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As I gaze into my mystical orb, I can find rumors and news
of years past. Allow me to share this ancient
knowledge with you. My all-powerful sphere can be
faulty at times so if
you think I've missed some then let
me know.
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| December
1992 |
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As you all know there has been talk of a Neo-Geo CD ROM for some time now. Recently in Japan SNK put an end to the rumors by officially announcing their plans for a CD
ROM upgrade. Specs will be available in April '93 and the scheduled release date is Sept. '93. Besides mega memory, the number one selling point will be considerably lower software prices.
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| January
1993 |
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Sony is making SNK's CD for the Neo-Geo, yes it's true and it's official.
The 100+ Meg action RPG Crystalis will be out by this summer. Scheduled for March is Super Sidekicks by
SNK. Also, look for Art of Fighting 2 Champion Edition, two Football games (one by SNK and one by Alpha Denshi), a new Basketball game by Alpha Denshi, and support from 12 third party companies for '93. One of the most exciting new games is World Heroes 2 which will be the first fighting game where you can link up two
Neo-Geo's for 4 on 2 fighting, there are three planes of playing field and you will be able to throw fireballs into and across the screen, this game will be around 150 meg and should be out by June.
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| February
1993 |
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Here's some news on the Neo-Geo. 3 Count Bout will have between 70-80 meg, will have 8 characters, and is due out around late March. Art of Fighting 2 is due out Summer '93 and could be as much as 150 meg, this may also be an entirely different game. Magician Lord 2 is due in the 2nd half of '93 and will be over 100 meg. Crystalis will be released 4th quarter of '93 and will approach 200 meg. There is a first person perpesctive driving game from SNK due out sometime in '93. Alpha Denshi, American Sammy, Wave,
Sunsoft, and Visco are all developing games for the Neo-Geo, and additional third party developers will probably be announced in our next issue. Official announcements on the SNK CD
ROM will be told this Spring. Early reports say that SNK wanted a Neo-Geo add on but Sony had reservations concerning the price of such a peripheral, and is studying the possibility of making a lower cost SNK CD system. Some titles will be released for CD and Neo-Geo cart simultaneously. Info on price and specs is about as water tight as a frogs butt at this moment.
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| July
1993 |
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Here's some great news for Neo-Geo owners... First there's Reactor, an sonic style side-scrolling action game being developed exclusively for the home system. There's also Run Saber (the recent SNES title), Top Hunter (a Bionic Commando/Contra action title), a 160 meg Driving game and a new fighting game that will incorporate characters from art of fighting, Fatal Fury and World Heroes in the works.
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| September
1993 |
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Let's not forgot about the Neo-Geo though. Samurai Shodown is amazing just around the corner are Top Hunter (yeah! An action game), Fatal Fury Special, Art of Fighting 2, Magician Lord 2 and talk of a Geo version of Crystalis continues to linger. SNK is also rumored to be working on a Sonic/Mario type game called Reactor. Top Hunter is an over 100 meg (well over) action game similar to Bionic Commando and Contra and is said to be the best action game to date on the Geo. Fatal Fury Special features 15 characters to choose from from both FF1 and FF2, and is over 100 meg. Fatal Fury Special is set for October release while the other games mentioned are simply coming before the close of '93. No actual dates are set, bottom line, if you're into fighting games, this should be your system of choice. |
| October
1993 |
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The big three Neo-Geo fighting games; Art of fighting, World Heroes and Fatal Fury are called the South Town Series in Japan because these games have almost identical stories and are supposedly linked together. When you beat Super Fatal Fury, there is going to be a message at the end of a game that tells you to play Art of fighting 2 to find a secret. Then, at the end of art of fighting 2, there is going to be another message telling you to play one more game that, hopefully, will come out by the end of this year and will have the last secret. this new game, which has no title yet, will be the ultimate fighting game containing the elements of all the South Town Series games but in one gnarly 200 meg game. We have also been assured that data East's Miracle adventure,
SNK's Top Hunter and Alpha Denshi's much anticipated Magician lord 2 will all make it out by the end of '93.
In other Geo news... The Neo-Geo CD-ROM will finally be announced in March of 1994. This super high powered
CD-ROM will have a 32-bit RISC processor and will have 180 megabytes of buffer RAM. Each CD game will be sold for less than $50.00 and the release date could be as early as May of '94, I'll believe it when I see it.
