css Zen Garden

● What is NCI? Who forms it?

• I'm the founder of NCI known as " atomikwave ". The co-founder of NCI is someone who worked for Neoayato.

● What do you like about Neo Geo System? When was your first contact with Neo Geo?

• I experienced the Neo Geo in 1992 , I fell in love with this system !
  What I liked was that AES was the only console that offered “pixel perfect” arcade games at home.

● Which are your favourite games from the catalogue? Are you collectors?

• Firstly, my favourite games ... hmm KOF 96 , KOF 98 and Real Bout Fatal Fury. Secondly, I was a big collector, I had full set AES japanese version and 90% fullset AES USA version.

● When and why did you create NCI?

• NCI was established in 2009. We created NCI because of our contract with VISCO Corp. and because of our first release, Bang Bang Busters.
  

● Which was the first project by NCI?

• The first official project was Bang Bang Busters. But the real first project non-official was Brikinger Ironclad (made by myself).
  

● Was it very difficult to find the Bang Bang Busters game? Tell us about the process (search, negotiations, purchase and AES/MVS conversion).

• The real story about Bang Bang Busters was a bit crazy... One evening, I sent an email to VISCO... thanks to my (bad) english (laughs). I asked them if they had the unreleased prototype game Bang Bang Busters for sale. I received a reply after two days ... as simple as that! One month after I went to Japan for a great meeting with the president of VISCO Corp. We found an agreement and the rest of the story is well known.
  Thanks to NCI we have all the VISCO IP related to Neo Geo games, and we have a contract for every games !! If someone tries to buy the rights it's not possible, because the rights are now exclusive to NCI. If someone claims to have those rights he's a big liar!
  

● Do you think in the future you may release another prototype in AES/MVS?

• Maybe .. it's pretty difficult to release another prototype whitout official licenses. The problem is that SNK-Playmore doesn't sell IP Neo Geo games, so it's impossible to get any old-SNK license. The IP of Neo Geo games have been dispatched and sold to several company! (mobile company and others). We offered several thousand euros (300.000 euros). It's really a big amount of money! If someone claims to have rights of SNK games or third-parties like Yumekobo and others .. he's again a big liar !

● Why did you release Breakers Revenge in AES format?

• NCI can release every VISCO Neo Geo games, and Breakers revenge was one of the best VISCO games in those years. The release date was 02/20/2016.
  

● Why have you released copies of very expensive games such as English versions of KOF 2000 and Kizuna Encounter?

• The KOF 2000 USA and KIZUNA ENCOUNTER USA releases were made by me, we didn't use the NCI name. I produced the games because they are unattainable nowadays, and many people can't spent 5000 euro or 15.000 euro in a game.

• By the way, I would like to reveal the true story about the KIZUNA ENCOUNTER release by SNK in 1996. During my visit at SNK Osaka building, Mr. koyama told me the true story about Kizuna Encounter and Ultimate 11 AES USA releases. He said that in 1996, SNK was caught in fire in one of its factories, and it influenced on the production of some NEO GEO cart version titles. Officialy Kizuna Encounter USA and Ultimate 11 USA do not exist! They were canceled. But the inserts of those USA games were already created and printed, and in some way, a snk employee made a mistake with some few games.

● Are you going to release any other games of this type, such as Ultimate 11?

• It's difficult to release Ultimate 11 because i dont have the original game for making a copy.
  

● Are you going to release any games developed by yourself?

• Yes, I'm working on a new Neo Geo AES game... but I can't talk about this now.
  And NCI works on a new Neo Geo games too.

● For your first works, you used sac cards, but now, you offer in your games a new components (PCB boards, chips, carts and boxes). Now, can we talk about “replicas” and no more talk about “fakes”?

• It's not needed to sac more carts .. never again!! We have our own PCB's and carts.

● Do you think this will change completely Neo Geo scene?

• Yes i think it will change the Neo Geo business and will end up stopping the sacrifice of carts. Many people use sac carts to make stupid converts like Ninja Commando or Real Bout 2 jap.... totally useless!
  

● Can you tell us some exclusive news for CulturaNeoGeo.com? What's your next project?

• NCI works on a new Neo Geo game (a beat'em all). On the other hand, I work on a new Neo Geo game too .. but really I can't talk about that now. It's too early. I will release soon the japanese AES versions of Prehistoric Isle 2 and KOF 2000 Srikers Edition (with new strikers added seen at Playstation 2 version), of course without license!