Shops that sold Neo Geo

8man

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I bought AES games on release in South Florida, USA from:

Playworld (Broward County)
Babbages (Broward County)
Incredible Universe (Miami)

and direct from SNK in California.

Incredible Universe was the only store that had a Neo Geo AES system set up for you to play.
You had to wait in line for 20-25 minutes. The games were always locked behind glass enclosures.
I bought my 2nd AES Gold system from Incredible Universe (this was my backup, in case my original system failed.)

During work training (mid to late 1990s), I found games stores in Minnesota (Mall of the America's) and another mom and pop game store about 15 minutes away (took a taxi),
that still sold Neo Geo AES games. (Bought a bunch of AES games when I was there, including Metal Slug X ENG).
On vacation, found 2 game stores in New York that sold AES games in early 2000s. (Bought more AES games, including MOTW ENG.)

In the USA, it's difficult to find game stores now that still sell AES games.

While I was in Japan years ago, it was easy to find AES games.
But, they liked putting their games in the display windows... notorious for sunfading.
 
GutsDozer

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GohanX said:
Here in the states, Software Etc and Babbages both carried the system, but I don't know if they ever actually sold them. I just gawked at the big black box in the window, they kept all the games in the back.
Click to expand...

The Babbage's out here sold consoles and games. I wanted it so bad.
 
awbacon

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30 year old guy who grew up in VT, and never saw a Neo-Geo or AES game in the wild during retail. I even asked multiple times at the local EB, as I guess I had the cash at that point?? And they never carried them
 
Reclaimer

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Waldens Software, and later Electronics Boutique carried them out west, but it was always behind the counter.
 
SNK416

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Toronto had them at video connection, 110-220 (odd name) and some microplay stores. EB games was 15 years late to Canada.
 
Craig

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in london there was cex,
Game focus on goodge street.
A few independent shops the names of which escape me, there was one near walthemstow market, and one near southgate high street behind the oakwood tube station.
It's been yonks since than, doubt any of them are still about.
 
awbacon

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90's/early 2000's me wishes he was into Neo Geo so I could have purchased games at retail (well, the Slugs at least)
 
greedostick

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I also remember Babbages and Electronics Botique in Dayton Ohio, and Springfield Ohio sold them. But I do not remember ever seeing the CD consoles, or any AES games after the first generation of games. The stores I saw consisted of games like Magician Lord, NAM, Ninja Combat, Super Spy etc... I distinctly remember if you bought the console you could choose from 2 games which if I remember right were Fatal Fury, Magician Lord, Baseball Stars Professional, and Super Spy.

I remember looking at the games with my cousin who was a bit older and talking about how damn expensive the games were. If I remember correct they were $200.00 each and the guy at the store was trying to convince us that for the meg count compared to a SNES game the price was a bargain per game.

Other than brand new systems and games I have never seen any neo geo related items in the wild except pocket stuff. And I have hit up a metric shit ton of garage sales, used game shops, flea markets, goodwills etc... in the last 15 years. Never saw a single damn AES cart. And when you bring that stuff into shop they shit their pants.
 
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I've seen those on Electronics Boutique. It was on the top shelf behind the counter, too. Don't think anyone bought 'em though.
 
jruizleon

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I bought mine a couple of months after it was released from a store in the Montebello, Ca mall called Innovations. I also bought games from Babbages and Game Stuff in Monterey Park , CA. I then sold them my self through Visual Rush. Dragon Video was on the East coast and us on the West were the 2 that specialized in the Neogeo. Die Hard was in the Valley here in SoCal, they were huge, had there on magazine at one point, Chuck Norris was on of their famous people that owned a Neogeo and bought from them. SNK, Salem Software, Tommo, and Japan Video Games were the wholesalers. Some pics: SNK Wholesale Price list, SNK Cart Stickers, and my Desktop

IMG_1624.JPGIMG_1424.JPGIMG_1617.JPG
 
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DEL 707

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Awww those prices...

Even back in the day, I knew I had a snowball's chance in hell, of a game turning up for Christmas, then alone a console to go with it.
Can remember most of the games being over £150 in the mags.
 