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| January
1994 |
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Now for some news on the new Neo-Star... The what? You say. There's no release date yet but the word is out. SNK's next game console is currently under development. The new machine is bigger than the current console and boasts both a cartridge and CD port. the system features new cordless joysticks and a larger capacity memory card able to hold 20% more information to be used for such things as home banking
over in Japan. The biggest difference though is the new dual
CD-i/CD-Rom drive, able to play special Neo-Geo games. The specs are still not final but here is how they currently stand. The Star is set to be a 32-bit console and will use RISC CPU's, the clock speed is around 14 MHZ. It is capable of a resolution of 640X480 pixels and uses a new
Super-Scart system to increase the resolution of the normal displays it is connected to. They are aiming for the machine to do polygon graphics and there is speculation that the Star could be the first 3D game machine that will be able to create truly interactive, virtual reality style games. The
CD-i feature allows for movie quality sound and graphics to be played with video game interaction via the cartridges. Another feature with potential is the expansion port which would be used for upcoming cable TV/modem connectors that would allow multi-player gaming, 3D glasses and a keyboard (for uses such as home shopping, banking, etc..). As we reported some issues ago, a separate
CD-ROM is supposedly still in the works which would attach to your existing Neo, offering much of the Stars features. We will bring you more on this new system as it
develops. Elsewhere in Neo-Geo news, upcoming is a fighter which will feature characters from Art of Fighting, World Heroes, Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury. Originally supposedly titled 'Survivor', it is now going by the name; Battle of destiny. Sources say that other
titles planned for late '93/early '94 will be postponed as all efforts go to bringing this huge title out as soon as possible.
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| June
1994 |
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Rumor has it that SNK of Japan has halted the development of their "Neo-Star" 32-bit home console. It now seems as though the big wigs in Osaka are thinking twice about releasing a CD console that's a direct competitor against Sony's PS-X. If reports of the Neo-Star having a retail price of around $700 were at all true, SNK may have made the right choice of thinking twice about this one. With Sony, Sega and Nintendo all developing hardware that's supposedly superior to the Neo-Star, at a fraction of the price, it's now up in the air who really is bigger, badder and better. On the Neo-Geo front, SNK seems to have an impressive lineup of 200+ meg games for us in '94. The development of Samurai Spirits 2 is proceeding swimmingly at the moment. The 200+ meg sequel to last year's mega-blockbuster is due out around August and is said to put its predecessor to shame...
holeeee. Work has begun on Fatal Fury 3. FF3 will tip the scales at around 200 meg and is due out 4th quarter '94. SNK's big "monster fighting game" which was known to our readers as Survivor is in actuality, titled King of Fighters '94. This game is over 200 megs and will feature characters from Samurai Spirits, Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and World Heroes. There are over 20 characters in all to choose from. The actual release date is still up in the air, but it could be as early as June. Magician Lord 2 and Crystalis have not been canceled, but they have been put so far on the back burner, it now seems as if they won't come out until '95... I could cry. SNK is putting the finishing touches on Top Hunter. From what we hear, TH may include additional levels when it hits the Neo-Geo this Summer.
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| August
1994 |
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On September 9, 1994, SNK will be releasing their Neo-Geo CD-ROM system. The first systems are front loading, but systems manufactured at a later date will be top loading. CD games will be priced from $49 to $99
and SNK will be releasing upcoming titles on both formats. The price of the Neo-Geo CD has been set at 49,900 yen ($499). SNK plans to release the system in the US in 1995. At the Tokyo Toy Show, I got a chance to play a few games. Visually, it's identical to the Neo-Geo. The major difference, of course, is the sound. All the music was arranged and sounded fantastic. I did notice an excessive loading time however. Every time I picked a character in Samurai
Shodown, it loaded for more than 10 seconds before I could play the game.
Our Asst. International Editor,
T.J., recently attended the presentation for the Neo-Geo CD. SNK's plan is to release 200,000 systems by the end of '94. These initial 200,000 will be limited edition, front loading systems. The market version will be a top loading unit and will be smaller. Personally, I thought the Geo CD might not sell, but many have been reserved already, to the point where there may not be enough to go around at launch. We've been talking about Shin-Samurai Spirits (Shin means True, Real, or Genuine) and King of Fighters. In addition to these titles, Sonic Wings 2 (Aero Fighters 2) is also a scheduled release.
There is now a new character for Shin-Samurai Spirits, Sakyo, He is the younger brother of Ukyo. The Japanese release dates for Shin-Samurai are September in the arcade and December 15th for home.
