Neo Geo and variants

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SNK Neo Geo
Neo Geo full on.png
Neo-Geo-AES-Console-Set.png
Neo Geo CD.png
Top: The Neo Geo MVS.
Middle: The Neo Geo AES.
Bottom: The Neo Geo CD.
Developer SNK
Type Home video game console, arcade system board
Generation Fourth generation
Release date 1990
Discontinued 2004
Emulated

The Neo Geo MVS (Multi Video System) arcade system was first released by SNK Corporation on January 1990 in Japan and on August 22, 1990 in NA. The Neo Geo AES (Advanced Entertainment System) home console was released on July 1, 1991. MVS and AES are technically the same systems, but their cartridges are not compatible with each other due to a different layout. The AES was retailed for $649.99. It had a Motorola 68000 at 12MHz and a Zilog Z80A at 4MHz with 64KB RAM and 84KB VRAM.

Neo Geo CD (NG-CD) was the CD version of the AES (not compatible with the game cartridges) released in January of '96 and $399. It had a Motorola 68000 CPU at 12 MHz with another CPU that being a Zilog Z80 at 4 MHz. It had 7MB of RAM.

Hyper Neo-Geo 64 (HNG-64) was the successor to the Neo-Geo with 3D graphics, there was no home console release. It was released in September of 1997 and had an NEC VR4300 at 100 MHz with 16MiB of RAM.

When emulating Neo-Geo games with RetroArch, the Neo-Geo BIOS files need to be in the game directory.

Emulators

Name Platform(s) Latest Version NG NG-CD HNG-64 Libretro Core FLOSS Active Recommended
PC / x86
MAME         0.264 ~ [N 1]
FinalBurn Neo     stable WIP builds
RAINE       0.96.7
FinalBurn Alpha   0.2.97.43
Xe     2.16.2
Kawaks   1.65
GnGeo   Git
NeoRAGEx   5.4e
Consoles
GxGeo   r23
UOmvspsp   2.3.1
UOncdzpsp   2.3.1
Virtual Console   n/a
  1. As 0.153 (2014), 0.139 (2010), 0.78 (2003)

Emulation issues

  • Hyper Neo-Geo 64 is poorly emulated. MAME is the only available option and, for now, Round Trip RV is the only game barely playable to the end. Excluding that title, no other game is working without nasty graphic errors, slowdowns (no matter what type of CPU/GPU you have) and terrible, glitchy sound emulation. There was a notable update for the MAME driver by Haze in 2018, but don't expect for good emulation in the short future. Hyper Neo-Geo 64 is one of the last pre-2000 Arcade platforms not playable on emulators by a "big" Arcade company.

Online Emulation On Web Browsers

Neo Geo is being emulated also on Web Browsers. Here is https://emulatoronline.xyz to play online. What great is the games can be played on mobile devices too. The online emulator detects the device and activates the virtual gamepad. It is also possible to save and load game.