The Neo Geo AES was a console I would have loved to have owned back in the early 90's. It may have shared the 68000 processor with my beloved Amiga, but that's where the comparison stopped. This was a sprite powerhouse with instant loading. An arcade experience in the home! It was great to be able to buy, borrow, and beg all that we had to show on the table, to delve into a world most of us could only have dreamed of back in the 90's. I hope you enjoyed the musings of us mere mortals about this giant of console gaming history.
The MVS was based on SNK/ADK coin op tech from late 80's, so it pretty high spec on its release. I also got an A1200 roughly same time as my NeoGeo AES, the AES made my A1200 feel completely redundant when it came to playing games tho. ✌️
When I was 16 I saved all my lawn mowing money from May to September plus all my allowance and my paper route to buy a neo geo. I had enough for the console and one game and when I walked into the store I suddenly had a change of heart. I realized that this one game was going to cost over $1000 and all my money was going to be gone. I'm so glad I came to my senses and walked out of there with all that money. Still though part of me kinda wishes I pulled the trigger and had that memory of the whole experience of unboxing it and playing an actual arcade game at home.
That's an insane amount of money to spend for a kid 30 years ago. You clearly have good financial instincts though. Practically speaking, you could have way more fun with the same amount of money buying the other systems of the day. Neo-Geo was designed for people who have a lot of money to spend.
@@vincentthompson1696 I lived in Toronto at the time and there were several places downtown that had all the Japanese stuff including the neo geo. I think it was called One Ten Two Twenty. Great store, I remember it looked like it was straight out of Japan.
@@xenos_n. I know right? And I definitely did thoroughly enjoy spending that money on other things. I had pretty well off parents so I got $20 per week for allowance, plus my two summer jobs. Many many years later I received a neo geo cd console from a good friend who was teaching in Japan. He brought me the console and three CD-rom games. It just wasn't the same though. I wanted that big chonky cartridge! 🤣
In the grand scheme of things you should've brough it, you would have had those memories forever, and look how many times you've made 1000 since,, its not that much money in the grand scheme of things
Long comment here, sorry. Back in 1982 I was lucky enough to be hired to build coin-op arcade games here in Canada, I progressed from there to working for the second largest coin-op game company in Toronto, building, repairing and (the best part) testing games. I can still remember the PCB JAMCO pin-outs perfectly. I worked in the industry for over 10 years, and saw the decline and fall of the industry first hand. Some cool stories.. When the original Pole Position by Atari came out, it was a sensation because it was the first racing game shown from something other than a top-down view. The original cabinets cost $5000 CAD and the fellow that I was working for got some money from his father and bought 5 of them. We had NO trouble placing them in arcades since they were that years hot game. The coin box held $1200 in quarters and I was going to each machine for collection every 2-3 days. People were placing quarters on the "dashboard" shroud to reserve thier turn to play and numerous fights broke out if someone played for too long, "hogging" the machine. Needless to say, those games payed for themselves in a few weeks and my company made $10000 from each one in a month. Canada had some unique laws regarding game copyrights and as a result the "grey" market in game PCB's thrived here. At one point we were selling the "copy" boards and were raided by the RCMP (!), an interesting day. My all-time favorite game was Hard Drivin' by Atari, a real breakthrough in graphics and controls. It had a force-feedback steering wheel (a real beast to repair) along with a working clutch and gated shifter, the full sized cabinet had a swing-out seat and looked like a Testarossa (a really challenging game to move). The sales literature for the game mentioned that someone at the Atari development studio actually learned to drive a manual transmission by playing the game. There was an EPROM update (I think it was about 30 chips that had to be replaced) that made the game even better. I used to take game cabinets home over the weekends and stick them in the garage, change the dip switch settings to max lives and free play so I was a hero to my kids and all their friends. I really enjoyed the work, it was technical and a lot of fun at the same time. Cheers, thanks for the memories.
I was one of the chosen ones when I was growing up who had grandparents who spolied the bejesus out of me. My grandmother would always babysit me in November and write down what I said I want in her crossword puzzles pretending not to care. Turns out she asked my mom and dad and they said it was almost a thousand bucks and sure enough not only did I get it, they got me a scooter, a outdoor basketball hoop, and almost every domino rally they ever made. So now every Saturday I'd have to stay with grandpa while everyone shopped together and all we both did was play bust a move, fatal fury, and baseball stars. God I miss you guys. Thanks for spoling me. Yup I still visit u at the cemetery once a month and I am so glad I had a great childhood.
Sounds a lot like my grandmother. She bought me more consoles and games over the years than I can count. Many of my favorite gaming memories were possible because of her.
As a child of the Nineties (born in ‘76), I like so many others of my generation, have very strong memories of the AES system locked away in a glass cabinet in our toy store. Above the cabinet there stood the box with a price tag so high it physically hurt. So close yet so far away😂
It was the Rolls Royce of Home Consoles; the Lamborghini of gaming. The forbidden fruit that all you can do is drool, oogle and fantasize about playing with it.
Incredible timing! I just got my Neo Geo AES console on Tuesday! This console was only in the realm of dreams when I was young, very excited to finally have one.
@@david-spliso1928 Sure. I got the AES with 1 original arcade stick, fully re-capped and with the Universe Bios installed for $535 USD. I got a additional “kidney bean” style controller for an additional $78 from the same seller in Japan. Expensive still, but far more manageable than it was in 1990. 😅
I got one a few weeks ago. Mine was Component video modded and had the Uni-Bios installed.. $600 USD, bought an MVS adapter for around $100, just to realize these 161 in 1 Cartridges exist.
don't portable consoles you can buy from aliexpress play ps1 and mame emulator stuff? with a aracade emulator you can play arcade style games, making this pointless
@@VTuber_Clipp3r Having the original hardware or item is the point. If someone really likes a painting, maybe they can buy a poster or print if it - or even a reproduction. Or maybe they love it so much they will pony up for the original. Much like beauty, the value of a thing is up to the beholder.
There's the Pioneer Laseractive console, this was more expensive than the Philips CD-I. To the best of my knowledge the Pioneer Laseractive was the only video system to use Laserdiscs instead of CD-ROM, it's price when it debuted was $970.00 USD. Another thing that was pretty neat about the Pioneer Laseractive was it was compatible with Sega/Mega CDs, TurboGrafx CD.
Yes we have one here (and a series on the channel about it), but the LaserActive isn’t a console until you buy a PAC to slot into it, it’s just a laserdisc player, so that’s a tricky comparison and not technically a console for the RRP
I remember back in about 2000 I picked up a boxed AES console with two arcade sticks and about eight games for 200 quid. It was a steal, especially as one of them was Viewpoint. But perhaps the best of all was the wonderful six slot MVS arcade machine I picked up for a similar price. In the end, if you have space and you really want the arcade experience at home, get the actual arcade machine! In the end the costs work out the same given the MVS game prices.
@@muhaxiiii as I said, if you want the arcade experience at home, which is really what the Neo Geo is all about, then you can't beat a full cab - it's not just about the perfect internal hardware, it's the tangible and the aesthetic - wonderful artwork, big CRT monitor, proper mounted joysticks, memory card slot, headphone jack, instant on with no load times. A deluxe item yes, but one that is made to be so. It's the difference between taking the bus and owning a classic car.
There was a big review of Neo Geo and it's games in Finnish computer magazine MikroBitti in the Autumn of 1991. That was the first issue of a computer magazine we got in the home. I was nine and didn't have a lot of context for all the stuff in it, though I was extremely interested in games and had played a bunch of them (mostly at friends' houses). I think I thought a lot in the magazine was really cool. On the Neo Geo coverage, I do remember they of course made it a major thing how expensive it was, how it was like an arcade at the home, and how audiovisually impressive (but also shallow) the games were. It was really cool for sure, and seemed so far away as something to own or even see.. it was a mythical machine. If memory serves there was a big, nice photo of the console, the controller and a cartridge, with their sleek design. I think I still remember how reading and thinking about it felt. I've since played a bunch of the games but never on the original home hardware.
I finally got a Neo Geo AES about 3 years ago and picked up a NeoSD too, absolutely amazing console. Looks fantastic with a retro cables RGB and a B&O MX7000 TV
Oh you know me. I love the Neo-Geo Neil and all that applies to it kind sir. I posted this up on the Neo-Geo thread to help with additional exposure and to show my everlasting support you do bro. Thank you for sharing this and keep up the great work you always do. 8^) Anthony...
