Hyper Neo Geo 64
Encyclopedia
Arcade system board
An arcade system board is a dedicated computer system created for the purpose of running video arcade games. Arcade system boards typically consist of a main system board with any number of supporting boards...
created by SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
, and released in September 1997, being the first and only "Neo Geo" branded arcade system of the Neo Geo family.
It was the first and only SNK hardware set capable of rendering in 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
, and was meant to replace SNK's older MVS system. Company executives planned for the project to bring SNK into the new era of 3D gaming that had arisen during the mid-1990s, and had planned for a corresponding home system to replace the aging and expensive AES
Neo Geo (console)
The is a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system released on July 1, 1991 by Japanese game company SNK. Being in the Fourth generation of Gaming, it was the first console in the former Neo Geo family, which only lived through the 1990s...
home console.
Although details regarding the planned home system are sketchy, it is believed that like the AES machine, much of the hardware from the Neo Geo 64 arcade platform would also have been present in the home system, meaning gameplay would be identical or near-identical whether a given game was played at home or in the arcade. It is unknown what media the home system would have used, as cartridges had become expensive and obsolete, but offered up to around 1 gigabyte
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
of storage space, where CDs were cheaper to produce, but were limited to 750 megabytes of capacity and may not have been big enough to hold the game data.
Only seven games were produced for the arcade variation of the system, none of which proved particularly popular, and as a result the project was discontinued. The proposed home system never got beyond initial planning stages and only one of the arcade games, the PlayStation version of Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
is a 3D fighting video game produced by SNK. The game was released in Japanese arcades on January 28, 1999, though the title screen shows the year 1998. It is part of the Fatal Fury series of fighting games. It was one of the last games released for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 system board. It was ported...
, was ported to home systems.
History
The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was conceived to usher SNK into the 3D era as well as to provide the hardware basis for a home system that would replace their aging Neo GeoNeo Geo (console)
The is a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system released on July 1, 1991 by Japanese game company SNK. Being in the Fourth generation of Gaming, it was the first console in the former Neo Geo family, which only lived through the 1990s...
, one that SNK hoped would be capable of competing with Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, Jaguar
Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is a video game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1993. It was the last to be marketed under the Atari brand until the release of the Atari Flashback in 2004. It was designed to surpass the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Panasonic...
and the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
as well as systems such as the REAL/3DO
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by...
and Phillips CD-i
CD-i
CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony...
.
The arcade system was released in September 1997, featuring a custom 64-bit RISC processor, 4 megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
s of program memory, 64 megabytes of 3D and texture memory, and 128 megabytes of memory for 2D characters and backgrounds. The first title released for the system was Road's Edge, with Samurai Shodown 64
Samurai Shodown 64
Samurai Shodown 64, known simply as in Japan, is a 3D fighting game produced by SNK for its Hyper Neo-Geo 64 system. It was SNK's first attempt to bring one of their franchises into the 3D realm...
and Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
is a 3D fighting video game produced by SNK. The game was released in Japanese arcades on January 28, 1999, though the title screen shows the year 1998. It is part of the Fatal Fury series of fighting games. It was one of the last games released for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 system board. It was ported...
following soon after. Although all three games looked great, none were particularly well received: hardcore SNK fans preferred the 2D versions of Samurai Shodown
Samurai Shodown series
Samurai Shodown is the name of a fighting game series by SNK.Despite the name of the series, most of the characters are not samurai in the true sense of the word...
and Fatal Fury
Fatal Fury
is a fighting game series developed by SNK for the Neo Geo system.Producers Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, who were the producers of the series from Fatal Fury 3 and onward, were the planners of the original Street Fighter...
and newcomers were seldom interested at all; Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
and Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
had superior arcade hardware and a larger catalog of 3D games to tempt them with.
By 1999, the system was dead, with only seven games released in total. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
is a 3D fighting video game produced by SNK. The game was released in Japanese arcades on January 28, 1999, though the title screen shows the year 1998. It is part of the Fatal Fury series of fighting games. It was one of the last games released for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 system board. It was ported...
was ported to the Sony PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
home system, with graphics that were slightly below the original's performance, mainly because the PlayStation was a 32 bit console.
Specifications
- ProcessorsCentral processing unitThe central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
:
CPU #1 (main): 100 MHz NEC VR4300 (64-bit MIPS III)
CPU #2 (secondary, handles audio I/O): V53@16 MHz 16-bit microcontroller (V33
NEC V20
The NEC V20 was a processor made by NEC that was a reverse-engineered, pin-compatible version of the Intel 8088 with an instruction set compatible with the Intel 80186...
superset)
CPU #3 (secondary, handles communications I/O): KL5C80A12CFP@12.5 MHz 8-bit microcontroller (Z80 compatible)
- Memory layout:
0x00000000..0x00FFFFFF: mainboard RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
(16 MiB)
0x04000000..0x05FFFFFF: cartridge RAM (16 MiB)
0x1FC00000..0x1FC7FFFF: ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
(512 KiB)
Cartridge ROM mapping is variable.
- Sound chipSound chipA sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...
