In early 1990’s era when competitors like the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx-16 were battling for the home-gaming market, the madlads at SNK took a rather different approach: “what if we crammed the guts of our top-of-the-line arcade machine into a sleek console and sold it for 3X more than the other guys?”

Thus was born the SNK Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System, or AES. Judging by pure specs alone, this thing is in a class of its own, capable of graphical and auditory sophistication way, WAY beyond its peers. Aesthetically, it looks every bit the ultra-premium product that it was: sleek black case, over-engineered click-pad controller, and game cartridges the size of a small aircraft carrier. 

Where other systems offered “reasonable approximations” of popular arcade titles of the day, the AES said “screw that, here’s the literal same exact code from the arcade game, running in your living room. Oh, and if you make progress in your game at your favorite arcade, save it to your memory card and pick up where you left off at home.” It’s basically impossible to overstate how impressive this machine was at the time, and still is today. 

Interestingly, the AES (home console) and MVS (arcade machines build using the same technology) can play the exact same games, but the physical format of the cartridges for is different for each. Because the AES wasn’t a big seller and because of all the advanced tech involved, games for the system were always expensive (often $200-$300 when new), and today some of them valued for as much as $10,000 - $30,000 *each.* 

Because SNK sold way more Neo Geo arcade machines than home consoles, it’s usually cheaper to buy the arcade (“MVS”) version of a game and an adapter to allow it to physically plus into the home console (“AES”). Alternately, there are “multi-carts” that include dozens of games on one cartridge - a far more economical option, and one which I look forward to experiencing for myself.

Just in case anyone reading this happens to be a Neo Geo expert, I’ve got a question: The previous owner let me know that it’s difficult to insert and remove the game carts, but I’m honestly shocked by how much force I had to apply to get a game to “sit” fully in the slot. Now that the cartridge is in there, trying to remove it requires so much effort that I’m genuinely worried I’m going to crack something. I’ve watched YouTube videos where other AES owners can insert and remove cartridges fairly easily, while I’m over here literally bracing the console against my feet on the floor to try to lever the cartridge back out. What can/should I do to make inserting and removing games less terrifying? Can the grip / tension of the twin cartridge slots be loosened?