I use an AES version of the 161-in-1 cartridge and it works perfectly, no crazy adapter required. Its the same size as a normal cartridge. I would highly recommend it! Edit: RUclips recommended this video to me AGAIN and I did watch it AGAIN so here's an update after 1 year that I guess I didn't mention. It looks like only later serial numbered AES consoles can use the 161-in-1 with no issues and a Sega Genesis power adapter which is how I use it with the jailbars RGB fix. Also, despite never being released on AES, Puzzle Bobble is available on the 161-in-1. Yes, the AES version as well and it works, once again, perfectly. You will have countless hours of fun. Your house will not burn down.
there is a green v2 cartridge that improved the power draw issues of the first yellow version, recommend getting that one for any one wanting to pull the trigger, eBay and Ali Express are also cheaper than Amazon but expect longer delivery times. That game combined with the 64 in 1, gets you most of the popular games in the Neo Geo library at a fraction of the cost of buying individual games.
The first time I have ever enjoyed a Neo Geo was after getting a serious bonus from my job and I decided to import one from Japan, that was 5 years ago. Great System.
I bought my Neo Geo AES two years ago with the NeoSD. I remember seeing it for the first time ever. It felt so special to actually own it. I was born too late because I grew up with the PS2 and Xbox360 but I started collecting and playing retro games. A couple of years ago I couldn't imagine having a Neo Geo at home. The games feel really special.
I did actually own a Neo Geo console at the time it was released, but I had to team up with my twin brother to be able to afford it. We used our combined income from our minimum wage jobs at the time and after a few months, we eventually saved up enough to buy one. It was glorious! I sold the game and the console right before I went to college. Since I missed playing the system, I also ended up emulating the Neo Geo in the mid 90s with an emulator called NeoRage that ran on an my old Pentium II MMX running at 250mhz and I downloaded a bunch of roms on a 28k modem dial up. They took awhile to find and download, but it was way cheaper and I was pretty blown away when I got it run a game I had previously spent hundreds of dollars for. Good times.
First time I played Neogeo MVS while on family vacation in Greece. The game was Street Hoop (aka Street Slam or Dunk Dream). Still has a special place in my heart! I love the music and the gameplay!
My mom purchased a Neo-geo aes on launch day at Electronics boutique. My favorite console ever. You had to have it back then to really appreciate the console.
So I have a single slot MVS cabinet and the talked about slowdown happens for me when I plug in the cartridge of Metal Slug 2. Is there anything I can do about it. A dip switch setting maybe?
During my teenage years, I was studying in a boarding school and the students would be allowed to go out to town every 2 weeks. Street Fighter II was BIG at the time, but students couldn't go to the arcades. Students from my school were required to wear our school uniforms and those wearing school uniforms weren't allowed in the arcades. I had to find my gaming fix somewhere... luckily, there was an electronics shop that had the NEO-GEO AES and let people play for 30 minutes on it for RM1 (1 Malaysian Ringgit ). They only had a few games and I would play Fatal Fury just to get my fighting game fix. Remember seeing the price of the console at the time and it was mind boggling to think how a games console could be priced close to a personal computer. I would go back to my school and in the hostel, I would wonder how much I had to save up to buy a NEO-GEO AES. Luckily, I didn't need to as I eventually got a Sega Mega Drive and SFII, AND Fatal Fury came out on the Sega. Aaaahhhh... memories...
Besides a tiny bit of exclusive games, the Neo Geo CD had one other thing going for it - a hidden course in Neo Turf Masters (Big Tournament Golf) that you can actually unlock with a simple code - press left, down/left, down, down/right, right +D when selecting your course. Scotland is unlocked and it's extremely challenging. The NGCD of course also has the bonus of games being a lot more affordable, but not every big title (especially late releases in the fighting genres) got ports, though many that did had some other similar bonus content like improved soundtracks and some extra animated scenes and such.
I believe the first time I experienced the Neo Geo was on an MVS multi arcade cab at East Midlands Airport in the early 90s. The next time I dabbled with Neo Geo was on emulation using my Dell 233MMX PC back in 1998. I can remember it taking forever to download King of Fighters on my 56k modem. Then came the Neo Geo Pocket which I picked up on release. The same colour you have in the video Neil. I got King of Fighters R2, SNK vs Capcom and Metal Slug. I was really impressed with the machine at the time, that joystick click brings back memories. I finally got to enjoy the delights of an AES at the National Video Game Museum when it was based in Nottingham 6 or so years ago. Around this time I also downloaded some SNK games on the PlayStation Store for my PS3. Right I’m going on EBay now looking at AES’s.
I remember downloading the Metal Slug 2X ROM, on a 56k dial up connection in 1999, shortly after sound support for Neo-Geo games was added to MAME. Sitting there, watching it so,so slowly download, praying the connection wouldn't drop, was no fun at all!
@Andrew Ballard I had Pentium II 333Mhz and I expanded my RAM from 64Mb to 128Mb, so as to have enough to run the biggest Neo-Geo games such as King of Fighters 98 & Garou Mark of The Wolves with sound!
@Andrew Ballard It's funny how many people had the same experience. I remember thinking how cool it was hearing that Neo-geo startup jingle coming out of my pc after hearing it so many times in the dodgy shopping centre arcade. I also remember in the early 2000's seeing an AES for sale in the original CEX store in Tottenham court road. I think even then it was some silly price.
I spent my high school graduation night at a truck stop just outside of town with some buddies of mine. We spent the entire night eating the greasy burgers the cafe there served and playing the Neo Geo. World Heroes 2 had just come out the month before and they had it, so that was our game that night.
When I was a schoolboy in the late 80s and early 90s, my best friend had an absent father who walked out on his family not long after my friend's birth, and was now living a very successful life in another country. To allay his guilt, he used to buy his distant son every console going, and most of the games too, yes, including the Neo Geo. I was so insanely jealous, and often voiced how thrilled I would be to swap my father for an Aladdin's cave of gaming goodness. I stand by it too. 🤣
I had a cousin like that. his dad was absent but bought him pretty much every single game and console in existence. we would have weekend gaming sessions just playing everything. the days when I could play games and eat shit food for days and not have any repercussions.
I had a rich friend in a similar position in early '80s. I was a poor friend also with a single parent mother. I could not believe it when he swapped his complete BBC Micro setup with 2 drives and Microvitec Cub monitor for a piece of lino and a boombox to go breakdancing on 😆I was never jealous if him. I was jealous of the friend who swapped some DIY store tat for a £1000+ setup adjusted for inflation probably $3000. That dude had some issues it has to be said. He was always in trouble with the police and social workers despite being a rich teenager.
We had a Neo Geo cab in the breakroom at college in the mid '90s loaded with Puzzle Bobble, Sam Shodown, Wind Jammers and something else I don't remember! Loved that machine. I was emulating it in the late 90s on my PC also - Last Blade II and Garou: Mark of the Wolves being particular favourites!
I just finally decided to buy a neo geo cd yesterday, still waiting on it to get here from japan. To this day, i still have NEVER seen any neo geo in person, besides the actual arcade cabinets. Can't wait to mod it and finally experience all the rich kid games
Back in 2016 I found a Neo Geo AES in the back of a charity shop in Brixton. No idea how it got there but I bought it off them for 15 pounds. Came boxed with 4 boxed games!
@@TheDigitalOrphanage If you scroll through my channel you can find me documenting the process there. It didn't come with a power supply. so it was stuck in this loophole where the electrician couldn't PAT test it, but they didn't get rid of it, so it sat on the shelf for years. I only stumbled upon it because one of the staff wanted to show me a drum kit they kept in the back.
@@DrMobiusOfficial I've just watched your video and it was fun to follow your rollercoaster of emotions. Excited anticipation, disappointment, more disappointment, even more... then finally jubilation! Great find!
I remember reading the multi-platform magazine C&VG and seeing the reviews for the Neo Geo games. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw the price of a game as £120. Blew my mind.
The Neo Geo consoles are beautiful machines, specially the CD version and even the joypads have a cool design. And of course, the arcade stick is super cool. Best way to play 2d games.
I believe Neo Geo is capable doing 3D because it's way more powerful then Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis which they simply installed new chips inside of the cartridges to enhance the system capabilities.
@@demonology2629 There was a rendered 3d game called Shin Oh Ken for Neo CD, but was a little clumsy, SNK launched 3d versions of Samurai Showdown and Fatal Fury in arcade, but i don't think was MVS.
@@pbonfanti I know what you're saying but almost half of those Neo Geo CD games are in the hundreds now if not thousands and it's not worth it compared to the cartridge a lot of those CDs are just too high of a price no CD should be worth that much unless it was very rare I might be wrong but I wouldn't pay that much for CD ever and I need to check out that 3D game for Neo Geo CD sounds cool
Bought a import neo geo when they were released, but £200 for a game became a hindrance on the wallet, this console was way ahead in visuals at the time..
