The Neo Geo is said to be making a comeback with a flashy hand-held gaming device resembling an iPhone.
Neo Geo who? Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of the over-priced hand-held gaming device that flashed through the late-’90s — many haven’t. The company first emerged in the early ’90s with a $650 gaming counsel, according to CNET.
Kotaku says the news of the Neo Geo reemergence was first reported on a Japanese gaming site and not SNK Playmore, the maker of the Neo Geo. The Osaka-based company’s website makes no mention of a new gaming device, but did release news of two “vintage pre-NEOGEO era Arcade Classics” games for PlayStation on Tuesday.
“…this does look to be a leak, and it could even be a prototype. According to the blog, the temporary name for the device is ‘Neo Geo Keitai’ or ‘Neo Geo Portable.’ Note that once it goes in to production the device’s specs could change,” Kotaku said.
The gaming device has a 4.3-inch LCD screen, 2 GB of memory, a SD card slot on the side and comes preloaded with classic games like Baseball Professional, Fatal Fury and King of Monsters.
With smartphone gaming apps dominating the hand-held gaming market, Neo Geo’s planned entry into the gaming market comes at a difficult time to hook gamers. In November, Flurry Analytics reported iOS and Android held 58% of the portable gaming market, while Nintendo DS shored up 36% and Sony PSP had 6% in 2011.
Watch the video to see what the Neo Geo looks like. Are you still into non-smartphone hand-held gaming devices?
Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, PaRaP
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