Neo Geo

[Ninja Spirit]

Anyone got at least a cartridge system or the MVS?

I have AES, a broken NGCD and a NGPC

[esteban]

Anyone got at least a cartridge system or the MVS?

I have AES, a broken NGCD and a NGPC

Unfortuntely, I don't own any SNK systems. One of these days I'll get AES/MVS (whatever one is cheaper) and a handful of games. I'm no fan of  vs. fighting games, so a lot of the top Neo Geo titles don't appeal to me. But I'd get an AES for Magician Lord alone.  That game is the Athena of the Neo Geo -- a game I really like and want to beat, but is hard as balls.  Anyway, many of the non-vs. fighting games appeal to me (like Nam 75, that game is addictive). I've played the Metal Slug series too much, so I'd get other titles I was less familiar with first.

Of course, none of this will happen in the next 5 years. But I promise you that one day I WILL beat Magician Lord. And I WILL beat Athena (or break my NES out of frustration).

[jlued686]

I have the Neo Geo home console.  I've got three games for it: Samurai Shodown, some 1942 shooting clone, and a Final Fight style game.  I can't remember their names at the moment.  

Neo Geo gaming is one expensive hobby, so I haven't really gotten into it much.

[Ninja Spirit]

Yeah I feel ya, but there are some cases in which to be a "good" Neo collector, you feel you gotta have at least 1 Samurai Shodown, a King of Fighters or a Metal Slug. I only got 9 games and I'm happy enough. Emulation does the rest.

Ghost Pilots is the 1942 type game you're prolly talking about.

And there are quite a few Final Fight clones on Neo.

>Sengoku
>Robo Army
>Burning Fight
>Mutation Nation
>Ninja Combat

[jlued686]

Mutation Nation.  That's the one.  It's not very good, but fun for a while.  Kind of like Riot Zone for the Turbo Duo.

[GUTS]

I have an upright cabinet, it's only a one slot though so that kinda sucks.  It rules though, Blazing Star is my favorite shooter of all time.

[Keranu]

I have a NGPC and love it to death; easily my favorite stand-alone portable system. I plan on getting a MVS sometime though (which you should do Steve because MVS games are waaay cheaper).

[PCEngineFX]

I did have a Neo Geo Gold system (I LOVED the carts!) but man getting the games were just too costly.  I sold the unit a while back and bought a NGCD...now I have most of the US CD games.

I also jumped on the Neo Geo Pocket when it was released here in the US.  Bought two color units for my wife and I to system-link on, and also bought the B&W version.  Really too bad the screen wasn't backlit though.

[PC Gaijin]

I never got into AES or MVS because I am not a fighting game fan. I like the original Street Fighter II, and cheesy stuff like Power Stone or Rival Schools, but SNK's fighters never appealed to me. I always thought the Neo Geo represented a lot of wasted potential. Since fighters were so hugely popular at the time, they dominated Neo Geo releases squeezing out genres I enjoyed more (like the side-scrolling action/platformer or beat-em-up). This is also partly the reason my interest in videogames severely waned in the latter part of the 16-bit era (after SFII mania).

However, I loved the NGPC. Wonderful system with some terrific games (and oddly enough, I enjoyed SNK's fighters on that system).

[Keranu]

People need to stop saying that the Neo Geo is practically a "fighting game only" system and realize that there is more to the Neo Geo than fighting games, even though it does have a good share of them (and I don't see how SNK's fighting games wouldn't appeal to people that play fighting games). The following is a small list I have constructed of some non-fighting Neo Geo games that new comers to the Neo Geo may enjoy:

Magician Lord - Excellent platform game and even though you get infinite continues, it gets to be pretty challenging and requires some thinking to find where to go. First Neo Geo game I ever played actually.

Windjammers - This game is so addicting, especially if you have a friend to play with you. Me and family members really get into this game and have strong competitions. It's kind of like Pong, but with really unique and original twists.

Crossed Swords - A bit cheesy, but it's a fun first-person viewed adventure with RPG elements and a total arcade feel. Really fun to play through once with a friend.

