Neo-Geo

Neo-Geo is the name of a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system created by the Japanese game company SNK. The system was years ahead of its time, offering a huge colorful 2D graphics and high-quality sound. The arcade machines had a memory card system by which a player could save a game to return to at a later time, or remarkably, to be used to continue play on the SNK home console of the same name. (The arcade version of the hardware is often referred to as the "MVS" system to distinguish it from its console counterpart.)

SNK continued to produce arcade systems (and limited console cartridge runs) using the exact same 1980s technology all the way through 2002, proving the longevity of its forward-thinking design, although critics consider this a negative issue. One downside of the system's staying power is that it has no effective copy protection; although this was not so much a problem when the system debuted in the early '90s, it is now an issue of very real concern to SNK, and there is speculation that they may soon finally abandon the MVS system and switch instead to standard JAMMA games (the MVS system is incompatible with JAMMA without the use of special adapters).

Several home console systems were created based on the same hardware as the arcade games, as well as two handheld systems under the name Neo Geo Pocket.