AES collecting back in the day

[Ip Man]

I seem to recall Computer Exchange at Tottenham Court Road dumping much of their stock for near peanuts as the Saturn /PS1 conversions came in around 97/98 (Is there anyone else on the forum who frequented that establishment back then?).

yes!.i spent a lot of my teenage years in cex on tottenham court road and have had some of my greatest gaming memories there. cex was the place where i got my sega saturn switched, and did most of my aes window shopping at.

i remember they put a aes on the window with real bout 2 when the game was first released. the place was just eye candy from beginning to end. best game shop the uk has ever had.

 

[darkkrisp]

In the early 2000s is when I started my AES collecting. All the games in my sig I had bought were complete US AES versions and
I believe MOTW was the most expensive one I bought for around $500+. I was in IT and got laid off and could not find work for around 2.5yrs. I ended up selling all my big games for at least what I paid. Now all of them have at least doubled in price and are almost impossible to find the US versions anymore especially the slugs. With the retro scene exploding prices have jumped ludicrously for games on every system anymore. I have kept most of my games since child hood and have been steadily buying others. My goal has been to get all my loose carts boxes and manuals. While searching for then I started to find there were many games that have now jumped to $100+ dollar titles loose and even more complete. Complete Conkers Bad Fur Day is $150 title. I remember when KB toys was clearincing that game out and they had a bin of them for $5. I already had it so I did not bother but God I wish I would of bought that whole bin back then

 

[wyndcrosser]

What does a console only game released almost 5 years later have to do with Robo Army?



Of course this has nothing to do with why people are paying hundreds for it now, but, Mutation Nation is probably the most balanced and well designed game in the genre for the hardware.

Final fight, not 3. Yes you're correct.

 

[FinalbossNYC]

In 97 and 98 while i was paying 300 for new releases like Last Blade I was buying Art of Fighting , Samurai Shodown 2, KoF 95 and many other titles for $10 - $40 bucks at game shops in NYC. I had about 40 or more titles and I only paid the high prices for the new releases, I had picked up Metal Slug for 60 bucks.

 

[itsofrustratin]

US AES Metal Slug for $60?!

 

[Yagyu Jubei]

AES collecting never has and never will be cheap. The best times to collect were either 1) at launch date in the 90's, 2) the first market dump around 01/02, 3) the second market dump around 2008 when people were selling shit in order to eat, and 4) the last surge in 2012 when the retro scene exploded.

Even in 2015, I was able to get high-demand titles like Sengoku 2, Garou and the Slugs at decent prices but it took months of patience and stalking. However, 98% of the deals for top shelf games have vanished...and I am resigned to the fact that there may be some titles I will never be able to get, like U11 and BTG.

MVS collecting is heading down the same path.

 

[FinalbossNYC]

US AES Metal Slug for $60?!

Yeah I didnt understand why i was getting some titles so cheap, actually I didnt understand why any thing AES was cheap but a short time later I realized some shop owners/ workers were just happy to move product they had a few years that they though they would never sell, it makes sense to me now but bak then I though each time i was buying a damaged game or it was a trick. some of the shops employees were selling me their own stuff they would just wait till I came in to put it on the counter. I got the Gold system plus 2 game for 110 from a buddy I guess i was lucky my whole AES career, I don't miss them anymore thanks to Big Red.

 

[oliverclaude]

...I am resigned to the fact that there may be some titles I will never be able to get, like U11...

You mean TOHL (Tokuten Oh Honō no Libero)? U11 is a myth . And your "best times to buy" chronology is absolutely correct. Japan was still a goldmine back then.

 

[Electric Grave]

NAM 75
SAMSHO II
FATAL FURY SPECIAL
They were 15 usd new during 2001or so...

 

[wyo]

MVS collecting is heading down the same path.

I agree but it can't possibly get as bad thanks to the sheer number of games available. At least, I hope that's the case. The desirable rarer games will continue to increase, however.

 

[Liquid Snake]

I agree but it can't possibly get as bad thanks to the sheer number of games available. At least, I hope that's the case. The desirable rarer games will continue to increase, however.

pulstar
andro dunos
windjammers
prehistoric isle 2
blazing star
pochi & nyaa


Those will get harder to find in the future.....

even common titles like Nam75, cyberlip and last blade 2 are getting more expensive.....

 

[wyo]

pulstar
andro dunos
windjammers
prehistoric isle 2
blazing star
pochi & nyaa


Those will get harder to find in the future.....

even common titles like Nam75, cyberlip and last blade 2 are getting more expensive.....

