WTB: Neo Geo AES System

[sirhcman]

I am in search of a Neo Geo AES system. Can be either US or JP, I don't care. Preferably I am looking for a sub 80,000 serial number model since those seem to have the best RGB output. Controllers and extra games are nice but not necessary. If you or someone you know has a system for sale please let me know, I can pay by paypal right away!


Thanks!

[sirhcman]

bump. I am still searching for a console

[HuMan]

Preferably I am looking for a sub 80,000 serial number model since those seem to have the best RGB output.

And you would be wrong. Mine is 47k and it has ok not great RGB. The color saturation is a bit weak on it. No issues otherwise. The best AES is a high serial, 150k and up. You want AES3-6, it has excellent RGB quality. The only downside is there's faint vertical lines. The fix involves cutting three unused traces on the board (jamma-nation-x.com has instructions). If you're careful, it's very easy to do on your own. That board revision has the best RGB the AES has to offer.

[sirhcman]

Preferably I am looking for a sub 80,000 serial number model since those seem to have the best RGB output.

And you would be wrong. Mine is 47k and it has ok not great RGB. The color saturation is a bit weak on it. No issues otherwise. The best AES is a high serial, 150k and up. You want AES3-6, it has excellent RGB quality. The only downside is there's faint vertical lines. The fix involves cutting three unused traces on the board (jamma-nation-x.com has instructions). If you're careful, it's very easy to do on your own. That board revision has the best RGB the AES has to offer.

Thanks for your info, I am just going by what DragonmasterDan suggested and the link he sent me to read: http://nfggames.com/games/neorgb/

[HuMan]

That nfggames article is older than dirt and extremely out of date.

http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html

NeoGeo > AES > RGB Ratings for AES

Now although the 3-6 gets a B-, it's for stock RGB quality. Make that trace cut fix and the RGB is A quality.

The trace cut guide is in that same section.

[Zero_Gamer]

Have you tried Hit Japan? He gave me a great deal on a boxed one via offer. Changed my mind, and he graciously canceled too. Ended up getting an Omega CMVS.

[SignOfZeta]

So how bad is “bad” RGB? I ask because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen RGB on anything that I had a strong opinion about one way or another unless it was missing a channel or something.

[elmer]

That nfggames article is older than dirt and extremely out of date.

OTOH ... he actually has pictures, and his pictures show what-I-would-call over-saturation on the later models, but that's just a personal preference.

http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html

NeoGeo > AES > RGB Ratings for AES

Now although the 3-6 gets a B-, it's for stock RGB quality. Make that trace cut fix and the RGB is A quality

That guide makes it look like they *all* need modifying, with either trace cuts or recapping, and it seems to imply that they're *all* A-rated after the different fixes.

Do you have any info that shows that rev 3-6 is better than any of the others after the "fix" on that site?


Either way, this really reminds me that I should probably sell my AES some day soon (CIB US version, 16xxx serial number). Especially since the ASO 2 & Viewpoint carts that I have, have hit crazy pricing at this point. 

[SmokeMonster]

Voultar has a nice 7374 RGB bypass amp in the works for AES, and I believe that an MVS version will follow.

[SignOfZeta]

RBG amps for MVS?

...I don’t understand modern gaming. Is this for picky upscalers or something?

To clarify, I’ve only ever owned Neo CD and MVS boards so I’ve not seen “bad” video from a Neo before.

[HuMan]

OTOH ... he actually has pictures, and his pictures show what-I-would-call over-saturation on the later models, but that's just a personal preference.

OTOH ... jamma-nation-x goes by board revision which is significantly more helpful. At best, AES serials give you a vague indication of the board inside. At worst, it doesn't help at all. SNK used to give refurbished boards new serial stickers. It's not uncommon to find AES consoles with serials that don't fit with the board revision.

That guide makes it look like they *all* need modifying, with either trace cuts or recapping, and it seems to imply that they're *all* A-rated after the different fixes.

Do you have any info that shows that rev 3-6 is better than any of the others after the "fix" on that site?

The problem is almost every AES revision was poorly designed in some regard, like the reversed stereo audio on the AES3-4 or the vertical lines in the AES3-6.

The AES3-6 has very clear RGB with correct colors, perfect saturation. The problem is the vertical lines, but it's an easy fix. The AES3-5 is good too if you can find one without the weird checkerboard effect in the video. The AES3-6 is also very common, unlike the older board revisions, just find a high serial AES (150k+).

The problem with the earlier boards is the color saturation is either too weak (AES3-4, AES3-3) or too strong (NEO-AES with or w/o daughterboard).

[SignOfZeta]

It sounds like the AES is a piece of shit.

[elmer]

OTOH ... jamma-nation-x goes by board revision which is significantly more helpful. At best, AES serials give you a vague indication of the board inside. At worst, it doesn't help at all.

Absolutely, a board-revision is a much more solid way of determining *why* a situation exists, and *how* to fix it. But it involves opening up the case and looking, which not-everyone is willing to do.

It also doesn't rectify the issue that the jamma-nation-x site doesn't show any before-n-after screenshots, and just asks you to bow to their wisdom.

That wisdom might well be rock-solid, but I wish that they'd actually backed it up with decent screenshots.

It sounds like the AES is a piece of shit.

Yeah, I've been dumb and just plugged the darned thing in and enjoyed the games. Stupid me! 

I didn't realize that the games would have played better or been more fun if only I'd had a different board revision, or had swapped out my capacitors! 

[sirhcman]

I didn't realize that the games would have played better or been more fun if only I'd had a different board revision, or had swapped out my capacitors! 

Well since you are not having the most fun possible maybe you want to sell?

[SignOfZeta]

If I had to guess I would imagine that getting good captures of the phenomenon is extremely difficult and time consuming if not impossible. We’re talking about some serious hair splitting, it sounds like.

I mean, the composite being absolutely terrible on some AES is not debatable, but can we actually *see* this kinda shit? Over the Internet? And since I know how to adjust my display does it even f*cking matter?

There was that guy here who was hyping up amping the audio of the PCE so his TV speaker wouldn’t sound so out of wind and I’m like...don’t you have a f*cking $20 Craigslist stereo you can just crank up? I have 700W in front of my PCE, as well as equalization options, what comes out of the PCE is not great but I fix it.

Isn’t “saturation” in RGB just a matter of attenuation anyway? Can’t I just turn that shit down? I mean, not with some shitty eBay transcoder maybe but with SD monitors and/or pro shit?