The Neo Geo Pocket Color (NGPC for short) is a handheld game console released by SNK in 1999. The NGPC was designed to compete with other handheld consoles of its time, primarily Nintendo’s Game Boy Color. The NGPC had an excellent display for the time and a decent library of games. However, it was never really able to compete with Game Boy Color.
The NGPC was technically superior to the GBC. It had a 2.7-inch reflective LCD screen (vs. 2.3-inch), it could display upt to 146 colors simultaneously (vs. 56) from a palette of 4,096. It had a clickable joystick for arguably more precise control than the GC (especially in the fighting game genre which SNK was known for). The NGPC like the GBC was powered by 2-AA batteries, however the NGPC could last for up to 40 hours while the GBC would only last about 10. The NGPC also had a much more powerful CPU, a 16-bit TLC900H @ 6.144 MHz vs. the GBC’s Intel 8008/Z80 derivative CPU.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color had an excellent software library, especially for only being around for about two years. Many of these were arcade ports as arcade games were what SNK was beset known for. Some of the more popular games included “SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium,” “Metal Slug: 1st Mission,” and “Metal Slug: 2nd Mission,” “Puzzle Link” and “Bust-A-Move Pocket” but there were lots of others. There were approximately 31 titles released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in North America and slightly more than double that released in Japan.
Despite these advantages, the NGPC did not compete well against the GBC. There are a variety of reasons. The Game Boy Color was backwards compatible with the original Game Boy and Nintendo had far more licensees making for a much larger and more diverse game library. The Neo Geo Pocket Color was also backwards compatible with the original Neo Geo Pocket but that system saw limited release in the West and there were only five English games released for it so this wasn’t that big of an advantage. One somewhat interesting note is that many Neo Geo Pocket Color games could be played on the original Neo Geo Pocket, albeit in monochrome. Nintendo was also a much more well known name. If you didn’t read gaming magazines or visit arcades, you might not even have been that familiar with SNK. It also didn’t help that the NGPC was introduced around the same time as SNK started having financial problems. These financial problems hindered SNK’s marketing and distribution efforts. SNK would declare bankruptcy and the Neo Geo Pocket Color would be discontinued in 2001.
Despite failing to complete well, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was an excellent system. While the game library was certainly smaller than that of the Game Boy Color, the average quality was quite high. According to Wikipedia, the Neo Geo Pocket Color had a 2% market share in May 2000. Tiny by comparison compared to the Game Boy Color of course but enough to be profitable for SNK (but not enough to keep them from bankruptcy apparently).
If you get a chance to grab one of these systems and some games, you probably should. I used to have one but regrettably sold it. To be fair, I didn’t play it much so hopefully whoever wound up with it got more use out of it than I did. Glancing at eBay it looks like the cost of these has gotten a little prohibitive unless you REALLY want one. If you just want to try the games, there are emulators out there. However, I am unsure if there are any decent emulators for portable systems (i.e. Android). Playing on a desktop is a nice way to try the games I guess but it kind of defeats the point if you lose the portability. There were multiple volumes of a Neo Geo Pocket Color collection for the Wii but I’m not sure how available these still are but the Wii would make for a pretty good portable way to play these.
