Part 1: The product

Well before any of this, however, SNK was a small arcade kit developer. The company was launched in Japan on July 22nd, 1978 under the title Shin-Nihon Kikaku Inc. Starting with the block breaking "Maikon Kit" and then moving into many other genres, SNK found a certain degree of success developing for arcade hardware.

In 1986, while still producing arcade titles, a third party license was signed with Nintendo that allowed SNK to develop games for the NES/Famicom. This resulted in many player favorites including Baseball Stars and Ikari Warriors. 1986 was the also the year that saw the company's name officially change to SNK Corporation.

The system that SNK is known for is clearly the Neo Geo, which was released as both a home console and a cheap arcade hardware setup known as the MVS (Multi Video System). Throughout the 1990s, over one hundred Neo Geo games were released, the most popular genre being versus fighting. The main figure behind SNK's fighting game development was a man named Takashi Nishiyama who had previously worked on the Street Fighter series at Capcom. Under his control, franchises such as Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown and The King of Fighters became some of the most well-known in the industry. These titles were rivaled only by Capcom's games in the 2D fighting market. Nishiyama is no longer with SNK.

Following the Neo Geo, the company had trouble finding its next successful piece of hardware. First came the Neo Geo CD (1994), which was essentially a Neo Geo home console that used compact discs instead of cartridges. Most CD games were conversions of arcade and home system titles, with only a handful of exclusives. Though three different versions of the CD system were released in Japan, only one made it to the U.S. and estimates say that less than one thousand systems were sold through SNK of America.

SNK R&D in Japan a few years ago had very cramped workstations.

 [Picture is from an SNK of Japan catalog]

SNK next looked back to the amusement market with the Hyper Neo Geo 64 hardware (1997), which supported three cabinet configurations: joystick controls, racing wheels and guns, mimicking the popular genres in arcades at the time. The Hyper 64 was torn apart by critics, and it didn't fare much better in sales. Even with popular licenses such as Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown, the system was really dead before it ever got started.

Following the immense success of Nintendo's Pokémon series (and thus the GameBoy system), SNK tried a new angle and released a portable system in the Neo Geo Pocket, followed by the Neo Geo Pocket Color. While both were critically acclaimed, nothing could compete with GameBoy at the time and system sales never took off. 

Part 2: The U.S. Market

SNK's U.S. offices moved around quite a bit before they closed down in 2000, but interestingly, these moves centered around the same two areas of California. The company was constantly jumping back and forth between Torrance (Southern California) and the Silicon Valley (Northern California). There was even a plan to move back to Torrance at the end, which would have happened if the division was not shut down.

SNK California

Because of the numerous office moves, there were many staff changes through the years. One theme between some of the SNK U.S. offices, however, was the separation of management and employees. Tony Gonzalez of the tech department in Torrance described this situation simply: "Marty [Kitazawa] was up on the second floor, president of the operation. We never talked to him much." As far as the employee group was concerned, Tony continues, "SNK is a job I look back at fondly...we all co-existed as a family, in a sense."

Some people have questioned what SNK of America did other than distribution and sales, and while this changed over time (the Neo Geo home cart instructions were initially produced in the U.S., but later were put under Japan's control), the basic structure consisted of sales, management, financial, customer service, tech support and shipping. Tony points out, "When crunch time came around, we were all on the assembly line for shipping, sometimes super late. Unlike a lot of companies out there these days, we lived by the Japanese ideal where our efforts kept our jobs going."

As with pretty much any game company, certain areas were very crowded

The relationship between SNK of Japan and SNK of America was never especially strong. According to the former "Gamelord" game counselor Chad Okada (who was in charge of customer service), "SNK Japan did not share information with SNK of the U.S...We would have to go out and purchase European products or someone with an import product would inform us of what was going on with our own products."

SNK in the U.S. had its ups and downs, one of the most memorable downs being when the U.S. Neo Geo home cart Samurai Shodown was censored and the blood was altered. The media made a fairly big deal out of the situation. Chad tells the story from his perspective:

   "Yes, the Samurai Shodown debacle…that was the most painful time in my career at SNK. I had worked through all of the bad times and taken all of my lumps because I believed in SNK. Finally, SNK had a product worthy of its price tag and I, personally, had loved this game from the very start. Like many things, I had not known that they had decided to "censor" the home version. In fact, I could not even dream that this could happen. When I received the Samurai Shodown and found out it had been censored, it was like a knife had been rammed into my back. My whole world went into a downward spiral because I loved games and we had finally had something great.

