Neo Geo vs A1200

[Amiga_Nut]

At original poster IMO

1 Download NG emulator and games.
2 Run emulator and try all games which are not 2D fighting games.
3 Make sure you like enough of games which are not 2D fighting games.
4 Get a Neo-Geo CD console, a cake of 100 blank CD-Rs and get busy with Nero if you want the feel of real hardware on a big CRT TV with actual controllers.

The CD machines are incredibly hard to find, they made the 3DO sales look spectacular they were so obscure. Carts are too expensive, do not fancy £200 on some rubbish 2D fighting game that is inferior in every way to a £1 copy of Virtua Fighter 2 on even a Sega Saturn myself.

[Amiga_Nut]

The CD machines suffer from loooong loading times, but they are a good entry point and are cheaper and easier to find than the NeoGeo AES (nobody wants them as much!).

The 2d fighters are not all rubbish, though... some of them are excellent. Personally I'd rather play a good 2D beat-em-up than Virtua Fighter any day, and some of them aren't in the hundreds of dollars.
All a matter of taste though.

Yeah some load times are really bad, might even be a single speed CD-ROM in the machine. But I was told that the machine is like the CD32 in that it has no boot sector or other lockout files so just burn CD-Rs and off you go

Ahh well I'm more of a Mortal Kombat fan myself in the old 2D fighter arena but the rubbish bit is more to do with IMO VF2 is the finest beat em up since Way of the Exploding Fist hit the C64, it's easy to learn and play initially, addictive as you progress and has many in depth move combos to master lol

I'm actually on the lookout for a CD machine too, Viewpoint is just a game every shmup fan needs to have at home