I don't think any of those are particularly rare except for Pochi & Nyaa maybe. It would be great to know the production numbers, that's for sure.

 

[Liquid Snake]

I don't think any of those are particularly rare except for Pochi & Nyaa maybe. It would be great to know the production numbers, that's for sure.

Those are not rare but some neo collectors aiming specifically to shooters & puzzle games. That's why you don't see those games pop up very often.

 

[Bar81]

I'm not sure what life was like before 04-05, but AES collecting definitely wasn't cheap at that time. When I got out in 05, BTG was a $700 game, MS1 JP was over a thousand and MSX US was $550ish iirc. Still seems like a deal next to what the stuff cost me to acquire in the last 2+ years - MS1 JP was triple that price and BTG was *well* beyond that multiple. So relatively speaking, collecting 10 years ago was much more "affordable", but it was never affordable.

 

[FilthyRear]

I'm sure AES collecting "back in the day" was the same as it is now - people with more money than sense that would rather put games on a shelf than actually play them, or treat them as "investments."

 

[Bar81]

I'm sure AES collecting "back in the day" was the same as it is now - people with more money than sense that would rather put games on a shelf than actually play them, or treat them as "investments."

Pretty much. If anything it's gotten worse/sadder in the last 10 years.

 

[Geddon_jt]

I'm sure AES collecting "back in the day" was the same as it is now - people with more money than sense that would rather put games on a shelf than actually play them, or treat them as "investments."

I disagree. Consolized MVS systems and MVS->AES converters are a relatively recent phenomenon when viewed in terms of the lifespan of the console. Neither one was really readily available until around the early 2000s. New games were coming out for the Neo Geo from 1990 through 2004. That means for the overwhelming majority of time the system was being actively marketed, if you wanted to play Neo cartridges at home, you were buying AES carts. Nobody was thinking about long term value until the early 2000s. That's why so many home carts are in poor condition, even carts that most today consider ultra rare and collectible.

 

[Bar81]

Fair enough for more common games , but from the condition of stuff like MS1 and BTG no one was playing those.

 

[Liquid Snake]

I'm not sure what life was like before 04-05, but AES collecting definitely wasn't cheap at that time. When I got out in 05, BTG was a $700 game, MS1 JP was over a thousand and MSX US was $550ish iirc. Still seems like a deal next to what the stuff cost me to acquire in the last 2+ years - MS1 JP was triple that price and BTG was *well* beyond that multiple. So relatively speaking, collecting 10 years ago was much more "affordable", but it was never affordable.

Brandi sold his MS1 AES for $10k....................That's fuckin crazy.

 

[FinalbossNYC]

I'm sure AES collecting "back in the day" was the same as it is now - people with more money than sense that would rather put games on a shelf than actually play them, or treat them as "investments."

Pretty much. If anything it's gotten worse/sadder in the last 10 years.

I don't think I ever saw Neo geo as an investment in the years I was buying games (97-2005) since no one I knew had one and the interest in such hardware was limited, granted I'm sure 03-05 saw a boom in interest but I felt most preferred emulators to bulky carts, thats how I saw it then atleast, Ive never bought anything for investment other than a apartment in NYC and that went well.

 

[Geddon_jt]

Fair enough for more common games , but from the condition of stuff like MS1 and BTG no one was playing those.

Believe it or not, there are many, many well played copies of those games. I personally would say many more well-worn scratched up copies than mint shelf pieces. Maybe 10 to 1. It's just neither are really seen on the market anymore.

The only AES games that I would say are readily available in new/mint/"shelf worthy" condition are new old stock first gen type of stuff and the Playmore era stuff (2001 forward). Those games largely weren't being played and that is when the collector's aspect of it really had taken off. Good luck with the rest of the library. Just my 2 c.

 

[FilthyRear]

I disagree. Consolized MVS systems and MVS->AES converters are a relatively recent phenomenon when viewed in terms of the lifespan of the console. Neither one was really readily available until around the early 2000s. New games were coming out for the Neo Geo from 1990 through 2004. That means for the overwhelming majority of time the system was being actively marketed, if you wanted to play Neo cartridges at home, you were buying AES carts. Nobody was thinking about long term value until the early 2000s. That's why so many home carts are in poor condition, even carts that most today consider ultra rare and collectible.

Speaking for myself, whenever I saw any ad or price list for the AES, it was pretty much understood that the only people that were going to get a homecart system were spoiled rich kids, or rich adults - either one is the type to show off what they had to try to lord it over everyone else.

It was a premium system at a premium price - that instantly garners attention. Unfortunately, the only attention its gotten has been from mongoloid manchildren that pay ridiculous amounts for this shit, and the greasy haired thieves that sold it to them.

