The Official NEO-GEO Thread!

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. SNKオンラインショップ公式‏ @snk_onlineshop 2h2 hours ago

   A lot of goods arrived in Zen market. Zen market can be shipped overseas. Please check! #SNK #SNK #NEOGEO https://zenmarket.jp/s/snkonlineshop/ …pic.twitter.com/X7ietJIf1P

   

   

   

   

Anthony..

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. THE_AKIHABARA_CONTAiNER‏ @TheAKBCTN_INDOR Feb 6

   ネオジオランド中央に堂々鎮座されているこちらのMVSは、めっちゃよく出来た什器です かつて街中にあったネオジオ筐体とほぼ原寸。 当店自慢のインストカードシールと、ROM型Tシャツが収納されています 世界に2つしかない特注品を是非見に来てね#NEOGEO_LAND #SNK #ネオジオ #ネオジオランドpic.twitter.com/3fGWCjcRby

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   This MVS, which is dignified enshrined in the center of Neogeoland, is a very well-made fixture. almost original size and Neo Geo housing that was once in the city. We are proud of our pride in the card seal and the ROM type T-shirt. Come and see the only two special orders in the world! #NEOGEO_LAND #SNK #ネオジオ #ネオジオランド

    

   

   

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Back with TheDarkAce playing some more Fatal Fury 2. Enjoy. Nice job bro,.

 

 

Anthony..

Edited February 8, 2019 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Here's a great interview from 1996 involving the origins of SNK with Toshiyuki Nakai. He was a planner/designer at SNK from 1983-1987. He soon moved up in promotions at SNK and help with the making of the Neo-Geo. Enjoy.

 

The Origins of SNK. A 1996 Developer Interview with Planner/Designer Toshiyuki Nakai

 

http://shmuplations.com/snkorigins/

 

Toshiyuki Nakai was a planner and designer at SNK from 1983-1987. After that he switched to promotion and marketing, and helped design the look of the new Neo Geo hardware. In this interview from Neo Geo Freak magazine, Nakai looks back at some of the highlights of those early days, including anecdotes from the development of Athena, Psycho Soldier, and Beast Busters. He then talks about the marketing and design of the Neo Geo, with some funny remarks about the system’s early mascot, G-Mantle.

 

 

Joyful Road, TANK, and ASO: 1983 to 1985

My opportunity to join SNK came when I saw a job ad they had posted for a graphic designer. I had done some design work in the past, so I figured, hey, why not go in for an interview at least. (laughs) When I joined SNK, the game industry was still in its infancy, and to be honest, it wasn’t exactly clear what kind of work I’d be doing. (painful laugh) The company was also not yet using the familiar, shortened “SNK”—they were still calling themselves “SNK Electronics.”

At that time (1983), they were in the middle of developing Joyful Road for the arcade. That was my first work, too, designing those sprites. The designs for the player character (a car) and the other main characters had already been completed. I remember creating the other minor characters and sprites: patrol cars, fire trucks, etc. Back then we were limited to 8 colors per sprite, but unlike today we had no helpful software development tools. We had to draw all the sprites by hand, using vertical graph paper and felt pens.

After that, they had to be programmed in, which meant converting all these drawings on graph paper to numerical form for the computer. If I recall, we also had to convert hexadecimal to binary, but it’s all been so long now that I’ve forgotten the details. (laughs) Finally, we handed the data we’d converted over to the programmers, who would then input everything and make it all appear on screen.

Toshiyuki Nakai.

But I was shocked when, several days later the programmers showed us the actual graphics on-screen. Since I had no prior experience doing calculations in hexadecimal, there were mistakes everywhere! And the design of the characters, once I saw them on-screen, didn’t look very good either… it was sad. I had to re-do my calculations and revise the sprites, but what had taken me only 30 minutes to draw on graph paper with a felt pen (I thought I was some kind of prodigy, hah!) now took an entire day to laboriously revise.

I didn’t really know a lot about video games when I joined SNK, you see, and I remember thinking at that time… “uh oh, what have I gotten myself into with this job.” (laughs)

When we develop games today, we work in multiple discrete teams, and you don’t really know how things are going for the team in the next room. But it was different in those early days. We only released 3-4 games a year then, and the developments themselves used fewer people, so in general everyone worked on every game. One person would be appointed as a team leader of sorts, but the same person might also work as a planner, graphic designer, and even compose music if they had to. It was an amazing time.