   I remember immediately talking to the president, Marty Kitazawa, at the time about this fiasco to try to find out what happened and what they were thinking. The only thing he told me was, "Yes, the home version is censored." I had also asked him what we wanted to tell everyone the reason was that we had censored Samurai Shodown, and to that, I received no answer. I was to be a good PR guy and make something up. Many different reasons for the "censorship" came out of SNK America and none of them actually became SNK's official word on this situation. I do remember the Beast Busters excuse and that was widely used. [Beast Busters was a previous SNK game that came under fire for being too violent]

   However, I later found out the truth for the censorship, and although this was never used as SNK's official word, this was the truth. SNK, like many companies, [was] facing many lawsuits at the time. They were paranoid about being sued because they could not afford it financially. SNK started putting epilepsy warnings in the cartridges because Nintendo lost a big lawsuit over a case. At this time, there was much negative publicity for violence in video games and it eventually went to congress. One of the Mortal Kombat [games] at the time was censored. SNK was worried about a lawsuit or future lawsuit and decided to play it safe, because it could not afford not to."

This basketball hoop was actually used in the building when the boxes weren't in the way

Part 3: U.S. Development

Created for Thrash Rally by Tony Gonzalez, this was a

prototype steering wheel shown at at least one trade show

Though under-publicized, SNK has made attempts at product development in the United States. Within the SNK of America offices, a few small attempts were made, but nothing much really happened. As Tony Gonzalez of the tech department said, "Prototypes would come in here and there, we would evaluate, modify as needed." But this was pretty much the extent of things outside of a few small projects such as the steering wheel seen to the right. 

However, in late 1993, a joint project between SNK and their advertising firm Asatsu saw the creation of SAI Softworks (where the "S" and "A" of SAI stand for SNK and Asatsu), a development studio located first in Westwood and then in Torrance, near the SNK of America office at the time. Approximately $2 million was put up between the two investors, and the studio was well respected for its cutting edge technology such as motion capture machines. Heading this studio was Greg Lemkin, who had previous experience in the entertainment industry. 

Three games were in production by SAI: An aliens versus humans fighting game for the arcade and home systems, a Neo Geo CD role playing title based on the Land of the Fay anime series and a Hyper Neo Geo 64 game called Outmaneuver Mission where a human was trapped in a puzzle, seemingly like a less violent version of the movie The Running Man. Unfortunately, none of these games ever reached the playable stage of development and were all halted before they could be completed. As Greg told us, SNK management "never really knew what they wanted." So Asatsu dropped out and then the studio was put to rest in August of 1995. Their technology and some team members went to SNK of Japan, while other team members went on to places such as Marvel Comics. 

Here's the converter that allowed the steering wheel to be used on a Neo Geo cabinet

But SNK couldn't stay away from U.S. development opportunities, and in February of 1997 they opened SNK U.S. Technology in San Jose, California (Silicon Valley). As described by an SNK of Japan catalog back when this office was still running: "Our local staff works to formulate more advanced game design programming and discover new methods of expression for amusement. As a focal point for the research and development of the next generation of worldwide amusement, we are vigorously active in realizing our dreams for the future." Quite a bit overblown, sure, but it is clear that this office was created for research and not just pumping out games.

This is the SNK U.S. Technology office that was in San Jose, California.

[Picture is from an SNK of Japan catalog]

Part 4: Aruze Takeover

Though not commanly known in the U.S.,  Aruze is well established in Japan

Coming off a run of less than successful systems, SNK of Japan was not doing all that well financially, so it was not a huge surprise when Japanese pachinko giant Aruze came in and purchased the company. Many have questioned the motives behind this purchase since SNK has been relatively quiet under the wing of Aruze, but certain crossovers like a Samurai Shodown pachinko game have taken place. Even after the Aruze takeover, SNK has had financial troubles, with a recent reorganization taking place.

Allen Weisberg is president of Apple Industries, the company handling SNK's Neo Geo arcade titles in the U.S. market. Regarding changes in SNK due to the Aruze purchase, he stated, "I did not notice much difference. The management in SNK was the same."

That said, there have been questions concerning in-house Neo Geo development over the past year. Many rumors have circulated that a large number of research and development employees have left the company, and this theory is supported by looking at the recent Neo arcade releases. They have all come from outside developers (such as Noise Factory for Sengoku 3). Even the latest version SNK's marquee fighting series, The King of Fighters, is said to be coming from developer Eolith. Allen offers the following: "Now that SNK is back in Osaka [they recently moved their Japanese offices], I believe there will be more releases. The company is focused on their core business at the present time and this can only result in great product." Time will tell if there are to be more SNK developed Neo Geo games.

Though games are no longer being published for the Neo Geo CD and Hyper 64 systems, SNK is still supporting the Neo Geo and to a lesser extent the Neo Geo Pocket Color, as well as producing games as a third party for current home consoles such as Sega's Dreamcast.