SNK Execs On Game Piracy, Sony Approval Issues

Thanks to SPOnG.com for its interview with SNK's Yoshihito Koyama and Shinya Morishita about the veteran developer/publisher, with topics including the death of the classic Neo Geo MVS cartridge system ("There is no reason why the system could not be used now and in the future... we have not been held back by the hardware platform we use. The main problem is the pirates"), and the scale of the piracy that prompted it ("We released King of Fighters 2003 in Japan. Within two days we were seeing copied versions of our [cartridge] from China hitting the open market across Asia... Our game [ROMs] have also been spread across the Internet, another reason why enhanced hardware technology will help us.") Eurogamer also has another SNK interview, similarly conducted on the occasion of SNK's European publishing deal with Ignition, which talks PlayStation 2 game approval issues, mentioning: "With Sony you have to think about SCEA [Sony America] approval because they don't like 2D games, but SCEE [Sony Europe], they accept 2D games for release, but SCEA say 'no, they must be 2 in 1', or something like this."

Piracy really did kill the Neo Geo

[chrispyman]

Personally I agree entirely that as of late piracy has been the number one problem plaguing the Neo Geo. To be honest, there's so many pirated MVS games and especially when you get one off eBay, you just don't know what you're gonna get.

SCEA

[metamatic]

It confirms what many gamers already know, which is that SCEA are a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

I mean, SCEA declined to distribute Vib Ribbon, Wipeout Fusion, Dropship... It's not just 2D games they reject, it's just about anything that isn't a FPS or movie tie-in.

Maybe they're right from a commercial standpoint; maybe Joe Sixpack is only interested in playing Unreal Syphon Quakesplitters 3. But it's pretty sad for gamers.

Re:Naomi-based AtomisWave is a ROM based Dreamcast

[Stormwatch]

The Dreamcast has...
RAM: 16MB
video RAM: 8MB
sound RAM: 2MB.

[source: GameFAQs]

The Atomiswave has...
Main RAM : 32 MB
Main Memory : 16 MB
Graphic Memory : 16 MB
Sound Memory : 8 MB

And the NAOMI has...
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 32 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte

[source: System16.com]

Now, I don't know what's the difference between "Main RAM" and "Main Memory", that's just what the site says... can anyone clarify?

Well, anyway. It is clear that the hardware is very similar, but not the same. Of course, a good developer come with arcade-perfect ports in a very short time - as Sega, Capcom, Treasure, Sammy, GRev, and Success have done; but I don't believe it is as easy as you make it sound.