Starting in 1985, with TANK and ASO (Alpha Mission), the way we developed games changed to something closer to how we work today, with individual teams. By the way, I was the main background designer for TANK. We also started using specialized graphic tools at this time: no more drawing on graph paper! Now you sat at a monitor and used a keyboard to change colors and so forth. Again, it’s very close to how we do things today. I can still remember what a relief it was switching to those new systems… it was so much easier than before!

Regarding ASO, I worked with another planner on the entire project, beginning to end. It was my first “complete” game development, so I remember it well. RPGs had just started to become popular in the overseas market, so when we were planning ASO someone suggested we try including some of the same gameplay mechanics. That gave us the hint we needed for the system in ASO, where you collect different items and power up your ship. With the basic plans decided, it was time to get to work on the actual game. I worked on background and enemy design, and even today I remember how busy I was then trying to juggle everything.

Athena and Ikari Warriors: 1986

1986 was a real turning point for SNK, in a number of ways. It was the year that we officially changed our name to the shortened “SNK”, and we also released two of our most popular games, Athena and Ikari Warriors. Unfortunately, I wasn’t directly involved in Ikari Warriors, but they were developing it on the same floor as us, so I often went and spied on them. (laughs)

The abundance of items to collect in Athena was an attempt to ride the wave of RPG mania.

Developing Athena was an unforgettable experience for me. I drew Athena herself and most of the other characters, so besides its popularity, it left a big impression on me.

Athena was thought up by the same person who did the planning for ASO, and he again proposed that we create an action game with RPG elements. We liked his idea, and worked Athena into a game where you collect equipment and items as you progress through platformer stages.

When I think back on it objectively, though, I think we may have just been caught up in the RPG mania of the time. (laughs)

There were differing opinions about the matter, but we also decided to use a female protagonist for our game, which was rare at the time. As we worked on the gameplay system for Athena, I remember us talking about how this was going to be a fun, lighthearted fantasy game: up until then, we had mainly done more “hard” and realistic settings like TANK and Ikari Warriors.

The biggest challenge during the creation of Athena was the Fire Sword. This humongous sword is one of Athena’s weapons. During the initial planning, we thought it would look cool to have these big flames coming out of it. But due to hardware and memory limitations, we simply ran out of space… After countless revisions, we finally completed a usable Fire Sword effect—and I know I’m patting myself on the back here, but I felt a huge surge of pride then. (laughs)

Athena was later ported to the Famicom in 87, by the way, and yet again that Fire Sword became an issue for the team. Being a console game, there was even less memory than the arcade version, and it gave us even more difficulties. For Athena, for that lovely girl’s sake, I got to experience the joys of living like a sardine for 2 months in a capsule hotel near our company office. (laughs)

Athena wielding the Fire Sword.

In any event, I worked really hard on the graphics for Athena. As you can imagine, now that our developments were more team-based, a healthy sense of competition and rivalry developed between us. I didn’t want to be the weakest link, and slack off in my art. I really gave the drawings my all on that game.

We also received a bunch of fan letters sent to Athena, the game character, herself. Also lots of postcards with illustrations on them. It probably doesn’t seem rare at all today, but back then it was very new, and I remember everyone at SNK was surprised. As her character designer, it was a huge encouragement to me, and made me very happy. In an instant, all the exhaustion and pain I felt dissipated.

Psycho Soldier and Beast Busters: 1987

The following year, alongside the Famicom port of Athena, we released the arcade sequel Psycho Soldier. Around this time I actually moved away from hands-on development and more into promotion work, but I still worked very closely with the developers on-site.

Promotional advertisement for the Famicom release of Athena, which came with an “original music tape” of the Psycho Soldier theme sung by Kaori Shimizu.

The Psycho Soldier development was headed by the same planner who had created Athena. He decided to change the proportion of the character sprites so they were less deformed. As such, Athena feels a little more grown-up this game.