TikTekTak

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I remember seeing ads for Neo stuff in a german mag called Maniac. Maro was one off the "main" suppliers for Germany/Austria back in the day.

We also had Powerplay here in austria who had a bit of Neo stuff

Rather small businesses though.

Hmmm... I still have it here ->

2s1t35x.jpg
 
greedostick

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Has anyone metioned Game Dude? Wasn't that a real shop based out of Cali the devirginized all their games like the neo geo freaks?
 
GohanX

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I don't know about the games, but I had a old style stick that had a Game Dude foil sticker on it, similar to those impossible to remove Blockbuster stickers.
 
ballzdeepx

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I bought my AES used at a Funcoland along with baseball stars and world heroes and two sticks. I think I paid around $400 for everything, but after purchasing samurai shodown eventually priorities set in and I sold it all for about what I got into it for.
 
awbacon

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GohanX said:
I don't know about the games, but I had a old style stick that had a Game Dude foil sticker on it, similar to those impossible to remove Blockbuster stickers.
Click to expand...

My Jaguar console has one of those annoying ass stickers on it as well. I swear its stuck so badly not even hellfire will get it off
 
joe8

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TikTekTak said:
I remember seeing ads for Neo stuff in a german mag called Maniac. Maro was one off the "main" suppliers for Germany/Austria back in the day.

We also had Powerplay here in austria who had a bit of Neo stuff

Rather small businesses though.

Hmmm... I still have it here ->
Click to expand...

Was the Neo Geo officially released in Europe (or European countries)? I thought the Euro versions of the AES games were just for Britian (as other European countries don't speak English, and the Euro-region systems and games played in English)
 
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Tron

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GohanX said:
Here in the states, Software Etc and Babbages both carried the system, but I don't know if they ever actually sold them. I just gawked at the big black box in the window, they kept all the games in the back.
Click to expand...
This,babbages was the only place id seen a neo-geo at retail at least where i lived at the time.The most i remember them having is the console and magician lord,ghost pilots and thrash rally.
 
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C

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I bought mine at Toys R Us back in 1991. I was 16 years old and slaved away working at McDonald's for months to buy one. I'll never forget the thrill of bringing my receipt to the security/pickup window to claim my system.
 
100proof

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I drooled over Gold AES systems at my local Babbage's back in like '91/'92. They only carried the first batch of games released for the full retail of $199.99 and everything was kept behind the counter but yeah, I have fond memories of being one of those annoying mall-kids pestering the employees with questions about it. I asked my parents if I could have one for Xmas and they all but laughed in my face.

Beyond that first batch of games, you couldn't find AES games outside of specialty shops and ads in the back of magazines (like our old "friend" Dave Halverson and Die Hard Gamers Club). SNK never had enough of a distribution channel to get it in to places like Walmart. Not to mention that $649 for the system and $200 for a game were beyond niche prices in the early 90s (the Super NES was $200 at launch and the Genesis was even less by the time the Neo arrived).
 
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joe8

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100proof said:
I drooled over Gold AES systems at my local Babbage's back in like '91/'92. They only carried the first batch of games released for the full retail of $199.99 and everything was kept behind the counter but yeah, I have fond memories of being one of those annoying mall-kids pestering the employees with questions about it. I asked my parents if I could have one for Xmas and they all but laughed in my face.

Beyond that first batch of games, you couldn't find AES games outside of specialty shops and ads in the back of magazines (like our old "friend" Dave Halverson and Die Hard Gamers Club). SNK never had enough of a distribution channel to get it in to places like Walmart. Not to mention that $649 for the system and $200 for a game were beyond niche prices in the early 90s (the Super NES was $200 at launch and the Genesis was even less by the time the Neo arrived).
Click to expand...
Did video stores in the US rent out AES games? Probably wasn't enough demand (not enough people with the console), but that's how SNK could have done it in the US (that way people would only have to buy the console, and the games are the most expensive part). You could also that with the SNES and Genesis, buy one or two games that you played a lot, and then rent the rest of them. But you would need at least one AES game, otherwise you could only play the system when you had a game on loan.
 
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jruizleon

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In my visits to SNK they seemed to be focused on the Arcade. The home system seemed to be a low priority.
 
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