The official name for King of Fighters (in Japan) is, The King of Fighters '94. There are 24 characters to choose from and a 3 Vs. 3 mode has been added. Besides characters from previous games, there will be many new characters. They are: Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, and
Kim from the Fatal Fury series. Robert, Ryo, Takuma, King, and Yuri from the Art of Fighting series. Athena from 'Athena', Ken Su, player two from Psycho Soldier.
Hydeln, Ralph, and Clark from Ikari Warriors, and
Dogosouken. Dimon Goro, Kusanagi Kyo, Nikaido Benimaru, Baby-D, Lucky
Glober, Brian Batler, Chin Gensai, Choy Honge, and Chan Kohan are the brand new characters. The scheduled release date is September in the Arcade, and October for home.
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| November
1994 |
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Guess what... the next Neo title is a fighting game! Technos Japan has signed up as a Neo-Geo third party. Their first game is Go-Kaiser, which has ten choosable characters, and the character designs are by Fatal Fury: The Movie's main artist. In Go-Kaiser, your characters aren't limited to one form... for instance, the character Captain Atlantis can transform into his mild-mannered alter ego. This title also features the unique "Special Move Tracing System" with which you can learn the enemy's special attacks!
Double Dragon... where have I heard that name before? The famous arcade and side scrolling action game is returning... as a Neo-Geo one-on-one fighter! What a surprise! This game is a parallel project with a movie that'll be released in November. Of course Jimmy, Billy, and Marian from the original DD return, along with new characters from the movie. I can't wait to play this!
After watching a video of SS2, or Shin-Samurai Spirits, I must say that this will be the game to beat! The new characters are
Genjuro, a one-sworded samurai who
wields Hanafuda playing cards, Heinhart Sieger, a muscled German warrior with a massive Gen-An style glove,
Cham-Cham, the female Tam-Tam and Nicotine, a pipe-wielding Japanese mini-monk. In SS2 you can lie down, roll, and taunt as well!
Over at
SNK, Fatal Fury 3 is in development for a Spring/'95 release and King of Fighters '95 is also in development.
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| December
1994 |
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On September 9th, SNK launched their long-awaited front-loading Neo-Geo CD. Believe it or not, the first 25,000 Neo-Geo CD's sold out in a single day, and now SNK is releasing a top-loading version of the system on November 2nd. As a note to those of you who bought the front-loading model, you have a hot collector's item- there are only 25,000 of them in existence! The only difference between the two systems is that the new, mass-marketed model is top-loading, smaller, and the controller is more colorful. SNK also announced the fact that they will NOT be licensing any more of their Neo games to home systems after King of Fighters '94. That's right... to play games like Fatal Fury 3, Art of Fighting 3 and Samurai
Shodown 2 you'll need a Neo-Geo CD or a regular Neo!
Welcome to the AM show Neo highlights! The biggest Neo news was Shin-Samurai Spirits, known in America, of course, as Samurai Shodown 2. This title has four new Samurai- Cham
Cham, Heinhart Sieger, Caffeine Nicotine (I swear), and Kibagami
Genjuro. Cham Cham is a wild chick from Green Hell, Sieger is a knight with a massive mechanical arm from Germany, Nicotine is a
miniature monk from Japan and Genjuro is Haohmaru's
two-sworded rival. Other big news in Japan is the Neo-Geo CD Model 2.
With the advent of the mass-marketed Neo-CD, lots of major developers are signing on to program games for SNK's super system, like
Sunsoft, Tecmo, and Data East. Unfortunately, most are fighting games, but there are two notable exceptions: SNK's Operation Ragnarok (Which will be renamed Zed Blade for US release... why?) and Data East's Dunk Dream (To be renamed as well). Ragnarok is a SHOOTER! Isn't that just... startling? Yup, it's a shooter and it's 110 megs, with three different planes and
rockin' special effects, powerups, etc... etc... thank God! Dream is a B-Ball title in which SF2-style controller motions produce insane SSSF2T-style shadowed dunks. I guess Data East felt they had to stick near the fighting games on this one!
I heard recently that the Geo CD will be announced at the upcoming CES (they have a huge booth!) and that there is an RPG in the works along with a couple other games exclusively for the home CD market! Hey, we've never counted the Neo-Geo count. This could vault them right back in to the fray. They've done it in the arcades, why not the home?