Psycho Soldier became famous as the “singing video game,” but the truth is, we had used speech synthesis long before that, in a number of different games: the side-scrolling STG Vanguard from 1980, then in Fantasy in 1981, and again in Victory Road (the Ikari Warriors sequel) in 1986. This time someone proposed “let’s have singing in this game!”, and the game turned into this very weird thing where the heroine sings while she fights… We had idol Kaori Shimizu sing the song for us. I remember putting her face on the advertisements we created for Psycho Soldier.

Actually, talking about the speech synthesis reminds me of another SNK game from 1983, “Mad Crasher”. It was a motorcycle game in a near-future setting. You know the engine sound for the bikes? I love motorcycles, and I actually recorded that myself from my own bike. I took my stereo cassette player out to my bike and took some recordings, then handed it to our music guy and had him convert it to sound in the game. I thought it came out really well! But then, during the final bug checking, the President of SNK heard it and said, “this doesn’t sound futuristic at all.” And in one word, my dreams were dashed… oh well, I satisfied myself as a motorcycle maniac. (laughs)

Whoops… that digression took us way back into the past. It just came to me all of a sudden—I’ve got so many memories of those days!

After Psycho Soldier we released a number of different games, including some sports games, but the arcade game that left a big impression on me was Beast Busters, that weird little game from 1989. It was a shooting game in which you use a lightgun to destroy the attacking zombie hordes. I believe it had a really long run in arcades, so a lot of people had a chance to play it, I think?

We had actually made a lightgun game before Beast Busters, also in 1989, called Mechanized Attack. For the sequel, we wanted to lighten up the “hard” image a bit, so we tried making the enemies zombies instead of mechas, tanks, and other realistic enemies. Thinking back on it now, it was a pretty big about-face. (laughs)

The biggest struggle in developing Beast Busters was getting the scaled graphics to look good. Being a pseudo-3D game, we wanted to make players feel like the enemies were getting closer and closer, but we didn’t really have adequate sprite zooming functionality, so it was a lot of difficult work to get them looking right. We ended up making multiple sprites for every character: at small, mid, and close-up distances. Luckily we found a way to seam the graphics between those distances, and I think it came out really nicely.

Early promotional ads for Neo Geo hardware rentals, featuring the G-Mantle mascot

 

Birth of the Neo Geo – 1990

In 1990, the Neo Geo was finally released. By this time I was no longer doing any development work (and hadn’t for awhile). Those were very busy days. I was helping design the exterior of the Neo Geo hardware, as well as creating promotional materials. SNK’s plan was to start with hardware rentals, as a way to ease into the home console market. I remember making the special bag that carried the hardware and equipment, and creating a promotional list of the available software.

I also worked on various parts of the exterior hardware design. Our earliest design concept was, “let’s make something that looks COOL!” Many game consoles from that time had a rather childish, toy-like design. We wanted to create something no one had seen before, a console with a hi-fi/luxury feel. For that, one question that quickly arose was the color.

Nowadays there’s a lot of A/V hardware with a metallic color scheme, but back then black was overwhelmingly the most common color. Hence we chose black for the Neo Geo, so it wouldn’t look weird lined up next to owners’ other AV equipment. By the way, between you and me, cost-wise black was also the cheapest color to use, and that was also a reason (but not the reason, mind you).

We released 5 games as launch titles with the Neo Geo, including NAM 1975, Baseball Stars Professional, and Mahjonng Kyouretsuden. As this was our brand new hardware, we aimed for a diverse selection. Anyway, with “increase and multiply!” as our theme for game development, it was a very difficult time. Though to be honest, I’m not sure it’s gotten any easier now. (laughs) Trying to meet all these stressful release deadlines… it’s not good for your heart. (laughs)

Because we were short on time, we split the team in two: an actual production/development team, and a bug-checking team. It was a 24-hour development cycle, with one team working during the day, and another working through the night. People used the company meeting room as a place to sleep, and if you didn’t secure a spot in there early enough, you were out of luck… I look back on those times fondly now, though. (laughs)

While it was difficult for the development teams, the marketing/promotion team was understaffed, and it was no easy-going for us either. In January we’d have to organize events and shows, and then in April there were game releases to attend to. A tough schedule. And of course we didn’t get any vacation time off for New Year’s. I can clearly remember eating my osechi New Year’s meal in a bentou box at work (I want to forget that memory…if only!)

