NEOGEO SOFTWARE DEVELOPER KITS

INTRODUCTION AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In 1990, when SNK first started game software development for the NEO-GEO hardware, they were pretty much alone. Shin Nihon Kikaku (SNK) and Alpha Denshi Korporation (ADK) worked together to produce the first set of titles that were manufactured for the system. This relationship was pretty similar to the one that existed between Atari & Epyx when the Atari Lynx handheld system debuted in 1989. Alpha's first two titles, Magician Lord & Ninja Combat were actually distributed by SNK. Alpha worked in house with SNK themselves, and thus were given little recognition.
NEOGEO MVS TEST CARTRIDGE (SAM)

This is the oldest MVS test cartridge that I have ever found. It is slightly taller then a standard cartridge and it can hold a game with a maximum of 99 megs. The PROG and CHA boards both face OUTWARD which allows for installation and removal of EPROMs without the need to open or disassemble the cartridge. This is impossible to do with a standard cartridge since the bottom CHAR board is always covered up by the top PROG board. Some of the eprom positions have jumper settings to toggle between 1 and 4 meg chips as well as JDEC and non JDEC standards.

In 1991/92, later down the road after the NEO-GEO began to see moderate success, Alpha was allowed to develop titles under their own company name, and SNK was also able to bring in some additional third party support. Alpha, Pallas, Monolith, Sammy, Wave, & Visco were among the first third party "licencees". Without the need to assist these companies anymore, SNK was then able to concentrate on serious high meg game development. In order for the licencees to be able to program and test their software creations, SNK provided them with special development hardware. This is commonly done in the video game industry and is done so by most major console developers.
NEOGEO MVS TEST CARTRIDGE (MC2)

This MVS test cartridge can be housed inside of a standard cartridge shell. It can hold a game with a maximum of 130 megs. The M and S roms use standard EPROM positions on the CHA board. However, the CHA roms use FLASH cards and the P and V roms on the PROG board use FLASH cards as well.

The NEOGEO's third party licencees could purchase "dev kits" (short for developers), which came with special software and hardware that could be used for much easier in house testing of their software program code (or games) on actual hardware. These devices are commonly refferred to as the "dev carts". SNK made several different revisions of these unique test boards over the years, but all of them served the same function. Some of them even came with specially built & modified circuit boards which contained edge connectors for BOTH the MVS and HOME systems! These large boards could be used for checking & testing games on BOTH of SNK's cartridge consoles. As new updates or changes were made to the games program code, new eproms could be burned and/or new memory cards could be flashed to test the game programs and continue progress forward.
NEOGEO DEVELOPMENT BOARD (X0007)

This development board contains both MVS and HOME edge connectors so that it can be used on either system. It can hold a game with a maximum of 210 megs. On the CHA board, all of the rom positions use 8-bit eproms. The C, M, and S. And then the PROG board appears to be able to use FLASH cards or EPROMs for the P and V roms.

These rare items are historically significant as they offer a behind the scenes view of what software development was like during the NEOGEO's lifespan. And over the years, I have been able to acquire several of these dev boards and test cartridges. Here on this page I have provided lots of pics and info on these devices in order to better document them for the site.
NEOGEO DEVELOPMENT BOARD (X3002)

This board also featured both MVS and HOME connectors and the two boards were available in different configurations. The PROG and CHA boards had different revisions which were interchangeable to create different combinations in order to accomodate the needs of the developer. For example, the C2 revision uses FLASH cards while the C3 revision uses EPROMs.