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Neo-Geo games on Wii Virtual Console Don't Work on my HDTV
Today Nintendo and SNK-Playmore released three Neo-Geo games on the Wii Virtual Console. I had really high hopes for this because I love the Nintendo Wii virtual console and I love the 2d workhorse that was the Neo-Geo. Unfortunately I am currently disappointed at both SNK-Playmore and Nintendo for two very important reasons
First of all Nintendo did NOT update the Wii firmware and you still can not download Virtual Console titles directly to the SD-memory card or run them directly off the card. Since my Wii is full I had to delete some games and the Internet Channel from my Wii's internal memory just to make space for a Neo-Geo game.
Who could have guessed that that the Wii would be out for almost a year and it would still have such a big technical problem with Virtual Console games?The artificial cap of how many games you can realistically buy is still there and this artificial cap is keeping me from being optimistic about the Wii VC.
The file size of the Neo-Geo game was not bad compared to the N-64 games and they are very reasonably priced at 900 points or $9 US. I purchased the classic 2d fighting game Art of Fighting. They also released the first Fatal Fury and World Heroes. I plugged in my Wii Classic Controller and fired it up. Then my HDTV screen went blue and the shut off due to lack of signal. The Neo-Geo games do NOT work at 480p so I rebooted my Wii and set it over to 480i. The game then flickered at a painfully intensity for a bit and then the TV lost the signal. I had to take the standard AV cables that came with my Wii and plug it into the Universal DVD connection kit for it to work.
Both of these are completely unacceptable. There is no reason why they could not put a filter to double the line output from the Neo-Geo emulator to make it work on HDTVs over component cables and it is shocking that they put added them to the Wii VC store without making sure that they could produce a progressive signal or at least work on all HDTVs. There have been problems with PAL systems on the Wii VC but this is the first time since getting component cables that a game would simply would not work.
The prospect of having my own Neo-Geo arcade games at home on my TV that were ports or emulated has been a dream for a while now. If you are running a Wii on an HDTV I fully recommend that you stay away from the Neo-Geo Virtual Console games until they address this with software updates. I am extremely disappointed in both Nintendo and SNK. I've made up my mind I am not going to buy one more Wii VC game until Nintendo fixes this. This is a much bigger issue than Nintendo handing out free rubber sleeves for the Wiimote.
Jake at October 8, 2007 
Games
Comments
How about taking your TV manufacturer to task for not supporting a 240p input signal in their chipset?
You can edit your review of your TV and put that under the "One of my only complaints" section.
Posted by: Dan Corban at October 9, 2007 9:40 AM
Any basic non-professional emulator for PC can create an image signal that would work on most HDTVs. If MAME or NeoRage can run Neo-Geo games with out hitch I expect SNK and Nintendo to do just as good if not better. I doubt they did much testing.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at October 9, 2007 11:10 AM
sounds like a problem with your TV, rather than a problem with your Wii.... though it sucks either way.
Posted by: Anon at October 9, 2007 7:46 PM
^yeah I agree
I have just bought myself a new HD monitor, I hope that I am not affected with a similar proble if this is the case.
Posted by: Daniel Primed at October 11, 2007 6:29 AM
I think this sucks...
I never got to play the Neo Geo when I was a kid and was excited to try it out at home.
It loads up with only a partial screen
and that is not so good.
if I push the home button so I get the menu to choose Reset or Wii Menu I can see the game perfectly in the background.
Push Home again and it will then show nothing but a burn in image of what it was showing before.
huh? dang it.
Super Contra did this to me as well.
I messed with it and messed with it and eventually it just started working.
I should just put it on my memory card so I can blow in it....hah....very disappointing
Posted by: Byron at April 19, 2008 7:29 PM
