Can someone explain to me why I'm supposed to hate Dion Dakis?

[sleeve]

I was bored a few weeks ago and started reading through some threads at neo-geo.com. As I read through some heated repartee between Dion and the NG community, this question came to mind. (I daren't ask it on the NG forums, obviously.)

From what I've read I can't understand why he's such a bad guy.

The way I understand it, he took Neo Geo MVS carts, converted them into AES carts, and then resold them. He thus made Neo Geo games available to a wider audience, while making a profit along the way. What's so bad about that? Sure, it adversely affected the AES collector's market, but honestly, who gives a fuck about those idiots who buy and sell Metal Slug 1 AES for $1000+?

Somebody please fill me in. And don't just link me to some FAQ, either.

[gamevet]

I had thought that you were around TNL from back in the early days of this site? Upon doing a google search, I found this early TNL thread about the subject: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...p/t-27081.html Looking back at that thread, I must have been f'en drunk off my ass when I posted.

If I remember correctly, Dion and his boys bought all of the legitimate copies of a Neo-Geo cart, literally destroyed them and burned their own roms of the games. They repackaged them and called it the real Neo-Geo carts. They destroyed the original manuals/inserts that came with the carts and put in their own version of the insert. Even the cartridge case was slightly changed and they passed it off as the legit versions of those games.

[StriderKyo]

^^ That's exactly it. He was selling knockoffs with weird orange cases & stuff, and then claiming he was doing people a favour because his inserts were "superior" to the originals. SNK cut him off, refusing to do business with him.

[Jetman]

fucking nazis.

[torgo]

Ah Dion. I was friends with him when I lived in Chicago. Hung out with him and Chris a good bit, before they became notorious.

Another thing about Dion, on top of all he did, he's extremely stubborn and thinks he's 100% right always, even when he's 100% wrong. He can be very trying and exhausting to deal with, and I think that adds a lot to people hating him. It's hard to explain, you just have to get in a situation with him to see what I mean.

[kingoffighters]

I remember him jacking up prices to insane level too and if you are not "Neo Geo Freak" (i.e. stupid) enough to pay, then you don't deserve the Neo Geo. He and Chris are the worst thing that ever happened to any scene.

[PKBMax]

I remember him jacking up prices to insane level too and if you are not "Neo Geo Freak" (i.e. stupid) enough to pay, then you don't deserve the Neo Geo. He and Chris are the worst thing that ever happened to any scene.

They also started a sort of collector's "Executive Gamer" club where people had to buy an insane amount of really expensive, very common AES games to qualify to buy the titles they really wanted.

NGF's primary sin was destroying legit SNK product, and flooding the market with their crap.

These pictures from the Classic Gaming Expo several years ago tell the whole story. First is Dion and Chris publicly shredding legit SNK inserts and replacing them with their bootleg "color corrected" shit.



Then we have Dion's reaction to a NG.com member who called them on their BS business practices.

[Drewbacca]

I'm so glad I never cared enough about videogames to let something like this affect me in anyway.

[MrWhitefolks]

Not to mention that he publicly threatened Jigen(who was on oxygen 24/7 thanks to a lung disease which he passed away from a few years back) at one of those expos.

[PKBMax]

Not to mention that he publicly threatened Jigen(who was on oxygen 24/7 thanks to a lung disease which he passed away from a few years back) at one of those expos.

Right. I believe that's the second picture I posted above.