What's a computer or console you always dreamed of as a kid/teenager but that was simply out of reach?
If there was ever an unachievable goal (or better yet, dream) from my teenage gaming years, it was owning the otherworldly Neo Geo. Alas, it was so far out of reach it might as well have been on the moon.
The Neo Geo AES (Advanced Entertainment System) was deliberately positioned and priced as an extreme luxury console. Launch price was around $650 in North America (1990–91). Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly $1,500+ in today’s money.
But here’s the real kicker: games typically cost $200 to $300 each, sometimes even more. A single cartridge could cost as much as an entire competing console plus several games.
SNK was selling "the arcade in your living room" as a status product - essentially the Ferrari of consoles. The core appeal was that it wasn’t a home console with an arcade port. It was THE arcade hardware.
October 19th marks the anniversary of Epyx filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (19 October 1989).
Founded in 1978 as Automated Simulations, Epyx became one of the defining publishers of the Commodore 64 era. They built a reputation on high-quality sports and action games: the Summer Games / Winter Games series, California Games (with its iconic surfing and half-pipe events), World Games, Impossible Mission, Pitstop II, and Jumpman. For a stretch in the mid-to-late ’80s they were a major force on the C64, turning Olympic-style multi-event competition and polished SID music into multiplayer favourites.
The decline came fast. The C64 market softened, the company overextended into hardware (the “Handy” colour handheld that became the Atari Lynx), and a fraught deal with Atari left them cash-strapped. By late 1989 staff had collapsed from a peak of around 145–200 people to fewer than 20. They filed for Chapter 11 protection, sold off or lost rights to the handheld, and continued in a reduced form mainly making Lynx games. Remaining assets were sold off in 1993.
Thirty-seven years on, the name is still synonymous with some of the best multiplayer sports titles the C64 ever had.
What’s your favourite Epyx game — California Games, Summer Games, Impossible Mission, or something else?