The " Rolls of the consoles " returns for its 35th anniversary in a version almost identical to the original.
Launched by SNK in Japan in April 1990, the Neo-Geo promised, like many other machines before it, " the arcade at home ". Except that it kept that promise! The reason was simple: the hardware at the heart of the home console was the same as that used in SNK arcade machines. For the latter, the Japanese company had developed the Neo-Geo MVS platform, which it converted to Neo-Geo AES to adapt the concept to the domestic market.
The problem was that, to keep its promise, SNK had no choice but to charge full price for this Neo-Geo AES: a whopping 58,000 yen at launch, or roughly 800 euros when inflation is taken into account. At that price, as you can imagine, there weren't many buyers, but the most intrepid were still put off by the price of the games. SNK had indeed opted for high-capacity cartridges - well, for the time! - which could hold up to 330 Mb for the first models, and even up to 716 Mb a little later. Cartridges were priced at around 1,000 to 1,500 francs, or 280 to 420 euros, again taking inflation into account.
The black model will be the least expensive, at 199.99 euros © Plaion
Today, the Neo-Geo is a collectors' machine, and game prices have become completely insane: we're talking about over 2000 euros for some cartridges, and most sell for over 500 euros anyway.
So Plaion has teamed up with SNK to revive the Neo-Geo myth without having to mortgage your house. Already available for pre-order, its Neo-Geo AES+ is a 1:1 replica of the original console, but swaps the Motorola and Zilog processors of the time for a specially programmed ASIC. In fact, it's not a question of emulating the original console, but of offering something as close as possible to this video game legend. In fact, the Neo-Geo AES+ will be able to read cartridges from the 90s. However, Plaion is well aware of their price tag, which is why the company has decided to release a few games in cartridge format alongside its consoles.
Technically identical, the white version will be sold for 299.99 euros with a few extra accessories © Plaion
" Its consoles? Yes, because there are plans to distribute three variants. The standard version, black with a wired arcade stick, will be sold for 199.99 euros. A special " 35th Anniversary " version, white with wireless arcade stick, memory card and Metal Slug cartridge, will be sold for 299.99 euros. Finally, an " Ultimate " version will be billed at 899.99 euros, but here Plaion pulls out all the stops, delivering the console, two arcade sticks (wired, wireless), a gamepad (wireless) and no less than ten game cartridges(Metal Slug, The King of Fighters 2002, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Big Tournament Golf, Shock Troopers, Samurai Shodown V Special, Pulstar, Twinkle Star Sprites, Magician Lord, Over Top).
The Ultimate version will be identical to the basic console, but will come with a rack of 10 games © Plaion
Plaion has done things rather well, because not only is there no emulation involved, but its Neo-Geo AES+ will feature dual connectivity: HDMI for modern screens and AV for CRT televisions, the best of both worlds! What's more, we're talking about a few small settings to manage the language, perform a little hardware overclocking and adapt the display mode. Finally, there's talk of permanent score storage. Oh yes, the only downside - because there is one - is that Plaion has overpriced the cartridges: 79.99 euros, even though the games are "as old as time" and 330 Mb of memory doesn't cost anything anymore. Let's hope the company readjusts things a little in the future, as other games are already in the pipeline.
