The Neo Neo AES

 The mythical holy grail of 90's gaming…

If there is something comparable to legend, myth, or even tale, in the 90's gaming universe, that would be the Neo Geo AES. Yes, the console almost everyone lied about to their friends, bragging that a friend of a friend from their distant cousin of the mother's side, a rich kid had. Nobody had played it. It was simply too expensive.

It was around 1994 and I was in 8th grade. During the lunch break, after having my meal I went to the library and quietly read the gaming magazine I bought the day before. I came across a lengthy article about the AES and while I was going through it, a classmate of mine approached me from behind, looking over my shoulder. "What are you reading about?" he asked. I have to mention that this particular kid, was one of those that normally engaged in BS talking and when someone was talking about doing something, he just interrupted stating already he did the same or better.

So he looks at me and says: "I already have played that console". I answered "really?", faking some enthusiasm. Then he goes on: " my cousin that lives in the US has one and this last summer while vacationing here to see the family, they brought it over and we played all the time." It was funny that when some kid was "bullshiting" about something, it was always about a rich cousin from overseas, so I caught on quickly. 

And he goes about how amazing the sound and graphics were, and in the corner of my eye I could see the subtitle of the article: "Amazing graphics and sound that can blow you away!" And then he talks about a samurai fighting game they've been playing all day. Another thing to point out was this article featured some pictures of Samurai Showdown gameplay. 

Suddenly I think to myself: "this is ridiculous". 

What that colleague of mine didn't know was that I already played Samurai Showdown in the arcades. In Portugal, you can't be in arcades unless you are 16 years old but managed to sneak in once with some older kids from the neighborhood, some weeks before this episode. I was glued to that cabinet the entire time we were there, so I had some knowledge about the game. So I baited him out: "remember that ninja with the dog?" He answered, "yeah amazing". And I kept on" and the samurai girl with the hawk!" And he answered " awesome!" Finally I asked: " did you play with the guy with the shark?" And he answered, "yeah that was my favorite!". My reaction was "I am done with you mate".

I ended up saying: "There isn't a shark anywhere in this game. So stop lying." He just stormed off while the guys around me were laughing. Funny little story about this console.

I have never seen one live in the wild, ever.

 The AES was the home console version of the MVS, the coin-operated machine. They run the same hardware and software, making the console and games very expensive. Primarily it was targeted at the rental business but later became somewhat of a luxury item. About 1.18 M were sold worldwide, not a very high quantity, making it a rarity, and nowadays collecting for this system is a fortune.

Later Neo Geo introduced a CDRom version of the console, making it a lot more affordable, although launched in several markets, its price, weak marketing, and new 32-bit rivals, overshadowed this console.

In retrospect, I would love to have the arcade perfect experience at home, but the intangible nature of this system was something only dreams were made of…