Fifth generation of video game consoles
The fifth-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, handheld gaming consoles dating from 1993 to 2002. For home consoles, the best-selling console was the PlayStation by a wide margin, followed by the Nintendo 64, the Sega Saturn; the PlayStation had a redesigned version, the PSOne, launched in July 2000. For handhelds, this era was characterized by significant fragmentation, because the first handheld of the generation, the Sega Nomad, had a lifespan of just two years, the Nintendo Virtual Boy had a lifespan of less than one. Both of them were discontinued; the Neo Geo Pocket was released in 1998, but was dropped by SNK in favor of the backwards-compatible Neo Geo Pocket Color just a year later. Nintendo's Game Boy Color was the winner in handhelds by a large margin. There were two updated versions of the original Game Boy: Game Boy Light and Game Boy Pocket; some features that distinguished fifth generation consoles from previous fourth generation consoles include: 3D polygon graphics with texture mapping 3D graphics capabilities – lighting, Gouraud shading, anti-aliasing and texture filtering Optical disc game storage, allowing much larger storage space than ROM cartridges CD quality audio recordings – PCM audio with 16-bit depth and 44.1 kHz sampling rate Wide adoption of full motion video, displaying pre-rendered computer animation or live action footage Analog controllers Display resolutions from 480i to 576i Color depth up to 16,777,216 colors This era is known for its pivotal role in the video game industry's leap from 2D to 3D computer graphics, as well as the shift from home console games being stored on ROM cartridges to optical discs.
The development of the Internet made it possible to store and download tape and ROM images of older games leading 7th generation consoles to make many older games available for purchase or download, such as popular games from this generation. There was considerable time overlap between this generation and the next, the sixth generation of consoles, which began with the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan on November 27, 1998; the fifth generation ended with the discontinuation of the PlayStation in late 2006, a year after the launch of the seventh generation. The 32-bit/64-bit era is most noted for the rise of 3D polygon games. While there were games prior that had used three-dimensional polygon environments, such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter in the arcades and Star Fox on the Super NES, it was in this era that many game designers began to move traditionally 2D and pseudo-3D genres into 3D on video game consoles. Early efforts from then-industry leaders Sega and Nintendo saw the introduction of the 32X and Super FX, which provided rudimentary 3D capabilities to the 16-bit Genesis and Super NES.
Starting in 1996, 3D video games began to take off with releases such as Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn, Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and Saturn, Tekken 2 and Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation, Super Mario 64 on the N64. Their 3D environments were marketed and they steered the industry's focus away from side-scrolling and rail-style titles, as well as opening doors to more complex games and genres. 3D became the main focus in this era as well as a slow decline of cartridges in favor of CDs, due to the ability to produce games less expensively and the media's high storage capabilities. After allowing Sony to develop a CD-based prototype console for them and a similar failed partnership with Philips, Nintendo decided to make the Nintendo 64 a cartridge-based system like its predecessors. Publicly, Nintendo defended this decision on the grounds that it would give games shorter load times than a compact disc. However, it had the dubious benefit of allowing Nintendo to charge higher licensing fees, as cartridge production was more expensive than CD production.
Many third-party developers like EA Sports viewed this as an underhanded attempt to raise more money for Nintendo and many of them became more reluctant to release games on the N64. Nintendo's decision to use a cartridge based system sparked a small scale war among gamers as to, better; the chief advantages of the CD-ROM format were larger storage capacity, allowing for a much greater amount of game content lower manufacturing costs, making them much less risky for game publishers, lower retail prices due to the reduced need to compensate for manufacturing costs. Its disadvantages compared to cartridge were considerable load times, their inability to load data "on the fly", making them reliant on the console RAM, the greater manufacturing costs of CD-ROM drives compared to cartridge slots, resulting in higher retail prices for CD-based consoles. A Nintendo magazine ad placed a Space Shuttle next to a snail and dared consumers to decide "which one was better"; every other contemporary system used the new CD-ROM technology.
