In 1995, SNK attempted to increase its' home video game market share bylaunching a newly designed and less expensive CD based NEOGEO game system. Thehome video game industry had evolved and the compact disc had become the formatof choice for consoles. In an effort to promote and increase interest in the newsystem, SNK decided to give it exclusive games. There were a total of 8 games thatSNK released and made available for the NEO-GEO CD home game system that were NOTreleased for the NEO-GEO cartridge system. However, some of them were actually NOToriginally intended to be exclusive to the CD system, rather they just ended upthat way. Read on to discover why only 4 of the 8 CD exclusives were truly developedfor the CD system, while the other 4 just ended up that way by chance.

Here in this section, we will discuss and analyze the 8 NEOGEO CD 'exclusive' games.We have confirmed that 4 of these 8 games were developed and assembled onto prototypegame cartridges as they were also intended to be released to the MVS market as well.The other 4 games were clearly put together strictly for use on the CD system, andassembling them onto the cartridge format although possible, would be quite tedious,and would really serve no purpose anyhow.

1)The King of Fighters '96 Collection is merely an enhanced collectors edition CD thatcovers the KOF96 game in great detail. It contains some extra bonuses and special featuresthat are aimed soley at the home gamer.

2) ADK World was a promotional sampler CD that contained information, previews, and demosof upcoming ADK games. It was an advertising tool. It was not a normal fully functional gameand thus was of no interest or use to a home cartridge console owner, much less an arcadeoperator with a coin operated MVS machine.

3) NEO GEO CD Special was a promotional sampler CD that contained information, previews,and demos of upcoming SNK games. It was an advertizing tool. I was not a normal fullyfunctional game and thus was of no interest or use to a home cartridge console owner, muchless an arcade operator with a coin operatd MVS machine.

4)Samurai Shodown RPG was made specifically to tantalize those considering the purchaseof the CD unit. Arcades are not an RPG environment. Quick play is the way. Granted, exceptionslike Capcom's Dungeons and Dragons and Atari's Gauntlet Legends exist, but they are few and farbetween, and not quite as intricate and involved as a full fledged home RPG game) El capitan usb installer.

These 4 games were originally designed and developed for the regular NEO-GEO cartridgebased system. However, they were ultimately delayed, or indefinitely postponed for variousreasons and therefore ended up becoming exclusive to the CD format by mere chance. Some ofthem might have remained as 'unreleased' NEOGEO protos, were it not for the fact that theywere released for the CD system.

ADK's Crossed Swords 2 was a 78 meg swords and magic action game. Its older 1992 era NGMsoftware product number predates the 1995 CD system by 3 years. Originally intended to bereleased in 1992, CS2 was shelved and abandoned due to marketing trends which showed it wasno longer desirable or economically viable in the arcades. Although obsolete and indefinitelypostponed, CS2 was 'unearthed' merely to assist with the CD system's promotional program.Otherwise, it would probably still be lost today.

Idol Final Romance 2 was an 86 meg Mahjong game. The NEO-GEO already had 4 other mahjonggames, so perhaps it seemed unneccessary to release a 5th Mahjong game on the cartridge format.In addition, FR2's theme was intense as it contained a large amount of adult content. Eitherof these reasons may have been the cause for it's cancellation on the cartridge format.

ADK's Zintrick was a 74 meg puzzle game. It is also known as Okidashi Zintrick, Droppers,and Joint Link. 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 atthat time, it was abandoned.

Ironclad by Saurus was a 178 meg shooter. It was also known as Chosetsu Brikinger.Advertisements for its release were abundant and well documented. I actually played the gameon cart in an MVS cabinet at the 1996 ACME trade show. So this one was indeed 100% real andready for the MVS cartridge market, but was ultimately canceled and thus ended up a CDexclusive as a result of that

Neo Geo Cd Full Rom Set Emuparadise

One further point to make is that of the 8 CD games, these 4 were the only releaseswhose meg counts were provided by SNK and stated in magazines of the time. Something thatis usually reserved for programs stored on ROM media and hardly ever for programs stored onCD media. But regardless of which CD exclusives did or did not exist in cart format, all 8of the games were actually assigned sequential software product code numbers, so the NGMnumbers had already been found. Finding these games in cart format was nice, but it did nothelp complete the NGM puzzle.

Neo Geo Cd Full Rom Set

Samurai Showdown RPG & KOF 96 Collection

Samurai Shodown RPG was completely in Japanese and would require translationif it were to be of interest to most players outside Japan. This title was probablyintended to be the biggest 'draw' to the cartridge system owners and used as a lureto 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 convertingthe 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.

Neo Geo Cd Full Rom Sets

King of Fighter's 1996 Collection was merely a 'Special Edition' disc meant to accompanythe King of Fighter's 1996 game. It contains all kinds of 'FAQ' style information on thecharacters in the game as well as other interesting facts and figures. Since KOF96C is notreally a 'game', it is highly unlikely that it was ever intended to be manufactured as anunplayable expensive cartridge rom title. However, for whatever reason, it was assigned its'own unique software product code number (229), and as such is an official part of the NGM list.What makes no sense is that KOF96C was not the only 'special edition' CD release. KOF '95,KOF '98, and Art of Fighting 3 also had special edition releases, yet they were NOT assignedsoftware product code numbers.

Neo Geo Cd Iso

Neo Geo Special & ADK World
These two CD's are just about the most 'useless' of all four.They are not really 'games' per say, but rather 'advertisements' and'previews' for other games on the Neo-Geo made by their respectivecompanies (SNK & ADK). They do contain a few 'Easter Eggs' such assome silly 'mini-games', but for the most part they are merely demoand promo discs. Bluestacks for m1 mac. It would be very doubtfull that these would have evereven been considered for cartridge format release as sales of such anitem would be virtually non-existant! The importance of the 2 CD's ishowever in that they WERE INDEED assigned OFFICIAL neogeo game codenumbers and as such are official parts of the NEO-GEO game code list.