Trying to Review Every Neo Geo Game on Youtube

[LoneSage]

It made my day yesterday. Little things count right now. Thanks dude.

Ain't that the goddamn truth.

Thanks Alec for continuing this content.

 

[slugger_dan]

Just started watching these reviews and they’re great, thanks for making these. The balance between strategy / review / history of the games development is pretty good. The recognition of the people behind the nicknames in the credits is also a nice touch, especially the recurring ones. Helps keep their contributions from falling into obscurity.

 

[TK86079]

Great review again! incedible work you do. Last Resort is my favorite shooter on the system and the only one I can clear 1cc.

 

[Neo Alec]

Thanks. I started including more strategy and walkthrough in order to beef up the coverage of the actual gameplay. This was a reaction to some of the feedback I got on the Alpha Mission 2 video (that I didn't talk about the game enough). However, generally I don't want to include full walkthroughs. The point of the video is meant to be a complete retrospective and review after all, not necessarily a strategy video. Not everyone interested in the game will want to sit through that. I did a full walkthrough of Last Resort because it's only 5 stages, and I felt the game warranted it. Going forward, you're going to see gameplay highlights.

 

[Leback]

Great review Neo Alec! I got Last resort on AES as a Christmas gift for myself but I'm still struggling with it. Love that you included a full walkthrough!

 

[Mr.Bojangles]

Really been enjoying your reviews. I think you guys are doing a fantastic job!!!

 

[Neo Alec]

Eightman is up. I've changed the name of the series to "Neo Geo Generation"

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Eightman is up. I've changed the name of the series to "Neo Geo Generation"

Fantastic and well done as always.
I appreciate the research on Pallas as well. The information about Pallas just further supports the narrative that SNK were really serious about not allowing third party developers to release games on the Neo Geo in the hardware’s early years** (rather than the perceived/assumed lack of third-party interest in the hardware itself).

Still love that rocking stage 1-1 ost theme.

**http://gaming.moe/?p=2602

 

[Neo Alec]

Fantastic and well done as always.
I appreciate the research on Pallas as well. The information about Pallas just further supports the narrative that SNK were really serious about not allowing third party developers to release games on the Neo Geo in the hardware’s early years**.

Still love that rocking stage 1-1 ost theme.

**http://gaming.moe/?p=2602

Yes, this reminded me of what you posted about Ragnagard. So how did Minnasan no Okagesamadesu! and Legend of Success Joe from Monolith and Wave come to pass?

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Yes, this reminded me of what you posted about Ragnagard. So how did Minnasan no Okagesamadesu! and Legend of Success Joe from Monolith and Wave come to pass?

Hey whats up Neo Alec, Monolith handled early console ports of SNK games to lesser systems so their relationship with SNK would have been very similar to Saurus who also had an established association due to their work/ports of neo geo titles.

Since Wave Corp really only released Legend of Success Joe on the Neo Geo, I wonder if they were stood up much the same way as Pallas (or at least established through association like ADK).

 

[Burning Fight!!]

1-1 and 1-2's themes are great.

lol Neo Alec your review almost made me want to work on fixing the audio in the Neo CD conversion again, until you mentioned how it resets on stage 3. Wish someone had told me before I spent my time on it...

Since Wave Corp really only released Legend of Success Joe on the Neo Geo, I wonder if they were stood up much the same way as Pallas (or at least established through association like ADK).

I don't buy it mainly because of how egregious the engrish is on that one. They went above and beyond SNKnglish
Interesting story about SNK and their initial relationship with third parties. Seems like I have some forum posts to catch up on.

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

...I don't buy it mainly because of how egregious the engrish is on that one. They went above and beyond SNKnglish
Interesting story about SNK and their initial relationship with third parties. Seems like I have some forum posts to catch up on.

That they did lol

The only way to be sure will be to compare the Legend of Success Joe credits with the known SNK dev pseudonyms...

chief programmer: hirofumi sakaue
assistant programmer: takashi iehara
character designer: koji tomoto
assistance designer: kenichiro matsumoto
total producer: teruo ohira

After some quick searching it looks like Teruo Ohira may be the possible connection as he was the president of Ohira Giken Industry, a company who was also in the amusement machine business that released machines under the Nasco and Yuvo brands:

Wave - GDRI :: Game Developer Research Institute

gdri.smspower.org

With a credits list that small, whatever their connection was to SNK/the Neo Geo, it looks like the relationship came to a screeching halt after Ashita no Joe. It would be hilarious if that was the game that made SNK wary of third-parties early in the life of the hardware lol The poor impression that the game made of the Neo Geo hardware was likely a sobering lesson for SNK.

I also wanted to add that Viccom’s Fight Fever would also fall under this category due to Kim Kaphwan’s prior business association with SNK**.

