Flake wrote:One of the things that blows me away about Neo Geo games is that we still haven't hit that point where the graphics have aged. They still look fresh and complex even today. Some games, like Metal Slug, are still visually amazing.
I attribute this to very forward-looking hardware design. Unlike most other arcade and console systems of the time, they dispensed with the whole background tile/sprite distinction and simply put in a beefed-up sprite engine. The graphical power of the NeoGeo is really in the simplicity. Each sprite is a 16 px strip that can be of any height from 16 px to 512 px high. The system can put enough sprites on-screen and per-line that they can be layered up just about as heavily as needed in any combination desirable. That and it has a great color palette.
Honestly, the most complex thing about the Neo Geo is the sound system, which has a lot of different audio capabilities of varied types.
I imagine the NeoGeo was pretty darn easy to develop for, and probably rather fun as well.
