeo Questions

[Ascending Wordsmith]

I've been wanting a NeoGeo for quite some time now, but I'm not at all familiar with the system. I just have a few questions about it before I consider a future investment.

- Other than the software, what is the difference between the NeoGeo CD unit and regular NeoGeo cart unit?

- Like the Turbo Duo, does the NeoGeo CD unit play both Japanese and American discs, or is some kind of converter required?

- What are the memory capabilities?

- What's a good price for a NeoGeo (regular and CD unit)?

Thanks in advance

[jaydubnb]

I've been wanting a NeoGeo for quite some time now, but I'm not at all familiar with the system. I just have a few questions about it before I consider a future investment.

- Other than the software, what is the difference between the NeoGeo CD unit and regular NeoGeo cart unit?

- Like the Turbo Duo, does the NeoGeo CD unit play both Japanese and American discs, or is some kind of converter required?

- What are the memory capabilities?

- What's a good price for a NeoGeo (regular and CD unit)?

Thanks in advance

bro, i'm in the same boat. I've been wanting a N*G system, for years and will be purchasing one in a few weeeks. I cant answer all of your questions, but i may know one or two...

Yeh, the N*G has no territory lockouts for the carts (i believe the CDs are in the boat). The main difference between the carts and CDs are a)prices: CDs are alot cheaper b)the CD system, from what i've read, has annoying load times, especially for fighting games c)The N*G CD games usually have altered or remixed music d) Super Dodgeball wasnt ported to CD!!!!!!

Not sure what you mean by the memory capabilites..do you mean memory cards and stuff or raw specs?

[buttasuperb]

i paid 300 shipped from japan for a japanese aes system boxed with 3 complete games: samsho 1 and 2, and fatal fury 2. if you have the money to spend, i recommend getting a japanese aes system. im pretty sure a us system wont show blood or bounciness even if you have a japanese cart.

plus if someone breaks into your house, you can knock em out with a neo geo cart.

[Achika]

Well, compairing MVS, AES, and CD together, of course there were many games that were released on one system, and not the other two and vice versa. Sam. Sho. RPG came out on CD, Puzzle de Pon was MVS only, etc.

MVS (the arcade) can be converted to AES with the use of 2 cartridges and a small fee for someone to convert is (if you don't do it yourself) So instead of paying $1500 for an AES Metal Slug, you now have a MVS convert for $200ish. I've seen the CD version of Metal Slug go for about $100+

AES is generally more expensive than CD straight off. But carts like Fatal Fury Special, Magician Lord, and Samurai Showdown 1 & 2 can be had for under $50 each. Many popular games start AES at $100+. The newer games start at about $300-400 and stay at that point for some time. Most CD games go for about $10-30 average.

CD does have horrendeous load times (minutes in some cases) but most of them plague the later games like Last Blade, etc.

I've only paid $100 for a complete boxed NG AES w/2 sticks and $250 for the boxed CD system w/14 games. I wouldn't quote those as average prices, but keep in mind, people looking to pay their bills sell things cheaply.

Out of the N-G's I own, I like the MVS boards hooked up to my supergun, that way I can still afford to play all of my favorite n-g games. But that's just me.

If you choose a console, PLEASE, I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE break down and buy the Neo Geo joysticks. The pads are crap and if that's what you get, UPGRADE ASAP.

[Kroogah]

Well, unless you're independently wealthy, I say the best choice for a Neo Geo home console is the CDZ.

Note the "Z".

The CDZ has a double-speed CDROM drive, meaning the horrendous load times are cut in HALF, making them about as bad as a Saturn with a RAM cart.

CD games have ARRANGED music, almost no frames cut out, sometimes cool extras (like KoF '98's art gallery), and the music is always on the CD in the form of redbook audio. I love my CDZ. *gives CDZ a hug*

[Achika]

Yea, but the CDZ was made of shoddier components than the regular CD. So when yours goes caput, I'll still be playing my CD system.

[ubersaurus]

The Neo CD in general was a piece of junk...my friend Chris Mullins personally attests to reading an entire chapter of Hunchback of Notre Dame waiting for his game to load. 1x disc drive, come on! That's pitiful!

Yes, this is the same Mullins who wrote the neo geo faq...we went to high school together, ironically. That school put out alot of prestigious video gamers, like him and AVX, a top SF Alpha 3 player, but I'm getting off topic here..

The point is, the extras are rarely worth the load times, in my view. It simply doesn't offer enough extras, for me, to recommend it over its bad points.