One thing I remember from the marketing for the release of the Neo Geo was G-Mantle, the old mascot character. In commercials we used a real celebrity talent, but for events and the like, one of us would have to dress up in that costume. I did my stint too, of course. (laughs) And let me tell you: in the summer, it was hotter than hell inside that get-up! It was awful, standing there in the heat, drenched in sweat, handing out Neo Geo flyers on the street. Also, for safety reasons, we took shifts wearing the costume, and when you switched you’d have someone else’s sticky sweat all over you. It was disgusting. (laughs)

After that, as you all know, we had our big breakthrough with the 100 MEGASHOCK fighting game releases everyone is now familiar with. Which brings us up to the present. Thank you for reading, and please continue to support the Neo Geo!

 

 

Anthony

Edited February 8, 2019 by fdurso224

[Yakumo1975]

Many have asked and here it is. Battle of the Ports Fatal Fury Real Bout Special.

[Jess Ragan]

Imagine openly admitting that you helped design Munch Mobile, and being PROUD of that fact. Sheesh.

 

I recently purchased the Xbox One version of Puzzle Bobble 2. It's almost exactly like Bust-a-Move 2 on the Saturn, and brought back so much warm nostalgia! Most likely the best game in the series.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Another great Q&A with Mike Tucker at Bitmap Bureau with Xeno Crisis. Enjoy fellas.

 

1. VGChartz‏ @VGChartz 7h7 hours ago

   Interview With Bitmap Bureau - Xeno Crisis, Kickstarter, & Developing for Retro Consoles - http://bit.ly/2MThbRO pic.twitter.com/0EWPfCVF2z

   

 

Interview With Bitmap Bureau - Xeno Crisis, Kickstarter, & Developing for Retro Consoles - Article

By Patrick Day-Childs ,

February 8, 2019

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/435786/interview-with-bitmap-bureau-xeno-crisis-kickstarter-amp-developing-for-retro-consoles/

Xeno Crisis is an upcoming twin-stick shooter that plays heavily on nostalgia for the early ‘90s, but which includes modernising features, such as procedural map generation and randomised gameplay elements. At the time of writing the project has been backed on Kickstarter to the tune of £72,500, which is more than triple developer Bitmap Bureau's original goal of £20,000.

I managed to sit down and have a chat with Mike Tucker, design director at Bitmap Bureau. We talked about the inspiration behind the game, the Kickstarter campaign, developing for retro platforms (including the nifty physical cartridges and boxes, featuring art from Derrick Chew and Genzoman), and more.

Q: The game looks very similar to Smash TV, is that where your inspiration came from?

Mike Tucker: We certainly used Smash TV as a template, as after we had decided to go down the route of making a full, commercially released Mega Drive game, we considered what style of game would work well on the system, but also hadn’t been done to death already, or not done terribly well. We felt that we could add elements to Smash TV and that the Mega Drive port was something we could improve on. It’s technically not too demanding either, so it’s a good place to start. We also looked at Shock Troopers, Mercs, Outzone, The Chaos Engine, Alien Syndrome, Skeleton Krew, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Ki Ki Kai Kai and many others.

Q: Chaos Engine had six characters, why did you stick with just two?

Mike Tucker: That’s mostly down to the Mega Drive cartridge size and production costs really; we’re using a 4 Mega Byte cartridge, and each player sprite takes up a large chunk of space as they consist of 137 frames - the idle, walk, shoot, and roll anims each have to be animated in 8 directions. On top of that each player has a portrait, cutscene imagery and also some speech. So adding even one more player would have meant having to drop something else! We also felt that two is a good amount - they play pretty much the same, with the female marine being a bit quicker and the male marine starting with a higher ammo capacity.

Q: Why do you have any differences between the characters?

MT: Just to cater for different play styles, but it can be balanced out in the shop at the end of the first area.

Q: What was the highlight of the Kickstarter campaign for you?