**http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/part2/company-viccom.htm

 

[Neo Alec]

1-1 and 1-2's themes are great.

lol Neo Alec your review almost made me want to work on fixing the audio in the Neo CD conversion again, until you mentioned how it resets on stage 3. Wish someone had told me before I spent my time on it...

I feel like no one ever played it far enough to find the problem. I don't really blame them, with the audio glitches. How would you go about fixing the glitches? Sounds like quite the undertaking. Removing the glitched sounds altogether would probably be the easiest way. As for the reset glitch, that would probably take more effort -- or maybe someone can just try converting the game again from scratch.

I came very close to not including the section about the CD conversion in the video. I didn't talk about the King of the Monsters one in that video because the sound is really bad. The situation with the 8 Man CD could change in the future with some more effort, and I didn't want to shame the effort that went into the conversion. I want my videos to be timeless.

 

[Geddon_jt]

I have a complete lack of understanding for the Andro Dunos, 8man, KOM and whatever other cart to CD unofficial ports are floating around these days. But I guess that's my issue.

 

[BBH]

I have to nitpick one thing about the Eight Man review - the A+B split kick was dismissed as something you might use when enemies are behind you, but not very useful otherwise. I strongly disagree because this is an aspect of the game that isn't immediately obvious, but the A+B split kick is actually far more damaging than the regular attack.

Here's the other fun thing about the split kick - you can do it from either a standing or crouching position, and both attacks can have their animations cancelled by a crouch or neutral stand. What does this mean? You can do one A+B split kick, press down to immediately go into a crouch to cancel the animation (but keep the attack frames of the kick fireball on the screen), and then do another one from crouching, and then let go of the Down direction to stand back up and keep moving forward. This sounds a little confusing, but it's a really powerful tactic.

Even better, you can actually do the A+B attack by holding down the A button first, and then pressing B, removing the need to do a perfect 2-button input to do it. So for maximum damage on some bosses it's best to hold A, tap B, press and hold Down, tap B again, release Down. This creates two split kicks with little recovery.

I make heavy use of this on my recent 1CC video.

 

[Neo Alec]

I have to nitpick one thing about the Eight Man review - the A+B split kick was dismissed as something you might use when enemies are behind you, but not very useful otherwise. I strongly disagree because this is an aspect of the game that isn't immediately obvious, but the A+B split kick is actually far more damaging than the regular attack.

Here's the other fun thing about the split kick - you can do it from either a standing or crouching position, and both attacks can have their animations cancelled by a crouch or neutral stand. What does this mean? You can do one A+B split kick, press down to immediately go into a crouch to cancel the animation (but keep the attack frames of the kick fireball on the screen), and then do another one from crouching, and then let go of the Down direction to stand back up and keep moving forward. This sounds a little confusing, but it's a really powerful tactic.

Even better, you can actually do the A+B attack by holding down the A button first, and then pressing B, removing the need to do a perfect 2-button input to do it. So for maximum damage on some bosses it's best to hold A, tap B, press and hold Down, tap B again, release Down. This creates two split kicks with little recovery.

I make heavy use of this on my recent 1CC video.

Haha, where was your video a week ago? The longplay on Youtube looks tool-assisted, but doesn't use the move.

This is why I'm generally loathe to talk about the gameplay. There's always something I missed that someone's going to correct. I'm proud of how well I learned to play this game. Well, I guess I brought this on myself -- whenever you say something in a game isn't useful, someone will correct you.

By the way, BBH, I really should've looked you up. Your Last Resort video about the prototype vs the final was very informative. Great work on these! Got any videos on games I have coming up? I'll have to remember to check next time.

 

[BBH]

Haha, where was your video a week ago?

My videos don't quite have that big of an outreach unfortunately, haha. I've been doing streams every Monday on my twitch channel at 5 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT where I attempt to 1CC arcade games, and then I upload the highlights to youtube later. Of course I've already done a bunch of Neo-Geo games. It's more of a personal project than anything else, I just want recorded live videos with commentary for as many arcade 1CC's as I can manage. Here's a playlist of everything that's been done so far.

The longplay on Youtube looks tool-assisted, but doesn't use the move.

Yup, World of Longplays is only good for quick reference on what certain parts of a game look like, they're never legitimate gameplay. Somebody pointed out that in their Sengoku video they straight up left a video splice in there that repeated a few minutes of gameplay. Amazing quality control!

This is why I'm generally loathe to talk about the gameplay. There's always something I missed that someone's going to correct. I'm proud of how well I learned to play this game. Well, I guess I brought this on myself -- whenever you say something in a game isn't useful, someone will correct you.

Don't feel too bad, because like I said it's not the most obvious aspect of the gameplay, a lot of people never notice how powerful the A+B kick is because I certainly didn't expect it to be as powerful as it was. I'm just trying to do my part to let people know how it works because it definitely made the game a lot more enjoyable to do 1CC attempts on for me.

