SNK Classic Inserts

Capitalistix

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As someone who was mystified and knew very little details about the AES when the games were in current production, since I got into the system I’ve had a few questions regarding the artwork.
What year did SNK transition away from “classic” style inserts or start referring to that very conservative uniform style as such for their releases? Also when they started releasing games with full/varied cover art did they immediately start offering “classic” inserts? Or was in some later response to a reaction from fans who wanted a uniform look on their shelves?

Lastly was anything similar offered/done in the Japanese market or was that purely an SNK US thing alone?
 

city41

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Classic inserts were only for US releases. I could be wrong but I believe only the neo store had them for sale.

They started around metal slug 4.

Ms4, kof2001, 2002, 2003 and ms5 got classic inserts. Ms4 and ms5 also got a classic cart labels.

I bought my 2002 off eBay and noticed the classic insert just peaking out on the edges. So when it arrived, sure enough it had both inserts.

I also picked up the ms4 classic insert and label for a song when the neo store was clearing out its extra inventory. Nowadays I imagine it would be pretty pricey.

ms4_classic.jpg
 

Capitalistix

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Wow, that is so cool. So it was a request that was honored by SNKP themselves. They really were like no other dev/publisher back then. That's so neat to me. I also had no idea that it was just those 6 titles, always seemed like there would have been more. I feel like id seen Garou with one? Maybe that was a counterfeit/aftermarket job. Thank you for all that info City!
 

max 330 megafartz

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I find it funny…. These classic inserts are secondary…… but they’re supposedly not funny…… almost like they were printed after the fact…. Like another Dion and his buddy…
 

Geddon_jt

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These inserts were made by SNK at Shawn's request because the inserts they were making for games, with the awful big block text on the side, looked bad compared to the rest of the library (and of course, the red stripe on Slug 4 and 5 didn't match the blue of the others). The only catch was SNK required them to only be sold with new games, they could not be sold individually. When the classic inserts came out certain games had already sold out. So the only way to get some of them would be to buy a new game that was in stock and get a classic insert for something else. Making it pretty damn hard to get the entire set of 6.
 

city41

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He ended up selling most of them individually. I'm guessing in the end they were less popular than expected. For example here's kof2002

 

Viewpoint

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Cool opinion bro
I mean, Overall like you said, I'm not too fond of the american versions of the inserts since they're cropped a bit. It's the same with Japanese Megadrive games where the insert fills out the whole case. It just gives a better impression overall to me.
 

neo_mao

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The only thing uglier than the classic inserts are the US dogtag games.

Bigger, badder, better…oof. So tacky, cheapens the whole aesthetic/brand.

It’d be like if Sega slapped a “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” label on every single fucking Genesis game box.

:oops:
 
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city41

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Yeah I've always hated the dog tags myself. Thankfully Europe had better taste.
 

Neo Alec

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The only thing uglier than the classic inserts are the US dogtag games.

Bigger, badder, better…oof. So tacky, cheapens the whole aesthetic/brand.

It’d be like if Sega slapped a “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” label on every single fucking Genesis game box.

:oops:
I get the nostalgia feels for that stuff. It's just the way things were done back then. It probably worked too.
 

max 330 megafartz

The Almighty Bunghole
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I personally only collected snk-g mvs carts and dogtag aes when i ever had neo geo home console or candy cabs. Sorry yall are fagtarded.
 

Evan

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To me they just don't look right for the newer games. The later games kinda have that more cheapo arcade feel.
 

Shawn

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I've been asked by multiple people recently if SNK's classic art were really only limited to 100 each. Apparently I didn't mention this before now, probably because production #s were to be kept confidential (at least with cartridge runs), but I think it does more good than harm to disclose the classic artworks #s. Example, this recent listing of MS4 classic mentions, "The classic edition art packs (insert + cartridge sticker) were produced by SNK and limited to 100 each."

Q: I'm still wondering whether there were really 100 per set. Because since I started the collection in 2016 I often see games with the classic insert, I even regularly see sales of classic inserts alone on various sites like eBay. And I wonder because an offset production cannot be limited to 100 copies.

My response...
MTG artist proofs are limited to 50 prints for non foil and 30 for foil. Yet the most famous & valuable has 5 copies listed across eBay and this Goldin listing (Black Lotus Beta AP). Perhaps others are listed elsewhere if we were to search online. So 10% of the supply is currently listed by auction (5/50), which is like having 10 copies of RotD classic being auctioned simultaneously. If RotD classic was fetching $800k, I bet we'd see them surface more often too.

SNK's inserts are thicker than a standard sheet of white office paper, and also of similar length x width. Have you ever seen a standard 500 sheet pack of printer paper? Copy paper is typically thinner/cheaper, so let's go with that.Screenshot 2025-02-12 171857.png

Now compare that 500 sheet pack of copy paper to the thickness of the classic insert packs. Estimate how many inserts are within the thickness of those packs and you tell me how many you think were actually distributed, if not 100.
front.jpg

NGF claims that they only produced 100 of their US KoF 2000 AES art. They've tried to prove this by serializing them for those that send in to them for authentication.

The purpose of SNK producing the classic art was to satisfy fans/collectors who prefer a consistent style to match their existing collection, and to help the NeoStore move the remaining unsold new stock by bundling. In most and perhaps it was for all cases, < 100 copies were remaining unsold for bundling, at which point the extras were sold unbundled/separately as seen here.

Btw, it was John Thacker (Geddon_jt) who proposed to name these the 'classic edition' artwork.

Just double checked my email records with SNK to confirm, and this response was received on Mon 3/8/2004 12:02 AM:
Screenshot 2025-02-12 174818.png
 

Geddon_jt

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Your efforts to get these made was just the cherry on top of what you did to keep the AES scene alive for an extra 5 years. Those of us old enough to be around back then remember it well and won't forget it.

I used to keep my classic edition stuff pretty precious, in hard plastic clear sleeves and whatnot. Years ago I said F it and swapped the inserts where the ugly OG ones are now in the hard plastic AES cases. These things really look great and complete these games. I ain't peeling off the blue stripe Slug 4 and 5 stickers tho, those remain off in a drawer somewhere. ;)
 
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chrisr

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The purpose of SNK producing the classic art was to satisfy fans/collectors who prefer a consistent style to match their existing collection
Can you imagine if someone would have thought of that 10+ years previously? The endearing accolades for understanding the desire of collectors to have a uniform and consistent collection to display would have been truly profound.
 

BasicMicroGun

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Can you imagine if someone would have thought of that 10+ years previously? The endearing accolades for understanding the desire of collectors to have a uniform and consistent collection to display would have been truly profound.
when is your tonk-esque ass cancer era going to start? or nah?
 
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