: 32-channel PCM wavetableWavetable synthesisWavetable synthesis is used in certain digital music synthesizers to implement a restricted form of real-time additive synthesis. The technique was first developed by Wolfgang Palm of PPG in the late 1970s and published in 1979, and has since been used as the primary synthesis method in...
audio, with maximum samplingNyquist–Shannon sampling theoremThe Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem, after Harry Nyquist and Claude Shannon, is a fundamental result in the field of information theory, in particular telecommunications and signal processing. Sampling is the process of converting a signal into a numeric sequence...
frequency of 44.1 kHz (CD-quality) and 32 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of wavetable RAM
Display
- Color PalettePalette (computing)In computer graphics, a palette is either a given, finite set of colors for the management of digital images , or a small on-screen graphical element for choosing from a limited set of choices, not necessarily colors .Depending on the context In computer graphics, a palette is either a given,...
: 16.7 million
- Maximum Colors On-Screen: 4,096
- 3D Branch: 96 MB vertex memory, 16 MB maximum texture memory
- 2D Sprite Branch: 60 frames per second animation, 128 MB character memory
- Main Functions: Scaling, montage, chain, mosaic, mesh, action, up/down, right/left reverse
- 2D Scrolling Branch: Up to 4 game planes, 64 MB character memory
- Main Functions: Scaling, revolution, morphing; horizontal/vertical screen partitioning and line scrolling
Powering the Board
- When powering a Hyper Neo Geo 64 board all (4) +5v pins on the JAMMA connector(3,4,C,D) must have +5v going to them. This is due to the double layer board design of the Hyper Neo Geo 64.
- Correctly powered boards will display a blue screen with white text as the board and game boot up. If not powered properly, only a blue screen will be displayed.
Board Versions
- Fighting - Only plays the 4 fighting games
- Driving - Only plays the 2 driving games
- Shooting - Only plays Beast Busters:Second Nightmare
- Korean - Only plays the 2 Samurai ShodownSamurai ShodownSamurai Shodown, known as in Japan, is a competitive fighting game produced by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. In contrast to other fighting games at the time which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan ...
Games
Board Revisions
The fighting game board has 2 revisions. The first revision looks to be JAMMA but is not true JAMMA as the sound does not come from the JAMMA edge but from an AMP connector mounted on the front of the board which is controlled by a potentiometerPotentiometer
A potentiometer , informally, a pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used , it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on...
. There is a modification available to get mono sound off the JAMMA edge which involves removing a jumper and setting another. There is also a mysterious extra +5v connector that is supposed to be connected to the back of the board to "prolong" the life of the board per SNK. It is still unconfirmed if having the extra +5v connector connected actually does increase the boards life. Some say it is to divert the heat of the high amps going through the JAMMA edge.
The 2nd board revision is true JAMMA and also has a switch to select between JAMMA output as well as MVS output which has stereo sound.
It is easy to tell each revision apart, Revision 1 has a volume pot and amp connectors on the front where the Revision 2 board has only amp connectors(around 5) on the front of the board.
List of games
| Release date | Developer | English title | Japanese title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-09-11 | SNK | Beast Busters Beast Busters Beast Busters is a rail shooter arcade game released by SNK in 1989 and ported to the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST in 1990. A city has been invaded by the undead... : Second Nightmare |
Beast Busters: Second Nightmare (ビーストバスターズ セカンドナイトメア) |
Rail Shooter |
| 1999-05-21 | SNK | Buriki-One | Buriki-One (武力 ~BURIKI-ONE~) |
Versus Fighting |
| 1999-01-28 | SNK | Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition is a 3D fighting video game produced by SNK. The game was released in Japanese arcades on January 28, 1999, though the title screen shows the year 1998. It is part of the Fatal Fury series of fighting games. It was one of the last games released for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 system board. It was ported... |
Garou Densetsu: Wild Ambition (餓狼伝説 WILD AMBITION) |
Versus Fighting |
| 1997-09-10 | SNK | Road's Edge | Round Trip RV (ラウンドトリップ RV) |
4X4 Racing Racing game A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings... |
| 1997-12-19 | SNK | Samurai Shodown 64 Samurai Shodown 64 Samurai Shodown 64, known simply as in Japan, is a 3D fighting game produced by SNK for its Hyper Neo-Geo 64 system. It was SNK's first attempt to bring one of their franchises into the 3D realm... |
Samurai Spirits (侍魂 ~SAMURAI SPIRITS~) |
Versus Fighting |
| 1998-10-16 | SNK | Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage, known as in Japan, is a 3D fighting game produced by SNK for its Hyper Neogeo 64 system. It is the followup to the original Samurai Shodown 64 on the same platform, and like its predecessor, it received relatively no distribution outside of Japan.-Story:The... |
Samurai Spirits 2: Asura Zanmaden (SAMURAI SPIRITS 2 アスラ斬魔伝) |
Versus Fighting |
| 1998-05-13 | SNK | Xtreme Rally | Off Beat Racer! (オフビートレーサー!) |
Rally Racing game A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings... |