SNK's 1994 CD console offered the Neo Geo arcade library at a fraction of the cartridge price, with arranged CD soundtracks. The trade-off was loading: the cartridge originals streamed instantly, the CD version did not.
Games run at full speed, but the Neo Geo CD loaded slowly on real hardware and emulation reproduces that faithfully โ expect waits between rounds. Requires the Neo Geo CD BIOS. Where a title also exists as a cartridge ROM, the cartridge version plays better.
The chip is the same in every model, so the rating is too. What differs is the screen: 4:3 panels suit most home consoles, the 1:1 square panel suits Game Boy and GBA and shows 4:3 games with bars.
The R36 handheld family runs Neo Geo CD titles with playable compatibility out of the box.