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| March
1995 |
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SNK turned out in force for the first time in over two years with the roll out of their Neo-Geo CD. They had a cool Haohmaru actor livening up a dismal tent full of PC
goo, as well as a Samurai contest that we would have easily won, if they would have picked Nick. Most of the launch titles are CD versions of older cartridge stuff, but there were four new games present, including: Panic Bomber, Zed Blade,
Gururin, and Fight Fever. The best news is that there is a Samurai Shodown RPG, an ADK RPG, and a 266 meg Fatal Fury 3, all on the way to CD! If SNK releases some platformers and
RPGs, they could easily grab back a big chunk of their home users, let's hope they do!
Let me start you off with some SNK news. Since Matsushita is releasing the Power-PC upgrade for the 3DO, SNK thought it best to introduce a 32-bit upgrade for their Neo-Geo CD. Apparently, this powerful upgrade will cost no more than 5,000 yen ($50), but you'll have to send your Neo CD in to SNK to get the upgrade. SNK will officially announce this upgrade in Spring. The first game programmed for the 32-bit Neo, the 266 meg Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, will be out in arcades in March and for the home in April. I probably shouldn't mention this right after the 32-bit CD announcement, but seems that SNK is planning to announce a brand new 64-bit home system late '95. And finally some big news for Neo-Geo RPG fans. A game that's in development right now, exclusively for the
Neo-CD, is Samurai Shodown: The RPG! Early rumors report that the battle scenes in the RPG will be regular fighting game style!
Sources at SNK have confirmed that the new 64-bit Neo-Geo CD II will be released in the 4th quarter of this year for arcade and home.
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| April
1995 |
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We got more info and shots of Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, which I covered in last month's
JN. A few major changes have been made, with the most important being the addition of the "Sway Line System". There are now three lines of depth on the screen and you can attack your opponent with regular punches, kicks or specials no matter which line they're on- jumping to different lines is no longer required. Five characters from the previous Fatal Furies- Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai and Geese- along with five new characters, Bob Wilson, Blue Mary, Franco Bash, Mochizuki Sokaku and Won-Fu, are the fighters this time around. Plus, the old characters have new moves. The 266 meg FF3 is due out in May for the Neo-Geo CD but the date is unknown for the cartridge system. Two other hot Neo titles shown were
Pulstar, a new, CG-based 200 meg R-Type-style shooter and Double Dragon, an amazing looking fighter, chock full of beautiful special effects, based on the side-scroll action games of old.
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| July
1995 |
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Apparently, users of the original cartridge Neo-Geo system in Japan are slightly po'ed that Neo
CD games cost 1/6 the price of cartridges and are released only one week to a month after the carts. SNK has decided to release a cheap CD upgrade to the Neo cart system to placate owners of the original Neo, or so the rumor says.
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| August
1995 |
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The Neo-Geo CD will be released in the US this Fall at a price of $399.99, including a pack in game. The pack in could be Samurai 2, but it is yet unconfirmed. Look for a wide variety of games to
follow aimed at the home user. Two of these are the amazing shooter
Pulstar, and the much, much anticipated Samurai RPG. This fantastic RPG will capture the essence of each warrior found in the fighting game. The next Neo fighter is a good, no, great one. Tengi-Makyo is coming home! The game features all of the characters from the popular series and looks amazing! There was no news at press time regarding Magician Lord 2, but I think it's a safe bet you'll be seeing it in the not to distant future. The American Neo-CD is double speed (the Japanese version was single) so you can look forward to less access time than you may have heard about or read elsewhere.
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| November
1995 |
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Word on the streets in Tokyo is that Sega (Japan) and
SNK (Japan) are negotiating cross-platform licensing.
Under the terms of the potential venture, SNK would be
able to release current or future Sega games on the
Neo-Geo, and likewise Sega would be able to release
current games on the Saturn, This deal is still under
consideration; stay tuned.
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| December
1995 |
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Finally, shots of the Samurai Shodown RPG! Known as
Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushido Retsuden in the
first two based on Samurai I and II, and the third
follows an original storyline. You begin the game by
selecting your main character from six possible
choices: Haohmaru, Galford, Nakoruru, Genjuro, Cham
Cham, or Ukyo. All the other Samurai characters will
join your party at some point, and characters from III
will also make an appearance. SSS:BR comes out in
early '96, we'll keep you posted.
Last month in Other Stuff we talked about a rumor
concerning Sega of Japan and SNK of Japan signing a
deal to do cross-platform games. Well, we are
happy to inform you guys that King of Fighters '95 and
Fatal Fury 3 are now on their way to the Sega
Saturn. The first Sega games that will appear on the
Neo-Geo from Sega are rumored to be Virtua Fighters
and one of Sega's big racing games.
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