By the way, BBH, I really should've looked you up. Your Last Resort video about the prototype vs the final was very informative. Great work on these! Got any videos on games I have coming up? I'll have to remember to check next time.

Oh yeah, the Last Resort prototype video... that wasn't really a high effort video either, I just threw that together for a stream. I'm really quite bad at video editing which is why I just do the streaming thing.

Well, looking at the NGH codes... I'm afraid I will not be of much help on unreleased prototypes, mahjong games, or sports games. So uh, good luck with those hahaha.

(also I should say that watching your video did teach me a lot about the 8 Man animes, as much as I've played the Neo-Geo game I just didn't really know anything about the source material)

 

[Neo Alec]

My videos don't quite have that big of an outreach unfortunately, haha. I've been doing streams every Monday on my twitch channel at 5 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT where I attempt to 1CC arcade games, and then I upload the highlights to youtube later. Of course I've already done a bunch of Neo-Geo games. It's more of a personal project than anything else, I just want recorded live videos with commentary for as many arcade 1CC's as I can manage. Here's a playlist of everything that's been done so far.



Yup, World of Longplays is only good for quick reference on what certain parts of a game look like, they're never legitimate gameplay. Somebody pointed out that in their Sengoku video they straight up left a video splice in there that repeated a few minutes of gameplay. Amazing quality control!



Don't feel too bad, because like I said it's not the most obvious aspect of the gameplay, a lot of people never notice how powerful the A+B kick is because I certainly didn't expect it to be as powerful as it was. I'm just trying to do my part to let people know how it works because it definitely made the game a lot more enjoyable to do 1CC attempts on for me.



Oh yeah, the Last Resort prototype video... that wasn't really a high effort video either, I just threw that together for a stream. I'm really quite bad at video editing which is why I just do the streaming thing.

Well, looking at the NGH codes... I'm afraid I will not be of much help on unreleased prototypes, mahjong games, or sports games. So uh, good luck with those hahaha.

(also I should say that watching your video did teach me a lot about the 8 Man animes, as much as I've played the Neo-Geo game I just didn't really know anything about the source material)

Your Last Resort video was mostly good to solidify and confirm things I already knew about the proto before putting it in my video. However, one thing was a lifesaver - the advice about keeping to the bottom of the screen during the final asteroid section. I was pulling my hair out until I saw that!

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I feel like no one ever played it far enough to find the problem. I don't really blame them, with the audio glitches. How would you go about fixing the glitches? Sounds like quite the undertaking. Removing the glitched sounds altogether would probably be the easiest way. As for the reset glitch, that would probably take more effort -- or maybe someone can just try converting the game again from scratch.

I came very close to not including the section about the CD conversion in the video. I didn't talk about the King of the Monsters one in that video because the sound is really bad. The situation with the 8 Man CD could change in the future with some more effort, and I didn't want to shame the effort that went into the conversion. I want my videos to be timeless.

The sound driver runs isolated in a Z80 processor so it's not as impossible as one would think, and I think Jeff Kurtz did a disassembly of one of the common SNK audio drivers for developing homebrew at one point. I was trying to reverse engineer the driver myself but as I lack experience with the z80 I didn't go too far with it.

If you know where the sample pointers are and reencode those with a lower bitrate, or just remove them altogether, then it could probably fit the audio ram and not glitch out. I tried to lazily kill some sound effect commands but the only thing I managed to do was glitch the sound engine and make it play unexpected samples lol. I was eventually going to revisit it but with the reset issue, that goes a little bit beyond hacking the audio driver's sound effects table.

 

[BBH]

Your Last Resort video was mostly good to solidify and confirm things I already knew about the proto before putting it in my video. However, one thing was a lifesaver - the advice about keeping to the bottom of the screen during the final asteroid section. I was pulling my hair out until I saw that!

ooh yeah, I completely forgot about how fast the asteroids were at the end of stage 5 in the prototype version. That was some bullshit, I'm glad they toned that down for the final.

 

[ShaolinAce]

Enjoyed it as always. Not much a of a fan if the game as its reputation always seemed mixed. Feel pretty spoiled of the frequency of the videos release. Which is awesome.

Also a fan of bbh. Watched every single neo geo related video he has. I know theres other members with channels here aswell. I basically watch anything neo related on youtube when I find the time. Not to disparage either of your channels. Its just real good shit.

 

[LoneSage]

I want my videos to be timeless.

This is a great mindset, because no matter if it's only a few people, 20 years from now there will be some kid just getting into NG and appreciating these vids. Or, us old guys just reminiscing about these old games.

 

[NeoCverA]

You mentioned Micheal Beard - has anyone seen him or ever interviewed him about the voice work he did for
The early games?

 

[Neo Alec]

The Fun Fun Bros video is up for viewing:

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]