How did you find your AES system?

I got my first AES in 1992. I'd read about the neo in various video game magazines and really wanted one. I was at school at the time and started working for a screen printing company at weekends and in the holidays. I was saving as much as I could to buy a neo even to the point of thinking about buying just the console and then saving for a game. Must have driven my parents mad going on about the neo-geo all the time. Anyhow, one day my dad picked me up from the screen printing place and instead of going home we drove off into town 'to run an errand'. Turns out my dad spotted a neo-geo for sale in the local paper and arranged to go a look at it. He knew how much I wanted it so he put the rest of the cash in and we bought the pal machine for ｣300.00 with two controllers, memory card and best of all - Fatal Fury and Robo Army - the two games I most wanted. I think at the time just the neo was ｣299 and those two games were ｣120.00 each.

At school there were only 3 of us with a neo-geo so we bought/sold/shared games between us. I briefly owned two for a while after a convoluted trade which saw an Amiga CD32 being traded for the neo geo and then for an Super Famicom with a stack of games.

I ultimately sold that PAL system in 1994/5 when the CD machine was coming out as I expected prices to dive. It was sold to a company in Leeds for about ｣900 (9 games in total).

I ended up buying another neo-geo in 1997 from Loaded Consoles. The owner took the cash and then took forever to deliver on the goods (suspect he sourced one after taking the order). Anyhow it turned out to be a gold boxed system which I still have to this day. I do have another neo which is a Japanese modified machine that was acquired from Rot in 2009/10.

Frazer

I got lucky with my second system. My first AES was an eBay BIN, but I later sold this to go the MVS route. I got back into AES because a shop local to me posted on Facebook that someone had just traded in an AES with 10 games and they were selling it for ｣400. I immediately sent them a PM asking that they reserve it for me and went and picked it up the next day. The games included Metal Slug 4 and Samurai Spirits Zero, which I later sold when I needed some cash

My first AES was an eBay buy back in 2005. My second AES was a YAJ buy in May/April 2015. Sold that not long after too. MVS is where it's at, not really sure why I bothered getting back into AES again when I was already MVS converted.

I picked mine up from a classified ad. I wanted an AES for a while but buying one from japan turned me off and any that were close by were US versions that were double the price. So when i saw a Japanense system nearby i was stoked so made the guy an offer and he accepted...came with baseball stars, sam spirits 2 and two classic controllers. He had 10 other games that i picked up in two separate lots over the course of a year. Overall I was pretty happy. My friends thought i was an idiot for spending that kind of money on an old console

Always loved the Arcade Neogeo Cabs and always drooled over the AES in video game magazines. My friends uncle ran a video game store and brought a brand new AES, 2 Controls and 3-5 sealed games (can't remember) over one night when they were having a party to keep us occupied, that was the first time I played one and it was awesome.

In 2011 I bought a CIB Neogeo AES from Hit-Japan ( Video of me opening it Here ) and started collecting AES games. Got a lot of great games but I had the opportunity to buy a Sega Blast City arcade cabinet in late 2012. I ended up selling off the AES and all my games (except Fatal Fury Special) to fund the purchase and restoration of the Blast City. Bought an MVS and games for the cab but about that time the place where I work went under and I was unemployed.

I had a lot of trouble with Arcade boards, from buying games that would have problems within a month of owning them or buying dodgy games from people that wouldn't offer any refund or become non contactable. I had problems with the monitor on the blast city, I had the monitor completely serviced about 3 months after I got it but was always worried about something breaking and not having the money to repair it.

My brother was getting married and he was having his bachelor/bucks party in Vegas and I didn't have the money for air fare or spending money so I ended up selling off all my Arcade PCB's and in the end I sold off my Blast City Cabinet.

I had a fair bit on money in the bank, much more than I would need so about 2 months ago a friend in Japan came across a fairly cheap (for current prices) CIB AES and I sent him the money to buy it for me. I also got him to find and buy KOF98 and KOF2002 (for a good price), and he sent it all over about a month back.

Jut before I went to Vegas, the same friend found a legit Mark of the Wolves in a little shop and I ended up getting him to grab that for me too. I'm glad I did as I had more than enough money to last me in Vegas as it turns out and I see MOTW goes for at least 1.5-2x the price I paid.

Not going crazy with AES this time, only going to grab a cart here and there, but my next 2 purchases are the MVS converter and a 161-in-1 cart.

Always wanted an AES, but could have never afforded one during the 90s to the early 2000s.

Once I started working, I finally bit the bullet and bought a used Japanese AES with Samsho 1-3 for around $250USD.

Got my first one in 1990 as the Japanese AES in a green and white box. Long story, but, I love it, and it came with a JPN Magician Lord, JPN Memory Card, and an extra controller in a green and white box.

Got my second AES as the "Gold System" with a US AES Magician Lord inside as the free game in mid 1991, when it first came out in the US, from GameExpress down the street from GameDude in North Hollywood, and I still have the box for that one.