I got my very own AES two months ago, an old dream finally fulfilled. There are so many options to play Neo Geo games today, emulation is spot-on since late 90's but that feeling when you see the Neo Geo logo and hear that jingle coming from real hardware is very rewarding. I had a NG CD back then but like many others I've always dreamed about owning the real deal. Interesting how back in the day AES carts were cheaper than their MVS counterparts and now it's the complete opposite. Some AES games cost thousands of dollars and the MVS ones go in the hundreds so thank God those converters exist. So far my collection is quite small, I have 3 AES carts and 11 MVS ones but I plan on buying more whenever my wallet allows it!
As a kid Neo Geo was Samurai Showdown and Metal Slug for me. If either of those games was at the arcade I was playing them. Still fantastic games to this day. Would've loved to try this in the 90s, but yea it was WAY above my pay grade as a young child lol.
The Samurai Showdown series were among my favorites, along with several shmups, Shock Troopers, Metal Slugs, etc. For years you could only purchase the 161-1 multicart for the MVS units, but more recently, like 2 years ago, AES multicarts are readily available. They may not have all of your favorite games, but for the price, they're worth it!
My friend at primary school in the 80s had one, it was the only reason I heard about it and it blew me away the idea of having an arcade in your home. Fast forward to now and I’ve got the omega (consoliswd mvs), neogeo cd (top loader) and cdz. I got very lucky with the top loader in that I bought it as faulty for £50 (couldn’t read discs) and it turned out it was just a dirty lens! Tempted with getting an AES just because 😁
I’ve been a proud owner of the Neo-Geo since 1993. I sold both my AES systems for a consolized 1-slot MVS and a Neo-Geo CD. I owned and loved my Neo-Geo Pocket, but I sold both (I had a Special Edition as a backup) when SNK dropped support.
The MVS is having the real arcade attached to your TV, I was a little hesitant in buying one, cause they are a little expensive too (not as bad as the AES), but the though of owing real Neo Geo arcade cartridges (which are affordable too) beat me to it, so I bought it, paid around almost $400 (shipping included from overseas), looks the same the AES console, but with Component, RBG Scart, Composite, as well the regular Neo Geo output. Has 2 USB for different type of controllers too, beside the regular Neo Geo controller ports, I'm super happy with it since I used to salivate in owning a Neo Geo.
In the early 2000's I was lucky enough to buy an original 4-slot NEO-GEO arcade cabinet. Ebay provided the cartridges, so this video was very nostalgic for me. Thanks!
Totally remember this. I had an Amiga at the time, and there was one of these on the University campus. I was gobsmacked by its capabilities, even as an Amiga owner. In many ways, this was the first time the cracks started to show in my Amiga (500)'s closed architecture, and its lack of upgrade-ability. Of course, I still loved my Amiga, but it wasn't long after I saw the Neo Geo that I realised it was probably time to build myself a PC, and make the painful switch.
I could never afford the original Neo Geo either but I managed to buy the Neo Geo CD after I got my first job back in the day... I bought it from a Hong Kong import shop that used to advertise in CVG and the best thing about that company was they sold all the games either in original format or Hong Kong silver format which were basically factory pressed backups and they were any 6 games for £50 at the time so after a few weeks I managed to buy just about every single game that was released for it... It was great to finally own a Neo Geo but those loading times were like pulling teeth... Funnily enough I managed to sell the whole lot many years later for a decent profit but these days I get my Neo Geo fix through emulation like every other old console game I feel like playing... Your video brought back some good memories today, keep up the good work
My favorite NEO-GEO game was Super Baseball 2020. Played it constantly at the arcade and, when it was ported to the SNES, my friend and I played it on there when we were roommates. Played him 365 times and beat him 365 times. He got a run once. Korea Dragoons for the win!* * - He beat me pretty bad playing WWE Royal Rumble, so it worked out =)
I have a memory that there was a NEO-GEO cabinet in The Roadhouse Manchester in the late 90's. I think it had multiple carts in it. I seem to remember playing Metal Slug at some point.
@35:07 - As you gentlemen mentioned, the Neo Geo is a fighting game haven! First crossed paths, with the AES, at an Incredible Universe (which then became Fry's Electronics); in the U.S. Outstanding work with #THIS Show & Tell!! Cheers!! 👏😎
This is great! I purchased my AES last year I currently have 48 games so far and loving this console. Purchased a CMVS a few months ago to purchase some of the games on MVS that are too expensive on AES.
Me and my brother got one in the late 90s. We got Magician Lord with it (because it was 'cheap') and then found out that we got an imported system that needed a special PSU and we had to get a 50/60 Hz adapter for our TV. Took us months to scrap the money for that stuff too together, but then the glorious day that we could finally play Neo-Geo at home was there! Yep, big bragging rights indeed. Every single one of my friends who was into video games had to come over and try it out. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was 100% worth it :)
I always felt the AES system - with its gold HiFi-style lettering, slim front profile, wide-mouthed Cartridge slot (phwooaaaar) and matching power button to the arcade sticks' buttons - was one of the finest looking consoles ever designed! Very jealous Keith!
I remember the adverts for the NeoGeo and never having met anyone that owned one back in the day (because it was so darn expensive) that a strange mythic aura surrounded it like maybe it wasn't real or was still a concept like concept cars that never got released. Even at school the talk surrounding NeoGeos was always kinda reverent and with a sense of awe, wonder and mystery.
Ah, the rich kids machine we all dreamed of. I didn't know a single soul who owned one and also never even heard of anyone who knew someone who owned one. I definitely remember always wanting one though. The price was absolutely insane.
I wasn't rich I worked and lived at home in 1989 at age 20 when I purchased the Japanese version from a company called Gamedude. Today I still own my Japanese Neo-Geo version and 2 US gold edition new never used with 157 games with multiple copies of certain games. I put a down payment on my home with the sale of Metal Slug US version in 2011 and still own 3 copies the best arcade home console ever created.
When it was 'old tech' but not so old as to be 'collectible tech'. The best time to buy a system, really, because the used market gets flooded and the prices crash.
It was me wanting get an Amiga again then learning more about the Neo Geo and the cost of said items I went full into the MiSTer coz that thing is a bargain! I'm hooked on Turf Masters :)
I loved NeoGeo in the arcades as a teenager. Got my first MV2F in about 2008 and turned it into a console. Re-did it in 2012 so it's got HDMI out with mixed audio in from an AC3 system. Fortunately no lag. Love it dearly. Wish flash carts were cheaper. Favourite games: Nightmare in the Dark, Puzzle Bobble 1/2 (aka bust-a-move), and Neo Bomberman.
Gaelco World Rally Championship is *literally* one of the greatest arcade games ever. You won't see it on retro games shows (other than this snippet, here) or channels, but it is (like 1943 in shmups) probably one of the best arcade games you'd ever play.
A great episode Neil. I was aware of the Neo Geo from the early nineties and played on one at the local arcade with the first game I played being Magicians Lord from what I can recall. I had bought both the NGP and NGPC upon release and played lots of Neo Geo games on various home consoles over the years, but never on actual Neo Geo hardware. Though this all changed when I bought an AES in early 2020 and a Neo SD flash cart in late 2020. Along with the Saturn I rank it was one of my favorite systems in my collection. My system also has some mods in the form of a RGB mod, Unibios and an power led mod. The Neo SD cart isn’t perfect though and does take a while to flash the memory, but once that’s done the game runs just like the real thing. Great stuff.
Neo Geo is awesome. I discovered it in MAME. I fell in love with it. It inspired me to make MAME cabs with more than 3 buttons. I have a tabletop Xarcade MAME machine that I made with a 4:3 LCD computer monitor and a PC. My favorite games are the Metal Slug series in Neo Geo. Love NEO GEO. I discovered how good it was in around 2015.
You should keep the three button layout, but wire up the coin slot button thing... the coin return that glows bright orange... Anyway, that's the fourth button. You become erect from playing your Neo Geo and press the 4th button that way.
Great video. Intelligent people of around my age talking about the games I remember from my youth. L was a bit snobby about the neo geo too. I always thought the games after seemed quite low res compared to rival dedicated arcade titles
In the early 90s, I bought the Neo Geo AES Gold System direct from SNK in California, and picked up a bunch of accessories: Duffle Bag, extra Controller, Memory Card, T-shirts, Pins, and Posters. This system was incredible! The huge Japanese animated sprites and sounds blew all my current systems away. It truly was BIGGER - BADDER - BETTER!
When I was a young lad decades back during the early 90s, I firstly saw the AES in a video game shop showing AOF1 in Malaysia. Coming from nes going towards the mega drive, I was instantly impressed by the AOF1 huge sprites and thumping music. However the price was really insane and totally out of my budget. This was during the time the super Famicom was coming out. All of my friends knew bout the Neo Geo but none has it.
