Gonna dive into Neo Geo AES collecting. Talk me down?

[KalessinDB]

Contributed. He's now up to 50 rewards to be claimed, and I just took #49.

The good news is, this will keep me from buying a consolized MVS

[mjmjr25]

I didn't see a price point on these? It's called "inexpensive" which could mean anything. These exist already w/the magic key being the newest and least issues to date. afaik, phantom, !arcade! and magic key all still pull $200-300, so i'd be interested what inexpensive and no cart shell mean.

[KalessinDB]

64 Euros, which is approx $86, plus shipping to the US from France on approx 250g...

So you're looking at roughly $100 is what I figure.

[Phades]

I'm relatively new to the MVS scene and have a 4-slot big red and about 30 MVS carts. I enjoy collecting for it more than any other console I've owned. Since the "official" case is just a plain cardboard box, I don't feel the need to go for those. I also don't feel like I'm "cheating" by going custom. I love the shockboxes and the fact that I can have a pristine looking stack of games sitting on my shelf. Plus there's the bonus that I get to choose my favorite artwork for them as well.

Sure, there's no real case or manual, but you can still collect the mini marquees for the games that have them. I think those are cool in and of themselves. I really enjoy changing out games in my 4-slot and being able to put in the appropriate mini, makes it feel pretty legit.

The big deal with the AES was that it delivered the exact same games you could play in the arcade and not just a conversion. If you already have the arcade, then what's the point?

[mjmjr25]

Well then, that isn't bad at all. It says 95% compatibility, i'm guessing it's going to have the usual lag and sprite issues w/Sam Sho IV, KoF 2003 and Last Blade 2, I think those are the big 3. I'm guessing no compatibility w/any of the new neg-dev games either.

At $100 they'll sell like hot-cakes.

[ApolloBoy]

Well then, that isn't bad at all. It says 95% compatibility, i'm guessing it's going to have the usual lag and sprite issues w/Sam Sho IV, KoF 2003 and Last Blade 2, I think those are the big 3. I'm guessing no compatibility w/any of the new neg-dev games either.

That's just the compatibility for the prototype, he says he'll be improving that for the actual production models. I'm not sure if he's going to add the backup RAM that the NG Dev Team games require, which is the main reason why they don't work on an AES.

[Toki]

I haven't read every reply so excuse me if this has been discussed... but the AES deal breaker for me was finding out that the RGB-out quality varies noticeably depending on what the serial number is. I've read AES "experts" say that it's best to get one between 20,000 and 30,000.

Get out while you can.

[KalessinDB]

Or just get one in that serial range

[Toki]

Or just get one in that serial range

(in hushed tones) ...but the cart prices, Hanzo... the cart prices...

[mjmjr25]

Alright - this was a fun re-read.

I took a lot of advice offered and learned a few things on the go. I completely abandoned US AES stuff. Not because of the price per se, but because of the hodge-podge / lack of consistency on artwork.

All JP artwork is uniform, at least to an extent - and it looks great next to each other.

I'm less than 10 carts from a complete set (of what I want) which is 60 titles I originally earmarked as having interest in. The continued releases by Neobitz and NG:DEV haven't helped as i've picked up most of those - so my list is now 65 strong, of which I have 55. I'll be posting up some pics later this week.

I recall thinking I wouldn't be able to enjoy having both MVS and AES collections, but I was wrong. I have a pretty hard and fast criteria.

If it is MVS only - I have it on MVS.
If it is MVS and AES and goes for under $1,000, I have it on AES.
If it is MVS and AES and goes for over $1,000, I have it on MVS.

There are very few titles i've let cross-over (ie, own on both platforms). Only my go-to's do I have on both - because I like the option to play on cab or console (Spin Masters, Top Hunter, and I think that's it now...)

Also, by going JP only, and going mini-box only (no shocks) they look entirely diffent on the shelf which is something that is important to my OCD.

The downside, if there has been one, is that for the most part i've financed the endeavor by moving other items. I don't have many regret - I sold off all of my Super Famicom CIB stuff, of which I had some very nice / very rare titles, I also sold off my entire N64 CIB library about a year too soon (it's worth almost 3x now what it was when I sold it, but...meh, it is what it is). I also sold off my SNES carts - again, probably at the wrong time, but again, what I have now takes up less space and gets more gameplay, so overall i'm happy. I've since reacquired most of SFC / SNES / N64 games I actually want (cart only this time, though). I've also trimmed back my GCN / SAT-J / DC-J libraries, again, to things I actually play only. My GCN collection used to be 300 strong, but 200 of those were filler, now it is down to 60 solid titles. My SAT-J and DC-J both were well over 100 each. DC-J is down to 10 titles and SAT-J is down to 24. I used to think I needed 50+ titles to justify owning a console, but now i've become ok w/having 5-10 titles, so long as they are good, so long as i'll play them, then it's worth keeping the controllers, cables, and console around.

tl;dr - i'm full into AES and enjoying it. I picked up 3 of the last dozen titles I originally earmarked. It's taken a little over 2 years and i'm mostly pleased w/the decision, with a few minor regrets. With less to play, i've gotten considerably better and more appreciative of the games in my favorite genres (shmups / run n' guns / fighters / arcade platformers).