Where in Europe was the AES actually sold?

[Jonny l3lanka]

Hi guys.. Just a simple question here.. I've spent most of my childhood here in Cyprus.. and not once.. not ONCE did I ever see an AES system, cartridge or even a CD system.. however our arcades were FLOCKED with MVS.. Weird..

What I wanted to know, was AES available back in the day where you lived? Let's make a list of where /in what countries it was sold.. and we can then go searching for a secret warehouse ful of unsold AES!

 

[Craig]

ummm, cex used to sell neo stuff when i was living in london.
Not really sure if that helps...

 

[Lambdata]

The AES system was also distributed here in Spain, but it wasn´t definitely a mainstream thing. I think that "Canadian" stores had an agreement for that, but they were usually sold on command in some "cool" videogame shops.

 

[Jonny l3lanka]

Yea they were a bit obscure.. Im just trying to get a better picture of where these things actually sold.. Craig thanks, I know they were quite ease to get a hold of in the UK back in the day.. but every little bit of info helps

I swear I'm gonna track down a brand new Metal Slug 1 someday!

Lambdata what are these canadian stores you speak of?

 

[evil wasabi]

Maro-gmbh.com in Germany. I think SNK also had an office in London.

 

[Lee Gray]

I got mine from loaded consoles in the UK.

 

[Wookiemeat]

Used to be a site in UK called Raven games in late 90s that used to sell used AES games for extortionate prices!!!

 

[evil wasabi]

http://www.ravengames.co.uk/

 

[Heath]

Used to be a site in UK called Raven games in late 90s that used to sell used AES games for extortionate prices!!!

http://www.ravengames.co.uk/

They sell on ebay under the name Firedances now, they have some pretty good deals on homecarts when they get them in.

http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=firedances

 

[RockstarRunner]

I guess they were not so hard to find in the UK then, I remember seeing one in a small game store in the town I used to live in. Never forgot walking in there and seeing it...

 

[Wookiemeat]

Used to get my AES games from a shop in Leeds called Arcadia which only closed last year. Biggest regret was not buying a mint used Euro Windjammers of them for £40 just didn't have the funds at the time

 

[TikTekTak]

In austria I think a Gameshop called "Powerplay" was the only seller back in the days. An extremely expensive store but they always had everything. Import SNES games and Atari stuff as well for example.

 

[Kef9]

I'm sure special reserve in the UK (magazine mail order) used to sell the games and systems.

 

[Blondin]

In France, Neo Geo AES was officially distributed by Guillemot International since 1990. This company also made french manuals for the systems and for the euro version AES games they were distributing in France. They stopped their business with SNK around 1994/1995 if i remember right, and then we had to deal with import shops.

 

[Tarma]

I'm sure special reserve in the UK (magazine mail order) used to sell the games and systems.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I used to see them advertise the AES (amongst other stuff) in Mean Machines. If anyone has copies of early 90's Mean Machine's or C&VG you'll see pretty frequent ads for AES, PC Engine etc. All from independent specialists... many of whom will have long gone out of business. I remember Console Concepts was very big on importing this kind of thing circa 1990 - 1992.

Yes, SNK did have offices in London, but I don't recall you being able to buy direct.

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

HMV in Oxford Street (London) had AES consoles and games back in 1991/92. Remember View Point being one. Badly wanted that game but at £200 it was way out of my price range back then!

Also, a few years back I saw both AES and MVS games in CEX in London, along with CPS2 games

 

[vasilas432]

In Greece you could find AES just to see it in pictures in news section of Gamepro magazine! I remember reading about the colors at the same time on screen being 4096!!! while my Megadrive had the tiny number of 64! But if I remember there was also advertisement of the console in the same magazine which means it was selling somewhere in Athens, but didn't know the games shops at that time.

 

[CaseyTappy]

Games-'R-us in Amsterdam use to sell everything AES .

 

[bwi]

I got mine from loaded consoles in the UK.

christ that name brings back some memories , mostly bad tbh

 

[rcantor77]

I never saw AES Consoles or Carts in shops although there was in London as already mentioned, but there were plenty of Mail order companies selling them... Dream Machines (now VideoGameImports), Preston Games, WhizzKid, Telegames... the list goes on. There were loads.

Getting hold of AES stuff was never a problem bitd... paying for it was though.

 

[Jonny l3lanka]

Wait.. so even in the early 90s.. the carts were selling for 200 pounds a pop? Surely later they would've had some crazy sales.. like some last stock MS1 carts for 30-40 quid? I can only dream haha!

 

[ChrisB]

Remember only seeing them in the UK in mail order in games magazines. Yes the games were at least £200 a cartridge and if memory serves me the console was around £400 ish

Never saw one for sale in a shop anywhere which made them so elusive.

 

[Late]

In Finland, NGH stuff was available through the official distributor, a one-man outfit called Trans-Atlantic software, also at big department stores. The system was around 5600 FIM and the games around 1200-1500 FIM.

MVS was huge over here, and we even had Neo-Geo land arcades here.

 

[LlorensBlood]

Lambdata what are these canadian stores you speak of?

Hi Jonny, there were a videogame shops called Canadian around all the country, not bigger net than Game, but if you were looking for a game, you knew that they had got that item.

Here in Mallorca, I know that the distribution wasn't exclusive, because i bought my AES system at another shop named "Chip Informática", a little shop in the town. Speaking with the salesman, he told me that every shop could make an order to the official dostributor, LASP.

 

[Wesker123]

Loaded Consoles, was that the one in East Peckham?
My brother used to call him the "Peckham Pounce"
Thankfully the Internet has ruined this sort of business.
Raven games always made me laugh with their prices.