EMULATOR REVIEW - NEO RAGE X

  Another emulator brought out of the woodwork and given a thorough workout. This section is just a damn good excuse for playing games but oh well. Here comes the one (and only) Rob
   
  The NEO GEO from arcade masters SNK was an unusual beast. A home console that not only had arcade graphics, the games were the arcade machine. In actual fact at one point the price of the cartridges in the UK was £150. But then again, they could be up to 330 megabit! So I am sure this emulator cheeses off SNK. The fact of the matter is. No one who uses this emulator is likely to own a real NEO GEO and games let alone only play the games on the emulator that they own. Emulation has always been an iffy subject but, for the main part, the games and hardware are hard to come by. With this (And others like MAME) you are bound to see the stand up cabinet versions of the games at a local arcade or fairground. Will you still be tempted to play it? I doubt it. They lose.

Anyway, putting in for the hypocrite of the year award. I installed this emulator and a few roms to check out. This is an incredibly flashy little emulator. Smooth blue streams loop round to form the main windows of the emulator:

  • The options window
  • The Game selection window
  • The Preview window
  • The Message output window

When the mouse pointer is hovered over a ROM a small preview of the game appears in the bottom left window. This is incredibly handy as I'm not a great fan of certain genres of game so seeing it before spending a while loading the blooming thing is a handy addition. Good brownie points there then. But what of the games. These are spot on to the originals in all their hugeness (I couldn't load some games due to not having enough memory!!). There was the odd sound problem (glitches and occasional unwanted silence) but then again this is the first version with sound.

Not bad graphics on the SEUs - Very Arcade like. Er... ...oh.

Games can be played either in arcade (Where virtual credits have to be inserted) or console mode. I haven't actually checked console mode yet but I would hope that it's easier than the arcade version. The games are solid!!! I've kept it in arcade mode because infinite credits do come in very handy. in fact, it's probably the only reason I got anywhere in the games.

On to speed of emulation, now. On my P200 it does slow down quite a bit. Well, that's not strictly true, the screen update skips while the game keeps nearly perfect time. It doesn't slow down, it merely goes jerky. Happens on the big SEUs mainly with sh*tloads of gunk onscreen. Sound is a little bit grainy but that could just be my card.

See, it's not just beat em ups!             Alright, yes it is. Nearly.

Overall, if your conscience can get over the moral (and legal issues) of having such expensive kit for free then this is the one to get. The bias toward beat-em-ups was annoying but then again little else shows up in arcades nowadays anyhow. The emulator, however, is great.

9/10 You have to be very selective as there are lots of what I consider 'duff' games but the emulator cannot really be faulted. One point off for the sound though.