Got my third AES "Gold System" with Fatal Fury inside as the free game, and a free copy of World Heroes in 1992 from the same store, GameExpress, in 1992, using an ad found in the EGM magazine that if I buy an AES from that store that month, they would not only give the Gold System with a free game in the gold system box, but, also give a free World Heroes game cart. I remember going back ouit to the car, just to get that magazine and show the dude behind the counter for the free game, as he had no clue about the ad in the EGM magazine. LOL He even checked to see if it was fake by tugging at it, and seeing if it was a real ad by calling the owner to check it out for himself, then he smiled, and had this look like "WTF?" as he opened the game case and took out his only new copy of World Heroes out and giving it to me for free. Damn those were some good times!

Eventually sold that one down the line in 1999 to Jeff Kurtz if memory serves correct, with 2 switches on the back for different region mods by Thao Mass himself, done in 1992, at his own home before he got his shop.

I got mine from ebay early this year.
took a gamble on one that wasn't guaranteed to work but it turned up to work fine.

Got my first AES with 2 original sticks from Dion off AOL instant messaging and the Neo-Geo Mailing list summer 1999 for $300. I bought SS1 off Cart-Mart website for $40 to go with it. The console was in perfect condition, a stock US model, but it was the bad audio revision (3-4 I think) and man was the composite video terrible as well. I just didn't know anything about how early model AES consoles had that bad of a picture through composite.

I sold it later that year to get something improved and bought a S-video/RCA/debug bios modded one off JKurtz for $300 and it was in terrible shape as well as the original sticks that came with it. Apparently it was not modded by him and it used the older MAS Systems interference ridden and washed out looking S-video mod. This was before I knew much about modding and slowly learned more a few years later. It also was unstable and would crash on me, the left audio channel sometimes would go out, and the grooves were stripped from being opened and closed too much before I owned it. By this time, I bought my first new cart KOF99 US and was even more disappointed with the system's bad picture. The picture was faded and not colorful, yet sharp with a little RF like interference. This system had to go. S-video mod was wired to the wrong logic chips I later found out BTW.

Finally, in 2005 I got rid of that terrible mess of a console and bought an S-video/RCA/Unibios/Red LED reset button modded AES with a bean shape stick from Neotropolis/KPJ (yes, I know I overpaid at a total of $400 but at least there was no bullshit with the condition and functionality). I then bought a Neobitz and modded it myself for excellent component video. I have been using it ever since. Also, I went ahead and bought some better original sticks over the years.

egg_sanwich said:

I found my AES by pure luck, and almost missed out on it in the end.

I was living in Japan a few years ago, wandering the aisles of a recycle shop in the suburbs mostly looking for fun 100yen Famicom carts. I saw a complete in box AES with an extra 2nd joystick, and was immediately intrigued - I'd never seen one before in person, nor did I know much about it or anything Neo Geo. It was $60 bucks, which was a lot to me at the time, and I didn't have a cell phone with Internet to find out what the thing was all about. So I passed on it.

After riding my bike the hour home, I looked it up online and was blown away. It made the Famicom games I was playing looks like junk, and the price was almost too good to be true. It was too late to go back, but I set my alarm for 7AM and rode out there first thing the next day. My heart was racing as I went it to get it, and sure enough it was still there. I walked out of the store with the CIB AES, a second joystick, and 3 games (Samurai Shodown 2, Art of Fighting, Super Sidekicks 2 - nothing crazy, but all complete and in good enough condition) for under $100 bucks.

Another hour long bike ride home, all I could think about was plugging that thing in and playing it all night. It wasn't meant to be.

After getting home and setting the system up, flick the power switch and... nothing. A bunch of garbled pixels on the screen and nothing else. Tried all 3 carts, same result. Cleaned all the carts and the cart slot with some isopropyl, same thing. I googled and googled and googled, but nothing helped. I tore the console apart looking for broken traces, leaky capacitors, anything to indicate it was broken, but couldn't find anything.

I was torn - I was out $100 for something that didn't work, but I knew it wasn't a lost cause.

Eventually about a month later, I found out there are different PSUs SNK shipped with the AESes. Turns out the one they bundled with the console was the wrong one. I grabbed an old Genesis ac adapter from Super Potato that night, and the thing fired up first try. It was love at first sight.

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What an amazing price and find!! Great story!

Only got mine sometime last year! I'd wanted an AES since I was a young teen, got an NGCD in 2003 hoping it'd scratch the itch. Played the hell out of it, and ended up getting a friend into Neo by letting him play my NGCD, and he went straight for the AES. A while later, he offered to sell it to me! He knew I'd been chasing it and the one he bought was sitting in a box for 2 years in his closet. He cut me a great deal, I took the offer, and now it gets the regular play it deserves.

