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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-47423994-1', 'fortunecity.ws'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <center> <br> <div> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.broadcaststation.net/ads/show_ad.php?width=728&height=90"></script> </div> </center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=95 BGCOLOR="#999999" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="044005f0ermwup.gif"> <div> <B>Moonsides </B></div> <div> <B>Full Running Neo Geo Rom Images</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Neo Geo Roms A I"><U><B>Neo Geo Roms A-l</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Neo Geo Roms m z"><U><B>Neo Geo Roms M-Z</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Neo Geo Emulators"><U><B>Neo Geo Emulators</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Me"><U><B>Contact Me</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=385 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0452cfd0.gif" border=0 width="300" height="253" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#C0C0C0" FACE="Arial" >(Neo Geo System with Nam-175 Cart)</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>In the late eighties, the popularity of video arcades plummeted. Many large arcade chains (such as the late, great Chuck E. Cheese) went belly-up soon after the boom of </B><B>Nintendo's NES</B><B>. As more people stayed home to play Zelda, the arcades suffered. With the new 16-bit systems and the computer games of the time, the games in the arcade seemed less and less impressive to the gaming public. When </B><B>SNK</B><B> (Shin Nihon Kikaku, translated as "New Japanese Project") decided to take on the arcade market in </B><B>1989</B><B>, it seemed like a bad business decision every step of the way. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>SNK had been an official Nintendo licensee for many years, producing several great games such as the critically acclaimed </B><B>Baseball Stars</B><B> and</B><B> Ikari Warriors</B><B> series. Although most of their games received favorable reviews across the board, SNK was by no means a major player in the US video game industry. When they announced their plans to introduce a state-of-the-art modular arcade system (dubbed the </B><B>Neo Geo MVS</B><B>), many people in the industry predicted a quick demise for both the system and SNK. How could a small, former third-party publisher break into the demanding arcade market and succeed? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>SNK's strengths lay in the design of its hardware. Its brain was composed of a </B><B>16-bit</B><B> microprocessor (68000) </B><B>and</B><B> an </B><B>8-bit</B><B> microprocessor (Z80). They were plentiful, cheap, and quite powerful for the time. Using them kept production costs down and made coding much easier, as both the 68000 and the Z80 were in common use at the time (Sega's Genesis had the same CPU combination, for example). The real magic of the Neo Geo lay in its custom graphics chipset and its ability to hold up to four games at once, switching between them at will. While this multi-game concept had been tried before (one example being Nintendo's </B><B>Playchoice</B><B> system), SNK's hardware was far superior to any of the multi-game systems currently available, and its vast ROM storage capacity (up to </B><B>330 megabits</B><B>, or 41.25 megabytes) allowed lush, detailed graphics. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A few months after the Neo Geo's inital arcade unveiling, the Neo Geo </B><B>home system</B><B> was announced. The hardware of the home system was identical to the MVS (arcade) version and the games were also identical, each containing both the arcade and console versions of each game, as well as full US and Japanese text. The Neo Geo home system was never meant for the mainstream, however. The console itself cost over $500US at the time of its release, and the games cost over $200US apiece. Although only true arcade aficionados could afford it, the Neo Geo home system sold fairly well upon its release. SNK's magazine advertising campaign (Bigger, Badder, Better) was particularly amusing in that it seemed to target the naive teenage gamer</B><B> </B><B>instead of its primary market of mature arcade-loving mediaphiles. The ads incorrectly touted it as a "</B><B>24-Bit System</B><B>" (due to its combination of a 16-bit and 8-bit processor), and the listed specs of competitive systems were </B><B>completely</B><B> inaccurate. After the initial advertising campaign, SNK opted not to advertise their home system anymore, as their games could be seen in nearly every arcade. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In </B><B>1992</B><B>, the popularity of the Neo Geo MVS really started to boom. </B><B>Capcom's Street Fighter 2</B><B> had lured people back into the arcade, and SNK capitalized on the success of the fighting genre in a big way. </B><B>Fatal Fury</B><B> was the first fighting game released for the Neo Geo, and it became an instant success. The graphics were equal in quality to SF2, and small details were added, such as changing weather and the ability to move between two planes at once. </B><B>Art of Fighting</B><B> carried on the tradition, adding HUGE characters and a smooth (but disorienting) scaling effect. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In the next five years, the Neo Geo library grew and grew. Some truly great games began to appear, such as </B><B>Puzzle Bobble</B><B> (</B><B>Bust-A-Move</B><B>), </B><B>Puzzle De Pon</B><B>, and </B><B>Windjammers</B><B>. As fighting games began to grow stale, SNK kept pushing the envelope, giving us the incredible </B><B>Samurai Shodown</B><B> series and continuing to improve on their popular </B><B>Fatal Fury</B><B> series.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Neo Geo's games were translated for many of the hot video game systems at the time, but the translations always fell below the quality of the original versions. Realizing that the home market for their games was still strong, SNK </B><B>redesigned</B><B> the Neo Geo home system to help drastically reduce the cost of their games. The high cost of the ROM chips was the main reason the games were so expensive, so SNK wisely chose to use a </B><B>CD-ROM drive</B><B> as the storage medium for their games. Not only would the cost of games be slashed, but the CD-ROM drive would enable full orchestral musical scores for their games.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>However, the Neo Geo CD system was still quite expensive upon its release (over $300US), and its CD-ROM drive was </B><B>horribly slow</B><B>. Games would often take up to a minute to load initially, and a pause of 20-30 seconds between rounds or levels was common. The CD audio was wonderful, but the long loading times were a far cry from the instant action of the arcade. The Neo Geo CD also received a very limited distribution, and never ended up reaching most of its target audience.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In 2001, over a decade after its introduction, the Neo Geo MVS is still sucking quarters from peoples' pockets. New software such as </B><B>Metal Slug </B><B>and </B><B>King of Fighters '98</B><B> push the capabilities of the Neo Geo to the limit, yielding beautiful graphics and high interactivity, but </B><B>slowdown</B><B> is common as the Neo's humble 68000 struggles to keep up. Although the system is quite </B><B>underpowered</B><B> today, it managed to last over </B><B>eight years</B><B> in the demanding arcade environment, and its hardware has out-lived every other 16-bit arcade hardware. Walk into any arcade, and you're bound to see a Neo Geo MVS. Not too bad for a former third-party publisher with almost no prior arcade experience, eh?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1998 also saw the first version of </B><B>Johan Kohler's Neo Geo emulator</B><B>. Initially released as a "teaser" version only capable of running one game (Nam 1975), it had extremely fast and faithful emulation, thanks mostly to </B><B>Neill Corlett's Starscream 68000</B><B> engine, the heart of many emulators. In the days following its release, the popularity of Gekko (as the emulator was later named) skyrocketed as people realized that many games could be played by simply renaming files. This discovery and the threat of possible legal trouble prompted Johan to remove the teaser from the public eye. </B></div> <bR> <div> <I>(05/17/01)</I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#C0C0C0" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0c0c0c000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Added <B>Breakers, Money Idol Exchanger </B>(sound fixed), <B>Stakes Winner 2, King of Fighters '98</B> (sound fixed), and <B>Shock Troopers</B> (sound fixed). </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0c0c0c000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Thanks once again to <B>DJ Infinity</B> for compiling and uploading the fixed ROM sets. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>