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Gaming has come a long way in the last forty years. From simple 8-bit graphics and stories to what we have today, with high-definition graphics, sprawling worlds, and endless options. Even with everything we have now, at the time, many of the classics felt as big as new blockbuster games.

While many studios helped create the classics we know today, there is one that we wanted to focus on today - SNK. With the legendary SNK 40th Anniversary Collection joining GOG.COM, we wanted to take a moment to look at some of the games from that collection, as well as some other awesome series that came from the studio.

Stick around after we check out some games, as we’ll also be taking a brief trip down memory lane for the studio itself!



Some of the games included in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection

Coming to GOG.COM on Friday, April 16, the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection features a huge selection of classic arcade-style games like side-scrolling Alpha Mission where you must fight off waves of enemies from your spaceship to protect various space stations.

If space battles aren’t your style, maybe the 1985 action shooter Time Soldiers is more your speed. In this top-down title, you’ll travel through time so with futuristic weaponry in order to rescue soldiers that have been captured by the evil villain, Gylend.



If you’re looking for a classic arcade beat 'em up title, you’ll need to look no further than Street Smart, the major hit arcade game that was released in 1989. Street Smart was a dynamic fighting game, where the player could move in all eight directions in an arena fight in order to win money, fame, and glory on the big city streets.

If you can’t wait for the 40th Anniversary Collection to try out some classic SNK games, maybe check out some of these titles that are available on GOG.COM now!

More iconic games from SNK

In addition to all of the great games available in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, the company has released many amazing titles that have helped establish them as a dominant force in gaming. Many of these titles are available on GOG.COM today!



One of the most popular series from SNK is the Metal Slug series, which provides shoot-em-up action across multiple titles and different scenarios. Blast your way through various levels and pilot the famous “Metal Slug” tank, as you progress through the levels in the multiple Metal Slug games available from SNK.

Shifting gears a little bit, another well-loved series from SNK is the popular fighting game series, King of Fighters. The King of Fighters series adds a relatively unique twist to a highly popular fighting genre. In King of Fighters games, players must build teams of fighters to go against the opposition, and combat consists of huge 3 versus 3 battles. Take on a vast group of opposers in any of the King of Fighters titles available on GOG.COM today.



SNK has been known for several different fighting games, and GOG.COM is the place to find them. One of those popular titles is SAMURAI SHODOWN II which originally released in 1994 for arcades and the Neo Geo home arcade system. This game sees you take control of an 18th-century samurai who must stop the evil spirit Mizuki Rashojin. Punch and parry your way through your opposition in this dynamic and innovative fighting game from SNK.

If fighting with humans isn’t enough, maybe you’ll want to give King of the Monsters a try. In King of the Monsters, humans are no longer in control. You take control of one of the various “Super Monsters” available to battle your way to victory. Master your Super Monster’s powers to see who’s the most powerful monster of all!

A look back at the studio that is SNK

Founded in 1978, SNK (originally called Shin Nihon Kikaku) got its start in the late 70s and early 80s as an arcade game maker. Ozma Wars, a vertical space shooter, and Safari Rally, a maze game were the first two games available from the company. From 1978 to 1986, the company released a whopping 23 arcade games.



After the Japanese video game crash in 1983, SNK noticed that in the late 80s Nintendo was still doing well and began to pivot to console games. The company ported games onto consoles of the time, including the NES and Sega Genesis. It was after this that SNK started looking into modular arcade cabinets that could play more than one game and from that one of the most iconic parts of the studio were born - the Neo Geo family of home entertainment systems.

SNK used its knowledge of arcades and games to produce multiple consoles between 1990 and 2001. Multiple cartridge versions were made, as well as ones that took CDs. There were even handheld options that the company released - the Neo Geo Pocket and Pocket Color.

SNK had a great run and helped produce some truly classic games. If you would like to revisit those titles or check them out for the first time, the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is a great place to start.

If this sounds up your alley, make sure to check it out on GOG.COM!

What do you think? What are some of your favorite SNK titles? Let us know down in the comments!
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RedRagan: But can I plug in third party fighting game joystick to my PC and make it work with the game?
I tried plugging in my gamepad, and it technically works. The problem is the buttons are mapped in a way I'm not comfortable with and there doesn't seem to be any way to change it.
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RedRagan: But can I plug in third party fighting game joystick to my PC and make it work with the game?
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SpaceMadness: I tried plugging in my gamepad, and it technically works. The problem is the buttons are mapped in a way I'm not comfortable with and there doesn't seem to be any way to change it.
Is the button mapping similar to typical coin op arcade for King of Fighters series?
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RedRagan: But can I plug in third party fighting game joystick to my PC and make it work with the game?
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SpaceMadness: I tried plugging in my gamepad, and it technically works. The problem is the buttons are mapped in a way I'm not comfortable with and there doesn't seem to be any way to change it.
There are 3 companies that ported snk games onto pc. I think kof2002 (standard version) is by Dotemu, who used pretty barebones emulator without any features. Key bindings are hardcoded in the exe file, although they can be hexedited (or used a tool to change them for you), or bypassed by using any 3rd party remapping sw, so you can use any controller/device as you want. Not ideal for the end user though, as one has to tinker and not everyone likes that.

Some releases are by CodeMystics, who do great job porting snk games. There is some real effort put in, usually they come with great netcode, options, rebinds and extra features, galleries, etc. Best of all is that they aim to bring you exact arcade experience, so the emulation is top-notch, unlike dotemu that tends to have problems with framepacing and gamespeed in general (just some releases to be fair).