Funny thing: the most nostalgic part of all this for me was hearing about GetRight all these years later. Most of these games and consoles are more or less enshrined in our culture and continue to be dusted off and enjoyed nowadays. GetRight however had a very short lifespan and many advancements after its release have ultimately made it utterly irrelevant, to a point where most people have completely forgotten about it. As had I. But it was one hell of a godsent program. Anyone who was around in the early days of dial-up internet, with modems as large as consoles, that sang in a strange alien electro-language, before teleporting us at our whim to any place on the planet, will remember how much you had to sweat and toil to bring home the treasures found on those explorations... It took hours to download a single video with the most barely watchable of resolutions (remember RealTime?) and it was always an act of devotion to start the process, praying your internet connection stayed alive for all that time and that no one home needed to use the phone. GetRight completely annihilated that hassle. It was one of the first things you'd install on a fresh OS after that. You couldn't bear browsing without it. Not only did it allow you to resume downloads after disconnecting (which on its own was life-changing), you could download multiple chunks of a file at the same time from different proxies at much higher combined speeds (which felt like magic), you could queue up multiple links and automate the whole process (now you didn't have to stay up all night to download files one at a time and could just wake up to a full glorious library of them to enjoy that day) and, unlike the majority of apps today, it was built with a degree of customization that allowed you to tinker with so many options it just gave you this amazing feeling of empowerment, of being completely unshackled from the limitations of dial-up and its constant frustrating failures, of being in control of the Internet. I can't think of a single app that has replicated that paradigm-changing feeling since. Thank you for the trip down memory lane, RMC.
Back in 97 I visited the swap a shop every Sunday. There was this one vendor that sold games, but would have random one offs here and there. A Super Famicom running Street Fighter 2 for example. One day I came in and I saw a Neo Geo and 6 games on the desk behind the seller. She said it was already spoken for but would sell to me if they didn't come back by next Sunday. Luckily for me, they didn't come back and I got the system and 6 games for only $300. Best purchase ever.
I have an neogeo AES in the closet, with some games, also have all the MVS king of fighters games and an AES converter, but I just used the machine to play metal slug games and neo turf masters 😅
I remember playing on a Turbo Grafix, and a goldstar 3DO, around the time the Neo console was around. I was working as a software salesperson when the Super NES came out.
About AES: not just the console itself was quite expensive, it’s necessary mentioning the Cartridges were almost as expensive as some consoles. I think the games usually cost 200 USD.
I have fond memories of Neo Geo. While I owned the system for about 6 years before selling it, it provided me thousands of hours of fun and saved me hundreds of dollars in quarters.
I absolutely love Samurai Shodown, and I think it was really the best 2D series of the time, despite SFII always being the most popular one. I have a Samurai Shodown collection for PS2 and it's great, also a general Neo Geo collection too, it's really the best things I have for my PS2. I love it that the actual console is not needed in modern times, bc it was always impossibly expensive. I never tried emulation or MAME of the arcade cabinet but I think I'll try that next time...
The game system that some other kid we all knew swore they had a "cousin" that had it. I remember this having 200.00 games, and was only advertised in "adult nerd" magazines like Omni.
Lol that kid’s name was always Nathan and he was full of shit. One of the Nathans at my school had an uncle who had a Ferrari which he could lift over his head. We only ever knew one person who actually owned a Neo Geo. He ran an arcade in town and was basically the Simpsons comic book guy which lines up pretty well with your recollection.
@@lupolinar That might have been a price I heard "through the grapevine", especially being a kid, and the internet not existing then. A LOT of stuff we "knew" about this was basically rumor, urban legend, or straight exaggeration. LOL!
@@WillmobilePlus That might be true. We had a pretty sweet vendor who also sold stuff from oversea, like the PC Engine and NeoGeo, so you always knew what was possible if you had the money for it. ^^;
As for me, just like everybody else, I wished I owned one of these when it first came out, I would only see it on magazines and nobody I knew even had one on the plus side, now, as an adult, I actually own one, and I own the Neo Geo cdz aswell as the nei geo pocket, and let me tell you the first time I held an actual cartridge for the AES... It was magical and I'm glad that I got to make one of my dreams happen💖💖💖
I had a Neo Geo CD around... 2000, I believe. They were not common here in Brazil, and I got a second-hand one for a good price. However, the horrendous load times and the glut of fighting games (not my favourite genre) made me lose interest, so I sold it after about a year. Bad decision, in retrospect, but the money helped me buy my first laptop computer! 😅
Picked up an AES with unbios and stick about five years ago for £250, absolutely love it and the Neo SD is a fab multi cart. Hook this up to a CRT and boy am I in heaven.
Classic console the AES - remember the experience of playing arcade perfect Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special at home in 1994 was supreme - glad I repurchased one and a dozen games again CIB about 8yrs back... awesome sound and graphics to this day 👍 *got a NeoCD and 2x1 Slot MVS also since then, amazing systems.
I really want to get one of those NeoSD carts. The chips shortage has made them impossible to get right now but I hope they return. You got your items at a good time I’d say, they only continue to go up in price.
The AES is the console I dream of owning to this day. A console that is so expensive still that it means I will likely never own one. I see them for sale for around £190 here in Japan now and then but it's the games man... Every game I would want is way more than £60. I am a bin diver who buys games for around £1-2, only rarely spending more than a tenner. Unless I win the lottery, I will stick to buying the Neo Geo games that go on sale for the Nintendo Switch... Great video though! Thanks for sharing and keeping the dream going in my heart...
I liked a few SNK classics in the arcades but for me the absolute top Neo Geo title NEO TURF MASTERS. It was and is so good that even people who tend to hate golf games fall in love with it. It's a thoroughly enjoyable game to play with friends. Back in the Arcade days I also played quite a bit of SOCCER BRAWL that was like a mixture of SpeedBall 2 and a more traditional footy game. My 3rd pick is wind Jammers, a game I still play on MAME and have also recently picked up the sequel//reboot that has been reworked by Dotemu with a similar art style to Streets Of Rage 4...... Back in the 90s the local branch of Richer Sounds had an AES that they would connect to giant TV sets in their demo rooms for customers to try out home entertainment set-ups. Sometimes I would go in there asking to test out some new TVs and play the Neo Geo for an hour or more 😄
The Neo Geo AES was a console I would have loved to have owned back in the early 90's. It may have shared the 68000 processor with my beloved Amiga, but that's where the comparison stopped. This was a sprite powerhouse with instant loading. An arcade experience in the home! It was great to be able to buy, borrow, and beg all that we had to show on the table, to delve into a world most of us could only have dreamed of back in the 90's. I hope you enjoyed the musings of us mere mortals about this giant of console gaming history.
The MVS was based on SNK/ADK coin op tech from late 80's, so it pretty high spec on its release.
I also got an A1200 roughly same time as my NeoGeo AES, the AES made my A1200 feel completely redundant when it came to playing games tho. ✌️
mister fpga core is extremely good, plus it has better audio/video clarity than og hardware
Ui
it wasn't a computer.
@@nickolasgaspar9660like the Amiga wasn't made for games
When I was 16 I saved all my lawn mowing money from May to September plus all my allowance and my paper route to buy a neo geo. I had enough for the console and one game and when I walked into the store I suddenly had a change of heart. I realized that this one game was going to cost over $1000 and all my money was going to be gone. I'm so glad I came to my senses and walked out of there with all that money. Still though part of me kinda wishes I pulled the trigger and had that memory of the whole experience of unboxing it and playing an actual arcade game at home.
That's an insane amount of money to spend for a kid 30 years ago. You clearly have good financial instincts though. Practically speaking, you could have way more fun with the same amount of money buying the other systems of the day. Neo-Geo was designed for people who have a lot of money to spend.
Im surprised you were able to buy a neo geo in a store. I couldn't find one anywhere. You must lived in Japan.
@@vincentthompson1696 I lived in Toronto at the time and there were several places downtown that had all the Japanese stuff including the neo geo. I think it was called One Ten Two Twenty. Great store, I remember it looked like it was straight out of Japan.
@@xenos_n. I know right? And I definitely did thoroughly enjoy spending that money on other things. I had pretty well off parents so I got $20 per week for allowance, plus my two summer jobs. Many many years later I received a neo geo cd console from a good friend who was teaching in Japan. He brought me the console and three CD-rom games. It just wasn't the same though. I wanted that big chonky cartridge! 🤣
In the grand scheme of things you should've brough it, you would have had those memories forever, and look how many times you've made 1000 since,, its not that much money in the grand scheme of things
Long comment here, sorry.
