SNK's hamfisted effort at making the Neo Geo more “appealing” to customers. Released on September 9th, 1994 in Japan and January 15th, 1996 in North America, the Neo Geo CD features a Motorola 68k CPU, 7MB of RAM for various system functions, and an output resolution of 302×224 at 65535 colors. It was not really successful, as it added nothing interesting or cutting edge to Neo Geo technology outside of the obvious CD drive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_CD

For general information, see the Game Console Revisions Overview.

There are three versions of this console, arranged chronologically.

DO NOT PURCHASE

The very first release of the Neo Geo CD, with only 25000 units having been made. These units are both unreliable, expensive, and hard to find; it is pointless to try and get one of them.

LOWEST PRICE

This is the only “officially” released Neo Geo CD for non-Japanese markets. 2 controller ports on the front, DC in + various vid/audio outs on the back. On top, the CD drive and power button. Nothing on the bottom or sides. With a 1x speed CD reader, it is very slow. However, it is the most common model by far. Reliability is unknown, but it does not have the potential overheating issue of the CDZ.

RECOMMENDED OVERALL

Despite being only released in Japan, the CDZ has no region lock (as for the front-loader). Combined with it’s superior speed and backwards compatibility, the CDZ became a popular import item in America and Europe. Thus, it has been included for it’s effective non-difference to a typical NTSC-U console. This system is identical to the US top-loader when it comes to input/output or hardware, except the CD drive’s cache has been expanded. Some claim that the speed was upgraded to 2x, but some dispute this as a mere rumor. May have an overheating issue.

There are no revisions within any version. BEST RELIABILITY couldn’t be assigned.

https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Neo_Geo_CD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_CD

https://nicole.express/2020/neo-geo-cd-zee.html