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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Console Chat => Topic started by: khog143 on July 25, 2012, 01:50:38 PM
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I have been interested in getting an AES for about a year and a half now, hoping to run into one at a flea market or something :roll:. Since that will seemingly never happen, I'm considering biting the bullet and just buying one. However, I was wondering a few things. Is the Neo-Geo AES Region Free? Also, what is a good price to pay for one? I was gonna use the next month to build up some funds to score one.
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The Neo Geo will play any game from any region. The language of the game depends on the BIOS of your system. If your system is japanese, the text will be japanese. Some games were censored if you have a US system. For example in Samurai Shodown 2, fighters spew out green blood instead of red.
A good price to pay for an AES with all hookups and a classic stick is about $150-200. Keep an eye on the Neo-Geo.com forums, that's your best bet to find a good deal there.
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If you just want to "own an AES" then by all means buy one for $180-250. If you actually want to play Neo Geo games then buy a consololized MVS. Unless you are rich as hell you can only afford the shittier earlier games on AES.
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Did someone say Neo Geo? :D
Also Chany is right on the pricing, although if you don't care about condition you can get some beat up but playable units for like $100, but you might have to hunt for your own controllers. Also, I would HIGHLY recommend getting one with a Unibios installed so you can select your mode and region. That way you don't have to worry about language or censorship issues.
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Yeah, the UniBIOS is a no brainer. The thing is amazing.
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I just assumed a consolized MVS would be pretty pricey
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If you just want to "own an AES" then by all means buy one for $180-250. If you actually want to play Neo Geo games then buy a consololized MVS. Unless you are rich as hell you can only afford the shittier earlier games on AES.
This happened to me!
Only thing that sucks with the CMVS is that it is a hell of an initial investment. I am sure that after a few years of purchasing for the system it pays back 10x over, but expect to pay some cash at first.
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I just assumed a consolized MVS would be pretty pricey
They can be, but the games are dirt cheap so in the long run it works out a lot cheaper. Most of the good AES games go for triple digits, you can spend thousands and only have a handful of games.
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I'll pile on here - I got my AES in good (not great) shape from the Neo-Geo.com forums (it's really the place to go - the prices aren't bad there compared to eBay) with a controller, hookups and a complete U.S. Samurai Showdown 1 for $185. don't pay more than like $225 for a loose system unless it's in box or has 2 controllers.
How expensive AES is going to be for you depends on what games you want to play. I played Neo in the arcades growing up as a kid in the early-mid 90's, so most of my favorite games came out during the heydey and as a result are common and really cheap. Stuff like Metal Slug 3 and the later KOF games came out long after I had stopped going to arcades, so I'm content playing those on my MAME cab if I get the itch. The most I've paid for a game was $110 for a mint KOF '98 and I really have no desire to spend more than that. Everything else I've gotten was between $10-$60 or so and lots of good, popular titles.
So if you're looking for those later titles like MS, Last Blade, etc - go the MVS route for sure. If not, AES is a lot of fun too. Just save some bucks for UniBios and S-Video, it makes a huge difference. Unibios is a must for MVS or AES.
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Yeah my main desire was to play some of those classic arcade games I used to absolutely love in the arcades: Metal Slug, KOF, Samurai Shodown, Art of Fighting, etc. And I was always under the impression MVS carts were pricier. I guess I was off on that thought lol. How much is the expected investment on the CMVS?
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I paid $200 for my CMVS, a two slot. This was with a UniBIOS an OG stick and a Neo CD pad. I invested another $70 or so converting it to component video (changed from JROK to NeoBitz).
When released MVS was more expensive since it was aimed at operators, $700+ per cart or whatever, while AES was...well, they started in the mid $200s but ended in the mid $400s. Now it has flipfloped completely with most MVS games being under $100 (many less than $20) and many AES games fetching $1000+.
Say what you want now, but you WILL want to play the newer games. Why the hell wouldn't you? For MVS I have Metal Slug 3, KOF 2003, Rage of Dragons, etc and the most I've ever paid for a cart was $90 and that was for Pulstar. The purchase price of the CMVS can easily pay for itself with the FIRST GAME you buy.
And since you will ask, yes, there are converters but they cost as much as a system so they are, IMHO, as pointless as possible.
Functionally and fiscally the CMVS beats the shit out of AES in every possible way. If you want "that feeling" or you just like staring at systems instead of playing them, then by all means get an AES. If you actually want to play the shit then AES is just painting yourself into a corner.
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I have no affinity for the system itself since I never had one as a kid, so I'll probably go the CMVS route as per you guys' suggestions. Thanks for all the advice. Now I just need to go on the Neo forums and hunt one down I guess.