Blue's Journey - A fun, cute, colorful platform game with some creative ideas. It's a pretty fun game.

Cyber Lip - Before Metal Slug, this was a platform shooter for the Neo Geo. Though it's not as extreme as Metal Slug, it's still a great old school style platform shooter or run n' gun game.

Sengoku - The first game of a triology beat'em up series for the Neo Geo. I forgot how this game was exactly, but I know it's fun and was pretty original. The sequels are pretty good too.

Top Player's Golf - I know, a golf game. But for some reason when I first started getting into Neo Geo, this was one of those early games for me and I love the game! I don't know what it is, but this game just feels so fun and relaxing for me, unlike most golf games.

League Bowling - This game is just plain addicting!

This is just a small list and they are all older games for the system, but their fun classic games that classic gamers will appreciate.

[OldRover]

Saying the Neo Geo is a fighting game system is like saying the PCE is a shmup system...imo.

[Nutribrain]

I first bought a Neo Geo Homesystem together with Mutation Nation, back in 1992. But I sold the system for very little, together with all 18 games I cumulated till then, in 1995 to get a new PowerMac.
Then 3 years ago I bought a new one off Ebay together with Sengoku 3. I like this game very very much! I know most people don't like this part of the Sengoku series, but for me it was the perfect "reentrance" into NeoGeo gaming. The game's soundtrack is mostly fantastic, especially the opening.
Now I have around 20 games again and enjoy them. I'll never ever sell this machine again. It isn't worth the effort and cost too much.

And as I'm also not a huge fan of vs-fighters I can tell you that there are many games of different genres released for the NeoGeo.

[Ninja Spirit]

Oh my god who can people not like Sengoku 3?

It was definitely better than the other 2. It even had some elements of a fighting game, combos and juggles.

Last Resort was a great shooter, anyone who played it notice that it ripped off R-Type in some aspects? One of them includes the black screen that says "READY" every time you lose a life.

[Keranu]

I personally prefer the first two Sengoku games over the third. When I first play Sengoku 3, I loved it and easily thought it was the best in the series. While it's still a awesome game, I found out that I prefer the first two more because it's story was more original, controls were basic (even though the combos were really sw33t), and the game didn't repeat enemies as often as Sengoku 3 did, not to mention that Sengoku 3 had those bloody annoying frog enemies that were so hard to hit (I think specials were the only way to really hit them, haven't played it in awhile) and they were repeated often like the others. Also I loved the cheesy characters in the first two   .

I haven't played Last Resort in so long, but I should play it again because I would probably love it if I played it again. Pulstar was another horizontal shooter for the Neo Geo that was hugely inspired by R-Type, but still a fun and very difficult game, along with it's awesome sequel "Blazing Star" as well. There is this other horizontal shooter for Neo Geo that was pretty fun, but I forgot the name, it's graphic style reminded me of the Gradius games.

Oh yeah and Twinkle Star Sprites for the Neo Geo is one of the best games ever made ;) .

[neokellyzero]

I had an AES- Found it in a small used game store for $120 with two controllers and world heroes all complete. awesome deal and I loved neo geo in the arcade so i picked it up.  I'm a huge metal slug and sengoku fan- but when I(or rather my wife) found out the the orginal metal slug cart cost a couple of car payments I decided that I could get some of the better games for the saturn or pce and still make my mortgage- purists will say it's not the same.  I know this... but then again it also better than no metal slug/garou/s.shodown-  if i ever win the loterry I will get another one-

[Keranu]

Just buy a Neo Geo MVS (you could have a supergun so it can hook up to your TV and act more like a home console) because the games are so much cheap in MVS form, like you're saving over 50% or more of the price of AES games. Or if you don't mind some killer loading times for the bigger games, Neo Geo CD systems are nice too.