MT: Getting funded in 40 hours - we asked for £20K, so achieving that goal was big for us, and the feedback from people, particularly those in the retro community, was extremely encouraging. People got very excited that we were making a new Mega Drive game!

Q: Do you think that you’re hitting purely on nostalgia or is the game likely to appeal to a wider audience?

MT: We want the retro crowd on board, no doubt, as that’s becoming a big market - some companies are even making new peripherals for retro consoles now. But at the same time, we feel it’s a strong enough game to stand alone on modern platforms (i.e. Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux).

Q: What's been the worst part of the development process?

MT: Well we are a small team, and our most crucial member, Matt, smashed his head open on a cupboard door in the office over the summer. He’s doing the programming for Mega Drive, Dreamcast and Neo Geo, so without him we are a bit screwed! The accident put us back a few months, which is really unfortunate, but everyone’s been very understanding about it. Other than that, producing some of the physical aspects has been tricky, but we have everything in hand now.

Q: Why did you choose the two Sega systems, and also the Neo Geo?

MT: The Mega Drive was the first console I owned, so I’ve always had an attachment to it. Before that I had a PC but I played a lot of arcade games too - the Mega Drive was like bringing the arcade to your home. To this day it’s probably still my favourite console - it has some great games on it and has a distinct personality. If you look at a screenshot of a Mega Drive game, you know it’s a Mega Drive title straight away just from the colour palette alone, and the sound chip is even more distinct.

I’d say that all of those consoles from that era - the SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine and Neo Geo all had their own characteristics which set them apart, with the Mega Drive in particular being very gritty and raw. Given the aesthetics of the machine, it felt appropriate to produce an alien-themed game. We wanted to make a game that was pure Mega Drive from the get-go - we’re really aiming to make the perfect Mega Drive game, whether people agree we’ll have to see!

As for the Neo Geo, it’s similar in many ways - it shares the same CPU (albeit slightly beefed up), and the same screen resolution, so much of the code and art can be re-used. So it made a lot of sense to us to bring Xeno Crisis to the Neo Geo with a few enhancements added.

Q: The game only offers easy and hard difficulties - why no medium setting?

MT: I think it’s really down to testing purposes; another difficulty mode adds another round of testing, and on the retro platforms it has a bit of a knock-on in terms of performance, particularly if enemies have different behaviours on each difficulty setting. I think two is enough though - we really want players to play on ‘hard’ (the default setting), but the ‘easy’ mode is there for people who might struggle with it.

Q: Design-wise, it looks like you’ve taken influence from Aliens, Dune, and more. Why is that?

MT: We wanted to reference a few games and films from the ‘90s, to help make it feel like a genuine game from that era. We have a bit of a storyline but it’s not something you saw a lot on Mega Drive games, particularly on the arcade-style titles, and we want people who remember the Mega Drive to feel at home. There might be things here or there that you might recognise from Contra, Aliens, Predator, Doom, Smash TV, etc. - little nods to make it look, sound and feel more like a ‘90s game.

Q: So what’s the actual story and where’d the idea come from?

MT: There’s a research colony, kind of like a giant space station with 7 areas. The research has got out of hand and something has gone disastrously wrong, so the colony sends out a distress signal, then you and your fellow marines go in to investigate. It’s all very cliched, but deliberately so - it’s really just an excuse to go and shoot aliens basically.

But the story develops, and there’s a twist or two. If you’re familiar with Ghouls and Ghosts then that might give you a hint, not that we would put you through that same ordeal!

Q: Is there anything you’d have changed if circumstances allowed?

MT: There’s always something; with it being a Mega Drive game it’s only 4MB, so there are things we would like to have added but just didn’t have the room for. More characters would have been cool - we looked at adding a robot character similar to Scooter from Alien Storm. Individual cutscenes would have been nice too. There were a few enemy types that didn’t make the cut as well, but it’s good to hold some things back in case you get the opportunity to make a sequel one day. Overall though we’re really happy with the game, and we hope that everyone enjoys it when they finally get their hands on it!

If you’re interested in Xeno Crisis you can pre-order the game directly from Bitmap Bureau. It's coming to Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Dreamcast, Neo Geo, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. Be sure to check out the company's other games too - 88 Heroes and Ninja Showdown.

