First Neo Geo game you ever saw/played?

[Pretty Amy]

My first Neo Geo game was probably one of the fighters. Maybe Samurai Showdown?

Most memorable was Puzzle Bobble. I was back in high school and on a trip to Japan with my dad. Our hotel in Kyoto had a small arcade in the basement filled mostly with older games like Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior and a bunch of those pornagraphic mahjong games. And not the ones with real life video of girls, but SNES-quality sprite nudity. My dad and I got a laugh out of those and then I proceeded to try out PUzzle Bobble. I'd certainly seen the game before, but never played it. I was hooked. Eventually bought the Super Famicom version a few years later. I went with the Japanese version to be authentic to my first experience with the game and to bring back good memories of the trip.

 

[Pope Sazae]

Does Ikari Warriors count? It was made by SNK and I pumped a ton of quarters into it back in the day.

 

[dspoonrt]

First contact with a Neo Geo was a small retail store in a mall during the early 90's. Took a family trip with my parents to Pennsylvania (from Canada) and stopped in the mall to see some pirate movie. On the way to buy tickets I found the games store and was shocked to see some fighting games selling for $175+!!!!

I can't remember the movie title, or if it was good, but I'll never forget the expensive games in the store that day!

The pirate movie was probably Hook (1991), Cutthroat Island (1995), or Muppet Treasure Island (1996). All three of those are decent flicks, but Hook is probably the best of the bunch.

 

[Dark Sakul]

 

[zaneiken]

First game I saw was Crossed Swords. First I played was Fatal Fury. This was when arcades were full of Street Fighter II cabinets.

 

[silverstar]

I remember a Neo setup in the local arcade having AoF, Nam and Crossed Swords.
I specifically remember those huge character sprites in AoF and the scaling/zooming in and out during gameplay, that impressed me a lot. I also remember the 100 Megashock logo popping up and associating it with quality gaming, good times.

 

[Jeneki]

I first saw a couple cabinets at the State Fair arcade. Had no idea what the whole NeoGeo attract sequence was about, but whatever. I believe the games were Baseball Stars Professional, Cyber Lip, Ninja Combat, and Super Spy. The one I played was Super Spy, because freakin' uzi spraying bullets everywhere in the demo.

 

[Gog]

First one I played was Fatal Fury, in my local arcade back in the day. They got Art of Fighting and World Heroes not long after too. I was obsessed with all three. I remember being blown away by the rain in Tung Fu Rue's stage in FF.

 

[cplhicks]

The first Neo game I played was Areo Fighters at a local bowling alley. My mom was in a league and she would give me some quarters to go play the arcade games (they had a large selection too) to keep me out of her hair.

 

[ballzdeepx]

Thanks for sharing all these stories everyone, they are hitting me in the nostalgia bone.

 

[scrubsy]

Mine was World Heroes in a Hotel lobby. I don't know why, but I was so hooked on it and just had to beat it. I put at least $10 worth of quarters in and it was worth every cent. I always keep it in the big red as a reminder of a simpler time in my life.

 

[Mendel]

Neo Drift Out in a small gas station, one of the weird finnish stand up woodies, it was near to where I lived back in the 90s. the "new technology" slogan I remember clearly, there was even a Drift Out marquee too.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

When I started college in the fall of '93 there was a Pizza Hut/bar on the top floor of the student union that also had a small arcade. A few pinballs, a couple pool tables, and a couple arcade games. One of these was a two slot with Samurai Shodown which I could not get enough of. I think it had Bust-A-Move too, but SamSho left a serious impression on me.

I was never satisfied with the Genesis version, but couldn't afford an AES to save my life in those days. I remember looking at the boxes at Software Etc in the mall, and wondering who could afford such a thing.

 

[ApolloBoy]

I don't quite remember but I think the first NG game I ever saw was either Baseball Stars 2 or Bust-A-Move, back around 1996/97 when I was a kid. The first one I actually played was Metal Slug 2.

 

[Gog]

Thanks for sharing all these stories everyone, they are hitting me in the nostalgia bone.

First time I've given anyone a nostalgic boner, makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside

 

[GhostSeed]

If I had to guess it probably would have been Magician Lord or Ninja Combat. Man, thinking back there were a ton arcades in the area at that time. There was Aladdin's Castle, Boulder Boardwalk, Pinball Palace, and like 2 other smaller ones who's names escape me. Now all that's left is game themed bar and a hand full of cabs up on campus and couple of others random bars most of which don't work or have horrible burn in.