[GUTS]

Yeah I agree with Keranu, the frog enemies in Sengoku 3 were weak as hell.  Not only were they too short to use any good moves on, but they repeated all the damn time.  The game gives you a large number of cool moves to use, then 50% of the enemies are too small to use them on.  Sengoku 2 was way better with it's different characters and cool levels.

[PC Gaijin]

I didn't say the Neo Geo was a fighting games only system. I said that fighters dominated its releases, particularly after the first few years. And frankly of the non-fighting games for the system only a couple were really entertaining to me (Metal Slug, Neo Turf Masters, Sengoku 3, Neo Driftout, Neo Dodgeball). Most of the other non-fighters just weren't any good (IMHO before any NG fans jump on me). A handful of worthwhile games usually isn't enough to convince me to buy a system (although I do have a Supergrafx *cough*).

[NeoFreak]

I have a U.S Gold system with s-video and stereo hook-ups. my homecarts are listed on my collection page.

http://www.gamespot.com/user/collection.html?user=NeoFreak330

[NeoFreak]

I'm also a big sengoku 3 fan, but I havent really given it as much love as I have some of my other homecarts, love that japanese spine!  

[Keranu]

Nice AES collection you have going; how about you just ship Metal Slug 3 over to me, eh?    

[Ninja Spirit]

http://videogamecollectors.com/gallery/Lord-C-s-Room-of-Doom/Neo_Geo?full=1
My Neo stuff

I used to have Super Spy but I sold that.

[NeoFreak]

Nice AES collection you have going; how about you just ship Metal Slug 3 over to me, eh?    

thats an original release "gold warning sticker" ms3 too.


my baby.


a pic of my collection from about 4 years ago.

[Keranu]

Haha that "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS" line is perfect!

[TJ]

I gots me all 3! Here's my SNK collection (all US stuff unless noted):

Neo-Geo AES w/2 sticks + 1 memory card
Alpha Mission II
Baseball Stars Professional
CyberLip
Fatal Fury Special (JP)
Fire Suplex
Nam 1975
Ninja Combat
Riding Hero
Samurai Shodown
Sengoku
Tengai Makyou Shin Den (JP; aka Kabuki Klash)

Neo-Geo MVS 1-slot cabinet (conversion, w/my own custom-built control panel)
Samurai Shodown
Samurai Shodown II
Bust-A-Move
Blazing Star

Neo-Geo Pocket Color, Stone Blue
Big Bang Pro Wrestling (JP)
Biomotor Unitron
Card Fighters Clash - Capcom Version
Match of the Millennium
Metal Slug 1st Mission
Metal Slug 2nd Mission (EU)
Puzzle Tsugete Pon! (JP)
Samurai Shodown! 2
Rockman Battle & Fighters (JP)
Pac-Man
Faselei! (EU)
Cotton (JP)
Bust-A-Move Pocket

I really like a lot of the first-generation NG games like Nam 1975, Riding Hero, and Cyberlip...I have warm fuzzy memories of renting the AES from a local game shop and losing my damn mind over how cool they were in 1991. =) And I know, I need to work on my MVS library -- I don't have any Metal Slugs or Last Blades or Garou or nothin'!

[Keranu]

Wow, I haven't talked to anyone who has actually rented Neo Geo games. How much did it cost to rent them? Like $50 bucks, haha?

My NGPC collection (in order of purchase):

Baseball Stars Color
Biomotor Unitron
King of Fighters R2 (Absolultely amazing how close it is to '98 in ways.)
Sonic Pocket Adventure
SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium
Card Fighters Clash (SNK version)

Not so many games, but I mainly collected these when I was younger and it was harder to get money then. I should get some more games because NGPC rocks so hard!

[TJ]

Wow, I haven't talked to anyone who has actually rented Neo Geo games. How much did it cost to rent them? Like $50 bucks, haha?

heh...nah...If I recall, I think this place charged like 10 bucks a night for the system and 5 bucks per game, or something average like that. I remember being super excited to go pick it up cuz I reserved the system as soon as the last person was done with it, and I think I got it for 2 or 3 nights along with Nam and Riding Hero, and played it well into the wee hours each night.