 

Anthony...

Edited February 8, 2019 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. Terraonion SL‏ @terraonion 9h9 hours ago

   NEOSD Pro news! All of the printed inserts, stickers and manuals have arrived! We expect to begin shipping NEOSD Pro orders late next week or the following Monday. Like and RT! #NEOGEOpic.twitter.com/LlNPOwKcDI

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Imagine openly admitting that you helped design Munch Mobile, and being PROUD of that fact. Sheesh.

 

I recently purchased the Xbox One version of Puzzle Bobble 2. It's almost exactly like Bust-a-Move 2 on the Saturn, and brought back so much warm nostalgia! Most likely the best game in the series.

That's sounds great Jess. To say that the XBox version of Puzzle Bobble 2 plays like the version on the Sega Saturn it really a great sign for anybody like myself to try it out. I have the Saturn one in my collection and love it myself. Nice to know bro. Thank you for sharing that info with us.

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Many have asked and here it is. Battle of the Ports Fatal Fury Real Bout Special.

 

Hey Mark,

 

Another great Battle of the Ports by you with Real Boul Special bro. Great choice as always. But this one really is a fun game to play and has great artwork in the backgrounds. Love it bro. Thank you as always.

 

Anthony..

Edited February 9, 2019 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. SNK ASIA‏ @SNKAofficial Jan 31

   「PlayStation Store 賀年獨家優惠」今日開始啦~SNK精選遊戲優惠更高達80%OFF! 大家快到PS Store下載心水遊戲啦！https://bit.ly/2Sg4Tbl 活動日期： 2019年 1月 31日~2019年 2月 13日 優惠項目: KOF, MetalSlug, The Last Blade, Samurai Shodown, Garou: Mark of the Wolves,SNK Heroinespic.twitter.com/gJfumpFGQ8

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Chinese by Microsoft

   "playstation Store's exclusive offer" Start today ~snk featured games offer up to 80%off! Everyone quickly to the PS store to download the heart water game! https://bit.ly/2Sg4Tbl Date of activity: January 31, 2019 ~2019 February 13 offers: KOF, MetalSlug, the last Blade, Samurai Shodown, Garou:mark of the Wolves,snk Heroines

    

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. SNKオンラインショップ公式‏ @snk_onlineshop 11h11 hours ago

   『純米大吟醸ネオジオ』と一緒に販売を開始した『ねおじおちょこ』単品の在庫が残り少なくなってまいりました！ご購入希望の方はお急ぎください！ #SNK #SNK #NEOGEO https://buff.ly/2SAoKT0 pic.twitter.com/aYnQRt6XVx

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   We have started to sell together with "Junmai Daiginjo Negio", and the stock of a single item has been reduced. Please hurry if you want to purchase! #SNK #SNK #NEOGEO https://buff.ly/2SAoKT0

    

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. SNKオンラインショップ公式‏ @snk_onlineshop 10h10 hours ago

   大好評につき『figma 草薙 京』『figma 八神 庵』完売いたしました！ 再入荷の予定が決まり次第、SNKオンラインショップのメルマガとTwitterで告知いたします。 #SNK #KOF #NEOGEO https://buff.ly/2Ia9ici pic.twitter.com/pJYwyuESfh

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   "Figma Kyo Kusanagi" "Figma Yagami Iori" sold out! As soon as the re-arrival schedule is decided, we will announce on Twitter the SNK online shop. #SNK #KOF #NEOGEO https://buff.ly/2Ia9ici

    

   

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. THE_AKIHABARA_CONTAiNER‏ @TheAKBCTN_INDOR Feb 8

   Para extranjeros, NEO GEO LAND también ofrece tamaños L y XL para camisetas y chaquetas. La tienda está abierta hasta el 20 de febrero, así que ven y visita! #NEOGEO_LAND #SNK #ネオジオ #ネオジオランド #NEOGEOpic.twitter.com/G4I5k0JWXn

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Spanish by Microsoft

   For foreigners, NEO GEO LAND also offers sizes L and XL for T-shirts and jackets. the store is open until February 20th so come and visit! #NEOGEO_LAND #SNK #ネオジオ #ネオジオランド #NEOGEO

    

   

   

   

Anthony...

