I edited my post, take a look at that.
Or better yet - A good wrapup of Dion Dakis shenanigans
here at The Next Level website. Pictures of the Dion in all his Dakishness!
The thing to remember is that Dion Dakis is known to have no regard for history or the Japanese parent of the system and literally went to what I'll called "judicially sanctioned lengths" to assert an ownership of a brand he could never aspire to. So you've got this guy destroying shit, making stuff up as he goes, and then suddenly he turns around a decade later and discovers the one true grail of SNK history. The sad part is that it could indeed be true; I never got clear how it was he got the official artwork (unless he talked somebody into it) for SNK releases, and they did have a distribution deal with SNK. Regardless, it's quite easy to see the wheels turning, as this may very well fly under SNK's radar.
Racketboy tried interviewing him recently, and didn't bother fact checking him at all. Some commenters did their best to correct the unchallenged distortion of the record:
The SNK bootlegger story is [BULLSHIT]. Dion used his status as the buyer of the rights to SNK-USA distro to sell low quality (printwise) conversions (taking an MVS and an AES cart, de-soldering the chips by hand, and then swapping them) to hardcore neo geo fans and passing them off as SNK originals. His excuse was that because he had the rights and the chips used in the conversion were SNK that he was in the right. He sold these for $600-$700.
I don’t care about conversions one way or the other if they are fan made thats cool, an AES owner can play slug 1 without selling his case.. Thats cool, most conversions are fan made labors of love.
But when you try to sell conversions as the real deal thats douche territory. Dion may seem like a nice guy when you are kissing ass but he is a major douche to his detractors face to face.
People who are new to the hobby will never realize the years of thieving and lying that this cancer [Dakis] unleashed upon the Neo Geo community. All you have to do is Google “Dion Dakis Thief” to see a clear example of how Dion has lied and stolen money from not only online transactions, but also people he met directly in person. These interviews undermine the integrity of Racketboy by lending credence to the notion of Dion being any kind of Neo Geo expert. Whatever knowledge and possessions may be hidden within his storage vaults, the information gained is worthless as any veracity can not be distinguished from his innumerable lies.
The less attention Dion gets, the better. I’m not going to say I’ve lost respect for Racketboy or the community because of this; but I’m wondering why a known thief, liar, and scammer is getting this kind of attention. The biggest thing that stands out to me is how I lost count of how many times Dion keeps saying “and 10, 15 years later everyone is finally starting to catch on”; no, no they’re not Dion. Your “freaked” conversions/bootlegs were ALWAYS low print quality, even back then. They’re worth less than the genuine article. The guy’s ego is so over-inflated, he’s manipulative; and that clearly shines through in these videos. I’m surprised so many people have fallen for his BS just by looking at these comments. And no, I’m not from Neo-Geo.com.
Neo-Geo.com is known for the heated nature of its debate, but people have lost lots of money from this and never gotten any satisfaction. So the next time some idiot (like "Sound Lily" at the end of that comments thread) says "it's time to move on," remind them that Dakis owes people money with interest. Being scammed is something that just sits with you and burns for a long time, and it is especially sad when it's being done in such a way that makes the hand that feeds you (or the hands - in this case the Neo Geo community and SNK itself) look like the villain. Way to twist the knife, Dakis and Racketboy.
