My Name is Javier Ruiz-Leon and I first came across the neo geo in pictures I saw in an issue of EGM back in 1990. It was an article about SNK and how they released a MVS in Japan similar to Nintendo's play choice arcade system. The pictures were of Nam'75, Top Players Golf, Baseball Stars, and Magician Lord. SNK at the time was riding high on titles like Baseball Stars, Beast Busters, and Ikari Warriors for the arcade and NES. I then became obsessed with the gorgeous pictures and clipped out the article. Eventually an MVS unit arrived at the arcade and it was an 8 slot unit with all their best, including Magician Lord. The unit had a nice RGB monitor, but as anyone in Los Angeles knows, it was hard to see the game through all the tagging etched on the screen. Once I found out that SNK moved close to me (Torrance, CA) and I was calling them often. At that time the home system had just came out and I some how convinced my wife to buy the system. At that time I was working at UPS part time and only made about $175.00 a week. After convincing her, I went out to the mall to get the neo geo! I got there early before the store even opened and had to wait for the manager to open up. I then bought the system with Magician Lord for $667.00!!! Man, you should have seen me walk out the mall to my car! I was carrying that big black box as if was a suitcase full of gold and every one knew about it! I had my wife drive fast and with the doors locked and the windows rolled all the way up till we got home! What an awesome feeling it was to open the box and set it up and play Magician Lord in my own home! Of course, my wife did not now what the big deal was all about and how was I going to explain how much each cart was!!!! I feel that I mastered Magician Lord in a month! I could finish the entire game without dying and had a top score of 997,630!!! I even sent a picture to EGM but they never published it. My next stories will be about my neo geo adventures and starting up Visual Rush and behind SNK's doors!

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                                                                                                                                             June 23, 2000

                                        Inside SNK of America, Torrance
 
I visited SNK of America in Torrance, CA very often during the NEOGEO's hay-days. It was a plain gray two story building with the SNK letters in blue on the top left hand corner of the front. As soon as you walked in
there was a desk with a receptionist, a neo mini and 6 slot mvs, as well as framed game posters, and steps that led to the marking and management offices upstairs. Down the hall were some cubicles for the sales group and
before the main warehouse in the rear was the game councilors office. The game councilor's office had a Sony 25" PVM monitor and a plain neo home system. He had a desk with a phone and answering machine. Behind him was a large shelf with magazines and AES carts. Nothing rare except for the video tape with the Muti-Link World Heroes four player game (It looked ok, no slowdown or flicker). Beyond his office was the main SNK warehouse with "Thousands" of MVS units in boxes and display. There was also an area for the techs to repair and PLAY the worked on MVS and AES units. But, ah, the mother load was in a caged area, away from greedy hands. This locked gated area contained all the promotional SNK items from US and Japan! Hats, folders, notebooks, posters, dolls, stickers, inserts, marquees, etc.. This is where I got all my mvs "how to play" stickers for my Visual Rush customers (the desk that holds my computer is completely covered in these stickers). The techs would Tweak out the home controllers to get a better feel on the corners, THIS MADE A HUGE difference on fighting games!!!, twin headphone jacks, A/V outputs on the rear, and turbo toggle switches on the
sticks. I know some people can do this themselves, but this was factory work and it showed!   

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                                                                                                                                     November 2, 2000 

Samurai Showdown 2 Fever!
 

Back when Samurai Shodown came out, SNK was gaining momentum. When Samurai Shodown 2 was about to be released, SNK was at it's highest point. I remember the Christmas season leading up to the AES release of the cart and the excitement over it. My store, Visual Rush, was competing for sales with Dragon Video at the time and we were fighting for the loyal SNK customers. I decided to offer anyone who prepaid for the cart free next-day shipping and the usual arcade marquees and how to play stickers that I got free from SNK with every purchase. So, I received about 200 prepaid orders! I still remember taking over $10,000.00 in cash out of the bank and driving over to SNK in Torrance,CA to buy the carts. Now, keep in mind that people were preordering because SNK did not make enough Samurai Shodown 1 carts and there was a shortage a year before. So, I went to SNK and bought all the carts. What an amazing site, cases of Samurai Shodown 2 carts filled the back of my 1985 mustang! I sent out all the carts a day earlier than Dragon Video because I went to SNK direct and did not wait for the shipment. It was a bad business decision to offer free next day shipping because I made 0 profit! And to make matters worse, some people insisted on always getting next day air for free! This was just my Christmas present to all SNK fans! I still have my very rare Samurai Showdown 2 Christmas card! It has the characters putting ornaments on a tree.  


Javier Ruiz-Leon