Neo Geo X Gold System details and price announced!

[SSS]

Fed up with this world, Hanzo leaves for the void of space:

Galford destroys the top half of a ship in the harbor:

This may seem like a minor complaint. But combined with screen tearing, and sound delay. It feels like I'm playing neo games through an early build of neo rage x on an old 386 or something.

They billed this thing as the second coming of the neo geo and it can't even run the damn games properly. neo geo emulation has been perfected for years now. It's obvious little time was spent testing this POS. they just hurried it out the door in some shiny packaging.

 

[GohanX]

You're not wrong, but I'm glad that unlike many emu handhelds they worked on making the harware work well, and it does. Most others I've used are pieces of shit.

Software, we can fix.

 

[SSS]

Software, we can fix.

Yeah, but we shouldn't have to. And then there's also the dim screen with kinda shitty contrast.

I wasn't expecting an iPhone style retina display or anything, but this screen would have looked top of the line 10 years ago.

Overall Tommo did a crap job with this, and I'm kind of disappointed SNKP would sign off on this. Yeah , I know they had little or nothing to do with design. But I would expect them to have seen the final product and had these issues corrected.

The neo geo and it's games are like 90% of snkp's IP. Having your company logo slapped all over a turd isn't exactly great for customer relations.

 

[Jaelus]

Got mine as an xmas gift from my wife yesterday. Here are my thoughts so far. I haven't used the USB controller or played it through HDMI yet, so I'm only going to comment on the handheld itself. I have neo cabs, so I'm not really planning on playing this at home anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how decent the handheld's stick is and actually found it to be quite usable. Certainly it is the best stick I've used on a handheld neo emulator, despite having a deadzone that's a little on the big side. The buttons are what you'd expect on a handheld and the back of the handheld has a nice rubberized surface that is very comfortable to hold. I played SamSho 2, Metal Slug, and Ninja Master's for a couple hours yesterday and the controls seemed pretty solid. Overall the play experience was good.

The handheld's stereo speakers sound okay but they are extremely quiet, even on the loudest setting. I haven't tried it out yet, but there is also a headphone jack.

The screen quality is about what you would expect, which is not the best but also not the worst. On every level of brightness the picture looks a little washed out and the richness of the colors are lost. I understand that they are trying to justify the 16:9 screen on the model they went with by including 16:9 aspect support, but the scaling when playing the games in 16:9 really looks terrible. This is a moot point for me though since even if the games looked great in 16:9, I would still only want to play them in 4:3. The unit, however, frustratingly defaults to 16:9 every time you load up a game and there's no way to change this default behavior. The unit also strangely auto-pauses your game when you adjust the volume, brightness, or aspect, even though there are two pause buttons. I'd really like to be able to disable this feature and just pause it myself if I want it paused. Disappointingly, there's no proper setup menu at all for the unit, only an option to switch the output between NTSC and PAL, though this is something that will hopefully be rectified with a future firmware update.

Overall I think the handheld is good. I'm glad they went with a model with solid controls and a meh screen rather than the other way around. Hopefully most of the other issues will be worked out over time either through official or user created updates.

 

[neo_mao]

Yeah, but we shouldn't have to. And then there's also the dim screen with kinda shitty contrast.

I wasn't expecting an iPhone style retina display or anything, but this screen would have looked top of the line 10 years ago.

Overall Tommo did a crap job with this, and I'm kind of disappointed SNKP would sign off on this. Yeah , I know they had little or nothing to do with design. But I would expect them to have seen the final product and had these issues corrected.

The neo geo and it's games are like 90% of snkp's IP. Having your company logo slapped all over a turd isn't exactly great for customer relations.

You are absolutely right. I held off on purchasing one of these, and i don't think I will at this point.

Not trying to troll or anything, but in regards to the docking station/playing on a tv...playing neo games on my modded xbox on my HDTV looks amazing...absolutely amazing.

And the PSP, from what I remember, handled it very well too (though I haven't had mine for several years now).

It's shame some more effort could not have been put into this system, because it is entirely possible to have made the neo geo x better. And if it was, I would have had no problem supporting it.

 

[SSS]

Metal slug sounds absolutely terrible on this thing. Maybe it's due to the audio delay but it sounds like parts of the channel are completely dropping out momentarily.

 

[RAZO]

You are absolutely right. I held off on purchasing one of these, and i don't think I will at this point.

Not trying to troll or anything, but in regards to the docking station/playing on a tv...playing neo games on my modded xbox on my HDTV looks amazing...absolutely amazing.