It was a pretty cool little hole-in-the-wall rental store, I think it was just called The Game Shop and it was locally owned. Had a great selection of NES, Genesis and Turbo games, maybe 5 Neo Geo games, and you could rent all those systems too of course, and they even had a Super Famicom and the first batch of launch games (Super Mario World, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Actraiser, and Bombuzal) before the SNES came out in America. I used to hang out at that shop a LOT, and got to know the guys that worked there. I think I applied for a job there too, but the owner, who never actually came there, thought I was just some punk-ass gamer geek kid who loitered there all day (which I mostly was), and didn't realize I probably kept that place in business longer than it would've without my support =D

Is it weird to get nostalgic over a game rental shop from 15 years ago?

[Keranu]

That video rental store sounds awesome! I love video rental stores rent movies all the time from four different stores. Video stores out here in Illinois are pretty awesome from what I know because the prices for rentals out here can be much cheaper than other states. The usual deal out here is $1 for two non-new released videos. Some video stores also have a great selection, but now one of my favorite video stores is constantly getting rid of their older movies and obtaining more newer ones, which is totally sucks. There was this video store when I was a kid growing up called "Video Circle" and that place was totally rad until it shut down.

[Ninja Spirit]

From what I heard Neo Geo systems were ONLY for rental back then.

[esteban]

From what I heard Neo Geo systems were ONLY for rental back then.

They were selling Neo Geo in JC Penney (department store) back in the day (this was Willowbrook Mall, NJ). First they had Magician Lord as a demo. Then, later, it was Baseball Stars.  The A/V dept. was on the second floor, and was "dead", so my brothers and I would be able to play for 2 hours without worrying about anyone bothering us (besides the salesman... he would say something every 1/2 hour or so).
Eventually, some other kids discovered JC Penney's Neo Geo and it got a little more crowded... but everyone seemed to abide by an unwritten "code" to keep the existence of the Neo Geo a secret.

anyway, it was much cheaper than going to the arcade, which was downstairs and always crowded.

[PC Gaijin]

Is it weird to get nostalgic over a game rental shop from 15 years ago?

Nope. I have similar feelings about the place I used to rent all my Turbo and Genesis games from during 89-92 . I grew up near a "college town" and there was this little rental shop that rented out videogames and (surprise) PC software. Now the PC software rental always struck me as being a bit shady (I always got a "yeah, 'rent' this software and hey if you happen to keep the program on your PC after returning your rental well we can't do anything about that wink wink" vibe from the place), but this store was the only place I knew of that rented Turbo software. Whoever ran the place must have been a fan of "unpopular" systems because besides the Turbo they rented out Sega Master System games and didn't start offering NES games until around 1990. They had all the Turbo games too (including CD games), which is partly why my collection of Turbo games was very small until around 91 when the prices on Turbo games via mail-order started to plummet. They also rented out systems. I rented the Turbo CD unit and Ys several months before I was able to buy one. Prices were reasonable too, I think it used to cost $1.50 for five days (inflation counts for something, but still I think the last time I rented a game at Blockbuster it was around $5-6).

I miss that place. I last saw it open around 1997 but don't know what happened to it (probably couldn't compete against the likes of BB and Hollywood Video, which is kind of sad).

And that story about JC Penneys reminds of my own experience with a demo Turbo at Penneys in the fall of '89 Usually, the only game they ever had in it was World Class Baseball, but hey I happened to like baseball and that game so I played it whenever I visited the mall. And as stevek666 described hardly anyone ever played it so I usually had the system to myself. They only time I ever saw anyone else playing it was a guy in his 50s struggling to figure out how to use the control pad I showed him how to use it and we played a game of World Class Baseball. Good times, heh.

That reminds me, anyone notice that NEC had pretty good distribution for the Turbo early on? Besides Penneys I also remember the Turbo being sold at Sears, and I bought my Turbo from Wal-Mart. However, the Wal-Mart in my area dropped the Turbo after the fall of 89, and the system in general seemed to disappear from most retail outlets except for places like Babbages and Toys R Us. I guess most retailers saw the writing on the wall fairly quickly.

