SNK's home console conversion of their wildly popular arcade systems. Releasing on July 1st, 1991 in North America and Japan, the Neo Geo AES was a powerful system but limited in it's appeal and market dominance, mostly due to high prices and a genre-limited game library. Specifications-wise, the AES has a Motorola 68k CPU with Zilog Z80A co-processor, 64 KB of RAM + 84 KB of VRAM + 2KB sound memory, and an output resolution of 320×224 with up to 4096 colors out of a 65536 palette. Despite not selling high amounts, the home version of the Neo Geo garnered quite a devoted fan following which persists today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_(system)

For general information, see the Game Console Revisions Overview.

There is one version of this console.

The very expensive home counterpart of the Neo Geo MVS arcade. Powerful and concise, but lacking in EOPs. On top is the reset button and the cartridge slot. Nothing on the bottom or the sides. To the back is the A/V out and the AC in. Up front is the power switch, the headphone out + volume, two controller ports, and the memory card slot. The entire console is flat, rectangular, and in black, with a gold Neo Geo logo on top.

There are four revisions within the Neo Geo AES.

The first revision set of the AES, of which one doesn’t have a daughter board. To identify, simply shine a light inside the cartridge slot’s right, and look inside the slot towards the edge of the system. If there’s no “x-x” number, it’s one of these. These systems have great RGB output, but perfecting it does require changing some capacitors. Furthermore, they do not have the poor sound issues experienced on 3-3 and 3-4 systems. While not ideal, these are not the worst, and their better audio + good RGB might’ve lead to the “low serial=better” rumor in the Neo Geo community.

DO NOT PURCHASE

These revisions are the absolute worst of all the AES consoles. Simultaneously worsening the RGB output and ruining the sound capabilities of the system, there is no reason to purchase one of these. The RGB issues can’t even be fixed on the 3-3, and the 3-4 requires significant modding. At least the audio issue can be modded out. Avoid this revision at all costs. Identified with the “shine a light inside the cartridge slot, to the right” method; look for a 3-3 or 3-4 identifier.

A bit of a forgotten revision, and very close to perfect, but not exactly. The sound is nothing like the poor quality of the 3-3 and 3-4, but the stereo channels have been swapped for some reason. Furthermore, the RGB video output is perfect on most 3-5s, but some systems will experience inexplicable pattern distortion. For the most part, these are perfectly fine. However, the 3-6 is a bit better as it’s not a gamble, which is covered in detail below…

RECOMMENDED OVERALL

At times, this revision was maligned by the community, but in actuality, they are just as good as the 3-5. Despite their poor stock RGB output, their sound is equal to the 3-5s. Furthermore, the RGB quality issue can be completely fixed with a recently discovered “easiest hardware mod ever”. To do it, the user simply needs to put 6 little cuts on the motherboard, severing 3 particular traces on both ends. That’s it. In the past, people did a more complex method that also fixed the RGB, but that older method KILLS composite output, so do NOT use it. As always, use the “shine a light” method to identify these. Furthermore, it appears that serial numbers above ~20000 will be of this revision.

LOWEST PRICE and BEST RELIABILITY couldn’t be assigned.

https://www.retrorgb.com/neogeo.html (AVOID the “RGB Bypass” link, as it kills composite; use the trace cut method instead!!)

http://www.firebrandx.com/aes3-3-3-4audiofix.html (3-3 and 3-4 audio fix)

http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html (cart slot shine a light identification)

https://mmmonkey.co.uk/snk-neo-geo-aes-rgb-neo-aes3-6-vertical-lines/ (NEW 3-6 trace cut - best guide, easy to understand)

http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/tutorials.html?show=aesvideolines (NEW 3-6 trace cut)

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/which-aes-model.243996/

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/best-neo-geo-aes-motherboard-version.235140/ (general overview of many revs)

https://www.reddit.com/r/neogeo/comments/lsfvt4/are_low_aes_serial_numbers_still_a_thing/

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/the-audio-issue-of-aes-revision-3-4.198891/