And the PSP, from what I remember, handled it very well too (though I haven't had mine for several years now).

It's shame some more effort could not have been put into this system, because it is entirely possible to have made the neo geo x better. And if it was, I would have had no problem supporting it.

I held off as well and I'm glad I did. I honestly don't know how they could have possibly messed this up. All they had to do was take a custom firmware psp w/ mvspsp and base their work off that. I don't understand how a emulator on a psp could do a better job then a system that's specifically designed to run neo games.

 

[Yodd]

...then a system that's specifically designed to run neo games.

Because it's not. It's not designed to run anything specifically. It's just a generic linux based handheld. It's all up to the software to determine what runs on it.

It's a half baked attempt.

 

[KRONOS]

Just opened my Neo-Geo X and fired it up via the docking station hooked up to my LCD TV with the HDMI cable. First, I'd call myself a hardcore Neo-Geo enthusiast.. having owned several Neo-Geo incarnations since 1994, and played it well before then. Furthermore, I worked in Japan for 6 years and became tight with the Osaka staff from 2001 till when I left.

I say enjoy this item for what it is; a $200.00 Neo-Geo novelty item. If you can have realistic expectations.. then you'll probably think this is a pretty neat little device. In this age, $200.00 isn't that much to walk away with a handheld, TV interfacing game console, and a bitching repo of the original Geo stick. It's not bad. People expecting 1990's Japanese production values in this for $200.00 have unreasonable expectations. Seriously, the limited edition gives you 21 games that'd be thousands of dollars.. that play pretty well for fraction of the cost. Yes, the video isn't great.. but, you enjoy this thing, not put it in a glass display case to beat off too. Here's hoping it does well enough to maybe get some original games or say Garou 2 completed and released for it. Out kiddies.

 

[GohanX]

you enjoy this thing, not put it in a glass display case to beat off too

Can't I do both?

 

[Jack Burton]

Still loving this thing, but I was having a problem with the thumbstick pad (top). My thumb kept slipping off of it. I wanted to get some more grip on it so I went to Home Depot and bought some "Plasti-Dip". It's identical to that spray rubber sealer you see in commercials but it costs $5.99 for a big spray can. I pulled off the joystick and sprayed it with this stuff a few hours ago. Now it's perfect.

This is my first time trying this. This could make many controllers much better. I originally cut out a circle in a piece of cardboard and shoved the thumbstick through it so only the top part of the thumbstick would be coated. I didn't want the sides to be coated too. That could lessen the "throw" of the joystick, or at least that's one thought that went through my mind.

If anybody else is feeling the same way about the thumbstick, it's an easy fix. Give it a shot.

 

[joecommando]

Just opened my Neo-Geo X and fired it up via the docking station hooked up to my LCD TV with the HDMI cable. First, I'd call myself a hardcore Neo-Geo enthusiast.. having owned several Neo-Geo incarnations since 1994, and played it well before then. Furthermore, I worked in Japan for 6 years and became tight with the Osaka staff from 2001 till when I left.

I say enjoy this item for what it is; a $200.00 Neo-Geo novelty item. If you can have realistic expectations.. then you'll probably think this is a pretty neat little device. In this age, $200.00 isn't that much to walk away with a handheld, TV interfacing game console, and a bitching repo of the original Geo stick. It's not bad. People expecting 1990's Japanese production values in this for $200.00 have unreasonable expectations. Seriously, the limited edition gives you 21 games that'd be thousands of dollars.. that play pretty well for fraction of the cost. Yes, the video isn't great.. but, you enjoy this thing, not put it in a glass display case to beat off too. Here's hoping it does well enough to maybe get some original games or say Garou 2 completed and released for it. Out kiddies.

i hope they dont release garou 2 on this thing, if they are gonna make it they should put it on xbox 360 and ps3 so i can play with a good arcade stick and play with friends online

 

[RabbitTroop]

Still happy with mine I'm not sure what people expected. This wasn't ever going to replace your home system, CMVS or cabinet. It's just a fun little Neo Geo handheld. Maybe when the standard package is released for $129 next year people will like it more. I think the dock really built up people's expectations, and equally tore them down.

 

[Poonman]

I'm kind of disappointed SNKP would sign off on this.

Don't be...they really need the money...to buy "protection" from the pachinko Yakuza who has them by the balls ever since they've fallen under new managment.

 

[robot]

Really happy with the purchase despite it having a somewhat "knock-off" feel to it. My handheld dpad seems to get stuck when pressing right (it doesn't return to neutral when I let go) so it's going back for an exchange.