[esteban]

Ahhh, great stuff you wrote there. Back in the day, I would never have believed that you could rent Turbo games anywhere. I love hearing about it. One of my favorite mom-n-pop video rental places did have a great library of SMS games, though.

I've never heard of any Turbo-related stuff being sold at:
Wal-Mart
Sears

.. so that is interesting to hear. I've never witnessed it, but folks have reported that Radio Shack also carried TG-16. Of course, it must have varied from store-to-store, because used to go to Radio Shack frequently and my locations were lame.

[PC Gaijin]

Yeah, the fact that this small city (I think the population at the time was around 100k or less) had a rental store that carried Turbografx games was kind of surprising. As I said I think whoever ran the store must have been a fan of the Master System and Turbo because they had almost complete libraries for both systems.

Also, I get a lot "huh? Wal-Mart sold Turbografx-16? Are you sure?" whenever I post about buying one there. Yep, that's where I got my Turbo in October 1989. I grew up in a small rural town (less than 5k population) in the middle of nowhere, so I am thinking Wal-Mart must have carried the Turbo line nationally for at least the fall of 89. The store where I got the Turbo only had about a half dozen game titles though. Oddly enough, they also had a single Turbo CD unit for sale (but no CD games!). They had 6 Turbografx-16 units, of which only one was sold that entire fall (to me ). That's probably a good indicator of why they dropped the Turbo line pretty quickly .

And Sears definitely carried the Turbo, I have an old Sears catalog around here somewhere with the Turbo in it. Speaking of Sears I went there recently to buy a window A/C unit and damn have they fallen on hard times. I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s that was THE place to go for almost everything, including video games.

Here's another memory for you: in the summer of 91 I started working at that same Wal-Mart where I got my Turbo. I ended up in the electronics department and was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the SNES. The first shipment finally came the first week of September, but I was broke at the time (ah, to be 16 again and have a junky jalopy always needing repairs). Anyway, waiting another week for my next paycheck was torture but when I finally got that system home and heard the reverb effects while underground riding on Yoshi in SMW...beautiful . The next year (up until the summer of 92 and the release of Street Fighter II) was 16-bit heaven for me. I bought almost every SNES game as soon as it came out and also bought a large chunk of the Turbo library as mail order houses cleared out their inventory. Almost every penny I earned went into video games. Unfortunately, after Street Fighter II brought on a deluge of (IMHO) generic fighting games my interest in video games waned. Not to mention other concerns (like college) started occupying more and more of my attention, so I kind of missed out on the latter half of the 16-bit era (the big rivalry between SNES and Genesis). A lot of people look back on those days as the golden age, but to me the best era was early 16-bit (from the introduction of the Turbo and Genesis to until just after the SNES came out).

[GUTS]

There was a kickass little rental store here when I was a kid that rented Turbo & Master System games.  In fact I remember them only renting Splatterhouse to me because my dad was with me when I rented it, it was the first game I'd ever seen with a warning label on it.  I miss that place, all the big places put them out of business (although I can't complain TOO much since hollywood video was the only place in town that rented Sega CD games).

[Ninja Spirit]

Oh snap I remember always going in sears and Toys R Us just to play the Sega Genesis jukebox.

[Keranu]

Nice stories, PC Gaijin! Also there was this guy I talked to online from Canada who said he would go into Radioshack just to play Bonk's Revenge on their TG-16 set up. My brother always said how he say a Turbo Duo display a Toys R Us and always remembered it having some anime style to it or something. When he saw the box of my Turbo Duo, he started to remember things better. He also got to check out the CD-I that was hooked up on our Magnavox TV when we bought it back in the early 90's.

[TJ]

Speaking of Sears ... I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s that was THE place to go for almost everything, including video games.

