Released in the spring of 1999 in Japan, the NEO GEO POCKET COLOR is SNK's 16-bit color portable gaming system. It is preceded by SNK's earlier machine, the NGEO GEO POCKET released back in late 1998. As you can probably guess, the NGP was the monochrome version of the NGPC. The NGPC has the same form factor and similar hardware, but includes a new color screen and color graphics hardware. Also gone is the contrast dial, since none is needed with the TFT color screen. Original monochrome NGP cartridges are compatible with the NGPC and vice-versa. (The latter without color).

Two NGPC can be connected via a link cable for multiplayer action. The battery life of the NPGC is approximately 40 hours! There was also a cable to hook the NGPC upto a Dreamcast, but very few games use this option.