GameSpot Recaps 25-Year History of SNK 143
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpot has offered up an amazingly in-depth history of SNK -- the company behind such classic games as Ikari Warriors, Fatal Fury, and King of Fighters, as well as the NeoGeo hardware system. The 39-page retrospective covers nearly every aspect of the company's 25-year history and includes an annotated list of key SNK titles, trivia, insider interviews, hardware comparisons, screenshots, promotional art, and more."
2 words... (Score:5, Interesting)
Some argue it's still the greatest baseball game ever made. I'd say it's at least the best one made in the 20th century.
Always loved SNK games (Score:5, Interesting)
SNK still makes great games. Garou: Mark of the Wolves was a revolutionary 2d fighting game, excellent in every aspect.
Licensing. (Score:5, Interesting)
Neo Geo Advertisements. (Score:5, Interesting)
http://xodnizel.net/neogeo/ [xodnizel.net]
NeoGeo Nostalgia (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny how it goes.. you grow older, and you don't have that whole excitement because you can just buy any technology/console you want to check out instead of dreaming about owning it 'one day'. Sadly it seems almost more fun dreaming about how incredible something is than actually getting to use it.
I'd hesitate to say that 3DO was seen in a similar light to the NeoGeo, as they also had a mythical expensive console out in the early 90's (which was 32 bit ARM-RISC with a CD-ROM).
I remember the NeoGeo (Score:4, Interesting)
The NeoGeo actually felt like bringing the arcade coin-ops in your home , allthough it has never reached any recognition over here (the Netherlands).
MODS - parent is karma whore, troll (Score:0, Interesting)
In reality, he is a karma whore. He posts "Me, too!" and "Attaboy!" posts in hopes of building up sufficient karma to troll some more. Check posting history, mods, and above all CHECK HIS FACTS before upmodding at all.
Some interesting FUD in there. (Score:4, Interesting)
Lists Neo Geo as 15, TG16 as 10, and Sega Genesis as 8.
Yet http://xodnizel.net/neogeo/Specifications%20Sheet
Lists Neo Geo as 15, Genesis as 10, SNES as 8, and TG16 as 6.
Quite the difference!
The other specs also change seemingly randomly. It's quite the bad-ol'-days FUD that video game companies slung around before they learned that all they had to do was release PR about how their new Emotio^WCELL chip would rock, and let their devoted fan-boys do the rest of the work for them.
The proof's in the games, and these advertisements are the kind of things that cater to people who want to make up for a small penis with game console specs, not people who love games. Sad, really
Re:NeoGeo Nostalgia (Score:2, Interesting)
SNK had some of the best arcade games and arcade hardware out there. Their home console was overpriced, but hardly anyone remembers them for their home console.
Who hasn't spent time in an arcade and not seen Metal Slug, Bubble Bobble, Bust-A-Move, those arcade that contained 4 games in one machine? Almost every arcade will have a Neo-Geo machine in it.
Metal Slug is a classic game. There aren't too many other side scrollers that are made anymore. But the Metal Slug series is still being actively developed and the series has a great amout of depth to it. It's a joy to play through, discover secrets, and see how high of a score I can get. (I realize that in most games the score is completely meaningless, but the higher the score, the more completely your playing the game, more secrets your finding, etc.) Most games now are just straight forward. There are no surprises, no secrets, and nothing to discover.
I've gotten to the point where a single quarter will last me 45 minutes on Metal Slug 3 and every top 10 spot on the local machine here. (Funny reading that GameSpot article, saw a link to Metal Slug 3 at the end, and seeing my name there for an FAQ)
When I spent my time in Korea, Capcom fighters weren't that popular. I was expecting to go try my skills with Marvel vs. Capcom there. Instead King of Fighters and Tekken ruled the fighting scene there. If they play SNK vs. Capcom, they're playing it for the SNK side of it, NOT the Capcom side. It was quite refreshing to see that gameplay meant more there than graphics. Tekken Tag is usually played more than Tekken 4.
Anyway, this has turning into another ramble of mine. But saying that SNK doesn't deserve the reputation is something that I feel the need to reply to.
VIEWPOINT (Score:3, Interesting)
Was hyped as the second coming of the classical isometric shooter, produced only a few 1000 times and sold for more than a SNES+Megadrive combined?
And after all, it was only an "okay" game, but who would admit after spending 200$+?
Re:NeoGeo Nostalgia (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember buying the 3DO when it first came out (I believe I was 12 or 13) for $650 at the AT&T store, the only store in our city that carried it.
I also purchased the NeoGeo console for $500 and several games over the years for around $100-200 a pop.
But as a kid I was never given an allowence except for a $5 a week stint that only lasted a few months. And my parents stopped purchasing game systems after the NES because they didn't understand why I needed a new one when the one I had still worked (and had hundreds of games I didn't own..)
