SNK Neo Geo

Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. The brand originated in 1990 with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES. Both the arcade system and console were powerful for the time and the AES allowed for perfect ports of games released for the MVS. However, the high price point for both the console and its games prevented it from directly competing with its contemporaries, the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) and Super NES (Super Famicom).

Years later, SNK would release the Neo Geo CD, a more cost effective console with games released on compact discs. The console was met with limited success, due in part to its slow CD-ROM drive. In an attempt to compete with increasingly popular 3D games, SNK released the Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade system in 1997 as the successor to its aging MVS. The system did not fare well and only a few games were released for it. A planned home console based on the hardware was never released. SNK later extended the brand by releasing two handheld consoles, the Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color, which briefly competed with Nintendo's Game Boy. Soon after their release, SNK encountered various legal and financial issues and the Neo Geo brand was officially discontinued in 2004.

Despite the failure of later Neo Geo hardware, games for the original MVS and AES were well received. The system spawned several long-running series, including The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown. Later releases like the Metal Slug games ensured that the hardware had a long lifespan. Homebrew video games for the system have also been released and the AES system along with its games are popular among collectors, with many AES items still fetching high prices at auction. In December 2012, SNK Playmore released a handheld console based on the original AES, the Neo Geo X.

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