Launched around 1989, the NEO-GEO quickly became the home of the beat 'em ups with such classics as King of Fighters. It also became the choice of console for the hardcore gamer and the filthy rich. Why the rich? Well at £200 a cart the casual gamer wasn't prepared to fork out for the games.
The reason for the hefty price tag was because the cart sizes were huge. The average cart weighed in at a wopping 196Mbytes. The games themselves were (at the time) amazing. Smooth animation and great gameplay made this an excellent multiplayer machine.
In 1995 SNK brought out the Neo-Geo CD(left) which was aimed at the general user. The graphics and gameplay remained but the price was dramatically reduced. However the console sold poorly due to the fact that the Playstation had just been released. Most of the games for the Neo-Geo CD were just remakes of the original Neo-Geo software which in itself was just fine but up against the mighty Sony, SNK needed to produce original games.. which it didn't...which is why it's dead now! However its spirit lives on in the form of the Neo-Geo Pocket Colour