 

[Mr. Zurkon]

Does anybody want to make a Neo Geo X club banner for those of us who are really enjoying this system?

 

[mungrin]

Just noticed that left on the thumb stick doesn't click as loud as the other directions and feels different. I've played it all together maybe a half hour.

 

[Jonmkl]

So I have finally had a chance to spend some time with this thing and put it through it's bases and here's my review!

The Physical: 8 out of 10

Bearing in mind the low cost of this bundle and the compareable neo options in this range (read: none) DANG is this a nice looking setup. Starting with the packaging, if this thing doesn't produce desire in your soul you are missing some neo loving fragment of it, one of the most pleasing games to unbox ever.
The handheld feels great to me as well, high quality stuff for a unit this price produced in this low a number, and the controls on it are easily the best I've touched for playing arcade games on the go, a genre that is pretty much all about controls. The neo stick feels fantastic and handles FAR better than the "Bean" CDZ sticks I've got lying around, and for the price it's a dream. The dock itself I would also say is pretty dang sweet, I disagree that the plastic on the dock is cheap, the construction on it, coupled with its lack of weight is what makes it feel cheap, but it in no way feels to me like it will break or ding or wear down from even frequent use.

On the Hardware side the X is a dream, it looks right, feels right, it's just right. If it wasn't for the incredibly wrong sized screen and lack of a standalone charger for the unit this would have gotten a 9.5 from me.

Sadly there is bad news.

The Immaterial: 4 out of 10

Dear Lord the software! You know they had a different team working on this aspect, for every amount of love, care, and fanboy thoughtfulness that went into the physical side of the package, a directly proportional amount of incompetence and uncaring went into the software. From the blurry and artifact producing way the screen is scaled, to the audio delay issues, to the lack of built in options that would allow you to fix those very problems (and don't even get me started on the UI design). The software end of this was botched hard, and it would score much lower if It wasn't chock full of truly fantastic games, that despite these shackles, are still a joy to play.

If Tommo takes the time to put some serious work into the firmware of this device and fix some of its inherent issues (especially the ones that cause the terrible video quality) then they will have a really wonderful piece that will be very deserving the Neo Geo name. If they don't, then it will just be another holiday season novelty that no-one ever hears about or sees except in odd stories.


I'm closing, I personally love my NGX and I'll be playing it for a long long time moving forward (as well as likely purchasing every game card that they release for it) it's just a shame that such an important part of it was released in such an incomplete state.

Dear Modders, God Speed. Dear Tommo, Good luck.

 

[carnicero27]

i have been wathing all pages once the console is released but its a surprise to me nobody talks for the most important..

1- there are empty boxes that works for neo geo x gold cartridges?
2- anybody is going to re-made the original cover for neo geo aes to create a cover for neo geo x gold game cartridges?
3- what´s about the future of the games of this system?

 

[War Pig]

i have been wathing all pages once the console is released but its a surprise to me nobody talks for the most important..

3- what´s about the future of the games of this system?

This is what I'm most curious about. There hasn't even been a peep about future game releases. Do they plan on releasing more or is this it? And if they do, when should we expect them?

 

[GohanX]

i have been wathing all pages once the console is released but its a surprise to me nobody talks for the most important..

1- there are empty boxes that works for neo geo x gold cartridges?
2- anybody is going to re-made the original cover for neo geo aes to create a cover for neo geo x gold game cartridges?

I've been meaning to get on this, but I've been busy...

 

[GohanX]

Busy playing my X, that is.

 

[topher]

Sitting on the fence as to if I'm going to end up keeping mine...I like it, but with the games installed, I have a 200$ portable magician lord....not feeling super good about that. RBFFS gets some play, MS a little also, and a little Ninja Masters. Problem is I've been playing the piss out of these games for YEARS on MVS and the portable aspect isn't nearly as cool as I first thought and the dock will never get used realistically.

And as SSS stated earlier, the build quality is questionable the more I play with the system.

 

[Yodd]

Do they plan on releasing more or is this it?

Probably not.

Rumor has is it that this is it.


edit: Also, as soon as the current stock is all sold out, no more will be produced.

 

[nerdstick]

Probably not.

Rumor has is it that this is it.


edit: Also, as soon as the current stock is all sold out, no more will be produced.

Considering that the standalone handheld is coming out in a few months and Blaze's announcement for support starting from Easter, I'd wouldn't touch that 'rumor' with an x foot pole.

According to the PR rep (among others) the games are supposed to start rolling out early 2013. Although he did say we were supposed to hear more about them this month.