Consequent to the storage and cost advantages of the CD-ROM format, many game developers shifted their support away from the Nintendo 64 to the PlayStation. One of the most influential game franchises to change consoles during this era was the Final Fantasy series, beginning with Final Fantasy VII, being developed for the N64 but due to storage capacity issues w
Texas Instruments SN76489
The SN76489 Digital Complex Sound Generator is a TTL-compatible programmable sound generator chip from Texas Instruments. It contains: 3 square wave tone generators. A wide range of frequencies. 16 different volume levels. 1 noise generator. 2 types. 3 different frequencies. 16 different volume levels. Its main application was the generation of music and sound effects in game consoles, arcade games and home computers, competing with the similar General Instrument AY-3-8910; the SN76489 was designed to be used in the TI-99/4 computer, where it was first called the TMS9919 and SN94624, had a 500 kHz max clock input rate. When it was sold outside of TI, it was renamed the SN76489, a divide-by-8 was added to its clock input, increasing the max input clock rate to 4 MHz, to facilitate sharing a crystal for both NTSC colorburst and clocking the sound chip. A version of the chip without the divide-by-8 input was sold outside of TI as the SN76494, which has a 500 kHz max clock input rate. Tone Generators: The frequency of the square waves produced by the tone generators on each channel is derived from two factors: The speed of the external clock.
A value provided in a control register for that channel. Each channel's frequency is arrived at by dividing the external clock by 4, dividing the result by N, thus the overall divider range is from 4 to 4096. This gives a frequency range at maximum input clock rate of 122 Hz to 125 kHz. Noise Generator: The pseudorandom noise feedback is generated from an XNOR of bits 12 and 13 for feedback, with bit 13 being the noise output; the pseudorandom generator is cleared to 0s on writes to chip register 6, the noise mode register. There are two versions of the SN76489: the SN76489 and the SN76489A; the former was made around the latter from 1983 onward. They differ in that the output of the SN76489 is the inverse of the expected waveform, while the SN76489A the waveform is not inverted; the SN76496 seems to be identical to the SN76489A in terms of the outputs produced, but features an "AUDIO IN" pin for integrated audio mixing. Sega used real SN76489AN chips in their SG-1000 game console and SC-3000 computer, but used SN76489A clones in their Master System, Game Gear, Sega Genesis game consoles.
These modified sound chips were incorporated into the system's video display processor. Although basic functionality is identical to that of the original SN76489A sound processor, a few small differences existed: the randomness for the noise channel is generated differently, the Game Gear's version includes an additional flag register that designates which speaker each audio channel are output; the periodic noise is 16 stages long on the Sega-made clones rather than 15. Another clone is the NCR 8496, used in some models of the Tandy 1000 computer. Tandy 1000 machines integrated the SN76496's functionality into the PSSJ ASIC; these games shared a common board design by Tehkan that used three of the functionally identical SN76496. Baluba-Louk No Densetsu Senjyo Star Force These games shared a common board design by Universal Entertainment Corporation: Lady Bug Mr. Do! Mr. Do's Castle Mr. Do's Wild Ride Do! Run Run From Konami: Road Fighter Time Pilot'84 - uses the functionally identical SN76496 From Sega: Block Gal Congo Bongo Bank Panic Sega Mega-Tech Sega System 1 Sega System 2 Sega System E was based on the Master System and used the clone chip in its VDP.
ALF's Music Card MC1 - Apple II add-on card, uses three chips for a total of nine voices BBC Master BBC Micro Coleco Adam ColecoVision CreatiVision Geneve 9640 IBM PCjr Memotech MTX Neo Geo Pocket Neo Geo Pocket Color Game Gear - used a clone integrated into its VDP that has an additional speaker-output register for simple stereo support. Sega Genesis Master System - used the clone integrated into its VDP. Mega-Tech Pico SG-1000 - uses the SN76489AN Sharp MZ-800 - uses the SN76489AN Sord M5 Tandy 1000 - early systems used SN76496 or NCR 8496 systems integrated into PSSJ ASIC SN76489 ISA Soundboard - Hobbyist Soundcard for IBM XT/PC Lo-Tech Tandy Soundboard - Prototype Soundcard for IBM XT/PC Texas Instruments TI-99/4A - uses the original TMS9919 Tomy Tutor General Instrument AY-3-8910 SN76489 Sound Chip Details
Video game
A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a two- or three-dimensional video display device such as a TV screen, virtual reality headset or computer monitor. Since the 1980s, video games have become an important part of the entertainment industry, whether they are a form of art is a matter of dispute; the electronic systems used to play video games are called platforms. Video games are developed and released for one or several platforms and may not be available on others. Specialized platforms such as arcade games, which present the game in a large coin-operated chassis, were common in the 1980s in video arcades, but declined in popularity as other, more affordable platforms became available; these include dedicated devices such as video game consoles, as well as general-purpose computers like a laptop, desktop or handheld computing devices. The input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, mouse devices, the touchscreens of mobile devices, or a person's body, using a Kinect sensor.
