Genesis v.s. Super Nintendo hardware comparison

[Hans-CD]

I don't think so, as I said before, check other systems manufacture dates and you will see that many other companies such as Data East, Konami, Sega, Capcom, Namco and Taito already had boards equal or more powerful than the Neogeo.

The main reasson for the success of the Neogeo was that almost 80% of their titles consist in 1 vs 1 fighting games which was the most successful genre back then since the release of SF2, it was a clever move by SNK to design their system around that genre of games, a system solely based on sprites wont make the cut for other type of games aside from 1vs1 fighters, you can't design a sprite based system for shooters and beat'em ups, and that is where the Neogeo is lacking in comparisson to other boards such as the CPS1, Irem M72, Data East CN etc. and IMO... it shows,

One thing I notice from the beggining when I put a neogeo game side by side with others systems such as the Irem M72 or CPS1 is the lower screen resolution , its 384x224-256 vs the 304x224, and not only that, I think that the Neogeo cannot move a game like Street Fighter 2, there isn't a single fighter for the Neo featuring all of the following effects at the same time like SF2 does: screen resolution, animation frames, big sprites, parallax scroll and raster effects.

The sound of the Neogeo is also another "fake" strenght, and lets keep comparing it with the CPS1 with its Ym2151+ Z80+ a 6 channel PCM OKI MSM6295, versus Neogeo: Z80+ a YM2610 (the 2610 main strenght are his 7 PCM channels ) CPS1 wins with its 6 channel PCM + 8 more channels solely for FM.

The main difference is that all the sound on the Neogeo is done wasting hundreds of mega power in PCM samples, while the CPS1 could do the same if wanted but it doesn't to save cost, instead it takes advantage of the excellent FM sound from the YM2151.

Neogeo sound better than CPS2? I don't think so, technically is no contest really, but I understand if you like the SNK compositions better.

I am sure somebody else already corrected you but I really love my Neogeo so I feel like replying anyway.

The Neogeo was not built around 1 v 1 fighting games/beat em ups (call them however you feel like calling them). The Neogeo has a precise reason for its seemingly "out of place" architecture, out of place in the arcades (not THAT powerful) out of place at home (so powerful it ended up a Ferrari).

The AES and MVS system, contrary to popular belief, were designed at the very same time, actually they were just one, the AES never "officially" existed as AES.
That is a nickname conveniently given to the console by the fans and then picked up by nearly everyone else.

SNK had a vision, they wanted to create an arcade board that would bring the simplicity of home console gaming to arcade operators. Having just one board where you could switch games as easily as putting a cartridge in a slot. This would mean a very easy transition to the home console market,too.

And here is the catch, at first SNK planned to release the "home" system only to businesses, for renting purposes only (think Hotels,Rental,Karaoke etc). SNK was caught by surprise in Japan when normal people were starting to rent the console (directly from them!), even with those insane asking prices.
They then entered the home console market with the home system, slowly dropping the "レンタル" (rentaru, rental) label from most of its accessories and consoles during 1990 and 1991.
Officially its debut happened on July 1st 1991, with all of the games already released and a cut of circa 40% on their original price, coupled with 6 new games.

The Neogeo was not created with one genre in mind, far from that.Actually Street Fighter (the first one) was not even that popular, it was not until 1991 that with SF2 taking arcades by storm, the genre started to assest itself in the arcade scene. It has to be noted that the creators of SF1 went on to create a very similar game (refined, of course, but with the same concept) in Garou Densetsu (or Fatal Fury). Then in 1991 Capcom took the genre to a whole new level with Street Fighter 2, and SNK (and not only SNK, of course) followed suit, with their own in house projects. Neogeo received many different games and different genres during its life, though.

Genres other than 1v1 fighters, still were very viable until 1995-6. Frthat is when 3D started to become a requirement for arcade racers and sports games, so those genres started to disappear from the NG library. Beat em ups were struggling already (side-scrollers) and by 1997 the genre was pretty much dead (compared to its 88~95 heyday) and that genre disappeared too from the NG library. The only genres that survived the 3D craze were 1v1 beat em ups and shooters. Of course it being 97-98, shooters were a little bit too eye candy for NG to handle (with exceptions, notable at that, like Blazing Star for example) and most companies preferred to migrate towards new platforms (most of which started to adopt the "console" mentality the NG had).
Neogeo simply lived in an era that saw 1v1 games being born, growing and then quasi-dying towards the end of its life, thus it was a no brainer for SNK to try and "milk" (i hate this term, please let me use this once and only once) the genre on NG for all it was worth.


And let's take a look at their games year per year to disprove that wrong perception (still, the console received an incredible number of 1 on 1 fighters, but not for the reason you cited)

1990 saw not even one 1v1 fighter released, because there was no market for them, they still had to "prove" profitable and likeable to Japanese and western audiences.
1991 Only one fighting game released, Fatal Fury. It was still an SF1-esque game, like you can clearly see by playing it. The genre had just began to bloom with SF2.
1992 Three 1v1 fighters released, Ryuuko No ken (Art of Fighting) World Heroes and Fatal Fury 2. The "story" concept was prorated in AOF (exploring a different, more akin to SF1, 1v1 genre) and SF2 was basically "cloned" (and expanded upon) with FF2 and marginally WH (as both had a few great intuitions that would be developed in the future).
1993 Four fighters released out of the six games released that year. The genre was here to stay. Neogeo was just another home for 1v1 to stay, it was never created with this intent. The market called (3 full years after the NG arcade/renting debut) and SNK's black beast was there.

I won't proceed further as I think 3 years is enough to prove your claim to be wrong. Neogeo was engineered before 1v1 were a viable genre. Neogeo just happened to be a great console to develop these games when they became all the rage. Of course if you didn't live those days (not just being alive, but being old enough to buy a pack of smokes) you could only look at its library and think "oh well that machine was created for 1v1 fighters! No wonder it does them so much justice" (wrong).


Sorry everyone for the long and probably useless post (and filled with grammar horrors and spelling mistakes). I just love my Neogeo as much as my Megadrive, yet you can only find out about its story, its origins by reading Japanese sites or speaking with Japanese people. Neogeo's history is always so misunderstood in our culture, it is really incredible.

[EPSYLON EAGLE]

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