[Reaperman]

Has there been any word on NeoSD pro for MVS vs AES?

[+Charlie Cat]

Has there been any word on NeoSD pro for MVS vs AES?

I was wondering that myself Reaper. I haven't seen anything like that so far. But would like to bro.

 

Anthony..

[F34R]

MVS will be after the AES orders are down to a trickle.

[+Charlie Cat]

MVS will be after the AES orders are down to a trickle.

Good to know F34R. Thank you for posting that and looking out for us.

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

 

Great interview from 1993 regarding Athenia. it maybe brief. But fun to read nonetheless.

 

http://shmuplations.com/athena/

 

Athenia. 1993 Interview. From the Gamest mook, "Gal Islands 2"

 

Athena – 1993 Developer Intervi

This short interview from Gal’s Island 2 (a Gamest mook series from the early 90s that focused on female game characters) covers the creation and character design of Athena. Although never very popular in the US, as an early “game character” Athena had a certain cult following in Japan, and continued to be used in SNK’s fighting games. I’ve also added a very short commentary from the developers of Psycho Soldier, the 1987 “sequel” to Athena. It’s mainly just them griping about devhell.

—Back then, arcade games with female protagonists were fairly rare. How did you come up with Athena?

SNK: The idea mainly came from the planner, who had been thinking for awhile about making a game like that. Probably he just loves pretty girls!

—Her bikini costume made quite an impression, too.

SNK: Athena is a game where you power-up your armor as you get stronger, so a costume like that was necessary for the game design. It honestly wasn’t done for titillation. The planner of Athena loves games with “upgrade” systems. He’s the guy who made the shmup ASO (Alpha Mission), after all.

—Did you have trouble translating her design onto the game screen?

SNK: Once we started doing conceptual illustrations, we decided on her look relatively quickly: “let’s go with this!” But converting that to a sprite was more difficult. Pixel art was much more crude then: for instance, if her bust was too big by even a single pixel, it would make her legs look too stubby. We had far fewer colors available then, too.

—How was the response from players, at the time?

SNK: People responded well to Athena’s design, as we’d hoped. Even better, her popularity endured, so we got down to making a sequel right away with Psycho Soldier. So everyone, this is important—if you want to see Athena on the Neo Geo, please let us know! It all depends on your support.

Main illustration and other concept art for Athena.

—By the way, what became of Athena after the events of the game?

SNK: Hmmm… here goes.

Having safely defeated the evil Emperor Dante of Fantasy World, Athena returns to the Kingdom of Victory and lives as a normal girl for awhile. Her tomboyish nature, however, remains unchanged, and she has many adventures (the details of which, due to a decree by the King restricting the dissemination of such information, I’m not at liberty to divulge). Eventually she marries, has many children, and lives a blessed life of happiness and contentment. Her favorite magazine is “suteki na okusan” (“The Perfect Wife”) and she loves to sing Momoe Yamaguchi at karaoke. The female descendants of the Asamiya family also have ESP power…

…how’s that sound?

Psycho Soldier – 1987 Developer Comments

from the official SNK strategy guide

Psycho Soldier devs.

Kohyan (Planner/Producer) – “I hate Athena!” That’s what I thought when, right after the first game, it was decided that we’d have to start working on this sequel. If they come to me now asking for a third game… ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.

Wasabi (Character Designer) – Goddammmmmmn, I’m exhausted! Goodnight.

Koutoubu (Character Designer) – Psycho Soldier…… here’s what I got out of these last 6 months: a lack of sleep, a habit of sleepwalking, a taste for energy drinks, and belly fat. What I lost? My girlfriend. Ugh. Give me my youth back!!!

Manbou Kimura (Character Designer) – So tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired so tired

Aran Lee (BGM Composer) – Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. Look, another fail! A storm of fails. Under a cold winter sky in the dead of night, I trudgingly make my way to the last train home. This is supposed to be the time when I make my mark on the world, but I’m just spinning my wheels… spin, spin my life away. How can I escape this…?

Kenny Nishida (theme/ending song composer) – I’m Kenny, the guy who made Athena a superstar singer and made her All-Japan Tour dream a reality.