Players view the game on a display device such as a television or computer monitor or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are game sound effects and voice actor lines which come from loudspeakers or headphones; some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the commercial importance of the video game industry is increasing; the emerging Asian markets and mobile games on smartphones in particular are driving the growth of the industry. As of 2015, video games generated sales of US$74 billion annually worldwide, were the third-largest segment in the U. S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV. Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats; the earliest example is from 1947—a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S.
Patent 2455992. Inspired by radar display technology, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen. Other early examples include: The Nimrod computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain; each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim, OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court, Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game, it used a black-and-white television for its display, the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the "Brown Box", it used a standard television.
These were followed by two versions of Atari's Pong. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry. A flood of Pong clones led to the video game crash of 1977, which came to an end with the mainstream success of Taito's 1978 shooter game Space Invaders, marking the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games and inspiring dozens of manufacturers to enter the market; the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts and convenience stores. The game became the subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines, establishing video gaming as a growing mainstream hobby. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first "killer app" and quadrupling the console's sales; this helped Atari recover from their earlier losses, in turn the Atari VCS revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983.
The home video game industry was revitalized shortly afterwards by the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which marked a shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United States to Japan during the third generation of consoles. A number of video game developers emerged in Britain in the early 1980s; the term "platform" refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term "system" is commonly used; the distinctions below are not always clear and there may be games that bridge one or more platforms. In addition to laptop/desktop computers and mobile devices, there are other devices which have the ability to play games but are not video game machines, such as PDAs and graphing calculators. In common use a "PC game" refers to a form of media that involves a player interacting with a personal computer conne
Handheld game console
A handheld game console, or handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls, speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the console, screen and controls in one unit, allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place. In 1976, Mattel introduced the first handheld electronic game with the release of Auto Race. Several companies—including Coleco and Milton Bradley—made their own single-game, lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices; the oldest true handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges is the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. Nintendo is credited with popularizing the handheld console concept with the release of the Game Boy in 1989 and continues to dominate the handheld console market; the origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s. These electronic devices are capable of playing only a single game, they fit in the palm of the hand or on a tabletop, they may make use of a variety of video displays such as LED, VFD, or LCD.
In 1978, handheld electronic games were described by Popular Electronics magazine as "nonvideo electronic games" and "non-TV games" as distinct from devices that required use of a television screen. Handheld electronic games, in turn, find their origins in the synthesis of previous handheld and tabletop electro-mechanical devices such as Waco's Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe Cragstan's Periscope-Firing Range, the emerging optoelectronic-display-driven calculator market of the early 1970s; this synthesis happened in 1976, when "Mattel began work on a line of calculator-sized sports games that became the world's first handheld electronic games. The project began when Michael Katz, Mattel's new product category marketing director, told the engineers in the electronics group to design a game the size of a calculator, using LED technology." Our big success was something -- the first handheld game. I asked the design group to see if they could come up with a game, electronic, the same size as a calculator.
—Michael Katz, former marketing director, Mattel Toys. The result was the 1976 release of Auto Race. Followed by Football in 1977, the two games were so successful that according to Katz, "these simple electronic handheld games turned into a'$400 million category.'" Mattel would win the honor of being recognized by the industry for innovation in handheld game device displays. Soon, other manufacturers including Coleco, Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley and Bandai began following up with their own tabletop and handheld electronic games. In 1979 the LCD-based Microvision, designed by Smith Engineering and distributed by Milton-Bradley, became the first handheld game console and the first to use interchangeable game cartridges; the Microvision game Cosmic Hunter introduced the concept of a directional pad on handheld gaming devices, is operated by using the thumb to manipulate the on-screen character in any of four directions. In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi, traveling on a bullet train, saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons.
Yokoi thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time. Starting in 1980, Nintendo began to release a series of electronic games designed by Yokoi called the Game & Watch games. Taking advantage of the technology used in the credit-card-sized calculators that had appeared on the market, Yokoi designed the series of LCD-based games to include a digital time display in the corner of the screen. For more complicated Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a cross shaped directional pad or "D-pad" for control of on-screen characters. Yokoi included his directional pad on the NES controllers, the cross-shaped thumb controller soon became standard on game console controllers and ubiquitous across the video game industry since; when Yokoi began designing Nintendo's first handheld game console, he came up with a device that married the elements of his Game & Watch devices and the Famicom console, including both items' D-pad controller. The result was the Nintendo Game Boy.
