Hyper Neo Geo 64

The Hyper Neo Geo 64 is an arcade game system created by SNK. It was the first and only SNK hardware set capable of rendering in 3D. It was meant to replace SNK's older home systems.

History

The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was conceived to usher SNK into the 3D era as well as to provide the hardware basis for a home system that would replace their aging Neo Geo, one that SNK hoped would be capable of competing with Sega's Saturn, Sony's PlayStation, Atari's Jaguar and Nintendo 64.

The arcade system was released in September of 1997, featuring a custom 64-bit RISC processor, 4 megabytes of program memory, 64 megabytes of 3D and texture memory, and 128 megabytes of memory for 2D characters and backgrounds. The first title released for the system was Road's Edge, with Samurai Shodown 64 and Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition following soon after. Although all three games looked good, none were particularly well received: hardcore SNK fans preferred the 2D versions of Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury and newcomers were seldom interested at all; Namco and Sega had superior arcade hardware and a larger catalog of 3D games to tempt them with.

By 1999, the system was dead, with only seven games released in total and only one, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition was ported to another system: the PlayStation, with severely hampered graphics that failed to do justice to the arcade original.

Specifications

• Processors: 64-bit RISC chip with 4 MB RAM and 4 MB program memory

• Sound chip: 32-channel PCM wavetable audio, with maximum sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz (CD-quality) and 32 MB of wavetable RAM

Display

• Color Palette: 16.7 million

• Maximum Colors On-Screen: 4,096

• 3D Branch: 96 MB vertex memory, 16 MB maximum texture memory

• 2D Sprite Branch: 60 frames per second animation, 128 MB character memory
  • Main Functions: Scaling, montage, chain, mosaic, mesh, action, up/down, right/left reverse

• 2D Scrolling Branch: Up to 4 game planes, 64 MB character memory
  • Main Functions: Scaling, revolution, morphing; horizontal/vertical screen partitioning and line scrolling

Powering the Board

• When powering a Hyper Neo Geo 64 board all (4) +5v pins on the JAMMA connector(3,4,C,D) must have +5v going to them. This is due to the double layer board design of the Hyper Neo Geo 64.

• Correctly powered boards will display a blue screen with white text as the board and game boot up. If not powered properly, only a blue screen will be displayed.

Board Versions

• Fighting - Only plays the 4 fighting games
• Driving - Only plays the 2 driving games
• Shooting - Only plays Beast Busters:Second Nightmare
• Korean - Only plays the 2 Samurai Shodown Games

Board Revisions

The fighting game board has 2 revisions. The first revision looks to be JAMMA but is not true JAMMA as the sound does not come from the JAMMA edge but from an AMP connector mounted on the front of the board which is controlled by a potentiometer. There is a modification available to get mono sound off the JAMMA edge which involves removing a jumper and setting another. There is also a mysterious extra +5v connector that is supposed to be connected to the back of the board to "prolong" the life of the board per SNK. It is still unconfirmed if having the extra +5v connector connected actually does increase the boards life. Some say it is to divert the heat of the high amps going through the JAMMA edge.

The 2nd board revision is true JAMMA and also has a switch to select between JAMMA output as well as MVS output which has stereo sound.

It is easy to tell each revision apart, Revision 1 has a volume pot and amp connectors on the front where the Revision 2 board has only amp connectors(around 5) on the front of the board.

List of games