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The decadent CMVS solution. Mmm, gaming wood.
www.analogueinteractive.com (http://www.analogueinteractive.com/)
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I thought we ditched wood on Gaming systems with the 2600 lol
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I have been kicking around consolizing a MVS for years. I am just not sure which MVS to get, at least a 2 slot I guess. And haven't found a deal on one yet.
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Yeah the cheapest option would be to get a consolized MVS, then buying one of those 200-in-1 type multicarts. The initial cost would probably be $500-$700, but that's an average price for ONE relatively sought-after AES game. And you'd have pretty much all the games which you could try first before hunting down actual copies.
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I prefer the single slot MVS boards, they're MUCH more reliable.
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I have been kicking around consolizing a MVS for years. I am just not sure which MVS to get, at least a 2 slot I guess. And haven't found a deal on one yet.
2-slot if you want to use the memory card reader.Still all that does is save you're place in the game not the score.Not to mention if you put a,unibios in you can play the game however you want.I'd say if you went with a 1-slot it has to be the MV-1C since it will play it all.
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Yeah the cheapest option would be to get a consolized MVS, then buying one of those 200-in-1 type multicarts. The initial cost would probably be $500-$700, but that's an average price for ONE relatively sought-after AES game. And you'd have pretty much all the games which you could try first before hunting down actual copies.
Has anyone actually made a multi-cart with more than the same 13 games hacked to hell and back on it? All the ones I've seen kind of suck ass.
Regardless, I'm not a fan of that kind of thing. I want to really get into a game, one or two at time, so $50 for a game is fine by me. People who have MAME machines, multi-carts, etc just tend to "flip channels" maybe blast through a game on free play, they rarely ever actually get good at it or properly enjoy it.
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I have one of the older 150-in-1 MVS multicarts and with hacks/dupes removed it contains 100 unique and original games.
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Yeah the cheapest option would be to get a consolized MVS, then buying one of those 200-in-1 type multicarts. The initial cost would probably be $500-$700, but that's an average price for ONE relatively sought-after AES game. And you'd have pretty much all the games which you could try first before hunting down actual copies.
Has anyone actually made a multi-cart with more than the same 13 games hacked to hell and back on it? All the ones I've seen kind of suck ass.
Regardless, I'm not a fan of that kind of thing. I want to really get into a game, one or two at time, so $50 for a game is fine by me. People who have MAME machines, multi-carts, etc just tend to "flip channels" maybe blast through a game on free play, they rarely ever actually get good at it or properly enjoy it.
Yeah, I agree, but I've also found some awesome games I never would have checked out playing random ROMs off a flash cart. For the NeoGeo with its prohibitively expensive games it's a good way to check out some titles before taking the plunge or being able to actually play $1000+ games on the actual hardware. That said, most MVS games are pretty cheap.
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There are no $1000 MVS games, not any you'd actually want to play. I'm not sure there are even any $250 MVS games.
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Sadly there's some MVS games that have gone stupidly up in price the past two years. http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/mvspriceguide.html has a really nice MVS price guide that has very recently been updated. This is the closest you'll get to real world prices for MVS. Stay away from AES, unless you want it for some of the early games. Even some early games are going to cost you over $100. I personally LOVE most of the early games. I will never understand the idea that since it's an early release game it's automatically shitty compared to later released games. Crossed Swords, Magician Lord, Nam 1975, Fatal Fury 2/Special, Sengoku, Cyber-Lip, 8 Man, Last Resort were awesome. Hell I even like Burning Fight and Art of Fighting. Sadly the past 3 years there's been so many getting into MVS so prices have gone kinda nutty. Even on neo-geo.com some games are selling over $100 like Pulstar, Nightmare in the Dark, Samurai Showdown V Special, Prehistoric Isle 2. Five years or so ago you could've bought Pulstar for about $50-60. Hell I used to see it for $35 back in 2002. With so many superguns and consolized mvs systems out there now it's been easy for people to get into MVS, so some not necessarily rare, but more sought after games are going up in price. Now I do believe NitD is fairly rare, but pulstar is common, just no one wants to part with it that usually owns it. PM me thought if you still want an AES. I have a japanese 3-5 rev AES system I'm looking to get rid of and still have a couple games left. You can take it all or just the system.
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MVS prices are not high. A once $700 cart going for $100 is not high, especially compared to a once $300 cart going for $5000 like on AES.
