Most Gaming Consoles were Steppingstones to Modern Day Technology Operating System: Today we discuss Neo Geo:
The device includes a 4.3-inch LCD screen, SD card slot, A/V output, internal stereo speakers with a 3.5mm headphone jack.[9] A micro USB port on the system is used for charging the battery.[12] The screen’s 480×272 pixels resolution is the same as the original PlayStation Portable and is close to the 16:9 aspect ratio.[5]
The system was released as part of the Gold package, which includes the “Neo Geo X Station”, a replica of the original Neo Geo AES console that functions as a charging/docking station with its own composite video out and HDMI output along with a functioning replica of the original Neo Geo AES arcade stick controller.[4][13]
The Neo Geo X arcade stick controllers connect to the docking station via two USB ports.[12] Original Neo Geo AES controllers, game cartridges and memory cards are not compatible with the Neo Geo X.
The handheld has an 8-way thumbstick for directional control, menu and start buttons, four face buttons and four shoulder buttons: L1, L2, R1, R2. The shoulder buttons are used for changing screen aspect ratio and pausing games. Buttons to adjust volume and brightness are located under the handheld.[14][15]
The unit’s BIOS and pre-installed games were initially stored on an internal microSD card; later hardware revisions use a chip installed directly on the motherboard.
The Neo Geo AES of 1990 was the first video game console to offer the ability to use memory cards to save game progress. It initially used a 68 -pin 2KB SRAM memory card based on version 3 of the JEIDA standard and needed a battery inside the card to retain the data.
What really set Neo Geo apart at the time was that you could take a cartridge out of its MVS arcade cabinets and bring it home to its AES system and play. Even with this feature, Neo Geo was only able to maintain its status as a niche console never selling to the likes of its competitors. Moving just over one million consoles, the Neo Geo was also limited by its lineup of games, many of which focused on fighting.
By the end of 1997, the Neo Geo AES was canceled. Software development would surprisingly live on until 2004, again emphasizing the console’s status as a cult favorite.
Price
Priced at $399, the system was bundled with a control pad instead of the joystick that had made the original Neo Geo AES so unique. Unfortunately, for its price, the CD loading time was notoriously slow and quickly frustrated gamers who had to often wait a full minute before a title would load completely.
SNK quickly promised to deliver a model that would double the speed of the built-in CD ROM in North America but never delivered on their commitment. By 1996, SNK announced they would double speeds as the cost was too high until they sold through the initial run of Neo Geo CD consoles.
A version with the double-speed loading CD drive was sold in Japan as a “CDZ” model with North American enthusiasts importing the console. Without a region lock, games launched in the U.S. played much better than the original console release.