Neo Geo and variants
| |
| |
| |
| 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 | Retro Achievements |
FLOSS | Active | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC / x86 | ||||||||||
| MAME |    
|
git artifacts[N 1] 0.264 libretro core[N 2] |
✓ | ✓ | ~* | ✓ | ✗[N 3] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| FinalBurn Neo |
|
libretro core nightly stable |
✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓[N 4] | NC | ✓ | ✓ |
| RAINE |
|
0.96.7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| NeoCD (neocd_libretro) |
|
libretro core | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| ares |
|
v137 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| FinalBurn Alpha |
|
0.2.97.43 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | NC | ✗ | ✗ |
| Xe |
|
2.16.2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Kawaks |
|
1.65 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| GnGeo |
|
git | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| NeoRAGEx |
|
5.4e | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mobile / ARM | ||||||||||
| FinalBurn Neo |  
|
libretro core | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓[N 4] | NC | ✓ | ✓ |
| MAME |
|
libretro core[N 5] | ✓ | ✓ | ~* | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| NeoCD (neocd_libretro) |
|
libretro core | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| FinalBurn Alpha |
|
libretro core | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | NC | ✗ | ✗ |
| Consoles | ||||||||||
| NJ-EMU | 
|
git | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Virtual Console | 
|
N/A | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| AES4ALL |  
|
Beta 4 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| GxGeo |
|
r23 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| NEO4ALL |
|
RC4 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
- ↑ CI-Windows CI-Linux CI-Macos
- ↑ As 0.251, 0.139 (2010), 0.78 (2003), 0.37b5 (2000)
- ↑ Support is not likely to ever be possible. The same is true for all MAME variants.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 AES bios is required for many Neo Geo achievements. AES Asia (neo-epo.bin) is generally English.
- ↑ As "mamearcade_libretro and mame_libretro_ios.dylib", 0.139 (2010), 0.78 (2003), 0.37b5 (2000)
Comparisons
- NeoCD (neocd_libretro)
- NeoCD is a S(ingle) A(rcade) M(achine) E(mulator) for libretro, just like Same CDi (same_cdi_libretro) forked from MAME libretro, which is in turn a fork of MAME. It includes only the Neo Geo CD driver, and simplifies the loading of CD content to provide a 'plug and play' experience.
- ares
- Neo Geo emulation has undergone the most dramatic improvement out of any core with v132 version release; with a significant portion of the library jumping from "Nothing" state to "Completable".
Emulation issues
- Hyper Neo-Geo 64 is mostly emulated. MAME is the only available option and, since 0.240, all games are mostly playable with only bad audio emulation. There only was a notable update for the MAME driver by Haze in 2018. The Hyper Neo Geo 64 has had some welcome fixes for both 2D and 3D graphics with 0.252 version in early 2023, and there should be more coming in the next release. 0.264 version compatibility status or you can use this link. Hyper Neo-Geo 64 is one of the last pre-2000 Arcade platforms not playable on emulators by a "big" arcade company.