I dunno how old you are (if you were 16 in '91, we're about the same age) but at age 31, I consider myself part of the Atari generation (as opposed to those who grew up on the NES, or SNES, etc) and I remember around 1980 or 81, before I finally got a 2600 in '82, going to Sears with my dad and playing the Atari VCS and the Intellivision (or rather, the Sears Video Arcade and Sears Super Video Arcade). I think Combat was on the 26 and I know Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack was on the INTV. I also remember almost literally drooling over the old Sears and JC Penney xmas catalogs, with their pages upon pages upon pages of Atari and Intellivision games...screenshots for every single game!

I also remember a small shop in the Valley Fair Mall here in Appleton, WI (point of trivia: the Valley Fair Mall here in Appleton, WI was the very first indoor mall in the country!) called Video Exchange, which was probably the earliest place I knew of that had these weird things called "videocassettes" with movies on them. They also sold videogames of course, and I know I saw NFL Football played on the INTV there, and my parents bought 2600 Pac-Man there for, I think, 25 bucks. I recall looking at their display case of Atari games and seeing Indy 500 with the driving controllers and thinking that $45 was an outrageous price for a videogame.

Also, your story about the SNES echoes mine pretty closely. I remember that Toys R Us was the first place to sell it, like a week before the scheduled launch date. I had it all planned out, to buy it on the release date with my paycheck that I would have gotten two days earlier from my crappy Burger King job, but the Sunday prior to that expected date was a full-page TRU ad in the newspaper that shouted SUPER NINTENDO IS HERE! In a panic, I had to borrow 250 bucks from my dad (my enabler again, it seems) to get the SNES and F-Zero on the release day. I was in line at 10 am and got the second one out the door. Like you, all my income went to SNES games, as I bought all the major releases right on their first sale date -- Actraiser, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, Final Fight...and I remember saving up 80 BUCKS (yes, 80 bucks, do you remember that bullsh*t?) for Street Fighter II, and playing it so much that it actually did make it worth 80 bucks for me.

Which leads me into a story about the SF2 tournament I almost won and the greatest SF2 match I ever had, or have ever seen, in my life...but I'll save that one for another time =)

[jlued686]

We also had a local rental shop that rented Turbo games.  Although I think myself and about two other people were the only ones who rented the games.  I used to rent games from there all the time: Blazing Lasers, Bonk, Splatterhouse, Drop Off, etc.  and then go out and buy them if I liked them.

Even better?  In about 1998 they went out of business and I bought their entire Turbografx collection (about 20 games) for $4 each.

[esteban]

We also had a local rental shop that rented Turbo games.  Although I think myself and about two other people were the only ones who rented the games.  I used to rent games from there all the time: Blazing Lasers, Bonk, Splatterhouse, Drop Off, etc.  and then go out and buy them if I liked them.

Even better?  In about 1998 they went out of business and I bought their entire Turbografx collection (about 20 games) for $4 each.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man. Goddamn.

[esteban]

Speaking of Sears ... I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s that was THE place to go for almost everything, including video games.

I dunno how old you are (if you were 16 in '91, we're about the same age) but at age 31, I consider myself part of the Atari generation (as opposed to those who grew up on the NES, or SNES, etc) and I remember around 1980 or 81, before I finally got a 2600 in '82, going to Sears with my dad and playing the Atari VCS and the Intellivision (or rather, the Sears Video Arcade and Sears Super Video Arcade). ...

Wow, it seems that I missed out on the Sears stuff. The Sears locations we went to never really catered to video gamers, from what I remember, although I loved playing with the stereos in the A/V dept. as a kid.

Thanks for all the other info as well, it was fun to read. Especially about the first indoor mall!  I live in Lakewood, CA -- and our town, too, is actually built around one of the earliest indoor malls in the U.S. (or is it CA?, I can't remember). Yes, that was the concept: make the mall the center of the town! This concept had previously failed in other parts of the country, but it worked here.