Back in 1982 I was lucky enough to be hired to build coin-op arcade games here in Canada, I progressed from there to working for the second largest coin-op game company in Toronto, building, repairing and (the best part) testing games. I can still remember the PCB JAMCO pin-outs perfectly. I worked in the industry for over 10 years, and saw the decline and fall of the industry first hand. Some cool stories.. When the original Pole Position by Atari came out, it was a sensation because it was the first racing game shown from something other than a top-down view. The original cabinets cost $5000 CAD and the fellow that I was working for got some money from his father and bought 5 of them. We had NO trouble placing them in arcades since they were that years hot game. The coin box held $1200 in quarters and I was going to each machine for collection every 2-3 days. People were placing quarters on the "dashboard" shroud to reserve thier turn to play and numerous fights broke out if someone played for too long, "hogging" the machine. Needless to say, those games payed for themselves in a few weeks and my company made $10000 from each one in a month. Canada had some unique laws regarding game copyrights and as a result the "grey" market in game PCB's thrived here. At one point we were selling the "copy" boards and were raided by the RCMP (!), an interesting day. My all-time favorite game was Hard Drivin' by Atari, a real breakthrough in graphics and controls. It had a force-feedback steering wheel (a real beast to repair) along with a working clutch and gated shifter, the full sized cabinet had a swing-out seat and looked like a Testarossa (a really challenging game to move). The sales literature for the game mentioned that someone at the Atari development studio actually learned to drive a manual transmission by playing the game. There was an EPROM update (I think it was about 30 chips that had to be replaced) that made the game even better. I used to take game cabinets home over the weekends and stick them in the garage, change the dip switch settings to max lives and free play so I was a hero to my kids and all their friends.
I really enjoyed the work, it was technical and a lot of fun at the same time.
Cheers, thanks for the memories.
I was one of the chosen ones when I was growing up who had grandparents who spolied the bejesus out of me. My grandmother would always babysit me in November and write down what I said I want in her crossword puzzles pretending not to care. Turns out she asked my mom and dad and they said it was almost a thousand bucks and sure enough not only did I get it, they got me a scooter, a outdoor basketball hoop, and almost every domino rally they ever made. So now every Saturday I'd have to stay with grandpa while everyone shopped together and all we both did was play bust a move, fatal fury, and baseball stars. God I miss you guys. Thanks for spoling me. Yup I still visit u at the cemetery once a month and I am so glad I had a great childhood.
Sounds like a good setup you had there!
Awe your a good grandson, and sounds like they were really dote on you.
Sounds a lot like my grandmother. She bought me more consoles and games over the years than I can count. Many of my favorite gaming memories were possible because of her.
I've been looking for one of you I need to know how your childhood was being the only kid to have an arcade accurate gaming system
As a child of the Nineties (born in ‘76), I like so many others of my generation, have very strong memories of the AES system locked away in a glass cabinet in our toy store. Above the cabinet there stood the box with a price tag so high it physically hurt. So close yet so far away😂
It was the Rolls Royce of Home Consoles; the Lamborghini of gaming. The forbidden fruit that all you can do is drool, oogle and fantasize about playing with it.
Incredible timing! I just got my Neo Geo AES console on Tuesday! This console was only in the realm of dreams when I was young, very excited to finally have one.
Can you tell us how much?
@@david-spliso1928 Sure. I got the AES with 1 original arcade stick, fully re-capped and with the Universe Bios installed for $535 USD. I got a additional “kidney bean” style controller for an additional $78 from the same seller in Japan. Expensive still, but far more manageable than it was in 1990. 😅
I got one a few weeks ago. Mine was Component video modded and had the Uni-Bios installed.. $600 USD, bought an MVS adapter for around $100, just to realize these 161 in 1 Cartridges exist.
don't portable consoles you can buy from aliexpress play ps1 and mame emulator stuff?
with a aracade emulator you can play arcade style games, making this pointless
@@VTuber_Clipp3r Having the original hardware or item is the point. If someone really likes a painting, maybe they can buy a poster or print if it - or even a reproduction. Or maybe they love it so much they will pony up for the original. Much like beauty, the value of a thing is up to the beholder.
There's the Pioneer Laseractive console, this was more expensive than the Philips CD-I. To the best of my knowledge the Pioneer Laseractive was the only video system to use Laserdiscs instead of CD-ROM, it's price when it debuted was $970.00 USD. Another thing that was pretty neat about the Pioneer Laseractive was it was compatible with Sega/Mega CDs, TurboGrafx CD.
Yes we have one here (and a series on the channel about it), but the LaserActive isn’t a console until you buy a PAC to slot into it, it’s just a laserdisc player, so that’s a tricky comparison and not technically a console for the RRP
Incredible tech for its time, the graphics still look incredible
I remember back in about 2000 I picked up a boxed AES console with two arcade sticks and about eight games for 200 quid. It was a steal, especially as one of them was Viewpoint. But perhaps the best of all was the wonderful six slot MVS arcade machine I picked up for a similar price. In the end, if you have space and you really want the arcade experience at home, get the actual arcade machine! In the end the costs work out the same given the MVS game prices.
You jammy git!
MiSTER FPGA plus JAMMA adapter, and you're good 'bout ~400? plus more than just MVS
Might as well get a Mister nowadays unless you are a collector :)
@@muhaxiiii as I said, if you want the arcade experience at home, which is really what the Neo Geo is all about, then you can't beat a full cab - it's not just about the perfect internal hardware, it's the tangible and the aesthetic - wonderful artwork, big CRT monitor, proper mounted joysticks, memory card slot, headphone jack, instant on with no load times. A deluxe item yes, but one that is made to be so. It's the difference between taking the bus and owning a classic car.
@@HappyCodingZX oh no don't get me wrong the cab makes all the difference, I mean a mister in a cab 😁
There was a big review of Neo Geo and it's games in Finnish computer magazine MikroBitti in the Autumn of 1991. That was the first issue of a computer magazine we got in the home. I was nine and didn't have a lot of context for all the stuff in it, though I was extremely interested in games and had played a bunch of them (mostly at friends' houses). I think I thought a lot in the magazine was really cool. On the Neo Geo coverage, I do remember they of course made it a major thing how expensive it was, how it was like an arcade at the home, and how audiovisually impressive (but also shallow) the games were. It was really cool for sure, and seemed so far away as something to own or even see.. it was a mythical machine. If memory serves there was a big, nice photo of the console, the controller and a cartridge, with their sleek design. I think I still remember how reading and thinking about it felt. I've since played a bunch of the games but never on the original home hardware.
I finally got a Neo Geo AES about 3 years ago and picked up a NeoSD too, absolutely amazing console. Looks fantastic with a retro cables RGB and a B&O MX7000 TV
Great video as always guys. Thanks again for fixing the Neo Geo CD 🙌
Oh you know me. I love the Neo-Geo Neil and all that applies to it kind sir. I posted this up on the Neo-Geo thread to help with additional exposure and to show my everlasting support you do bro. Thank you for sharing this and keep up the great work you always do. 8^)
Anthony...
I use an AES version of the 161-in-1 cartridge and it works perfectly, no crazy adapter required. Its the same size as a normal cartridge. I would highly recommend it!
Edit: RUclips recommended this video to me AGAIN and I did watch it AGAIN so here's an update after 1 year that I guess I didn't mention. It looks like only later serial numbered AES consoles can use the 161-in-1 with no issues and a Sega Genesis power adapter which is how I use it with the jailbars RGB fix. Also, despite never being released on AES, Puzzle Bobble is available on the 161-in-1. Yes, the AES version as well and it works, once again, perfectly. You will have countless hours of fun. Your house will not burn down.
there is a green v2 cartridge that improved the power draw issues of the first yellow version, recommend getting that one for any one wanting to pull the trigger, eBay and Ali Express are also cheaper than Amazon but expect longer delivery times. That game combined with the 64 in 1, gets you most of the popular games in the Neo Geo library at a fraction of the cost of buying individual games.
The first time I have ever enjoyed a Neo Geo was after getting a serious bonus from my job and I decided to import one from Japan, that was 5 years ago. Great System.
I bought my Neo Geo AES two years ago with the NeoSD. I remember seeing it for the first time ever. It felt so special to actually own it. I was born too late because I grew up with the PS2 and Xbox360 but I started collecting and playing retro games. A couple of years ago I couldn't imagine having a Neo Geo at home. The games feel really special.
I did actually own a Neo Geo console at the time it was released, but I had to team up with my twin brother to be able to afford it. We used our combined income from our minimum wage jobs at the time and after a few months, we eventually saved up enough to buy one. It was glorious! I sold the game and the console right before I went to college.
Since I missed playing the system, I also ended up emulating the Neo Geo in the mid 90s with an emulator called NeoRage that ran on an my old Pentium II MMX running at 250mhz and I downloaded a bunch of roms on a 28k modem dial up. They took awhile to find and download, but it was way cheaper and I was pretty blown away when I got it run a game I had previously spent hundreds of dollars for. Good times.
