Video Game Collector Claims to Have Evidence of Unreleased SNK Console

It’s been an exciting year for SNK fans – especially those of the esoteric persuasion. Earlier this year, we reported that a cartridge containing a prototype build of Samurai Shodown 64 had turned up buried in somebody’s backyard. You’d have thought that’d be enough to keep the community humming and hacking for some time – but it seems it never rests over at SNK Fandom HQ.

As EuroGamer reports, Anthony Bacon (a collector of various gaming detritus, who coincidentally we also featured in our previous story) has happened across what he believes is a motherboard from a defunct SNK console. Apparently, it was sent to him in the mail by a fellow enthusiast and asked to investigate its history; its original owner being unaware of its significance. Blimey, games buried in gardens, ancient consoles turning up in the post – what next? A free Neo Geo showing up in someone’s Happy Meal?

Bacon, who’s clearly been very busy these last few months, says he thinks the unassuming bit of metal is a “test PC motherboard” for a cancelled console meant to be SNK’s successor to the Hyper Neo Geo 64. The Hyper Neo Geo 64 (which you can also read about in our prior story, you lucky things) was intended to drag the company by the scruff of its neck into the burgeoning era of 3D gaming. Due to fierce competition from Nintendo and a niche, little-known project called the Sony PlayStation, it never caught on, and joined bedfellows like the Phillips CDi and the Panasonic 3DO in the annals of obscurity.

That this motherboard appears to be from a successor to this flop, then, is quite a big deal – evidently SNK had big plans for a whole line of the things. Who knows? We might’ve one day seen the New 3D Hyper Neo Geo 64 XL.

You can have a gander at Bacon’s findings in his video below:

Rumours about a so-called ‘SNK Millennium’ system were apparently buzzing as early as the late 90s, with many ‘insiders’ and media outlets claiming to have seen or heard of the thing. All that tells this reporter is that, at its core, gaming culture has changed very little. Despite the tales, though, no concrete evidence ever emerged that the Millennium even existed – until now. “It’s definitely extremely significant, just because nothing else has ever shown up before,” Bacon says. Huh. Sometimes internet rumours are true.

He continues on the find: “there’s never been any photographs of a development kit for that platform. The only real instance of it ever being mentioned is the President of SNK at that point in time referenced that they were working on the SNK Millennium. And magazines had a few rumours saying that it was either going to be a Pentium based motherboard or the SNK was going to potentially license an existing CPU and marry it to a Matrox graphics card.” Based on the description, it seems like it may have been quite a powerful system for the time, rocking specs that certainly would have looked cool in a back-page ad in a gaming mag.

Bacon concludes: “but it’s unheard of outside of a few statements from 1999 about a home console SNK was working on that people thought never got off the ground, but clearly it did get off the ground, at least to a certain stage.”

And what proof, you may ask, does he have that what he holds in his hand right now is the genuine article? He does, after all, admit that “it may be a Dreamcast dev board.” Oh. Bit of a letdown. But fear not! He reassures us: “it matches the timeframe [for SNK]. It’s easy to explain that it has nothing to do with Dreamcast, because that’s what people thought was the same processor. But it doesn’t match.”

And after all this, how certain is Bacon of his appraisal? “Can I wave a magic wand and 100 percent unequivocally prove it? No, but I’m 99.9 percent sure,” he said. Ah, well that clears that up, then.

If this does indeed turn out to be a component of the enigmatic SNK Millennium, this would not only be a major breakthrough for the SNK community, but also a tremendous step in the right direction in terms of digging up gaming paraphernalia long thought gone. Maybe a sealed copy of Sonic Xtreme will show up one day? Or a prototype for the SEGA Neptune? The possibilities are endless.

In the meantime, we can thank Anthony for continuing to bring home the bacon. As for us? We’ll be keeping a watchful eye over our Happy Meal boxes.

Are you excited by the prospect of this find? Do you buy its legitimacy? What other relics from days past would you like to see turn up? Let us know!

Via, Eurogamer.