So how did I do it, I pimped my ass on Freemont Street. Actually I pulled weeds, mowed lawns, washed cars, cleaned roofs (nearly everone in my neighborhood had a flat roof, and since all the kids climbed on everyones house anyways, I figured I get something out of it.)
In short, I did odd jobs for $5-10 a pop and it didn't take long at all to get all those toys that the other kids could only imagine.
Although, if I had it to do again, I don't think I would purchase those systems, especially the 3DO.
Step into the time machine (Score:2, Interesting)
Ikari Warriors - Responsible for my love for violent games
and of course Crystalis, was one of the better rpg's of its time, oh the time I spent.
Re:nostalgy (Score:3, Interesting)
I always liked Time Soldiers [neo-geo.com] better. Those rotary joysticks [arcadiabay.com] were a bitch, though!
Good article (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally, not long after its first release, the Neo Geo Pocket was on its way to follow the Hyper 64 into the great void of defunct video game systems and was officially abandoned in late 2000.
All these of SNK's adventures finally lead to a financial desaster. Unable to pay the bills, SNK tried to find an investor. At the same time, when the word of SNK's economical breakdown had spread throughout the gaming world, several third parties began to show interest in the companies' treasures.
It has to be said that the company we all were referring to as "SNK" up to and until 2001 actually was the core of SNK ASIA LTD, the once proud corporation which also did most of their hardware construction themselves. In 1999, the inner sanctum SNK decidet to close all the Asian branches, including the hardware departement, and to get rid of the Neo Geo World merchandise, a chain of amusement centers with themes and artwork from SNK's universe in Japan. All the financially negative projects had finally taken their toll.
On of these "interested third parties" were Aruze, a Patchinko company, one of Japan's most popular amusement machines. They signalled that they'd support SNK by taking over parts of their debts. It sounded too good to be true, but soon several SNK executives and Aruze managers confered about a possible "friendly take over" of SNK by Aruze. With lots of concern, but without a real chance to escape their kismet, SNK finally nodded, and Aruze jumped aboard.
Dark day in SNK
Aruze had promised to keep away from running projects and the overall SNK philosophy. As we know now, sequels to highly successful series like Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsou were planned and partly under developement, but as it were, Aruze appruptly closed all projects and went to make their bucks with SNK's family silver, the intellectual properties of series like The King of Fighters or Samurai Shodown. It seemed that Aruze just wanted to boost their Patchinko biz by liquidating SNK's most valuable licenses. After a while, some SNK executives came to the same conclusion, and finally went into the boardroom, only to witness that the whole board had been fittet with Aruze-friendly staff.
Although it was planned that SNK moved over to Aruze's properties, SNK suddenly stopped the process and returned to Osaka, while trying to regain control over the general direction of the corporation. Meanwhile, Aruze's share holders began to grumble about the way Aruze treated SNK and their funny little video game licenses. They wanted to see profits, but felt that parts of the Aruze board worked against the interest of SNK and thus against the share holders. It has to be noted that not only Aruze executives were suspected to work against the interest of SNK, but also about five SNK managers who rather wanted to sell all the stuff and retire than to fight against bancruptcy.
The whole thing escalated with the filling of suit against Aruze by the share holders, accusing the company of a loss of more than 27.5 billion Yen. But the ship was sinking already. Throughout the whole year 2000 and the first half of 2001, SNK fought for their life, but it was too late; in October 2001, events culminated in the bankruptcy of SNK parent company. Requiescat in pace.
Aruze, unwilling to go to court, tried (and prolly still try) to find a compromise. Yet, all of a sudden, two of the possibly sold SNK IPs of Metal Slug and The King of Fighters licenses showed up - Eolith announced their King of Fighters 2001, while the Korean company MegaKing all of a sudden opened a Metal Slug 4 web site. Looking through the tears of despair about the death of SNK, the Neo fans couldn't believe their eyes. The synergy that resulted from this however lead to a new frontier. BrezzaSoft, about to develop a new ar
re: ATOMISWAVE, more (Score:3, Interesting)
(If you look at that page, the Dolphin Blue game is apparently some kind of spiritual successor to Metal Slug. Very cool. What is also pretty cool is that since DC/Naomi emulators are getting close to primetime, Atomiswave should also be easily doable. Bad for business perhaps, but I know the odds of me seeing a new arcade machine like that around here is frighteningly low. Home ports would also be very welcome...)
And I forget the exact details, but you are correct that the people involved with the KOF series currently are Korean. The developers (Eolis?), maybe? And I do think they did a pretty nice visual job on the 2k3 version - it just feels a little faster and more exciting to me than other games in the series.