First time I played Neogeo MVS while on family vacation in Greece. The game was Street Hoop (aka Street Slam or Dunk Dream). Still has a special place in my heart! I love the music and the gameplay!
I am not a sports fan but Street Hoop is just fantastic, the music and the sound of that game.
The NEO GEO jingle is the alert tone on my phone
3:00 You went proper West Country when you said "lusted after" :)
Haha Keith brings out the accent in me
My mom purchased a Neo-geo aes on launch day at Electronics boutique. My favorite console ever. You had to have it back then to really appreciate the console.
So I have a single slot MVS cabinet and the talked about slowdown happens for me when I plug in the cartridge of Metal Slug 2.
Is there anything I can do about it.
A dip switch setting maybe?
During my teenage years, I was studying in a boarding school and the students would be allowed to go out to town every 2 weeks. Street Fighter II was BIG at the time, but students couldn't go to the arcades. Students from my school were required to wear our school uniforms and those wearing school uniforms weren't allowed in the arcades. I had to find my gaming fix somewhere... luckily, there was an electronics shop that had the NEO-GEO AES and let people play for 30 minutes on it for RM1 (1 Malaysian Ringgit ). They only had a few games and I would play Fatal Fury just to get my fighting game fix. Remember seeing the price of the console at the time and it was mind boggling to think how a games console could be priced close to a personal computer. I would go back to my school and in the hostel, I would wonder how much I had to save up to buy a NEO-GEO AES. Luckily, I didn't need to as I eventually got a Sega Mega Drive and SFII, AND Fatal Fury came out on the Sega. Aaaahhhh... memories...
Yeah, but with the Sega Mega Drive, you're playing with a weiner; at least with a Neo Geo AES, you're playing with a Hot Dog
Besides a tiny bit of exclusive games, the Neo Geo CD had one other thing going for it - a hidden course in Neo Turf Masters (Big Tournament Golf) that you can actually unlock with a simple code - press left, down/left, down, down/right, right +D when selecting your course. Scotland is unlocked and it's extremely challenging. The NGCD of course also has the bonus of games being a lot more affordable, but not every big title (especially late releases in the fighting genres) got ports, though many that did had some other similar bonus content like improved soundtracks and some extra animated scenes and such.
I believe the first time I experienced the Neo Geo was on an MVS multi arcade cab at East Midlands Airport in the early 90s. The next time I dabbled with Neo Geo was on emulation using my Dell 233MMX PC back in 1998. I can remember it taking forever to download King of Fighters on my 56k modem. Then came the Neo Geo Pocket which I picked up on release. The same colour you have in the video Neil. I got King of Fighters R2, SNK vs Capcom and Metal Slug. I was really impressed with the machine at the time, that joystick click brings back memories. I finally got to enjoy the delights of an AES at the National Video Game Museum when it was based in Nottingham 6 or so years ago. Around this time I also downloaded some SNK games on the PlayStation Store for my PS3. Right I’m going on EBay now looking at AES’s.
I remember downloading the Metal Slug 2X ROM, on a 56k dial up connection in 1999, shortly after sound support for Neo-Geo games was added to MAME. Sitting there, watching it so,so slowly download, praying the connection wouldn't drop, was no fun at all!
@Andrew Ballard I had Pentium II 333Mhz and I expanded my RAM from 64Mb to 128Mb, so as to have enough to run the biggest Neo-Geo games such as King of Fighters 98 & Garou Mark of The Wolves with sound!
@Andrew Ballard It's funny how many people had the same experience. I remember thinking how cool it was hearing that Neo-geo startup jingle coming out of my pc after hearing it so many times in the dodgy shopping centre arcade.
I also remember in the early 2000's seeing an AES for sale in the original CEX store in Tottenham court road. I think even then it was some silly price.
I spent my high school graduation night at a truck stop just outside of town with some buddies of mine. We spent the entire night eating the greasy burgers the cafe there served and playing the Neo Geo. World Heroes 2 had just come out the month before and they had it, so that was our game that night.
When I was a schoolboy in the late 80s and early 90s, my best friend had an absent father who walked out on his family not long after my friend's birth, and was now living a very successful life in another country. To allay his guilt, he used to buy his distant son every console going, and most of the games too, yes, including the Neo Geo. I was so insanely jealous, and often voiced how thrilled I would be to swap my father for an Aladdin's cave of gaming goodness. I stand by it too. 🤣
I had a cousin like that. his dad was absent but bought him pretty much every single game and console in existence. we would have weekend gaming sessions just playing everything. the days when I could play games and eat shit food for days and not have any repercussions.
I had a rich friend in a similar position in early '80s. I was a poor friend also with a single parent mother. I could not believe it when he swapped his complete BBC Micro setup with 2 drives and Microvitec Cub monitor for a piece of lino and a boombox to go breakdancing on 😆I was never jealous if him. I was jealous of the friend who swapped some DIY store tat for a £1000+ setup adjusted for inflation probably $3000.
That dude had some issues it has to be said. He was always in trouble with the police and social workers despite being a rich teenager.
We had a Neo Geo cab in the breakroom at college in the mid '90s loaded with Puzzle Bobble, Sam Shodown, Wind Jammers and something else I don't remember! Loved that machine. I was emulating it in the late 90s on my PC also - Last Blade II and Garou: Mark of the Wolves being particular favourites!
I just finally decided to buy a neo geo cd yesterday, still waiting on it to get here from japan. To this day, i still have NEVER seen any neo geo in person, besides the actual arcade cabinets. Can't wait to mod it and finally experience all the rich kid games
Back in 2016 I found a Neo Geo AES in the back of a charity shop in Brixton. No idea how it got there but I bought it off them for 15 pounds. Came boxed with 4 boxed games!
Wow, bargain! The retro equivalent of that Fabergé egg bought in a charity shop 😉
@@TheDigitalOrphanage If you scroll through my channel you can find me documenting the process there. It didn't come with a power supply. so it was stuck in this loophole where the electrician couldn't PAT test it, but they didn't get rid of it, so it sat on the shelf for years. I only stumbled upon it because one of the staff wanted to show me a drum kit they kept in the back.
@@DrMobiusOfficial I've just watched your video and it was fun to follow your rollercoaster of emotions. Excited anticipation, disappointment, more disappointment, even more... then finally jubilation! Great find!
I remember reading the multi-platform magazine C&VG and seeing the reviews for the Neo Geo games. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw the price of a game as £120. Blew my mind.
I miss c&vg. The magazine. Even the website. They were different.
Yeah £150 for a game and now sadly there even more expensive
Also How's Father Ted lol.
The Neo Geo consoles are beautiful machines, specially the CD version and even the joypads have a cool design.
And of course, the arcade stick is super cool. Best way to play 2d games.
I believe Neo Geo is capable doing 3D because it's way more powerful then
Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis which they simply installed new chips inside of the cartridges to enhance the system capabilities.
I imported a Neo CD from Jpan when was launched, it was expensive, but the games in Cd became well cheaper than old SNK cartridges.
@@demonology2629 There was a rendered 3d game called Shin Oh Ken for Neo CD, but was a little clumsy, SNK launched 3d versions of Samurai Showdown and Fatal Fury in arcade, but i don't think was MVS.
@@pbonfanti I know what you're saying but almost half of those Neo Geo CD games are in the hundreds now if not thousands and it's not worth it compared to the cartridge a lot of those CDs are just too high of a price no CD should be worth that much unless it was very rare I might be wrong but I wouldn't pay that much for CD ever and I need to check out that 3D game for Neo Geo CD sounds cool
Bought a import neo geo when they were released, but £200 for a game became a hindrance on the wallet, this console was way ahead in visuals at the time..
I got my very own AES two months ago, an old dream finally fulfilled. There are so many options to play Neo Geo games today, emulation is spot-on since late 90's but that feeling when you see the Neo Geo logo and hear that jingle coming from real hardware is very rewarding. I had a NG CD back then but like many others I've always dreamed about owning the real deal.
Interesting how back in the day AES carts were cheaper than their MVS counterparts and now it's the complete opposite. Some AES games cost thousands of dollars and the MVS ones go in the hundreds so thank God those converters exist. So far my collection is quite small, I have 3 AES carts and 11 MVS ones but I plan on buying more whenever my wallet allows it!
As a kid Neo Geo was Samurai Showdown and Metal Slug for me. If either of those games was at the arcade I was playing them. Still fantastic games to this day. Would've loved to try this in the 90s, but yea it was WAY above my pay grade as a young child lol.
The Samurai Showdown series were among my favorites, along with several shmups, Shock Troopers, Metal Slugs, etc. For years you could only purchase the 161-1 multicart for the MVS units, but more recently, like 2 years ago, AES multicarts are readily available. They may not have all of your favorite games, but for the price, they're worth it!