In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower was the first solar-powered gaming device. Some of its games, such as the horror-themed game Terror House, features two LCD panels, one stacked on the other, for an early 3D effect. In 1983, Takara Tomy's Tomytronic 3D simulates 3D by having two LCD panels that were lit by external light through a window on top of the device, making it the first dedicated home video 3D hardware; the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the beginnings of the handheld game console industry as we know it, after the demise of the Microvision. As backlit LCD game consoles with color graphics consume a lot of power, they were not battery-friendly like the non-backlit original Game Boy whose monochrome graphics allowed longer battery life. By this point, rechargeable battery technology had not yet matured and so the more advanced game consoles of the time such as the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx did not have nearly as much success as the Game Boy. Though third-party rechargeable batteries were available for the battery-hungry alternatives to the Game Boy, these batteries employed a nickel-cadmium process and had to be discharged before being recharged to ensure maximum efficiency.
The NiMH batteries, which do not share this requirement for maximum efficiency, were not released until the late 1990s, years after the Game Gear, Atari Lynx, original Game Boy had been disco
Game Boy
The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The first handheld in the Game Boy line, it was first released on April 21, 1989 in Japan, followed by North America three months and in Europe nearly a year after. Designed by the same team that developed the Game & Watch and several Nintendo Entertainment System games, it was created and published by Satoru Okada, Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo Research & Development 1. Nintendo's second handheld game console, the Game Boy combined features from both the NES and the Game & Watch; the console features a dot-matrix screen, five control buttons, a 2 voice speaker, like its rivals, uses cartridges as physical media. At launch, it was sold either as a standalone unit, or bundled with the one of several games, including Super Mario Land and Tetris. Several accessories were developed for the Game Boy, including a carrying pouch and the Game Boy Printer. Despite being technically inferior to its competitors, the Game Boy received praise for its battery life and durability, outsold the competition, selling one million units in the United States within a few weeks.
Together with its successor, the Game Boy Color, the handheld has sold an estimated 118 million units worldwide. It is one of the most recognizable devices from the 1980s, becoming a cultural icon in the years following its release. Several redesigns were released during the console's lifetime, including the Game Boy Pocket and the Game Boy Light. Production of the Game Boy continued into the early 2000s, until it was discontinued following the release of its successor, the Game Boy Advance, in 2001; the original internal codename for the Game Boy was "Dot Matrix Game", these initials came to be featured on the final product's model number, "DMG-01". The internal reception of the device was very poor; the Game Boy has four operation buttons labeled "A", "B", "SELECT", "START", as well as a directional pad. There is a volume control dial on the right side of the device and a similar dial on the left side to adjust the contrast. At the top of the Game Boy, a sliding on-off switch and the slot for the Game Boy cartridges are located.
The on-off switch includes a physical lockout to prevent users from either inserting or removing a cartridge while the unit is switched on. Nintendo recommends users leave a cartridge in the slot to prevent dust and dirt from entering the system; the Game Boy contains optional input and/or output connectors. On the left side of the system is an external 3.5 mm × 1.35 mm DC power supply jack that allows users to use an external rechargeable battery pack or AC adapter instead of four AA batteries. The Game Boy requires 6 V DC of at least 150 mA. A 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack is located on the bottom side of the unit which allows users to listen to the audio with the bundled headphones or external speakers. The right-side of the device offers a port which allows a user to connect to another Game Boy system via a link cable, provided both users are playing the same game; the port can be used to connect a Game Boy Printer. The link cable was designed for players to play head-to-head two-player games such as in Tetris.
However, game developer Satoshi Tajiri would use the link cable technology as a method of communication and networking in the popular Pokémon video game series. CPU: Custom 8-bit Sharp LR35902 at 4.19 MHz. This processor is similar to an Intel 8080 in that none of the registers introduced in the Z80 are present. However, some of the Z80's instruction set enhancements over the 8080 bit manipulation, are present. Still other instructions are unique to this particular flavor of 8080/Z80 CPU. Parity flag, half of conditional and all input-output instructions were removed from 8080 instruction set also; the IC contains integrated sound generation. RAM: 8 kiB internal S-RAM Video RAM: 8 kiB internal ROM: On-CPU-Die 256-byte bootstrap; the unit only has one speaker. Display: Reflective STN LCD 160 × 144 pixels Frame rate: Approximately 59.7 frames per second Vertical blank duration: Approx 1.1 ms Screen size: 66 mm diagonal Color palette: 2-bit Communication: 2 Game Boys can be linked together via built-in serial ports, up to 4 with a DMG-07 4-player adapter.
