[ Retro Scan of the Week ] SNK Neo-Geo CD
December 30th, 2013 by Benj Edwards
“Don’t cross the line unless you’re serious.”
In all my two decades of video game collecting adventures, I’ve never personally owned a Neo-Geo console. (I have owned a Neo-Geo Pocket Color, but that’s different.) It’s probably because I started collecting with inexpensive systems, games and accessories, and the Neo-Geo line was always scarce and expensive. Also, I was never particularly drawn to the Neo-Geo’s brand of action-heavy arcade games.
So part of me wants to rectify the lack of Neo-Geo in my life, even if only for completion’s sake. But then again, I’ve played the games on emulators for over a decade now, and I’ve been satisfied with that. What do you guys think?
Discussion Topic of the Week: What was your first CD-based video game system?
December 30th, 2013 at 7:36 am
Mmm, the NeoGeo… I’d love to own a NeoGeo(I too have a Pocket Color, and don’t consider it the same thing at all).
Personally, I say go big or go home. Get a cart-based NeoGeo, the NGCD is for posers. 😛
More seriously, everything I know says the NGCD has atrocious load times. It’s moving a LOT of data off a 1x CD-ROM into RAM, and you can’t move on until it’s through. May as well stick with emulation.
Continuing the theme of go big or go home, I’d PERSONALLY get a 4-slot arcade cab, with a Samurai Shodown title in slot 1(One of my favorite fighting games, just for style). Slot 2 goes to a Metal Slug game(it’s not a NeoGeo without one!) next, and from there… AeroFighters and Magical Drop will finish it out and get you a representative sample of every 90s arcade.
This may not exactly be PRACTICAL advice, but it’s SEXY advice.
My first CD system was a 486… wait, do PCs count? Fine, it was a PlayStation. Not the most INTERESTING of answers, but it’s the accurate one.
December 30th, 2013 at 9:02 am
I think you should go for it. I forget, do you have a Vectrex yet?
December 30th, 2013 at 9:33 am
Yep, I have a Vectrex. Used to have two, in fact. 🙂 What a wonderful, quirky system.
I used to have a Panasonic 3DO and a Philips CD-i, but don’t have those any longer — they were some of the few consoles I ever sold. Other than those, the Neo-Geo and Neo-Geo CD are the only major US consoles (off the top of my head) that I don’t have.
My collection list is here, by the way. It’s still pretty accurate:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/redwolfs-electronics-collection/
December 30th, 2013 at 9:42 pm
At least SNK ported the Metal Slug series to Android… It’s still a very fun and amazing series. I could only imagine what it would have been like to have a Neo Geo console back in the day when most of my friends had Nintendo and Sega Genesis but alas it was too damn expensive… You were probably better off buying an Amiga 500. At least you’d be able to copy games and do your homework on an Amiga.
December 30th, 2013 at 10:38 pm
Yeah, a PC with a CD-ROM was also my first CD-based gaming system, just like Jaybee. Early 1995, Sony 2X CD-ROM with a custom interface card (pre-IDE). First CD-based game was Under a Killing Moon.
First proper CD-based console was the Sega Saturn, which I got on clearance in 1999, I think.
December 31st, 2013 at 10:46 pm
The first gaming system I ever had with an optical drive was the CD-ROM expansion for the Sega Genesis. I bought it used from someone in college. I only had a couple of games on CD. This would have been 1992 or 1993, I think. I still have the Sega, but the CD-ROM has been lost to the sands of time. I still enjoy Altered Beast on the old Sega from time to time.
January 2nd, 2014 at 2:41 am
my first Video Games System on a CD is a 486DX-2/66 with Double Speed Sony (CDU33.. something) connected to a Sound Blaster clone (Sound Commander). And the first MPC Game for that system was MYST.
but if we talk about console, the first one i own is a Dreamcast.
January 3rd, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Mine was a Nintendo Gamecube and the first game was Luigi’s Mansion. I never saw any must-have games that drove me to a PSX and even today, I still haven’t found any.
January 4th, 2014 at 8:26 am
My first CD based system was the Sega CD. I only ever had a couple of games for it, and I’m ashamed to admit how much time I spent playing Sewer Shark.
March 6th, 2015 at 11:25 am
I used to rent a Playstation console along with Twisted Metal at my local video store but my parents didn’t want me to have one.
When I hit adulthood, I bought my friend’s PSOne with a bunch of games so it was the first CD based system I owned.