From a moral position, I couldn't sit there downloading these roms (my friend down the road did that for me)
😂
My friend at primary school in the 80s had one, it was the only reason I heard about it and it blew me away the idea of having an arcade in your home.
Fast forward to now and I’ve got the omega (consoliswd mvs), neogeo cd (top loader) and cdz. I got very lucky with the top loader in that I bought it as faulty for £50 (couldn’t read discs) and it turned out it was just a dirty lens! Tempted with getting an AES just because 😁
I’ve been a proud owner of the Neo-Geo since 1993. I sold both my AES systems for a consolized 1-slot MVS and a Neo-Geo CD. I owned and loved my Neo-Geo Pocket, but I sold both (I had a Special Edition as a backup) when SNK dropped support.
The MVS is having the real arcade attached to your TV, I was a little hesitant in buying one, cause they are a little expensive too (not as bad as the AES), but the though of owing real Neo Geo arcade cartridges (which are affordable too) beat me to it, so I bought it, paid around almost $400 (shipping included from overseas), looks the same the AES console, but with Component, RBG Scart, Composite, as well the regular Neo Geo output. Has 2 USB for different type of controllers too, beside the regular Neo Geo controller ports, I'm super happy with it since I used to salivate in owning a Neo Geo.
I always love the sniff of the game cartridge.. pure PCB Bliss..
In the early 2000's I was lucky enough to buy an original 4-slot NEO-GEO arcade cabinet. Ebay provided the cartridges, so this video was very nostalgic for me. Thanks!
Like you've got Total Air War on the shelf at the back that game was revolutionary at the time.
I marveled at this magnificent machine when I was young.. I still do.
Don't worry about the rain Neil, you're sheltering in a rather snazzy cave.
Yesss, I also like hearing the rain in videos, it increases the immersion!
Totally remember this. I had an Amiga at the time, and there was one of these on the University campus. I was gobsmacked by its capabilities, even as an Amiga owner. In many ways, this was the first time the cracks started to show in my Amiga (500)'s closed architecture, and its lack of upgrade-ability. Of course, I still loved my Amiga, but it wasn't long after I saw the Neo Geo that I realised it was probably time to build myself a PC, and make the painful switch.
I could never afford the original Neo Geo either but I managed to buy the Neo Geo CD after I got my first job back in the day... I bought it from a Hong Kong import shop that used to advertise in CVG and the best thing about that company was they sold all the games either in original format or Hong Kong silver format which were basically factory pressed backups and they were any 6 games for £50 at the time so after a few weeks I managed to buy just about every single game that was released for it... It was great to finally own a Neo Geo but those loading times were like pulling teeth... Funnily enough I managed to sell the whole lot many years later for a decent profit but these days I get my Neo Geo fix through emulation like every other old console game I feel like playing... Your video brought back some good memories today, keep up the good work
Great console, great guest, great video.
Great audience, great comment 🙂
My favorite NEO-GEO game was Super Baseball 2020. Played it constantly at the arcade and, when it was ported to the SNES, my friend and I played it on there when we were roommates. Played him 365 times and beat him 365 times. He got a run once. Korea Dragoons for the win!*
* - He beat me pretty bad playing WWE Royal Rumble, so it worked out =)
I have a memory that there was a NEO-GEO cabinet in The Roadhouse Manchester in the late 90's. I think it had multiple carts in it. I seem to remember playing Metal Slug at some point.
Correct! I played metal slug there too during gigs.😂 I think it was even Free Play at one point
Robs arcade by the viaduct in hayle..long gone but I remember playing neo geo cabs in there as a local back in the early 90s
@35:07 - As you gentlemen mentioned, the Neo Geo is a fighting game haven! First crossed paths, with the AES, at an Incredible Universe (which then became Fry's Electronics); in the U.S. Outstanding work with #THIS Show & Tell!! Cheers!! 👏😎
This is great! I purchased my AES last year I currently have 48 games so far and loving this console. Purchased a CMVS a few months ago to purchase some of the games on MVS that are too expensive on AES.
Me and my brother got one in the late 90s. We got Magician Lord with it (because it was 'cheap') and then found out that we got an imported system that needed a special PSU and we had to get a 50/60 Hz adapter for our TV. Took us months to scrap the money for that stuff too together, but then the glorious day that we could finally play Neo-Geo at home was there! Yep, big bragging rights indeed. Every single one of my friends who was into video games had to come over and try it out. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was 100% worth it :)
I always felt the AES system - with its gold HiFi-style lettering, slim front profile, wide-mouthed Cartridge slot (phwooaaaar) and matching power button to the arcade sticks' buttons - was one of the finest looking consoles ever designed! Very jealous Keith!
Very cool interview. Thanks RMC
I remember the adverts for the NeoGeo and never having met anyone that owned one back in the day (because it was so darn expensive) that a strange mythic aura surrounded it like maybe it wasn't real or was still a concept like concept cars that never got released. Even at school the talk surrounding NeoGeos was always kinda reverent and with a sense of awe, wonder and mystery.
Ah, the rich kids machine we all dreamed of. I didn't know a single soul who owned one and also never even heard of anyone who knew someone who owned one. I definitely remember always wanting one though. The price was absolutely insane.
It's the games that were insane, I couldn't believe the prices in magazines
Kid on my street growing up had one. Was the first console I never owned.
Rich kids had arcade machines at home not consoles lol 😊
I wasn't rich I worked and lived at home in 1989 at age 20 when I purchased the Japanese version from a company called Gamedude. Today I still own my Japanese Neo-Geo version and 2 US gold edition new never used with 157 games with multiple copies of certain games. I put a down payment on my home with the sale of Metal Slug US version in 2011 and still own 3 copies the best arcade home console ever created.
I've been playing my 4 slot a lot and restoring it a bit, so this video came up at the right time for me. NeoGeo is awesome!
I managed to get my AES off ebay from japan about a decade ago for ~$300 shipped with the console, 2 arcade sticks and 6 cartridges.
When it was 'old tech' but not so old as to be 'collectible tech'. The best time to buy a system, really, because the used market gets flooded and the prices crash.
@@shadowtheimpure i agree, i wish i had started collecting earlier.
I had an Amiga 500 at the time. The NeoGeo was like looking at a Lamborghini whilst owning a Maestro.
It was me wanting get an Amiga again then learning more about the Neo Geo and the cost of said items I went full into the MiSTer coz that thing is a bargain! I'm hooked on Turf Masters :)
I loved NeoGeo in the arcades as a teenager. Got my first MV2F in about 2008 and turned it into a console. Re-did it in 2012 so it's got HDMI out with mixed audio in from an AC3 system. Fortunately no lag. Love it dearly. Wish flash carts were cheaper. Favourite games: Nightmare in the Dark, Puzzle Bobble 1/2 (aka bust-a-move), and Neo Bomberman.
Gaelco World Rally Championship is *literally* one of the greatest arcade games ever.
You won't see it on retro games shows (other than this snippet, here) or channels, but it is (like 1943 in shmups) probably one of the best arcade games you'd ever play.
Spanish game from Barcelona!
Well, Nintendo marketed the NES to retailers as a toy (with rob) but we all knew it was a game console.
I'm a huge fan of your work. I just realized that your area of England is the source of the pirate accent. That makes it so much better.
Oh, Getright. I remember that! Used it a lot back in the days.
A great episode Neil.
I was aware of the Neo Geo from the early nineties and played on one at the local arcade with the first game I played being Magicians Lord from what I can recall.
I had bought both the NGP and NGPC upon release and played lots of Neo Geo games on various home consoles over the years, but never on actual Neo Geo hardware.
Though this all changed when I bought an AES in early 2020 and a Neo SD flash cart in late 2020. Along with the Saturn I rank it was one of my favorite systems in my collection.
My system also has some mods in the form of a RGB mod, Unibios and an power led mod. The Neo SD cart isn’t perfect though and does take a while to flash the memory, but once that’s done the game runs just like the real thing.
Great stuff.
Neo Geo is awesome. I discovered it in MAME. I fell in love with it. It inspired me to make MAME cabs with more than 3 buttons. I have a tabletop Xarcade MAME machine that I made with a 4:3 LCD computer monitor and a PC. My favorite games are the Metal Slug series in Neo Geo. Love NEO GEO. I discovered how good it was in around 2015.
You should keep the three button layout, but wire up the coin slot button thing... the coin return that glows bright orange...
Anyway, that's the fourth button. You become erect from playing your Neo Geo and press the 4th button that way.
Great video!