And 16 in maximum. Power: 6 V, 0.7 W Dimensions: 90 mm × 148 mm × 32 mm / 3.5″ × 5.8″ × 1.3″ Weight: 220 g On March 20, 1995, Nintendo released several Game Boy models with colored cases, advertising them in the "Play It Loud!" campaign, known in Japan as Game Boy Bros. Specifications for this unit remain the same as the original Game Boy, including the monochromatic screen; this new line of colored Game Boys would set a precedent for Nintendo handhelds. Play It Loud! units were manufactured in red, black, white and clear or sometimes called X-Ray in the UK. Most common are the yellow, red and black, Green is scarce but blue and white are the rarest. Blue was a Europe and Japan only release, White was a Japanese majority release with UK Toys R Us s
Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory
Neo Geo Cup'98: The Road to the Victory is a soccer video game based on the FIFA World Cup 1998, despite being released after the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It features 73 teams' countries; each team enters a "Regional Qualifying Round Final" where it plays a team it played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification. For example: Spain would face Yugoslavia, an opponent it faced in its qualifying group. Or Italy would face an opponent Italy faced in the UEFA play-offs. If the player beats the opponent, it goes to a group much like the real life World Cup. In fact, the team faces opponents that were in its group. For example: Mexico would face the Netherlands and South Korea, it is a re-make of Super Sidekicks 3. However and designs were the same; the only difference is teams to reflect the World Cup, kits again to reflect the World Cup, players to resemble squads from the World Cup. Its slogan is "We got the kick". Unlike its arcade counterpart, the Neo Geo version tries to be more of a soccer simulation game.
Differences include the Neo Geo version being more slowed down, more realism added in shooting, etc. A color version of the game was released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color as Neo Geo Cup'98 Plus Color. Italy Netherlands Switzerland Norway England Turkey Portugal Croatia Germany Spain Belgium Romania Denmark Republic of Ireland Scotland Czech Republic France Bulgaria Sweden Russia Greece Hungary Austria Yugoslavia Nigeria Cameroon Morocco Egypt South Africa Zambia Ivory Coast Tunisia United States Mexico Canada Costa Rica Puerto Rico Guatemala El Salvador Jamaica Brazil Argentina Colombia Paraguay Chile Ecuador Uruguay Peru Australia China PR New Zealand Republic of China Iran Iraq Vietnam Singapore Saudi Arabia South Korea Japan United Arab Emirates Hong Kong India Thailand Malaysia World Tournament Europe Tournament South America Tournament Americas Tournament Africa Tournament Asia Tournament Neo Geo Cup'98 Plus Color is a football videogame released by SNK in 1999 for the Neo Geo Pocket Colour handheld system.
It is an update of Neo Geo Cup'98: The Road to the Victory with, as its title suggests, colour graphics. There are three game modes. Due to failure of getting any official FIFA license the tournaments are all unlicensed. Due to lack of FIFPro license player names are fake. For Example: Ronaldo is known as Rosa, Raúl is known as Roul, Luis Hernández is known as Hernardo, Eric Wynalda is known as Wyoming and Martin Dahlin is known as Dahlgren. However, most players appearance in this game resembles their real-life appearance. Identical players are: Colin Hendry, Luis Hernández, Jorge Campos and others appear in the game. However, others appearance are inaccurate. Like Ronaldo is dark-skinned. Though a majority of team qualifying matches are accurate, there are inconsistencies with some of the team's qualifier opponents. For example, England would face Scotland. Brazil would play a qualifier against Uruguay. Brazil qualified automatically due to the rule that the winner of the last FIFA World Cup would qualify automatically.
