was it possible to make a neogeo cd system that didn't suck

>>4188528
Yes. The NGCD's shortcomings are all because it was designed to be a comparatively low-budget system. Thus, the lower build quality, the slow 1x audio-grade (instead of data-grade) CD drive, the smaller pad-style controller (which has build quality issues, although it still controls nicely and has real microswitches). IIRC, the audio chip's was cut back a little because of CD audio playback, too.
If SNK positioned it as a premium entry like the AES, it'd have had a faster CD drive and more RAM, immediately removing both of the machine's biggest faults.
It would have also been more than $400, but people who were into the Neo Geo would have laid that money down if it meant they weren't spending so much on games.

>>4188548
I agree, they were never going to capture the lower-end market of consoles anyway, add the RAM and faster CD drive for a little extra and boom you have a pretty much perfect CD version of the AES. Really wish they had done this instead. Now we're stuck with paying hundreds of dollars for NG gaymes, or $500 for the flashcart.

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Yes. The Neo Geo CD could have been an awesome premium niche system like the AES. As others have said, the CD-drive and Ram limitations should have never even been considered. A double or even quad drive plus a huge amount of ram to load as much of the game as possible would have been wonderful. It might have been $600, but the SNK fans would have been all over it and would have not only bought new games for the system, but also re-bought games they had on AES that they probably could have sold.

$400 was too expensive for this to be considered by most gamers anyway, especially with the super late 1996 launch in North America. The $299 Playstation already had a huge lead with the consumer market, Saturn was still in competition, and N64 was coming in the fall.

Once the excellent Sega Saturn ports started to come out for most of the best Neo Geo games, the Neo CD was done.

>>4188528
It was. They did. It was called the neo geo. lol

>>4188654
huh

neo geo cdz had faster load times

>>4188654
What?

>>4188995
Yes, but the load times were still an issue. If the CDZ had been the original version and had a bunch of RAM as well then it would have been a decent system. While I love the cd-quality arrange soundtracks, I can't think of a worse thing to have than huge loading times for arcade fighting games.

There was also the issue with Art of Fighting 3 having to reduce the character sprites sizes and other games that cut frames to try and speed up loading times.

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>>4188528
RAM was incredibly expensive back then, and the NEO•GEO CD had more of it than any system until the Dreamcast came out. Also, it was made in Japan, which drives the cost up a bit.

I don't think it was a failure really. It's just that people got frustrated trying to load up late 90's fighting games on it. From SNK's perspective at the time it was properly spec'd. That is, most non fighting games made before 1995 loaded into its massive memory in one go! It was a hell of a system and an awesome deal for someone who couldn't (or wouldn't) pay $200+ bucks for a cart.

>>4188610
So you would have made the Neo CD with 14 megabytes of ram and a 4x drive in 1994? And I suppose it should have been the same price or cheaper than a PlayStation right?

>>4189979
No, if you would have read the entire post you would have seen that I quoted at least $600 for the system with more ram and and/or a 4x drive.
SNK fans would have gladly paid $600+ for a Neo Geo system with perfect $50 CD versions of all the super expensive AES games that had shit ports or no ports at all.