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Neo Geo Pocket Color Appreciation Thread: Way Ahead of the Game (Boy)
- Thread starter CoachKevin
- Start date
This is too good not to share. I popped in my King of Fighters R-2 that I bought second hand. Saw "Making" as a game mode and after some digging found out it's a mode where you can customize a character and transfer them between this version and the Dreamcast version of KOF98 (which is titled KOF99 for some reason, and I own it, and it's a really shitty port). ANYWAY, so you can unlock all these stats and stuff and even give your character custom names and win quotes.
Well, here's what the previous owner made:
Shlomo living the dream lol.
Well, here's what the previous owner made:
Shlomo living the dream lol.
KDash31987
Member
Agreed! The only thing I don't like is how the music stops and then restarts in between every round in team battle modes, but aside from that, I thought it was a very nice port.
I also love The King of Fighters R-2, but I haven't played it in ages. Making mode was fun. I think I gave my Kyo a handgun. Hah.
KDash31987
Member
Agetech had nothing to do with Dream Match 1999, though. They only released The King of Fighters Evolution (the actual '99 game). SNK released Dream Match 1999 all on their own. I think it was their only US release outside of a Neo Geo console after the NES days. Everything else was published by other companies, as far as I can remember. They did start publishing their own games in the US again when they came back as SNK Playmore (well, "SNK Neo Geo USA Consumer Corporation" or whatever at first...they changed their US branch name like every month for a while), though.
Anyway, if you want the full music you can always play the single character modes or listen to the tracks in the CD player mode, I guess. Hah.
KDash31987
Member
Sorta. From my understanding, all of the censorship in the Agetec releases (KOF '99 Evolution, Last Blade 2, Fatal Fury: Marks of the Wolves, Metal Slug X) was all done by SNK. They programmed them, and then sent them to Agetec, who apparently had no control over the content in the discs. At least that's what I remember reading, but it's been a very long time since I read that...like, a decade or more, so I might be wrong.
Bucket Mouse
Member
I remember feeling very threatened by this as a Nintendo-obsessed kid, like it had a real chance of killing the Game Boy.
I secretly really wanted one. "An analogue stick on a handheld?!"
sixteen-bit
Member
Bucket Mouse
Member
I know that now, but as a 12 year old it looked like something straight off one of the big boy consoles.
A Black Falcon
Member
Isn't the censorship the same as that in the US-region Neo-Geo releases?
Okay then, clearly some of the "B&W" games actually secretly support limited color. Interesting! I wonder if any others do, other than SS1.
KDash31987
Member
Some of it, yes, but games like the Last Blade 2 on the Dreamcast are far more censored than the Neo Geo version, which I recall being uncensored. The Dreamcast version has white blood and no fatalities...which also means that Hibiki's extra win poses and ending are missing. Blood is removed from every other game, I think, but they didn't have much to begin with.
I'm not 100% sure if Whip's handgun move was absent in the Neo Geo version of '99 when running in the US-region bios. I did a quick search before that previous post, but I couldn't find anything definitive, so I left it out of my post.
Didn't know we had a dedicated Neo Geo Pocket thread! I actually recently got the device and a couple handfuls of games from a fellow Gaffer. So far I'm loving SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium and Ganbare Neo-Poke Kun, and I'm looking forward to trying out Sonic Pocket Adventures in the near future.
The device itself is absolutely amazing and it's a damn shame this thing didn't take off. The analog is just as wonderful as I'd heard, the display is sharp with no visible ghosting, the graphics blow most Game Boy games out of the water, but the audio chip is atrocious. I would have loved to see this do better, or at least have had enough documentation for a homebrew scene to flourish.
The device itself is absolutely amazing and it's a damn shame this thing didn't take off. The analog is just as wonderful as I'd heard, the display is sharp with no visible ghosting, the graphics blow most Game Boy games out of the water, but the audio chip is atrocious. I would have loved to see this do better, or at least have had enough documentation for a homebrew scene to flourish.
sixteen-bit
Member
you sure about that?
Haha, nice catch. I always find it interesting to get a peek into the life of the previous owner of a used game.
A Black Falcon
Member
Uh, the US version of Last Blade 2 has no blood or fatalities. It's exactly the same as you describe. Maybe you're confused because the Neo-Geo version of Last Blade 2 has a language switch in the ingame options menu, so you can play the game in English on a Japanese-region system? On a US-region system, though, no blood or fatalities.
And yes, this is why it's so disappointing that the Japanese DC version cuts out the language switch -- it'd be great to be able to have blood and fatalities in the game in English on Dreamcast just like on Neo-Geo, but sadly, you can't do it; the Japanese version is Japanese only, and the US version is English only.
KDash31987
Member
I don't own a Neo Geo, so...I wasn't sure. I just remembered it being uncensored from the arcade version, but I could be wrong. I haven't played it outside of the US Dreamcast version in many, many, many years.
I do know for sure that the Dreamcast version is missing the heatwave effect from that burning building stage, though. And the US Dreamcast version is missing the Hanafuda card game that was in the Japanese Dreamcast version.
