Testing AES without game.

Not super important, but my local retro game store has an AES in their "museum" case, it's not for sale, just in there with a whole slew of other collectible rare stuff. Was asking the owner if it worked and he had no idea and didn't even have the cables for it. I brought my CMVS 8-pin video cable and we found a compatible PSU and tried it out and got the blue "everything is ok" screen, but without a game or anything is there really anything else I could do to test it out and see if it's all working? There isn't a test mode or anything like on MVS is there?

I've only ever had MVS systems so I have no idea about AES and what you can do without a game.

Nope, you need a game to properly test all the functions of the AES. The basic blue screen test can't cover the integrity of things like the cartridge slot, the Z80 co-processor, the YM2610 sound chip or even the full extent of the graphics chipset. You could get Fatal Fury Special AES for about $20 - $30 off eBay I'm sure.

Ok good to know. I’ll let them know they could snag something cheap. Thanks!

As soon as I saw "museum case" I thought of Level Up Games in Santa Cruz, then I noticed where you are from.

Yup, lol. It’s essentially our only game store anyways. Only other decent one I can think of in the general area is Star Games in SJ, if they are still around, haven’t been there in forever. Level Up is great, the guy who owns it is cool and I always drop by to see what they got in. But FYI, that NeoGeo system does power on, although the cable for the joystick is missing the plug. Not bad for someone giving it to him for free for the display case.