 

[Sdfthree]

I remember playing The Super SPY at an Arcade at the PX in Korea. Wondering how come the graphics are better than my NES!

 

[tiptopjames]

Samurai Showdown at a Simple Simons. 2 slot unit there, can't remember what was in slot 2

 

[SNKNostalgia]

First games I played were in a 2-slot MVS with King of The Monsters and Baseball Stars. I was amazed at the colorful detail of the cities and sound/music in King of The Monsters, and blown away by the voice announcer and getting a kick out of the breaking of the baseball bat scene when striking out in Baseball Stars. Before this, I only saw games like Final Fight and Street Fighter 2 to compare to and the Neo Geo was definitely a step up overall... especially with colors, detail and sound.

Then the same arcade got in Fatal Fury and I was very impressed with the sound and music more than anything. It also looked great and I really enjoyed the daylight changes in the levels. Later on they got in Robo Army which was good fun since I played the hell out of Final Fight and DJ Boys there. Last, they got in Fatal Fury 2 which was just as good to me as SF2 at the time.

After that, nothing much for a while until I played Samurai Shodown 1 at an Italian restaurant when visiting family in Santa Rosa, CA. "Holy shit!!!" is all I gotta say about seeing that in '93. Years later I played SS3 and Ninja Combat at a local arcade in MS.

I finally played some PS1 and Saturn ports '96 and bought me a Neo Geo CD in '97 with Top Hunter, Ninja Commando and Real Bout Special. Then I got a Neo Geo home cart system for high school graduation in '99 with SS1.... SS2 and KOF 99 a few months later.

 

[Black_Tiger]

By the time the Neo Geo started making the rounds, arcades had mostly dried up in my home town. The best place to find multiple arcade machines which were swapped out regularly, was an orange julius style place at the local mall. I reaf all about the Neo Geo in magazines before it came out and was looking forward to seeing the quality of the games.

I believe thst the first MVS machine we got had both Magician Lord and Nam 1975. I didn't pay much attention to Nam 1975, because Magician Lord was tailor made for me. It was a more effective killer app to launch the Neo Geo with to me than any other video game platform launch title.

The aesthetic style and over the top design of Neo Geo games was distinctive and made an instant impression on me.

 

[rcantor77]

We never had a Neo Geo near us when they fist came out, so my first play was on Home Cart. I was playing with PC Engine and Megadrive when a good friend imported a Neo Geo from Japan. This was very early on from release, probably within the first 3 - 6 months, probably early '92. He bought it with a load of the orignal release games. I was a 15 year old kid then and was totally blown away... I seem to remember that NAM-1975 was the first one he plugged in to show me.

 

[etg]

For me it was one of the king of fighters games, while visiting Mexico as a kid. Never got to play it at the time, due to large crowds watching and older kids always intimidating me from doing so.

 

[Setherial]

Which KOF was it?

 

[ColdWolf35]

Well, I encountered my first SNK game when I was about 7 or 8. I played Art of Fighting with my best friend, and her brother was into the fighting game scene. Although he was into Street Fighter and RPG's, I'm pretty sure that he was into SNK stuff too. I thought it was going to be the last time I saw a game like that.

However, I was wrong.Throughout my adventures through arcades, I remember seeing quite a few MVS machines, and always thought they were very innovative with multiple games in one cabinet. One MVS game that got me interested was Spin Masters, since it was so similar to another game I own, Joe and Mac. Since then, I probably saw 4-5 MVS cabinets altogether (maybe even more), this included the one cabinet at the ice rink at my college.

Now, I own 12 Neo Geo games (6 MVS, 6 AES), and have enjoyed it since!

 

[Furbylicious]

Must have been SamSho in late summer '93. We had a fucking awesome little arcade called Systems City in town that had a good selection of machines. I really started out with SF II, but became more of a Mortal Kombat guy after winning a few small local tournaments. I remember being blown away by the graphics of Samurai Shodown when I first saw it, and really started getting into SNK fighters at that time. When Haohmaru did his 'whirlwind' move, my buddy and I always thought it sounded like he was saying, "Send two bitches up", still makes me laugh when I hear that.