[esteban]

Yeah, the fact that this small city (I think the population at the time was around 100k or less) had a rental store that carried Turbografx games was kind of surprising. As I said I think whoever ran the store must have been a fan of the Master System and Turbo because they had almost complete libraries for both systems.... A lot of people look back on those days as the golden age, but to me the best era was early 16-bit (from the introduction of the Turbo and Genesis to until just after the SNES came out).

Rock on. This is the type of information I've been curious about for a long time. It really helps put the marketing of the TG-16 in context... I honestly did not know that TG-16 was sold by so many different retailers until some recent threads on this topic.

[esteban]

Also, I get a lot "huh? Wal-Mart sold Turbografx-16? Are you sure?" whenever I post about buying one there. Yep, that's where I got my Turbo in October 1989. I grew up in a small rural town (less than 5k population) in the middle of nowhere, so I am thinking Wal-Mart must have carried the Turbo line nationally for at least the fall of 89. The store where I got the Turbo only had about a half dozen game titles though. Oddly enough, they also had a single Turbo CD unit for sale (but no CD games!). They had 6 Turbografx-16 units, of which only one was sold that entire fall (to me ). That's probably a good indicator of why they dropped the Turbo line pretty quickly .

And Sears definitely carried the Turbo, I have an old Sears catalog around here somewhere with the Turbo in it. Speaking of Sears I went there recently to buy a window A/C unit and damn have they fallen on hard times. I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s that was THE place to go for almost everything, including video games.

Rock on. This is the type of information I've been curious about for a long time. It really helps put the marketing of the TG-16 in context... I honestly did not know that TG-16 was sold by so many different retailers until some recent threads on this topic.

[Blasta_Mazta]

i remembger when neo geo games were out in the arcades back in the day. the games blew everyone away. every kid wanted a neo geo console but the general feeling was the price was far too high.

[rolins]

I remember drouling at Neo Geo ads in a Gamepro magazines back in '92. It is the cadillac of video game console. I still want a Neo Geo AES to this day, but the investment is too rich for me. My favorite NG games were Metal Slug X, Metal Slug 3, KOF98, Last Blade, Samurai Showdown 2, Pulstar, and Garou MOTW.

[Ninja Spirit]

Persistence. That's what got me a Neo Geo system with Samurai Shodown 1 and 2 and Fatal Fury Special for 200 bucks.

[PC Gaijin]

I dunno how old you are (if you were 16 in '91, we're about the same age) but at age 31, I consider myself part of the Atari generation (as opposed to those who grew up on the NES, or SNES, etc) and I remember around 1980 or 81, before I finally got a 2600 in '82, going to Sears with my dad and playing the Atari VCS and the Intellivision (or rather, the Sears Video Arcade and Sears Super Video Arcade). I think Combat was on the 26 and I know Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack was on the INTV. I also remember almost literally drooling over the old Sears and JC Penney xmas catalogs, with their pages upon pages upon pages of Atari and Intellivision games...screenshots for every single game!

I'm creeping up on 31 (a few more months). And yes, I consider myself part of the Atari generation rather than the NES. I well remember the real golden age of the arcades (not the fighting game craze of the 90s, but the good stuff from the early 80s), Pac-Man Fever, video game cartoons on Saturday morning TV and all that jazz. I scratch my head whenever people complain about the "mainstreaming" of video games as if that was a recent trend. Video games were HUGE in the early 80s, I think they may have penetrated the mass market even more than today. I mean c'mon you had a silly song about Pac-Man breaking into the top 10, Pac-Man cereal, and everyone I knew (even adults) were crazy about arcades and home consoles.