Great video. Intelligent people of around my age talking about the games I remember from my youth. L was a bit snobby about the neo geo too. I always thought the games after seemed quite low res compared to rival dedicated arcade titles
In the early 90s, I bought the Neo Geo AES Gold System direct from SNK in California, and picked up a bunch of accessories: Duffle Bag, extra Controller, Memory Card, T-shirts, Pins, and Posters. This system was incredible! The huge Japanese animated sprites and sounds blew all my current systems away. It truly was BIGGER - BADDER - BETTER!
Fuckin' hell, you must have been mint in the early 90s...
Ah yes, the 90s "luxury consoles", Neo Geo, CD-I, 3DO (Beach Boys song!), Jaguar...
When I was a young lad decades back during the early 90s, I firstly saw the AES in a video game shop showing AOF1 in Malaysia. Coming from nes going towards the mega drive, I was instantly impressed by the AOF1 huge sprites and thumping music. However the price was really insane and totally out of my budget. This was during the time the super Famicom was coming out. All of my friends knew bout the Neo Geo but none has it.
Whitley bay arcades, that neo geo boot sound was all over. Oh god the nostalgia. Instantly whisks me off to my youth that does.
Funny thing: the most nostalgic part of all this for me was hearing about GetRight all these years later. Most of these games and consoles are more or less enshrined in our culture and continue to be dusted off and enjoyed nowadays. GetRight however had a very short lifespan and many advancements after its release have ultimately made it utterly irrelevant, to a point where most people have completely forgotten about it. As had I. But it was one hell of a godsent program.
Anyone who was around in the early days of dial-up internet, with modems as large as consoles, that sang in a strange alien electro-language, before teleporting us at our whim to any place on the planet, will remember how much you had to sweat and toil to bring home the treasures found on those explorations...
It took hours to download a single video with the most barely watchable of resolutions (remember RealTime?) and it was always an act of devotion to start the process, praying your internet connection stayed alive for all that time and that no one home needed to use the phone. GetRight completely annihilated that hassle. It was one of the first things you'd install on a fresh OS after that. You couldn't bear browsing without it.
Not only did it allow you to resume downloads after disconnecting (which on its own was life-changing), you could download multiple chunks of a file at the same time from different proxies at much higher combined speeds (which felt like magic), you could queue up multiple links and automate the whole process (now you didn't have to stay up all night to download files one at a time and could just wake up to a full glorious library of them to enjoy that day) and, unlike the majority of apps today, it was built with a degree of customization that allowed you to tinker with so many options it just gave you this amazing feeling of empowerment, of being completely unshackled from the limitations of dial-up and its constant frustrating failures, of being in control of the Internet. I can't think of a single app that has replicated that paradigm-changing feeling since.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane, RMC.
Back in 97 I visited the swap a shop every Sunday. There was this one vendor that sold games, but would have random one offs here and there. A Super Famicom running Street Fighter 2 for example. One day I came in and I saw a Neo Geo and 6 games on the desk behind the seller. She said it was already spoken for but would sell to me if they didn't come back by next Sunday. Luckily for me, they didn't come back and I got the system and 6 games for only $300. Best purchase ever.
Great video! Thank you for sharing your experiences with these expensive systems ...
I have an neogeo AES in the closet, with some games, also have all the MVS king of fighters games and an AES converter, but I just used the machine to play metal slug games and neo turf masters 😅
Neo geo was just a pipe dream when I was a kid ..I have it now via raspberry pie and its impressive now ,just imagine owning one in the 90s
I remember playing on a Turbo Grafix, and a goldstar 3DO, around the time the Neo console was around. I was working as a software salesperson when the Super NES came out.
I had one as kid in the early 90's loved it.
I was given a new 2021 release of XenoCrisis. Looked like a perfect Neo Geo arcade release in a cart.
I love the ominous "Keith remains a happy Neo Geo owner, but for how long?" at the end. Planning on getting the old "murder gloves" out again Neil? 😂
This Aes Neo Geo and the controllers stick are really neats 😍
About AES: not just the console itself was quite expensive, it’s necessary mentioning the Cartridges were almost as expensive as some consoles. I think the games usually cost 200 USD.
Two years old ones in the Uk cost £77 in 1992 but Saumari Showdown cost £175 in 1993 when it had been out a few months.
Incredible video! I love to the Neogeo, well done!
I have fond memories of Neo Geo. While I owned the system for about 6 years before selling it, it provided me thousands of hours of fun and saved me hundreds of dollars in quarters.
I absolutely love Samurai Shodown, and I think it was really the best 2D series of the time, despite SFII always being the most popular one. I have a Samurai Shodown collection for PS2 and it's great, also a general Neo Geo collection too, it's really the best things I have for my PS2. I love it that the actual console is not needed in modern times, bc it was always impossibly expensive. I never tried emulation or MAME of the arcade cabinet but I think I'll try that next time...
The game system that some other kid we all knew swore they had a "cousin" that had it.
I remember this having 200.00 games, and was only advertised in "adult nerd" magazines like Omni.
Lol that kid’s name was always Nathan and he was full of shit. One of the Nathans at my school had an uncle who had a Ferrari which he could lift over his head.
We only ever knew one person who actually owned a Neo Geo. He ran an arcade in town and was basically the Simpsons comic book guy which lines up pretty well with your recollection.
200? I remember seeing the AES demoing Viewpoint and the game was like 500 bucks in 1994.
@@lupolinar That might have been a price I heard "through the grapevine", especially being a kid, and the internet not existing then.
A LOT of stuff we "knew" about this was basically rumor, urban legend, or straight exaggeration. LOL!
@@WillmobilePlus That might be true. We had a pretty sweet vendor who also sold stuff from oversea, like the PC Engine and NeoGeo, so you always knew what was possible if you had the money for it. ^^;
I remember in the console magazines I used to buy, the game prices went between 189.99 and 349.99
As for me, just like everybody else, I wished I owned one of these when it first came out, I would only see it on magazines and nobody I knew even had one on the plus side, now, as an adult, I actually own one, and I own the Neo Geo cdz aswell as the nei geo pocket, and let me tell you the first time I held an actual cartridge for the AES... It was magical and I'm glad that I got to make one of my dreams happen💖💖💖
oh puzzle bobble a fave! i did the official port of puzzle bobble for taito, for the sidekick blade lol.
Great overview of the NEO GEO, guys!
I recently bought my second AES with tons of games for a very reasonable price, I'd say. Dreams do come true.
I have always wanted an original Neo Geo, maybe one day! Cheers and great video!
I had a Neo Geo CD around... 2000, I believe. They were not common here in Brazil, and I got a second-hand one for a good price.
However, the horrendous load times and the glut of fighting games (not my favourite genre) made me lose interest, so I sold it after about a year. Bad decision, in retrospect, but the money helped me buy my first laptop computer! 😅
Picked up an AES with unbios and stick about five years ago for £250, absolutely love it and the Neo SD is a fab multi cart. Hook this up to a CRT and boy am I in heaven.
Classic console the AES - remember the experience of playing arcade perfect Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special at home in 1994 was supreme - glad I repurchased one and a dozen games again CIB about 8yrs back... awesome sound and graphics to this day 👍
*got a NeoCD and 2x1 Slot MVS also since then, amazing systems.
I really want to get one of those NeoSD carts. The chips shortage has made them impossible to get right now but I hope they return. You got your items at a good time I’d say, they only continue to go up in price.
@@StariusPrime agreed - aes mvs and neocd prices are steadily increasing.
The AES is the console I dream of owning to this day. A console that is so expensive still that it means I will likely never own one. I see them for sale for around £190 here in Japan now and then but it's the games man... Every game I would want is way more than £60. I am a bin diver who buys games for around £1-2, only rarely spending more than a tenner. Unless I win the lottery, I will stick to buying the Neo Geo games that go on sale for the Nintendo Switch... Great video though! Thanks for sharing and keeping the dream going in my heart...
I liked a few SNK classics in the arcades but for me the absolute top Neo Geo title NEO TURF MASTERS. It was and is so good that even people who tend to hate golf games fall in love with it. It's a thoroughly enjoyable game to play with friends. Back in the Arcade days I also played quite a bit of SOCCER BRAWL that was like a mixture of SpeedBall 2 and a more traditional footy game. My 3rd pick is wind Jammers, a game I still play on MAME and have also recently picked up the sequel//reboot that has been reworked by Dotemu with a similar art style to Streets Of Rage 4...... Back in the 90s the local branch of Richer Sounds had an AES that they would connect to giant TV sets in their demo rooms for customers to try out home entertainment set-ups. Sometimes I would go in there asking to test out some new TVs and play the Neo Geo for an hour or more 😄
Loved all the Neo Geo stuff, but oddly enough the part that hit me in the nostalgia bone was the mention of using GetRight on Dial-up!