There is space for everyone out there.
This is the piece I'm most afraid of. I don't think there's space for everyone in this niche.
I want to support DS in his arcade projects because I think he's found a way to make it sustainable for himself. I'm confident his cart will be as-good or better than the NeoSD. I don't think anyone here would say the NeoSD is a bad product, it looks great.
However, splitting the Neo Geo market between two players has probably not been a good thing. Terraonion said they didn't make a profit. Hopefully DS can, but he's out whatever sales Terraonion picked up. Mayyybe if he blows it out of the water he can get some to switch, but it's going to be tough. That lack-of-return-on-investment could hinder both orgs from making future projects.
The only good news is Terraonion also said they need to sell more units on their next project than they sold of the NeoSD. That means, to me, they are trying to find their "space" in a larger niche than DS serves. To me, that means console projects.
It's a business vs. a hobbyist. Salaries vs. After-hours. Paid staff vs. friends. Profit vs. Passion. I know Terraonion loves arcade stuff too, but their #1 driver is to make this a business for themselves. DS has a day-job. Mitsu has a day job. I don't know what Asure and Team Avalaunch do, but they probably don't make bank by cracking games all day.
So here's a short list of stuff where the DS crew is our only hope; Terraonion probably won't touch it for the reason above... I doubt any of these will outsell a Neo Geo multi:
Deco multi
F3 multi
ST-V multi
CPS1 multi (@aje you here? selling these finally? didn't think so)
CPS2 multi
CPS3 superbios
Irem M92 multi
Midway multi
Cave FPGA
Atomiswave multi
Naomi multi
Sega 16/18/24/32 multi
So I'm gonna buy his cart. I gotta make sure it's worth his while to stay in this niche, since Terraonion isn't going to support it in the long run (unless they decide to adopt the hobbyist business model too).