John Guso (Programmer) – For the big lizard enemy and final boss Shigu Do Dabide, don’t just look at their heads! There’s some subtle movement in their necks that you really should see. It is my masterpiece.

KKC (Programmer) – This was my first game programming challenge. The long battle is finally over. At this moment, I can really feel how far my health has declined. Am I really an old man at 24? Cherish your youth, everyone… it only comes once.

 

 

Anthony...

Edited February 9, 2019 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. HAMSTER Corporation‏ @HAMSTER_Corp Feb 7

   ACA NEOGEO PUZZLE BOBBLE 2 is now available on PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One! It's an action puzzle game released by Taito in 1995 as the second sequel of PUZZLE BOBBLE. Please enjoy the master pieces of NEOGEO! #ACANEOGEO http://hamster.co.jp/american_hamster/arcadearchives/switch/puzzlebobble2.htm …pic.twitter.com/9dCiTNNFah

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. Xbox Japan‏Verified account @Xbox_JP Feb 6

   『アケアカNEOGEO』から「パズルボブル 2」配信! つなげて、消して、連鎖して！ねらいを定めてバブルを発射。「スターバブル」と「メタルバブル」で狙え大量連鎖! さあ、懐かしのアーケードゲームをプレイしよう! http://msft.social/XYrAtR pic.twitter.com/6EotDr7uSe

   Translate Tweet

   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   "Puzzle Bobble 2" from "Achakaca neogeo" Delivery! Connect, erase, chain! Set the aim and launch the bubble. "Star bubble" and "Metal bubble" aim at mass chain! Let's play a nostalgic arcade game! http://msft.social/XYrAtR

    

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. CASSETTE DISC.‏ @CassetteD_INDOR Feb 8

   秋葉原駅前 @TheAKBCTN_INDOR にて開催中の #ネオジオランド アパレルの中でも、要注目なのがNEOGEOウィンドブレーカーです！少し派手かな？と思いきや、淡い色味のお陰で意外とサラッと着られます！気になる方は店頭でご試着をhttp://indor-store.jp/shopdetail/000000000436/ …pic.twitter.com/0Ei7F9XNfP

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   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   Among @TheAKBCTN_INDOR the apparel that is held at Akihabara station, it is a #ネオジオランド neogeo wind breaker that is the attention that is necessary! Is it a little flashy? It is thought, and it is worn unexpectedly by the shade of the pale color taste! If you ✅ http://indor-store.jp/shopdetail/000000000436/ … care, try it on-store

    

   

   

   

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. THE_AKIHABARA_CONTAiNER‏ @TheAKBCTN_INDOR Feb 8

   [☆新作情報☆] ・1P2Pアクリルスタンド 裏表で、1Pカラー2Pカラーの両方楽しめます 2Pカラーのが好きな方、結構いるはずです……自分はそうでした ・モブステッカー アレどっかで見たことあるけど、どこだっけなぁ…… #NEOGEO_LAND #SNKpic.twitter.com/oWuL7P6juN

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   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   [ ☆ new information ☆] ・1p2p acrylic stand in both sides, 1p color 2p color Both can enjoy ‼️ 2p color who likes, you should be fine...... I've ✨ seen it somewhere, Mobstecker, but I don't know where...... ⁉️ #NEOGEO_LAND #SNK

    

   

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

1. THE_AKIHABARA_CONTAiNER‏ @TheAKBCTN_INDOR 9h9 hours ago

   [☆新作情報☆] ・漆塗り屏風時計 サムスピ か、かっこいい………… 高級感溢れる漆塗り時計 和室に飾りたい#NEOGEO_LAND #SNKpic.twitter.com/ukaJY42c0q

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   Translated from Japanese by Microsoft

   [ ☆ new information ☆] ・lacquered screen watch Samspi or cool....... ❕❕ high-quality lacquered clock ️ I want ‼️ #NEOGEO_LAND #SNK to decorate it in Japanese style

    

   

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

This morning, we're with Radical Reggie. Here we see him and a buddy of his playing and reviewing the Neo-Geo International version. Does he like it? Only one way to find out folks.

 

 

Anthony...