 

[wyo]

I'm sure AES collecting "back in the day" was the same as it is now - people with more money than sense that would rather put games on a shelf than actually play them, or treat them as "investments."

Unlike today, that was not actually the norm. Besides, up until recently collecting games as investments was a pretty fucking terrible idea. Even now, very few titles are worth more than their original SRP if you take into account inflation.

 

[Atro]

NAM 75
SAMSHO II
FATAL FURY SPECIAL
They were 15 usd new during 2001or so...

And those still kick ass nowadays.

There's still plenty of affordable games that you can find today.
All the KOFs are affordable except 03.
And the Neo Geo was mostly a fighting game based system, so
there's no point bitching about variety.

 

[MtothaJ]

UK 2nd hand prices were probably at their lowest around the late 90s/turn of the millennium. I seem to recall Computer Exchange at Tottenham Court Road dumping much of their stock for near peanuts as the Saturn /PS1 conversions came in around 97/98 (Is there anyone else on the forum who frequented that establishment back then?) I think the majority of people thought that was it for the SNK machine, and we壇 never need to ever go back to expensive, space consuming carts - A CD and a 1 Meg ram expansion gave exactly the same experience. Obviously.
I bought my 2nd AES in Feb 2000 boxed with 20 games for ï½£150 (That slightly made up for me selling my 1st one to CEX in 1994 for ï½£100 and a couple of Amiga games ), and you could get the ç”°ommon titles quite easily for minimal effort in the early 2000s from Ebay, Loot, small ads, etc. Most of my collection is from then the prices to replace now are simply untenable for me to pay.
From memory, prices seemed to spike for all things SNK when the Pocket was recalled in summer 2000 (there was a big scramble at the time for stock clearance on that console, and many of the titles entered the rarity folklore) and this had a knock on for the related series AES games. I certainly remember the ｣350 days for Slug 1 and thinking that was a 渡o go? and I can稚 recall that ever dropping in the 16 years since.
è¿♥etro白s also entered the mainstream gaming conscience since then, which has seen knock on price rises for almost everything a couple of generations or so behind the current systems (Try rebuilding a NES or original Gameboy boxed/complete cart collection, for example, and check out some of the prices being asked for what were once common titles.)
Last year痴 25th anniversary痴 put the spotlight on Neo again, so there痴 another bump for the prices as people enter the scene to find out more about the original hardware. I壇 expect this year痴 focus on 20th anni for MSlug will also see prices rise again for those games as more people are introduced to the series.
I haven稚 kept track of MVS prices. I wish I壇 been looking out for those from day 1, but I believed (foolishly) for a long while that I壇 have a chance one day with getting the games I wanted on AES. I cracked last year and got a converter for CSword2, and itç—´ one of the best purchases made - there are still a few bargains to be had (relatively speaking in comparison to AES) with some of the common titles if youæ±♥e not too precious on box, instructions, etc but do want original carts. AES just looks out of sight for me now and that includes conversions.

I sure remember the CEX shop on Tottenham Ct Rd - I was in there at least every other Saturday in the late nineties, but I was mainly exchanging PC CD-ROM games as opposed to console stuff. I think that was a time when prices for what we now consider as retro stuff were pretty low. It seemed that there was no going back - the new generation of consoles hit the scene (PSX, N64, Saturn etc.), PC games were also constantly raising the bar, with a lot of the early 3D stuff coming out, which while crap by todays standards appeared pretty groundbreaking back then and the old 2D style gameplay of the 16bit era did not seem attractive anymore... kind of like the switch from the 8 bit to the 16 bit machines a generation back.
Arcades were still pretty popular back then - in the West End I used to go to Funland / Trocedero (probably one of the better arcades in the UK back then) and also Hamleys on Regent St. had a nice selection of machines in the basement level. I guess the popularity of the arcades which were still going strong kind of explains that while the Neo Geo AES stuff was relatively cheaper back then than it is now it still went for c.a. 50% of the original price (AFAIR going rate was 30-40 pounds), which in turn was about the cost of a brand new N64 / PSX / PC game.
One other thing I remember is that some store on Oxford St. was clearing out NES stock (NES black box games BNIB for 99 pence a piece, with that stuff lying for weeks on end in the bargain bins without anybody being interested) and then around 1999/2000 you could get Neo Geo Pocket games and system for absolute peanuts when that line was being discontinued. I contemplated getting the NGP and remember the game cases looking pretty smart (kind of like miniature AES snap cases) but ultimately decided against it because the system wasn't backlit :P.