[maxlords]

Well, for me, I flat out can't AFFORD a Neo Geo AES system. I had a Supernova, and I didn't like how it worked with my TV or I would have gone with MVS. As it is, I'll be getting a frontloader CD system for a good price soon. The reason I chose the CD system is because I can actually afford the games. I don't mind waiting a couple minutes for a game to load if it saves me $100+. I mostly collect shooters, so that's mostly what I'll be getting for it. I know that about half of them never came to the CD system, but I just can't afford them. Same with Metal Slug...it's TOO expensive on teh AES system! $2500 for Metal Slug 1? Come on! I jsut can't justify spending that kind of money, so I'd rather suffer with the CD system. I'd have to sell my whole game collection to finance a decent NEo Geo AES collection. Unless you're a fighter fan (which I'm not at all) it's not really worth it.

As for the CDX, it still has a 1X CD-ROM drive, but it has increased RAM to load stuff faster. This is quoted from the www.neo-geo.com glossary:

The Neo Geo CDZ is the second CD system made by SNK. It has been falsely claimed that it has a double speed drive. Actually, it has a larger cache for holding loaded information, and has a more efficient CD drive. Still does not eliminate the notorious CD load times on later titles. Has been said to be less reliable than the original CD system.

[jaydubnb]

Well, for me, I flat out can't AFFORD a Neo Geo AES system. I had a Supernova, and I didn't like how it worked with my TV or I would have gone with MVS. As it is, I'll be getting a frontloader CD system for a good price soon. The reason I chose the CD system is because I can actually afford the games. I don't mind waiting a couple minutes for a game to load if it saves me $100+. I mostly collect shooters, so that's mostly what I'll be getting for it. I know that about half of them never came to the CD system, but I just can't afford them. Same with Metal Slug...it's TOO expensive on teh AES system! $2500 for Metal Slug 1? Come on! I jsut can't justify spending that kind of money, so I'd rather suffer with the CD system. I'd have to sell my whole game collection to finance a decent NEo Geo AES collection. Unless you're a fighter fan (which I'm not at all) it's not really worth it.

As for the CDX, it still has a 1X CD-ROM drive, but it has increased RAM to load stuff faster. This is quoted from the www.neo-geo.com glossary:

The Neo Geo CDZ is the second CD system made by SNK. It has been falsely claimed that it has a double speed drive. Actually, it has a larger cache for holding loaded information, and has a more efficient CD drive. Still does not eliminate the notorious CD load times on later titles. Has been said to be less reliable than the original CD system.

Just how bad are the CD load times? ie, i like fighting games, but lets face it, the rounds in fighting games dont last too long. If i have to spend more time loading than actually playing a game ,,!,, it. Same for any genre, really. If the loads are too long, its a rhythm killer.

[Ascending Wordsmith]

Unless you're a fighter fan (which I'm not at all) it's not really worth it.

Well, I really like SNK fighters, but the shooters are good too. I was under the impression that the fighting games loaded similarly to Night Warriors on the Saturn console. This means the battles are loaded with no load times in between rounds. After a round in Night Warriors, the next round follows instantly. If there are, in fact, load times between rounds, that will basically lower my interest in the system substantially. Neo Geo CDZs are said to have faster loading times but the console is quite expensive (some sites are asking $400 for the system alone). I don't mind a wait (I've read that some games require up to 45 seconds to load on the CDZ) but to pay so much money and then wait seems self defeating. But in the end, the Neo Geo is my kinda' system. With all that's been said, I may have to shelve my plans to get one. Worse case scenario; SNK bites the dust and everything associated with them sky rockets in price.

[Achika]

Just how bad are the CD load times? ie, i like fighting games, but lets face it, the rounds in fighting games dont last too long. If i have to spend more time loading than actually playing a game ,,!,, it.

That's about the reality of it. Sorry. ^_~

[Kid Fenris]

Before you shell out for a Neo-Geo in any format, it might be best to think of the games that you really want for the system. A number of Neo titles showed up on other consoles, often in ports that were all but indistinguishable from their Neo versions.

For example, the Samurai Showdown RPG also appeared on the Japanese PSX and Saturn (each edition has a slightly different bonus mode), the King of Fighters '95, '96, and '97 hit the Saturn, and the Dreamcast hosts excellent translations of KoF '98, '99, and 2000 as well as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves and Last Blade 2. Even some of the 16-bit conversions, like the SNES port of 2020 Super Baseball, aren't too shabby.

Naturally, there are plenty of Neo titles that weren't ported to cheaper consoles: Magician Lord, Blazing Star, Last Resort, Cyber Lip, the utterly amazing Pulstar, and that Puzzle De Pon game that someone likes, just to name a few. But if you only want a Neo Geo to play a handful of games, you might be able to find acceptable alternatives elsewhere.