CD/CARTRIDGE PROTOS
There are a total of 8 games that SNK released and made available for
the NEO-GEO CD home game system that were NOT released for the NEO-GEO cartridge
system. SNK's mindset around that time period (1995-1996) was to try to promote
the new neogeo cd system. One such way that they did so was to increase interest
in the item...exclusive games are, needless to say, one such stradegy that is
often used by companies for promotional purposes. However, some of them may not
have been intended for just the CD system but also for the cart system as well.
Here is an explanation for why some of the 8 "exclusive" games are different,
and may very well have been either originally intended for regular cartridge
release and/or at the very least, a simultaneous release for both of the formats.
With 99% certainty, these 4 did NOT have a cart/rom format release:
1) King of Fighters 96 Collection, 2) SNK NeoGeo Special,
3) ADK World Special, 4) Samurai Shodown RPG
The KOF96C was merely an enhanced version of KOF96 consisting of additional
tid bits which would be of no use to an arcade operator. The ADK and SNK
"specials" would take up huge amounts of memory (if they were even at all
possible for that matter). They contain information and previews of games
etc. which would be of absolutely no interest to arcade operators or home
system owners because they are "unplayable" as they are not really "games"
per say but rather "eye-candy" media. Lastly there is no such thing as "rpg"
or "long story" arcade games. So an RPG Samurai Shodown game would have been
solely made for the home market.
(granted games like Capcom's D&D and Atari's Gauntlet Legends have bent
this rule slightly ...but they are not quite the same thing nor as
intricate and involved as a full fledged RPG game)
As for the other 4 exclusive titles, perhaps the best way to describe them
is to say the following statement: It is LOGICAL to draw the conclusion that
they CAN exist in rom format...and therefore…it is SENSIBLE to draw the
conclusion that they DO exist in rom format.
5) Ironclad Brikinger, 6) Crossed Swords 2,
7) Okidashi Zintrick, 8) Final Romance 2
Brikinger is a normal airplane style shooter of only 178 megs and easily
fits on a cartridge. I also played the game on an mvs cabinet at the ACME
trade show in 1996. It is therefore 100% real and out there. It is also THE
most talked and asked about of the 8 titles.
Crossed Swords 2 is not an "in depth RPG adventure" per say as say SS rpg
is, but rather a "pseudo" adventure along the lines of the original Crossed
Swords and the D&D Capcom titles which I mentioned earlier. It is only 70
megs large. It is also a very early NGH number which resides in the 1992-1993
neighborhood...yet the game was released circa 1995. It is obvious and
logical to conclude therefore that it's ORIGINAL intention was to be
released as a sequel on cart form...the idea at some point was "abandoned"
...most likely due to marketing trends that placed that type of game for
that type of system at that time as no longer "desirable" or "economically viable".
Zintrick is a low 74 meg puzzle game...of course it could fit easily
on a cart. Furthermore...it was originally scheduled to be released
as a cart in 1996 and advertized as such, but for whatever reason,
perhaps the clutter of puzzle games that were also being released
at that time, it was abandoned.
Final Romance 2 is an 86 meg Mahjong game. The NEO-GEO already had
4 other mahjong games so officials may have opted to keep it as a
home CD exclusive. But the game is no larger then any of the other
mahjongs and would therefore be quite easily a cartridge candidate.
One further point to make is that of the 8 CD games, these 4 are
the only releases to have had their meg counts given. Something
that is usually reserved for programs stored on rom media and
hardly ever for programs stored on CD media.
The problem is that regardless of which "cd exclusive" titles may
or may not exist in cart format...it doesn't really help me!
The ngh numbers have already been found for those 8 games so discovering
them in other formats is not part of the 18 missing games. It is novel
at best, but quite useless to me as it does not help my mission.
Furthermore, they exist in a "playable" status (the CD versions)
so at least we can enjoy them while staring at pics is currently
the only way to enjoy the other 18!
Zintrick & Ironclad
Zintrick goes by several names. Okidashi Zintrick, Droppers, & Joint Link
are among them. Whatever you call it, the game was almost certainly scheduled to
have a cartridge release. Ironclad also has a few aliases. It is also known as
Ironclad Brikinger Chosetsu or simply "Brikinger". It too was to have been made
on the cartridge format. Advertisements for it's release are abundant and well
documented.
CS2 & FR2
Both of these sequels were more then capable of having been made on
the cartridge format. Crossed Swords 2 was merely "shelved" back in 1992 as
the game was held back and indefinitely postponed due to market changes in
the arcade industry which made that type of game obsolete. The title was
"unearthed" merely to assist with the CD system's promotional program.
Samurai RPG & KOF 96 C
Samurai Shodown RPG was completely in Japanese and would require translation
if it were to be of interest to most players outside Japan. This title was probably
intended to be the biggest "draw" to the cartridge system owners and used as a lure
to draw the players attention to the defunct CD console. It was simply not enough.
Rumors have surfaced in the past that work was being done on translating and converting
the game from the CD format to the cartridge format. However as of this writing,
there is still no solid proof or real evidence to report. King of Fighter's 1996
Collection was merely a "Special Edition" disc meant to accompany the King of Fighter's
1996 game. It contains all kinds of "FAQ" style information on the characters in
the game as well as other interesting facts and figures. Since KOF96C is not really
a "game", it is highly unlikely that it was ever intended to be manufactured as
an expensive cartridge title. However it is an official part of the GAME CODE list.
Neo Geo Special & ADK World
These two CD's are just about the most "useless" of all eight.
They are not really "games" per say, but rather "advertisements" and
"previews" for other games on the Neo-Geo made by their respective
companies (SNK & ADK). They do contain a few "Easter Eggs" such as
some silly "mini-games", but for the most part they are merely demo
and promo discs. It would be very doubtfull that these would have ever
even been considered for cartridge format release as sales of such an
item would be virtually non-existant! The importance of the 2 CD's is
however in that they WERE INDEED assigned OFFICIAL neogeo game code
numbers and as such are official parts of the NEO-GEO game code list.
