SNK NeoGeoAes
Developer: SNK
Year Released: 1990
Generation: 4th
Shin Nihon Kikaku (SNK) first ventured into the arcade market in 1989 and was successful with its unique 2D arcade machine. The Neo Geo AES was born out of SNK’s move to expand its business beyond arcade games and third-party software, and enter the lucrative 16-bit console market. Marketed as a 24-bit system, it was really a 16-bit processor with an 8-bit co-processor that mostly handled sound. This was significant because both the Genesis and SNES had the same setup, a 16 bit processor and 8-bit sound co-processor. SNK differentiated the AES from its competitors by bringing arcade quality graphics into the living rooms. Marketing was heavily geared towards making it a gaming connoisseur’s console.
Before the AES was made commercially available it was only sold to larger video game rental stores who would in turn rent it out. This was an unusual practice for a video game platform, and was speculated that SNK was testing the waters for mass consumption.
The major weakness of the AES was the high price of the cartridges- most games sod for about $200. The console itself was also fairly expensive, retailing at $650. However its arcade style joystick and excellent arcade ports made it a very attractive console.