Luke Morse sent me one for free, because he is the nicest guy, along with KoF95 and Ninja Master's, which was supposed to be Art of Fighting 2. He asked if he sent Ninja Master's by mistake and I said no.

A friend gave me my first AES a little after I joined this site. His son was an addict and he feared that his son would eventually steal his AES (and collection of games) and use the money to feed the monkey on his back. Because of this fear, he gave a lot his collection away. It was an unmodded PAL AES, had to get another friend to switch out the crystal. He gave me a Ninja Commando AES to go along with it.

Wow, the generosity of fellow members I am reading here is blowing my mind; these are great stories to be sharing!

I'd always been a ngcd boy (i've had the toploader since around 2005) purely down to the price of an aes system and the even more expensive games. Finally gave in and bought an aes system off ebay with 1 game all the cables but no controller about 5 months ago.
To be honest it was a mistake and i knew it straight away, the games are stupid expensive for it, when i've looked in on some of the ebay auctions it seems i've stepped into the twilight zone, aes collectors are professional fanatics with the money to back it up.
Finally did things right and bought myself a cmvs about 2 weeks ago so i can finally afford to pick up games at a reasonable price.
But would i sell my ngcd or my aes seeing as i've done the sensible thing...... HELL NO lol...

Keeping the home system can be handy to scratch that home cart itch, even if the only game you have is Fatal Fury Special.

GohanX said:

Keeping the home system can be handy to scratch that home cart itch, even if the only game you have is Fatal Fury Special.

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I've played with the idea of getting one and only having one game for it. Just for when that feeling deep down to play it arises. I know it's useless because I'm a gamer and not really a collector so a MVS should be perfectly adequate but I still kind of want one for reasons unbeknownst to me.

MidnightAbyss said:

I'm a gamer and not really a collector so a MVS should be perfectly adequate but I still kind of want one for reasons unbeknownst to me.

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This !!!
I know exactly what you mean midnightabyss

Since 2000 then i played Super Sidekicks 3 on arcade I wanna get some AES/MVS. First game for AES i presented one year before I get AES console in november 2013. Only two games that I have on collection however I have fun with them so much.

Evil Wasabi said:

He asked if he sent Ninja Master's by mistake and I said no.

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Ahahahahah.

Evil Wasabi said:

Luke Morse sent me one for free, because he is the nicest guy, along with KoF95 and Ninja Master's, which was supposed to be Art of Fighting 2. He asked if he sent Ninja Master's by mistake and I said no.

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If you know Luke Morse, he's not so much a nice guy, rather a re-seller of the highest magnitude. (Especially when it comes to systems he's 'Repaired' and I use that term in the loosest sense).

I found my AES used and a new copy of Blue's Journey at a good game store in Boulder CO. They had some harder to find nice AES carts there too like Metal Slug 3 - but they knew what they're worth.

A better AES story is with my childhood friend. Back in 1992 or so when the machine was still current, he found a used Gold Box unit CIB with 6 used carts included for $200 at an ordinary Mom-and-Pop pawn shop. I was seething with jealousy...

I picked up my AES in a lot set of "junk" AES's from Hit-Japan. I always wanted an AES, but I started with NGPC, then NEO GOE CD and then a CMVS. If only the NGPC had the ability to run a modified bios, I'd have a Uni-Bios in everything I owned. One of the AES's I was able to fix and gave it to a friend for $25 (paid $40 for both + shipping), the other I couldn't get working, I ended up working with KPJ and he fixed it for me. Both consoles work great and my friend and I trade AES carts back and forth after getting a high score, so we can see who is the REAL champ. I wish there were more brawlers (beat'em ups) though, I'd like to see Neobitz use some of the art that his pixel guy created and run with that as a beat'em up title.
Congrats to those who have picked up an AES and not immediately realized they can't afford it .

In 1996 Funcoland local to me apparently decided to quit carrying AES stuff. They had a monthly newspaper at their stores that listed all their sale prices on games, systems and accessories. I believe it was in September of 1996 when I noticed the Neo-Geo and games had become suddenly very discounted (this was the month N64 came out, so I suspect to save space not just on the newspaper but in their stores Neo-Geo was on the way out there). I'd like to say the system was 90.00 but I don't entirely recall.

My local Funcoland didn't have any AES stuff at all, but in the back of the newspaper they had a list all of the Funcoland stores in the area. I got home (this was before cell phones were ubiquitous) and started calling every funcoland in my area. After calling around 40 stores I found three AES carts for sale, and one store that had a system. I then went about 20 miles, picked up the system, then went another 15 or so miles, got a game (Fatal Fury 2) and that was all I had for the system for years.

'92/'93 through an ad in an ancient, now non-existing, german video game mag called "Videogames". I ordered it and my jaw dropped deep, deep down... it was worth every Deutsch Mark I earned as a baker and made my studying at college quite a difficult task from there on. Those were the days...