Just adding my two-cents in on this rather old forum but here I go none the less. I myself am an "Old Line" gamer, having owned very system from excluding the FM Towns Marty, PCFX, and the Vextrex that has come out. I too see the division however, or at least the crossroads between gamers. Today's gamers (the kids from the Megadrive/Super Famicom era to present day) are all into Online gaming and anything done in sprites is yesterday's garbage, with only the most open minded even playing arcade games on MAME or any other emulator. And that's where I come into this forum with the NEO:GEO slant. I'm currently NEO:GEO mad. When I play the XBOX or PS2 and GameCube I see the nice 3DFX, but just don't get the fun out of them that I did back in the day. It is for this reason that I came back to my passion for arcade games, and despite what many feel is a 'hack' system, I'd stand to say that the NEO:GEO, next to the PC- Engine (Turbo Duo/Turbo Grafx 16) is probably the greatest system ever developed. While underpowered by today's ballyhoo, it is still the most powerfull 16-Bit hardware and continues to have a thriving interest/community online on a global scale. Though I do see the systems faults. The problem with the NEO is that instead of continuing to push the system to its technical limits and innovate off of it's earlier titles, like The Super Spy which pre-dated iD software's DOOM game for First.Person.Shooters. Instead SNK and the NEO stagnated with either really second rate fighting games from it's small 3rd party licensees, or it simply churned out a new title of a particular fighting franchise year after year after year. On this note, the NEO does suck... and going back to "The Super Spy" example, I still wonder why might have happened had SNK decided to innovate the FPS idea into gold. For this reason I can understand why ppl couldn't care less about the NEO, however, if you look at the games that have come out since 1996 [Metal Slug 1-3, Shock Troopers 1 & 2 Sengoku 3, Blazing Star] and just this year "Metal Slug 4"... it's easy to see what indeed might have been had the NEO been a more affordable game system and the companies motivated to innovate rather than just cash in on the 90's fighting game craze.(posted 8615 days ago)So I think it's great that the NEO is playable on the emulation scene be it through MAME or Neo Rage. This is a world gone 3D-Insane and swaying to the online gaming side, leaving 2-D to be felt on only the Game Boy Advance handheld... so is the NEO the greatest system? I think it could've been and has the potential to still hang in there if new developers would concentrate on the innovation and taxing of it's 13 year old Hardware limitations... because it's ironic that ppl are willing to play 2-D games on the GBA but scoff at anything not 3- D when it comes to home games. The NEO should live on in the arcade scene, and it should live on if only through emulation for those gamers out there that like an alternative distraction but either can't afford or won't buy brand new games at 200 plus bucks, (which I do but I'm old school gamer nuts to being with) as a lot of us in the NEO community are willing to do. So as an old school gamer, I know full well that I'm a dinosaur. I don't like the idea of things looking virtual I like sprites. I like to know I'm playing "a game" not living in some almost-there-holodeck VR construct. While this posting is winded, am simply stating that games will continue in their non-linear way until we have a fully realized "Matrix", but ppl like me will still be playing old emulated games, or playing their NEO:GEOs. Now, if only I could find a NEO:GEO dev Kit, then I wouldn't have to worry about new games, I'd find others of a like mind and keep a legacy going long after it's prime if only to prove that the NEO always had the potential to be more than a system or arcade unit dedicated to just fighting games, and maybe getting a little more respect than it ever has got. And now that I've made a fool of myself I shall be on my way.
BOTTOM LINE... ALL THINGS EMULATED ARE GOOD. AND NEO:GEO WILL NEVER DIE!