However, I don't really remember anything other than Atari when it came to home consoles. I didn't "discover" Intellivision until around 1988 when a buddy bought one at a flea market, and we played Sea Battle just for laughs between bouts of Simon's Quest and Double Dragon on the NES. The 2600 was huge though, all my friends had one. My parents wouldn't relent on buying me a "game machine" though, so I had to make do with an antiquated Pong machine that was a hand-me-down from my cousins. Then home computers came along and my parents finally gave up and bought me an Atari 800 in 1983. Of course, the 800 was really a souped up 5200 (or rather, the 5200 was a cut-down 800 ) and I had many good times playing games on it. I actually used that computer for games, programming, and word processing all the way up to 1990 when the keyboard finally failed and I made the switch to a PC-compatible. I don't remember the 5200 being all that popular either; I only knew one kid that had one, but I recall being really impressed by the 5200 version of Pac-Man (partly because the 2600 port was so bad). One of my cousins had a Colecovision, but the only game he ever had was Donkey Kong Jr. And I vividly remember "the crash" if only for the huge bins packed with 25 cent cartridges that sat outside of KB Toys until literally 1985 or 86! The funny thing is that KB never sold all those carts, and in the late 80s when video games picked up again they started selling the old 2600 and 5200 carts again. The crazy thing is that they marked them back up to like $8-10. I remember peeling off a price sticker and seeing the old marked down 25 cent sticker underneath .

Sears rocked for video games, I'm surprised your store wasn't the same steve666. The one we used to go to had a huge video game section during the Atari era, then it switched over to home computers (mainly the Commodore 64) in the mid-80s before going back to video games with the NES in the late 80s. Montgomery Wards also used to sell lots of video games; that's actually where I got my Atari 800 computer, and I have distinct memories of playing Ghouls N Ghosts on their demo Genesis, plus buying a few Turbo games like Sidearms there. So add Montgomery Wards to the list of retailers that used to sell Turbo stuff, they had a special electronics/video game section with its own name (like a store-within-a-store) but I can't remember what they were called.

[PCEngineHell]

Yea I started playing on the 2600 in late 1980 when I was 3.They tried when I was just barly past 2,but taht didnt work out so well.I remember Combat mostly,and my sister beating me silly.But by the time I was 5 I could win and hold my own on it,and I played Pac Man,and Astroids alot.
In the arcades I played Mario Bros,Kangaroo,Donkey Kong,some firetruck game that had this huge sitdown cab and 2 people could play,cant remember the name,and Zaxxon.I later moved on to Gyrus,Super Mario Bros.,and so many more.One of my fav Atari arcade games of all time was Road Blasters,and I still play it when I see one running.

[TJ]

In the arcades I played...some firetruck game that had this huge sitdown cab and 2 people could play,cant remember the name

That's so funny you should mention that, because as far as I can remember, that was the very first videogame I ever played in an arcade! And I know the name of it. Are you ready? The name of the firetruck game is...

Fire Truck. =)

It was by Atari and one player steered while the other moved the ladder.

Yay Fire Truck!

[RCduck7]

Yea I started playing on the 2600 in late 1980 when I was 3.They tried when I was just barly past 2,but taht didnt work out so well.I remember Combat mostly,and my sister beating me silly.But by the time I was 5 I could win and hold my own on it,and I played Pac Man,and Astroids alot.
In the arcades I played Mario Bros,Kangaroo,Donkey Kong,some firetruck game that had this huge sitdown cab and 2 people could play,cant remember the name,and Zaxxon.I later moved on to Gyrus,Super Mario Bros.,and so many more.One of my fav Atari arcade games of all time was Road Blasters,and I still play it when I see one running.

Hi, i'm from Belgium.
I moved on from a pong console to the atari 2600 to amstrad cpc but things got going when i got my sega master system with alex kidd in miracle world.
I could devote many pages and pages of memories but i don't feel the need to as i did that many times on other forums...
But for now i wanna say that my strongest memories come from the arcades, it felt always great entering one and checking the games.
As far as i can remember Xevious is my first memory in a pub.
I didn't knew what the title was called back then i played but now i know it was xevious i played.
Funny how some memories are vividly remembered.
At that time and many years after that i always looked up to the arcades and crossed my fingers on how the console port of certain games might be.
Now we don't do that any more.
If i would wish for something in the games industry it is that the arcades would be back in business again.  

[Keranu]

That Fire Truck game is awesome! I've played it on MAME before and it uses the trackball, so I just use my mouse. I'd love to play the actual cabinet because it's a fun game.