SNK 40th Anniversary "Neo Geo Classic Edition"

The SNK brand is celebrating its 40th anniversary. To mark this milestone and to thank fans, the Osaka-based game company is working on a "new game machine" that will feature a compilation of popular Neo-Geo games.

Also announced is the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection for the Nintendo Switch. Which will include such classics as:

• Alpha Mission (console/arcade)
• 
Athena (console/arcade)
• 
Crystalis (console)
• 
Ikari Warriors (console/arcade)
• 
Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road (console/arcade)
• Ikari Warriors 3: The Rescue (console/arcade)
• Guerrilla War (console/arcade)
• P.O.W. (console/arcade)
• Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (arcade)
• Psycho Soldier (arcade)
• Street Smart (arcade)
• TNK III (console/arcade)
• Vanguard (arcade)

A limited edition of the game will also be available as a physical release in the west, which includes: a “Nostalgic Music Collection” soundtrack, “40th Anniversary Art Collection” hardcover art book, and a collector’s box.

 

We're all assuming "NES Mini" style emulator box at this point, right? (Which I'm not against, just wondering what the word is).

From the circle of non-gamers I hang out with, they'll need Metal Slug in there as their "killer app" to get the sales, I think.

Now that's something I'd like. I'm loving the Bitmap Books style artwork books of late, and I love a good VGM album too. I hope these are available separately.

 

I would be interested in grabbing one of the mini's espcially if it includes of the Metal Slug franchise

 

It's going to be shit isn't it.

 

if the neogeo x is anything to go by, then you betcha it will be!

 

*cough cough* MAME *cough*

Seriously though, if the controllers are the same, or very similar to the original ones, this might be a winner! NeoGeo fighting games need a good fighting stick.

 

I'm with you, but you may as well be talking ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to 90% of people.

I love these mini plug-and-play emulation boxes for non-technical folks who want a quick nostalgia hit. I don't love how so many of them are obvious cheap and nasty cash ins.

With that said, there was a great interview on RetroRGB with one of these "cheap cash in" manufacturers, which offered great insight. Basically some really enthusiastic retro gamer dude dealing with the bureaucracy and funding dramas of a parent company, and delivering the best he could with the shitty budget he got. So I get the commercial realities of that. I hope that over time with a combination of CPU power getting much cheaper and open source emulation getting much better that even the "cheap and nasty" stuff will reach a minimum level of quality.

With all that said, most of the "Famiclone" NES Clones and the Atari clone systems are at a point where even the terrible ones aren't that terrible, and keep folks wanting that nostalgia hit happy. Hopefully that will make it into the 16bit era at some point, as the required CPUs gets smaller and cheaper.

 

Looks like images and specs for the mini Neo Geo have been leaked. This has been confirmed as the Internation Retail version with the japanese version being a different colour. Whjich I prefer more over the plain black/white that the rest of the world will get.

RRP is rumoured to be set at around US$99. More details in post #19. Although no word on what accessories or controllers are included. Yet it would be sill not to include separate controller. Especialy if you plan on hooking it up to you larger TV rather than use the tiny included 3.5" LCD and arcade controller.

 

looks ok, but knowing SNK it will be too expensive and too limited for anyone but collectors.

 

Is it that hard to re-release a console with HDMI and associated sclaers so people can use their old carts/cds?

What's technically so hard about it?
I suppose it comes down to dollars, I would like to think they could remanufacture the old hardware and put an external hardware chip/software layer to enhance the graphics.

 

Top player's golf instead of Neo Turf Masters.

 

Actually looks pretty good. Bartop with built in monitor which might drive up the price, but means it can stand alone as a showpiece. Very interesting choice.

Games list is good. Most of the good stuff, not too much crap.

This could work well if they get the price right, and the emulation is good.

Price and market. Look at how much the Analogue SuperNt costs compared to a SNES Mini.

FWIW, you can buy consolised MVS units from China now:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/32850852119.html

 

Guessing it will come with the gamepad controllers. It would be kind of difficult to use if you wanted connect via hdmi and play on a larger TV instead of the small inbuilt 3.5" screen using the inbult arcade stick.

If the size of the Arcade stick would be ergonomically comfortable sitting so close to the screen and if the ROM will have additional space to allow more games to be added.

Hopefully there will be enough units produced so that everybody gets a fair chance to purchase. Unlike the Nintendo minis that sold out rather quickly due to the limited amount available with many missing out. And if it will support original or 3rd party Neo Geo controllers.

 

Current rumours are it will come with Neo Geo CD-ROM style gamepads.

SNK aren't SNK. They almost went bankrupt, and Playmore bought them in 2003.

From there, Playmore continued to fumble with them. Again almost bankrupt, the Chinese giant 37Games bought them, and have been quite successfully pimping out their IP in various retro collections. Lots of folks got upset that a company with a long heritage of Japanese development is now owned by the Chinese, but to their credit they're actually re-releasing their old IP in sensible formats across the entire planet at reasonable prices, making a profit from it, and keeping their games relevant and in people's minds. That's exactly what I want from IP owners of old games, and sadly not very many are doing it right.

It's a very different company today than the old "cost is no object, make it bigger and badder than everyone else" SNK of the 80s and 90s.

 

it's extremely small, i eagerly await Ben Heck turning it into a properly portable thing

I never did follow SNK but am not surprised they went bust I think most of their revenue came from the arcades.

 

They released an official handheld in 2013, with 20 games built in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_X

I saw quite a few of them around on my last trip to Japan a month ago.

They ported a hell of of a lot of their games to all sorts of consoles over the decades. They certainly didn't limit themselves to arcades (hardware wise. It's true that their style of games were always "arcadey"):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SNK_games

Their main problem was poor leadership. SNK managed to attract a lot of ex-Capcom staff in their heyday (Fatal Fury was designed by the Street Fighter 1 designer who jumped across), but didn't really innovate enough to keep them interested beyond a couple of titles. Capcom meanwhile were able to diversify outside of Mega-Man and Street Fighter and move on to more complex games (which they deemed necessary to survive in a changing market), while SNK were stuck at that level of game complexity due to no drive from their management.

 

Compared to some of the other offerings, neogeo X gold is actually quite good. The sticks are responsive and if you mod proper buttons in them they are great.

Hand held wise I've never played it, but hooked up to a tv it's pretty good.

 

This! So dumb. Gimme my Turf Masters.

 

SNK just officially announced the system too - west gets the black/grey and jpn gets a cool coloured one.

https://www.facebook.com/SNK.KOFWORLD/posts/631346383874352

 

But but but the coloured buttons are helpful.