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Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

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Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#3

Post by matt2000 »

I can remember wanting one of these so badly when I was a kid, but check out the specs!

12Mhz CPU 64K RAM 64K VRAM

Now this thing has 83x the clock rate and ~8,000x the memory for $9: http://getchip.com/pages/chip

I can remember reading articles about how fast and cheap computers would get, but man.

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#5

Post by superflit »

That is a great material and has some wisdom too like:

"As a general rule, the most important thing to remember is to give a good play value without resorting to shock tactics. Comedy in good taste is a very good method to add gaming value to any game. If the whole family can laugh together at a game with a sense of humor, it provided a more enjoyable experience without being offensive. " page. 106 (guidelines).

I was too poor for having Neo Geo at home but I played it on arcades.

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#6

Post by kingmanaz »

superflit wrote: post #5

That is a great material and has some wisdom too like: "As a general rule, the most important thing to remember is to give a good play value without resorting to shock tactics. Comedy in good taste is a very good method to add gaming value to any game. If the whole family can laugh together at a game with a sense of humor, it provided a more enjoyable experience without being offensive. " page. 106 (guidelines). I wa…

Same here. Never could afford one.

I recall playing a side-scrolling arcade RPG put out by Neo-Geo sometime in the late '80s/early '90s. From what I remember there was leveling and different classes of characters ( fighter, mage, etc ). It was something like Golden Axe, but a lot more detailed. Tried to find it later but never had any luck.

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#7

Post by city41 »

kingmanaz wrote: post #6
superflit wrote: post #5

That is a great material and has some wisdom too like: "As a general rule, the most important thing to remember is to give a good play value without resorting to shock tactics. Comedy in good taste is a very good method to add gaming value to any game. If the whole family can laugh together at a game with a sense of humor, it provided a more enjoyable experience without being offensive. " page. 106 (guidelines). I wa…

Same here. Never could afford one. I recall playing a side-scrolling arcade RPG put out by Neo-Geo sometime in the late '80s/early '90s. From what I remember there was leveling and different classes of characters ( fighter, mage, etc ). It was something like Golden Axe, but a lot more detailed. Tried to find it later but never had any luck.

Possibly Crossed Swords: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H485or8VOC8

Or Sengoku: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZqBgAQak64

Or also possibly Dungeons and Dragons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alVk4Zi5A0

D&D was by Capcom on the CPS2, a competitor to the Neo Geo.

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#8

Post by city41 »

Gazoo101 wrote: post #4

I must admit, I am surprised at how good the English is in this document so far. Granted, I've only skimmed it, but I half expected to find a bit of Engrish left and right. Color me pleasantly surprised!

This was most likely translated by SNK USA. Although the Neo Geo never gained any US developers.

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#9

Post by mhd »

matt2000 wrote: post #3

I can remember wanting one of these so badly when I was a kid, but check out the specs! 12Mhz CPU 64K RAM 64K VRAM Now this thing has 83x the clock rate and ~8,000x the memory for $9: http://getchip.com/pages/chip I can remember reading articles about how fast and cheap computers would get, but man.

Memory was the big issue of the Neo Geo, if I remember correctly. The system itself was expensive enough, but what really broke the bank was the price of each individual game. And that was mainly because they used cartridges with many times the amount of ROM compared to what Nintendo or Sega used. That meant that a single game cost more than their competitor's console.

And by the time the Neo Geo CD came out where this was suddenly not an issue anymore, it was too late alredy...

Re: Neo Geo Programming Guide (1991) [pdf]

#10

Post by alxmdev »

matt2000 wrote: post #3

I can remember wanting one of these so badly when I was a kid, but check out the specs! 12Mhz CPU 64K RAM 64K VRAM Now this thing has 83x the clock rate and ~8,000x the memory for $9: http://getchip.com/pages/chip I can remember reading articles about how fast and cheap computers would get, but man.

While 12MHz sounds weak, the heavy lifting was done by dedicated graphics hardware. Once you relieve the CPU from the burden of blitting, you're left with more than enough cycles for almost any sort of game. Even the GBA only had a 16MHz ARM! From Wikipedia:

"The SNK custom video chipset allows the system to draw sprites in vertical strips which are 16 pixels wide, and can be 16 to 512 pixels tall; it can draw up to 96 sprites per scanline for a total of 380 sprites on the screen at a time."

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