One very effective way to save money is to buy beater carts. Most of these new MVS guys want pristine everything, "complete kits", etc. Who the hell wants a "complete kit"? It contains stickers you're never going to use, a plain cardboard box, a piece of bubble wrap...these are a pretty poor excuse for a collectors item, IMO.
Anyway, the "complete kit" people don't want the rough stuff so you can buy stuff super cheap if its ugly. I bought a filthy-ass Real Bout 2 cart from Mexico for $15. To me, the fact that it saw 15 years of service in an arcade makes it far more legit and real and SNK than some pansy-ass plastic-wrapped collectible, and I saved a considerable amount of money.
And, for the record, I like a lot of old Neo games. League Bowling and Super Baseball 2020 are some of my favorite titles. The thing is, a non-wealthy AES collector is, effectively, buying a machine that can't play anything made after 1994 and thats a f*cking tragedy to me.
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For price I was meaning in relation to other MVS games. To me, paying over $100 for an MVS games is kinda stupid and defeats the purpose of buying MVS. It's just lately it's been like the turbo in prices being inflated. So even if someone would decide to go MVS not everything is dirt cheap. Even on neo-geo.com people are starting to ask for more than usual. You are right about the kits. I never understood the whole mvs kits craze. I like to just buy and play my games so I don't care about condition as long as it works.
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Neo geo mvs isnt exactly cheap just because its cheaper than it was new. It is probably the best way to enjoy neo geo however, but financially and relativly easy to find loose cartridges. The complete kits are for collectors, much like the AES.
I personally have an AES with an SMVS2 adapter. It works fine with almost all the mvs carts i have, except scaling is bad in the games which utilizes it. A guy on neo-geo.com which fairly recently released the ultimate adapter, Deadalus, told me he was looking into "my" adapter for a replacement board, similar to what he did for the phantom adapter, but has yet to get back to me on it. I think he is not prioritizing it now.
I did at one point basically "rent" a supergun and a mvs motherboard from Rot (well known Neo guy in UK) to try that route out, with the offer to buy it back if i didnt like it. I ended up selling it back to him. I am now looking at getting the Omega cmvs. Its similar to the wooden cmvs mentioned here, with the main difference the case being plastic, taking design queues from the AES. Its around $499 as a complete system so not cheap, but cheaper than the analogue one, and still OEM looking. If you want the cheapest possible option, the supergun + naked motherboard is usually the way to go.
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2 cents, buy a cab ( if you've got the room)
I got a 4 slot off CL a few years back for $75, guy couldn't verify if it worked or not because he didn't a cord for it, cracked it open and it had a Bust A Move 2 cart in it and a few others. This may be a rare find at this price but they pop up in the $250 range ( what I paid for my 2 slot with Pulstar and Bust a Move).
I prefer playing on the cab over the AES, just feels right. The cost of carts is another big selling point, I've managed to collect 74 AES games and I'm now at a stand still because of the high cost, but I've been able to pick up about 40 higher end games on MVS at a fraction of the cost. The only downside to the cab is maintance, seems like there is always something to tweek.
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(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/opibucket/2012-07-28_10-08-45_580.jpg)
this is all the AES I could ever own :(
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(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/opibucket/2012-07-28_10-08-45_580.jpg)
this is all the AES I could ever own :(
let's see how my katakana is these days...from left to right:
Blazing Star
Pulstar
Last Resort
Sonic Wings 2
Crossed Swords
Nam 1975
Metal Slug 2
Metal Slug 3
Metal Slug X
Metal Slug 4
Metal Slug 5
Sengoku Denshou
that's an expensive little collection there my friend
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AES games are way too much, better to get a consolized MVS, it is usually a fair bit more than an AES system, but the games are a lot cheaper.
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I went supergun (thanks ope!) cause I also wanted to buy pcb's as well as mvs. Best of both. Superguns can be tiny and a 1 slot mv1b or mv1fz are fairly tiny. A mv1C is top loading like an AES and is also fairly small.
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To the OP - sadly, I can't add much here that hasn't been said already. I myself bit the bullet last year and bought an AES. Games for it are not easy to find and when you do find them, they aren't cheap. MVS is the way to go if you hope to play most of the games, but I'm a stickler and want only official hardware for home use. And I have to say, even though my AES collection is small, it's a joy to own the games I do in original home cart packaging. Just holding one of those monster carts in your hand is very satisfying. They smell really nice too, seriously!
For those games that I'll never, ever be able to afford, I've bought Wii discs that have some of them. Metal Slug Anthology on Wii has MS 1 through 6, costs about $15 on Amazon but would cost about $7500 (??) if you found and bought the home carts. There's also a Samurai Shodown Anthology and a SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1, which has 16 games.
