Gaming History You Should Know – Neo-Geo Pocket July 30, 2023

It’s Sunday! Time for another Gaming History You Should Know, where we highlight some of the best independently created content about the history of video games. You may have noticed we’ve become a bit obsessed with the company SNK recently, but even as newly-minted King of Fighters converts we were shocked to discover there was a story about the company even we did not know about until earlier this week.

If you were a kid in the 90s and were going on a road trip with your family you likely brought a Nintendo Game Boy or SEGA Game Gear with you. Within a pretty quick amount of time, Nintendo solidified the Game Boy as the definitive portable console throughout the 90s. However, despite what Nintendo would have you believe, other companies were offering portable handheld consoles. One of those companies was SNK.

What can we say about SNK’s Neo-Geo? Sporting graphical capabilities beyond what was possible with existing consoles (and a hefty price to go along with it) the Neo-Geo is fondly remembered by arcade gamers of the early-to-mid 90s. However, I had no idea at the height of the arcade platform’s popularity, SNK released a Neo-Geo handheld, the Neo-Geo Pocket!

The Neo-Geo Pocket flew so far under the radar, we didn’t even mention it in our history series on the Video Game Handheld War. In truth, it was because at the time we had no idea it ever released in the US!

YouTube Channel Lady Decade, who is a fantastic reference for Neo-Geo history, released a great documentary on the Neo-Geo Pocket and its color successor. You may even recognize some of the games that came for the platform including ports of King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and even Sonic The Hedgehog! Give it a watch!