The SNK facilities in Osaka with the 6-story R&D facility (at left) adjacent to the 3-story administrativelmanulacturing building (right). The firm has purchased land for a new manufacturing facility.

At a private meeting for overseas dealers, the SNK Corp. (lead by Mr. Kawasaki & Mr. lkawa at the pivot table) discussed the features and marketing concepts for Neo•Geo.

Over one thousand attended the official debut of the SNK Neo • Geo system at the Esaka Tokyu Inn. Among them were international notables Udo Nickel (Germany), Andre Mouton (France), Malcolm Steinberg (Australia), Jim Koh (Singapore), Jan Vendevende (Belgium), Gianfranco Maffiodo (Italy), John Stergides (England), Mr. Ramos (Spain) and Peter Chang (Taiwan).

against the computer). Quarter play (with quarter-to-continue) is the standard vend. Every cabinet comes with two joysticks and eight buttons (four buttons for each player). The cabinets (which will be built and assembled with the master hardware boards) will be produced Stateside for the North American market.

FIRST TITLES

The first batch of five game car

tridges to show their stuff at ACME

will be a driving game called Riding

Hero, a fighting item called NAM

1975, sport games Top Players Golf

and Baseball Stars Professional and

a role-playing entry called Magician

Lord. These and future titles take

their shots at the array of themes

and player demographics found in

taverns, C-stores, local and mall

arcades, etc.

By April of 1991, Jacobs said ap

proximately 23 titles will have been

introduced for Neo•Geo operators. "We'll bring new releases out on a regular basis without being wasteful for any of the three parties involved... operators, distributors and SNK designers," he declared.

Jacobs said there's no cutoff year for Neo•Geo game R&D, that they literally intend to continue bringing new titles along even after they eventually go back to producing "specialty" coin games in the future. "There's an enormous investment here on SNK's part," he said, "and a solid belief that we've produced the ideal system for the nineties."

The SNK exec described the Neo• Geo system upright as "totally userfriendly, both to the operator as well as to the player. It's a breeze for the operators to change software andti. tle cards and a breeze for the players to check out the available games offered, punch up the one they want to try and go right into it." In addition, another player incentive is the memory card which operators cu offer to their more "serious customers."

MEMORY CARD

Operators may remember such a card used on a Leland game at one time. The one for Neo•Geo is similar in that it also enables the player to record his progress on any game,