Regardless of whether you have had a chance to enjoy the fantastic games developed for Neo Geo Pocket Color game platform or you are just interested in exploring the technologies used in the past and specifically in the 90s, this article will be of great interest for you presenting you the history of one of the first portable game consoles.
The release of Neo Geo Pocket Color
Neo Geo Pocket Color was one of the first game consoles with portability and the hardware supporting colours. In fact, Neo Geo Pocket Color was the next step after the release of Neo Geo Pocket which lacked the support of a colour scheme. This one was based on the 16-bit colour scheme.
In fact, this model of a game console was a portable form of another widely popular game console of the time which was Neo Geo Arcade.
The struggle of Neo Geo Pocket Color on the market
Unfortunately, Neo Geo Pocket Color could not keep up with their then competitor Nintendo Gameboy handheld video game consoles. It was so not because the console itself was of an insufficient quality. The reason for it was the limitation of the games which were available for Neo Geo Pocket. In addition to it, the Pokemon franchise was a top demanding game, which was available on Gameboy.
On top of that, there was market dominance of another handheld manufacturer from Japan which was Bandai’s Wonderswan. In case, if you have not seen one or did not grow up in those times, the way these gaming consoles used to work was putting a little gaming cartridge typically at the back of the device. Most of the games that were available were absolutely platform-based. You could not use one platforms cartridge with a platform for which the game had not been developed.
The end of Neo Geo Pocket Color
Although this game platform was still in demand, they could not keep up with their competitors and the life span of these little magnificent device of the time did not last more than a year. It was released on March 16, 1999 and discontinued in June 13, 2000. Along with their struggle to keep up with their competitors, they soon began to struggle with their financial difficulties, until they fell from their fare gaming grace.
Later on, they left the company being sold out to an American Company called Azure. Azure too did not see much out of this, and decided to shut down the Neo Geo hardware and the software nationwide and company went bankrupt as well. Although, the production was still on in Japan, where it was still in demand and eventually there it faded away as well and discontinued on October 22, 2001. One other additional fall for this console was the price was comparatively high leaving it to pretty much easy obtaining for the posh kids.
The unique features of Neo Geo Pocket Color
Even though it sounds like an utter disgraceful loss and failure, Neo Geo Pocket Color did leave it marks with their fantastic easy going interface, which was purely plug-n-play approach and above all their signature games that were only to be found on this gaming console. Some of the top games developed for this console were Snk Vs Capcom: The match of the millennium, King of fighters R-2, Dark Arms: Beast buster, Fatal Fury and Metal Slug.
In fact, the amazing thing was how other independent third party developers contributed to this console and brought Sega’s Sonic The Hedgehog Pocket Adventure into this gaming console as well. The best thing, contemporary people are still seeking this piece of beast.