Here you will find pictures of some games that were in production for the Neo Geo, but have not been released. Games are often not released for many reasons (even if they are 100% complete in some cases), either due to the game not being of high enough quality, or because of doubts about whether the game will make enough money.

A lot of the time, these games end up fading away and never being seen, but sometimes they end up being released many years later, which has been the case with games like Nightmare in the Dark and Bang Bead (from what I can gather this is a released game and not a prototype, although others disagree and say that it is... I'm not sure myself). Apparently they were developed some years ago, but were finally given the green light and released properly in the year 2000.

This isn't always the case though - sometimes these games have been stolen from the developers by someone... and then either ended up in the hands of a collector (and become VERY valuable), or they are copied and distrubuted everywhere. One example of a prototype game being mass copied would would be the game Diggerman .


It would be great if these games were made available at some point, although it is doubtful that we will ever get to play many of them. There are more than likely a lot of totally unknown prototypes that nobody outside of the software houses have ever seen too. Anyway, here are pictures of some of the known /images/prototypes/unreleased games:

Action Pac - Kigyo 1996 - Possibly a fake!



I can remember seeing an auction for this game quite a while ago, and it was at a ridiculous price. Despite the auction price ending very high, apparently the game was never sold to anyone, which is why this is thought of as being fake. It might be real, but we may never know.

Bang Bang Busters - Visco 1994





Here's a platformer by Visco Games that was not released. Looks half decent as well... and it'd be nice to have a few more platformers in the vein of Mario Brothers - the only one Neo Geo fans really have right now is Blues Journey/Raguy . Rumour has it that this game is/was being considered for a release, but no news so far... I'd love to see this come out personally.

Crossed Swords 2 - ADK 1995





Note: These screens are from the Neo Geo CD version!

Here's another game that only made it onto the Neo Geo CD (like Ironclad). I've breifly played the Neo Geo CD version and it's half decent, but it'd still be great to see an MVS version (if one exists).

Dunk Star - Sammy - Early 90's



Fun Fun Brothers - Alpha Denshi - 1991



Ghost Lop - Data East - 1996



Iron Clad MVS Version - Saurus 1996



This game WAS released on the Neo Geo CD, but a proper MVS cart has been rumoured for ages (and lots of people keep claiming that they have it). Well, apparently it was shown at a game show in MVS form, so it seems certain that a prototype of it exists somewhere. Whether the people that keep claiming to have it are telling the truth though, remains to be seen :P

Mystic Wand - Alpha Denshi - 1991



Ninja Sho - Yumekobo - 1996



Not much is known about this one at all! These screenshots were found on the internet a while ago it looks like a side scrolling beat 'em up, but that is about all I know.


Herbeke's Pair Pair Wars - Sunsoft - 1996


Last Oddysey Pinball Fantasia - by ? 199?



Apparently this is a Neo Geo game... but no other info at this time. I have no idea who it was made by and what year it's from, but I'll add anything I find out about it.

Sunshine - SNK 1990




Warlocks of the Fates - SNK/Astec - 1995



I remember seeing shots of this game on the 'net, and it was labelled as "Warriors of the Fates", but a lot of people tell me it is actually "Warlocks of the Fates". I'm not sure which name is correct, but the game looks half decent to me, graphically at least - but perhaps the gameplay itself was lacking so much that they canned it. Whichever way, I doubt we will ever get to play it.


Zintrick - SNK/ADK - 1996



Note: The Above Screens are from the Neo Geo CD version!

I have played this game quite a bit on the Neo Geo CD and it is a fun puzzle game (review coming soon of the Neo CD edition!). Zintrick is thought to exist somewhere for the MVS because it was announced by SNK to be shown at an arcade show in 1996. For more info and a screenshot of this announcement, head over to this great prototype site!

Further Info:

There are other supposed prototypes out there, but I don't have screenshots or any more info about them.

Here is a list of ones that are supposed to be around (info from various sources):

Baseball Stars 3
Crystalis 2
Death Match
Fire Suplex 2
Fu'un Super Tag Battle Link-Up (Kizuna Encounter)
Gemfire
Ghost Pilots 2
Heavy Glove Boxing
High Voltage
Irritating Maze Returns
Magician Lord 2 (Not for MVS though, just for Neo Geo CD)
Ninja Gaiden
QP(CD only)
SNK King of Athletes
World Heroes Link-Up

Please note: Most of the games on the list above are not confirmed to exist and some are just rumoured prototypes.

If you would like to get some more info on prototype games as well as screenshots, I suggest you take a look at this prototype page as there is a lot of info there!

You could also check out the master list on Neo-Geo.com , or Chris Mullins Neo Geo FAQ.