Good luck!
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Say, what do you guys in in the "know" think of the CD systems? Are they worth the price of admission, despite loading times, compared to AES/MVS?
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If you want cheap games the CD system is a good choice, but the load times do kill the neo-geo experience for me.
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I've played one, loading times kill it for me.
Granted the severity of loading times depends on the game (some games are actually fully playable) but in general it's rather sucky.
The CD consoles have become increasingly expensive too, I guess as more and more people jumped on the idea of cheaper Neo-Geo gaming demand for them went up, and with it prices.
Also, I don't think the entire library of games was released in the CD format, and I hate CD based consoles for reliability reasons.
Each to their own but it's not for me, and I've seen CD games sell for stupid prices too.
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Say, what do you guys in in the "know" think of the CD systems? Are they worth the price of admission, despite loading times, compared to AES/MVS?
In 1996, I'd totally recommend the Neo CD. The load time thing is hugely overrated by people who have never spent real time with the system, IMHO.
Now though, screw it. MVS is king. It's the truest arcade experince because the shit was actually IN arcades. Even without a UniBIOS you have no censorship, access to every language, multiple slots, cheaper games...there just isnt any contest.
Something to consider when looking at the sometimes high price of CMVS or Supergun setups: the standard Neo Geo has video output that can only be described as "shit", maybe even worse than a Mk I Genesis. Terrible. Assuming you're going to upgrade that anyway, consider that a CMVS will already have something like s-video or component of a superior quality installed.
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I've been wanting to get a supergun set-up for ages but have never gotten around to it. It's there a supergun set-up you guys recommend? I can solder things together but I'm pretty clueless about nitty gritty electronics so it would have to be fairly fool-proof. I'd also like to have something that looks clean rather than an exposed board, so I'd probably build/buy a case for it as well. A pre-made housing would probably be the best but I could make something out of plexiglass or something if need be.
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I don't see any way of using a Supergun without exposed PCBs. That's what a Supergun does...it plays PCBs. I guess stuff like CPS2 and Atomiswave is pretty console-like, but most boards earlier than the mid-90s are...a lot of green plastic and solder.
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The CD certainly has a place, but I wouldn't get any fighters newer than KOF 94. Shooters and other non fighting games are just fine on it. I have mine mostly for shooters like Last Resort that are too expensive in the other formats.
Also, I don't condone piracy, but the CD systems (other than the CDZ) have no copy protection. I may or may not have a binder with every Neo CD game ever in addition to me 10 or so CD games.
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I really like the CD system. It's the best option for a newbie to the Neo-Geo world who doesn't like dealing with the exposed PCBs of an MVS setup. And who doesn't mainly play fighting games.
Another cheap option is an MVS with multicart. If you have an RGB monitor already, setup can be extremely easy on the wallet: http://www.chrismcovell.com/diary.html#neo
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Allright, thanks for the input, people :)
Not on the fence of getting a Neo now but, maybe one day. Will probably avoid the fighters, or at least most of them. Not a fan.
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I don't see any way of using a Supergun without exposed PCBs. That's what a Supergun does...it plays PCBs. I guess stuff like CPS2 and Atomiswave is pretty console-like, but most boards earlier than the mid-90s are...a lot of green plastic and solder.
Ah yeah, I know the arcade boards will be exposed, but how about the actual supergun? I have a feeling I've seen them in nice cases.
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I don't see any way of using a Supergun without exposed PCBs. That's what a Supergun does...it plays PCBs. I guess stuff like CPS2 and Atomiswave is pretty console-like, but most boards earlier than the mid-90s are...a lot of green plastic and solder.
Ah yeah, I know the arcade boards will be exposed, but how about the actual supergun? I have a feeling I've seen them in nice cases.
Some are nicer than others, but there is no reason for any of them to have anything exposed. My favorite is the stuff from Sigma.
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I don't see any way of using a Supergun without exposed PCBs. That's what a Supergun does...it plays PCBs. I guess stuff like CPS2 and Atomiswave is pretty console-like, but most boards earlier than the mid-90s are...a lot of green plastic and solder.
Ah yeah, I know the arcade boards will be exposed, but how about the actual supergun? I have a feeling I've seen them in nice cases.
Some are nicer than others, but there is no reason for any of them to have anything exposed. My favorite is the stuff from Sigma.
Ah yes, those are the ones I am looking for. Seems like they aren't being produced any more. I'll have to keep my eye out for one for sale.
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Hell yeah man a sigma is the way to really go. Can be pricey but well worth it in the long run. There's people out there though that put some really nice small ones together.