There is some very exciting news coming out of neogeousa.com right now. Their new Shadow4 system seems like it could be the answer to a lot of Neo-Geo fans prayers. You may have heard me mention before that you can generally purchase Neo games for the arcade machines much cheaper than you can for the home system. While it's true that the games tend to be less expensive playing them gets a bit tricky. You either need a full size cabinet like you would find in an arcade or what's called a super gun. A super gun is basically a device that allows you to hook arcade boards up to a standard television. The fine folks at Neogeousa.com have developed what is essentially a kind of specialized super gun for the Neo-Geo arcade board. Unlike most super guns though, which tend to be large boxes made out of plywood the Shadow4 is small and looks extremely cool. You can read all the information currently available on the system right here or at neogeousa.com. I am hoping to get my hands on one of these in the near future. If I am successful you can bet you'll see a full review of it here on the site. If it is built half as well as their Phantom-1 converter, which I purchased last year it will be one kick ass piece of hardware. Did I mention how pretty it is?
I think this is Italian. I think it's saying that Metal Slug 4 is coming to the Playstation. If that is the case, how come I haven't heard this news anyplace else? Very interesting.
I got some mail last week after my mention of the new King of Fighters 2001 ROM. Since then Metal Slug 4 has also been dumped. From what I hear Playmore has been asking sites that host the ROMS to remove them and in some cases these sites actually have. Anyway, I got some mail from people asking why I was so vocal about the Neo-Geo. A few readers told me that the Neo-Geo hardware should be retired. They said no one wants to play these old games anymore. One reader suggested that all the artists working on Neo games are "wasting their talent" on a dead system and that Playmore is wasting their time trying to revive it.
These mails combined with the events of the past week or so have got me wondering…am I old? Just so you know I'll be turning twenty five this year. I never really thought of that as old but in the world of videogames it's fucking ancient. People my age played pong for god's sake. We owned consoles with wood fucking paneling. I've seen the evolution of graphics from Karate Champ to Virtua Fighter 4 and I wonder about kids whose first system was a Playstation. I know they are out there because they mail me all the time. They ask why I am so hung up on Pac man and why I get so pissed at the idea of a 3D Metal Slug game. 3D is better they tell me. I got a mail telling me I'm an "old married guy now" who doesn't understand games anymore. For about five minutes I sat at my desk thinking "Shit, maybe he's right…maybe I just don't get it the way these kids get it." Then I came to my senses. I still get it, I just get it in a different way. Not necessarily a better way, but seriously how can a kid who cut his teeth on Tekken ever see fighting games the same way as someone who played every version of Street fighter II on the Genesis. I can still remember going to elementary school. I had my Pac-Man lunch box, Pac-Man hat and Pac-Man pencil box which was probably full of Pac-Man pencils. The fact is, I'll never get games the way these kids do. I'll never understand the l33t speak thing. I don't get why a zero is cooler than an o. I don't know why spelling "the" wrong is funny. I don't think 3D is better than 2D. I don't think we need photo realistic graphics. I'll never see gaming the way they do. But the really sad part is, they'll never see it the way I do.
-Gabe out