Some players have incorrect numbers. For example: Hernán Crespo has the number 11, but in reality he wore number 11 was worn by Juan Sebastián Verón. Super Sidekicks Neo Geo Cup'98: The Road to the Victory on GameSpot Neo Geo Cup'98: The Road to the Victory on GameFaqs
Neo Geo Pocket Color
The Neo Geo Pocket Color, is a 16-bit color handheld video game console manufactured by SNK. It is a successor to SNK's monochrome Neo Geo Pocket handheld which debuted in 1998 in Japan, with the Color being backward compatible; the Neo Geo Pocket Color was released on March 16, 1999 in Japan, August 6, 1999 in North America, on October 1, 1999 in Europe, entering markets all dominated by Nintendo. After a good sales start in both the U. S. and Japan with 14 launch titles subsequent low retail support in the U. S. lack of communication with third-party developers by SNK's American management, the craze about Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, anticipation of the 32-bit Game Boy Advance, as well as strong competition from Bandai's WonderSwan in Japan, led to a sales decline in both regions. Meanwhile, SNK had been in financial trouble for at least a year. However, Aruze didn't support SNK's video game business enough, leading to SNK's original founder and several other employees to leave and form a new company, BrezzaSoft.
On June 13, 2000, Aruze decided to quit the North American and European markets, marking the end of SNK's worldwide operations and the discontinuation of Neo Geo hardware and software there. The Neo Geo Pocket Color did last until 2001 in Japan, it was SNK's last video game console, as the company went bankrupt on October 22, 2001. Despite its failure the Neo Geo Pocket Color has been regarded as an influential system. Many acclaimed games were released for the system, such as SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, King of Fighters R-2, other quality arcade titles derived from SNK's MVS and AES, it featured an arcade-style microswitched'clicky stick' joystick, praised for its accuracy and being well-suited for fighting games. The system's display and 40-hour battery life were well received; the U. S. version of the Neo Geo Pocket Color had an exclusive launch on the website eToys in 1999. EToys sold the initial launch titles in the plastic snap lock cases; the system debuted in the United States with six launch titles and retail price of $69.95.
Six different unit colors were available: Camouflage Blue, Carbon Black, Crystal White, Platinum Blue, Platinum Silver, Stone Blue. In its first two months, the NGPC sold a successful 25,000 units. Prior to SNK's acquisition by Aruze, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was being advertised on U. S. television and units were being sold nationwide at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys "R" Us, other major retail chains. For the Christmas Holiday season in 1999, SNK spent $4 million on television advertisements that aired on channels including MTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. By May 2000, the NGPC had a 2% market share in the U. S. handheld console market. On October 21, 1999, a redesigned, slimmer version called New Neo Geo Pocket Color was released in Japan, selling at ¥6800, it is 13% smaller than the original Neo Geo Pocket Color, with dimensions 125 x 73 x 27 mm, features improved sound output. In June 2000, Aruze decided to discontinue all SNK operations outside Japan; as a result, remaining stock was bought back by SNK for repackaging in Asia.
SNK were recalling most of the back-stock of systems and games to be flashed and re-sold in Asia where the system would continue to be sold and supported. Some of the back-stock of American NGPC hardware and software began to resurface on the American and Asian markets in 2003; these units appeared bundled with six games stripped of their cases and manuals. Two games included, Faselei! and Last Blade were never released in United States, meaning that they have no U. S.-localized box or manual. The cover boxes for Neo Geo Pocket Color were clamshell plastic boxes, similar to the Neo Geo AES; these boxes have been well received for their quality. In a cost cutting move, American games were only sold in cardboard boxes shortly after release rather than the hard plastic cases that Japanese and European releases were shipped in, met with negative reception; the Japanese versions followed soon after, but the European boxes have always been the plastic boxes. Games that only supported Neo Geo Pocket Color displayed a Game Boy Color-style warning message, required and refused to play on Neo Geo Pocket.
Dual mode carts that support Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color are playable. Sega was the only major third-party developer, it resulted in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, the second Sonic game for a non-Sega platform after Sonic Jam on Game.com, the last before Sega's transition to a third-party developer. In addition, a cable linking the handheld with a Dreamcast console was released. Modeled after its predecessor, the Neo Geo Pocket Color design sports two face buttons on the right hand side of the system, an eight-direction microswitched digital D-pad on the left, it is horizontally designed like the Game Gear, as opposed to the Game Boy's vertical setup and the WonderSwan's hybrid of both. Upgraded from the Neo Geo Pocket, it has a color screen in the middle. Similar to the Game Boy and its successors, the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, the Neo Geo Pocket Color does not have a back-lit screen, games can only be played in a well-lit area. Like the Game.com before it, the Neo Geo Pocket Color uses a CR2032 battery to retain backup memory and keep