Third one is Digital eclipse, who ported this new snk 40th anniversary, samuraishodown neogeo collection (not on gog yet), etc. I don't have much experience with their ports, so dunno. But I'm confident they are better than those Dotemu ports.

KoF2002UM on the other hand is by Code mystics, tho it might lag behind with netcode update/version compared to steam release.
Usually, I'm quite happy when such compilations are released on GOG.

This one however, has one incredibly big sin - Beast Busters is totally broken. It's one of those shooting games where you're controlling only crosshair and shoot. But here - you're UNABLE to control it! You can only shoot and throw (limited) grenades, you can't move crosshair (which is invisible by the way, you can only tell where you're shooting basing on the animation). So basically, this port is broken and unplayable.

I can't believe how could anyone decide to publish game (port) with such terrible flaw. And I see that in GOG's release it's not fixed as well. And of course forget about aiming with mouse, it's not possible.
Post edited April 24, 2021 by MartiusR
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RedRagan: Is the button mapping similar to typical coin op arcade for King of Fighters series?
Unfortunately, no. It's mapped like this:

CD
AB

I tried it with keyboard and two different gamepads. I don't own a PC-compatible joystick, but I doubt it will be much different considering Neo Geo arcade machines usually have a nearly straight ABCD layout.
Post edited April 26, 2021 by SpaceMadness
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MartiusR: Usually, I'm quite happy when such compilations are released on GOG.

This one however, has one incredibly big sin - Beast Busters is totally broken. It's one of those shooting games where you're controlling only crosshair and shoot. But here - you're UNABLE to control it! You can only shoot and throw (limited) grenades, you can't move crosshair (which is invisible by the way, you can only tell where you're shooting basing on the animation). So basically, this port is broken and unplayable.

I can't believe how could anyone decide to publish game (port) with such terrible flaw. And I see that in GOG's release it's not fixed as well. And of course forget about aiming with mouse, it's not possible.
Emulation is not a port. The original hardware did not have crosshairs. The emulator adds that. Unfortunately, I don't know how to leave the crosshairs on. Yes, the crosshairs are actually there. When I start the game, I can see the crosshairs for a couple of seconds before they go away. Until someone figures out how to toggle the crosshairs, we're not going to see them while we're playing.
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MartiusR: Usually, I'm quite happy when such compilations are released on GOG.

This one however, has one incredibly big sin - Beast Busters is totally broken. It's one of those shooting games where you're controlling only crosshair and shoot. But here - you're UNABLE to control it! You can only shoot and throw (limited) grenades, you can't move crosshair (which is invisible by the way, you can only tell where you're shooting basing on the animation). So basically, this port is broken and unplayable.

I can't believe how could anyone decide to publish game (port) with such terrible flaw. And I see that in GOG's release it's not fixed as well. And of course forget about aiming with mouse, it's not possible.
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DoomSooth: Emulation is not a port. The original hardware did not have crosshairs. The emulator adds that. Unfortunately, I don't know how to leave the crosshairs on. Yes, the crosshairs are actually there. When I start the game, I can see the crosshairs for a couple of seconds before they go away. Until someone figures out how to toggle the crosshairs, we're not going to see them while we're playing.
Lack of crosshair is not a (big) problem, the main problem is that you can't move gun on the screen - you can't aim. This is the major problem, without it you're literally unable to play.
FWIW there's(were?) also SNK-Games indie Dev studio:
https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=snkgames_ltd
https://snk-games.net/index_en.php
"""
We worked on such games as:

Space Rangers 2: Dominators
Space Rangers 2: Reboot
Browser-based game "Dozory" (Patrol)
Stars Are Cold Toys (wasn't published in Europe and USA)
Space Rangers: HD. A war apart
"""
Frankly since I have a MiSTeR I'd be happy to see the ROM's included as I'd rather not rely on teams porting.
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SpaceMadness: I bought King of Fighters 2002 on GOG. Sadly, without option to rebind keys, it's barely playable for me. Unfortunately, this experience makes hesitant about buying otherwise enjoyable classic arcade games.
That's the way they came out for Humble Bundle also. You can extract the rom and neogeo zip and run the games emulators like MAME and NeoGeoBurn and play as you like with more modern features.
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SpaceMadness: Unfortunately, no. It's mapped like this:

CD
AB
There are two types of MVS cabs that have that button layout.
Post edited April 28, 2021 by Arcadius-8606
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i_ni: FWIW there's(were?) also SNK-Games indie Dev studio:
https://www.gog.com/games?devpub=snkgames_ltd
https://snk-games.net/index_en.php
"""
We worked on such games as:

Space Rangers 2: Dominators
Space Rangers 2: Reboot
Browser-based game "Dozory" (Patrol)
Stars Are Cold Toys (wasn't published in Europe and USA)
Space Rangers: HD. A war apart
"""
Yes there is SNK-Games Ltd, which is a Russian indie team and has no affiliation to the Japanese SNK afaik. I think they got away with using SNK in their name because they are actually СНК-Games in cyrillic.
All Metal Slug Parts, please!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metal_Slug_video_games :D

or at least Metal Slug Anthology!

Come on good people the time is now. : ) (12 yrs is fair enough)

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/metal_slug_anthology vote here 1800+ votes!
Post edited May 01, 2021 by user deleted