I do know for sure that the Dreamcast version is missing the heatwave effect from that burning building stage, though. And the US Dreamcast version is missing the Hanafuda card game that was in the Japanese Dreamcast version.
sixteen-bit
Member
Coming to think of it, it must have been a slap in the face to play $250+ back in the day for a game and have it be censored simply because you own a North American console.
Man, I've only played US DC Last Blade 2 so I didn't even know the game had blood/fatalities.
I did buy the Japanese PS2 compilation of the games awhile ago but never played it. Now I'll have to pop it in and check out the differences.
And speaking of the Last Blade, I think it's the only fighter I don't have for NGPC. Gotta get on that.
I did buy the Japanese PS2 compilation of the games awhile ago but never played it. Now I'll have to pop it in and check out the differences.
And speaking of the Last Blade, I think it's the only fighter I don't have for NGPC. Gotta get on that.
So after playing so many fighting games on the NGPC, I just kind of thought the handheld had a 3 color limit on sprites (usually black for outlines, white, plus one more color). Literally all of the SNK fighters follow this formula.
But I decided to switch it up and play some Sonic Pocket Adventure. What the hell? This game has way better color than all of those games. Sonic has 5 colors on his sprite. (EDIT: On closer inspection, Sonic might have 6.) Robotnik has 6. And just even the levels and backgrounds seem a lot more colorful. I had played the game before but it's probably been 9 years.
So... why did SNK stick with such a small color palette for their fighters?
On an unrelated note, I also bought a Dreamcast to NGPC cable
Thing was like 70 dollars cheaper on Yahoo Auctions than on eBay.
But I decided to switch it up and play some Sonic Pocket Adventure. What the hell? This game has way better color than all of those games. Sonic has 5 colors on his sprite. (EDIT: On closer inspection, Sonic might have 6.) Robotnik has 6. And just even the levels and backgrounds seem a lot more colorful. I had played the game before but it's probably been 9 years.
So... why did SNK stick with such a small color palette for their fighters?
On an unrelated note, I also bought a Dreamcast to NGPC cable
Thing was like 70 dollars cheaper on Yahoo Auctions than on eBay.
A Black Falcon
Member
So after playing so many fighting games on the NGPC, I just kind of thought the handheld had a 3 color limit on sprites (usually black for outlines, white, plus one more color). Literally all of the SNK fighters follow this formula.
But I decided to switch it up and play some Sonic Pocket Adventure. What the hell? This game has way better color than all of those games. Sonic has 5 colors on his sprite. (EDIT: On closer inspection, Sonic might have 6.) Robotnik has 6. And just even the levels and backgrounds seem a lot more colorful. I had played the game before but it's probably been 9 years.
So... why did SNK stick with such a small color palette for their fighters?
On an unrelated note, I also bought a Dreamcast to NGPC cable
Sprites do have a 3 or 4 (it might be 3+transparent?) color limit; Sonic I'm sure uses two sprites.
Ah, interesting. So they probably didn't use the same trick for their fighting games to keep the framerates smooth since four sprites for characters + any special move sprites would probably slow the games down. Sonic has plenty of laggy moments as is.
Thanks for the clarification!
Thanks for the clarification!
As A Black Falcon said, Sonic Pocket Adventure indeed used sprite layering. In the chunk of Sonic's sprite map below, you can see that there's sprites specifically for the extra colours (I've colour coded these accordingly to make it clear which is which).
Because Sonic is so tiny, it was easy to get away with this trick. Sonic's idle stance only uses 13 sprites (8 on the base, 5 on the top layer).
By comparison, a frame of Akuma's idle stance from SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium uses 22 sprites without any kind of layering.
The amount of sprites becomes an issue because the Neo Geo Pocket can only display 64 sprites per frame before flicker becomes an issue (I'm not sure what the sprite limit per line is, sorry). With SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, when you have two characters on screen and the sometimes large effects going on, you quickly fill out your total amount of sprites on-screen.
Because Sonic is so tiny, it was easy to get away with this trick. Sonic's idle stance only uses 13 sprites (8 on the base, 5 on the top layer).
By comparison, a frame of Akuma's idle stance from SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium uses 22 sprites without any kind of layering.
The amount of sprites becomes an issue because the Neo Geo Pocket can only display 64 sprites per frame before flicker becomes an issue (I'm not sure what the sprite limit per line is, sorry). With SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, when you have two characters on screen and the sometimes large effects going on, you quickly fill out your total amount of sprites on-screen.
DracoBlade
Member
Dumb question, game cartridges without the ESRB logo but are English are PAL region correct?
point in case:
point in case:
sixteen-bit
Member
PAL is a video standard so it doesn't apply here.
The JP cart usually has japanese writing on it somewhere. You can typically tell by reading the "Supported by Neo Geo Pocket Color" banner whether it's a Euro or JP cart. Here's a JP 1st Mission since that was used as an example:
As mentioned in a previous post, EU games (and sometimes JP) were included in the blister packs in the US. Some NGPC games even came out in the US as simply the EU version with an ESRB sticker on the box.
PAL region most definitely does apply though, even if the handheld doesn't need to conform to PAL standards.
DracoBlade
Member
I'd imagine beyond the official bag a psp case or vita equivalent would work nicely.
Are there any counterfeit NGPC carts in circulation? I know there is a lot of new-old stock, which is why some sellers have a bunch in bulk, I just get suspicious when some Hong Kong sellers have 100s of copies of games. For example -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Neo-Geo...362?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2582ba96ea
I've googled around before and I've never really heard of counterfeit games for this system.
Related, like 10 years ago I bought Faselei on Ebay and there was no music during gameplay, just the sound of the mech's footsteps, I returned it thinking it was counterfeit. To this day I'm not really sure.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Neo-Geo...362?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2582ba96ea
I've googled around before and I've never really heard of counterfeit games for this system.
Related, like 10 years ago I bought Faselei on Ebay and there was no music during gameplay, just the sound of the mech's footsteps, I returned it thinking it was counterfeit. To this day I'm not really sure.
SkylineRKR
Member
This is an excellent handheld. I had one with Card fighters, MotM, Baseball Stars, NG Cup 98, FF First Contact and Last Blade.
First Contact falls a bit short. Its kinda useless if you have the more fun KOF Round 2 (which is great!). MotM owns them all though, its the best handheld fighter I have played. I always wanted Gals Fighters too because its so different, but I never got to it.
LB on Pocket is pretty good btw. It has a shit ton of unlockables and I believe it has everything from LB and LB2 combined. I enjoyed it. I also own this game on AES and really the gameplay isn't far off.
First Contact falls a bit short. Its kinda useless if you have the more fun KOF Round 2 (which is great!). MotM owns them all though, its the best handheld fighter I have played. I always wanted Gals Fighters too because its so different, but I never got to it.
LB on Pocket is pretty good btw. It has a shit ton of unlockables and I believe it has everything from LB and LB2 combined. I enjoyed it. I also own this game on AES and really the gameplay isn't far off.
patrickthehedgehog
Member
I love my NGCP. Always wanted to grab a second one so I could enjoy the multiplayer games with friends.
There's a few games I'd like to grab at some point... Gals Fighter, Neo Turf Masters and a few others. I remember when this thing was new and SNK had a US website for it with cute little screenshots of most of the games.
http://web.archive.org/web/19991012032714/http://snkusa.com/hw.htm
Wish the images loaded. I was so excited to buy mine! Did not care about GBC at all hahaha.
There's a few games I'd like to grab at some point... Gals Fighter, Neo Turf Masters and a few others. I remember when this thing was new and SNK had a US website for it with cute little screenshots of most of the games.
http://web.archive.org/web/19991012032714/http://snkusa.com/hw.htm
Wish the images loaded. I was so excited to buy mine! Did not care about GBC at all hahaha.
Did a little googling and it looks like I wasn't alone!
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?142265-Faselei-sound-question
One guy tried his Faselei on four different NGPC systems and sound only worked properly on the Slim revision. A few others had similar experiences.
Also this -
"i have a feeling that its to do with the actual system itself, on the original stone blue system the sound is screwed in quite a few games for me, MOTM, SS2 etc don't have an english faselei to test, but the sound in all these other games works fine on my other slim console."
Weird stuff.
Edit: Found an old message board post that said they sent all their new-old stock to their Hong Kong branch when they stopped selling the stuff. So I guess that explains why Hong Kong sellers have most of the bulk. That's a relief if true, I guess the slightly off center labels and stuff on some of the carts I see on ebay are just how they were made.
sixteen-bit
Member
I have no idea why I bought this
I wonder if you could hack two of those to make a proper Dreamcast to Dreamcst link cable for games like F355 and Virtual On. The official link cable is so rare and expensive
I just want legit 1 v 1 on VOOT with separate TVs
No joke, at one point I came SO close to buying one of those Dreamcast cables so I could set up a semi-permanent Virtual On table with a couple of CRTs and Dreamcasts.
But I backed out because I didn't really have the room, nor did I want to pay for another twin stick controller.
Someday...
But I backed out because I didn't really have the room, nor did I want to pay for another twin stick controller.
Someday...
sixteen-bit
Member
Lovely pics. Gotta love that faux carbon fiber finish.
Ban Puncher
Member
Got a busted Neo Geo Pocket Color Rev.2 in today that would power on but had no display or sound. Bit of a tinker and restored the picture to its former glory but I can only get sound from the headphone jack, not from the speaker. Some friendly prodding around the solder joints with the iron sadly didn't get any results. Any ideas or should I just try to find a cheap, broken NGPC for a donor speaker?
SocksForWoks
Banned
I remember EB selling this as a pack with 6 games for $60.
Really should have gotten one at that time...
Really should have gotten one at that time...
sixteen-bit
Member
Not a bad deal. I think Amazon still has a 4-Packs for $25
I have no idea why I bought this
To get perfects on the hardest difficulty of Cat Walk and then transfer the points to unlock stuff in DC CvS.