How to Spot a Fake Neo Geo AES Game

How to Spot a Fake Neo Geo AES Game - "On a Technicality"

Рет қаралды 5,894

4 жыл бұрын

Hello and welcome back to our side series "On a Technicality"
Today we are going to be discussing how to spot a fake Neo Geo AES game. Considering some of the more coveted games go for THOUSANDS of dollars, you don't want to get burnt on buying a fake.
Not in the video : smell. Real games smell very distinct. Like old cigarette smoke and vinyl plastics. Fakes don’t. But how do you show that on camera? Lol
Note : Don't take this video as the gospel! All high value AES games should be opened and the PCB's inspected prior to purchasing. I am just giving some best advice to spot something "fishy" before you get interested in picking a game up. Don't blame me if you buy a bootleg :) and don't be surprised if sellers say "I don't know how to open the cart"...because it's not easy to do withing potentially damaging the plastic tabs / creasing the cart label
Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and we will do our best to answer each and every one of them!
You can catch us at Instagram @ChicagoGameCollector. Want to chat? Join us on Discord! / discord
VGE

Пікірлер: 95

@ogcib 3 жыл бұрын

Great video! Only thing is as you graduate to high end AES collecting you can’t use board pics alone. The reason is some years ago when Japanese carts were cheaper some unScrupulous collectors tried to print US insert, manuals and stickers and use them with a Japanese cart. The price difference back then made the time worth it. The printing method can’t be replicated so what I tell people getting in the hobby to get a high power microscope or jewelry loop and learn how to study the printing.

@returnofmerenguespersempre6664 8 ай бұрын

Intriguing post! Is there any guidelines on how to study the printing available online and what to look for?

@VideoGameEsoterica 8 ай бұрын

Let me look around. You want to check for offset printing

@bjornh1527 4 жыл бұрын

An excitig riddle! I only have MVS games, seems very hard to tell a bootleg there as well...

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

MVS can be even harder sometimes considering how many variations exist

@nicolaspersijn 4 жыл бұрын

Saturn Bomberman! One of my most favorite soundtracks. Great stuff as always. Just started learning how to do mvs conversions myself for personal use. Wish the NeoSD mvs pro would release finally.

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

I wish the NeoSD was slightly cheaper too. So much $

@nicolaspersijn 4 жыл бұрын

Video Game Esoterica even at $600 it would still cheaper than one rare aes release

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Haha yes that is very true. I’ll pick one up eventually I’m sure

@BalloonFight 3 жыл бұрын

Hey there! Thank you very much for the video. Is there a resource out there that shows if certain games had possibly different color boards? I've heard that's a possibility but couldn't find a resource. Reason being, a store near me has a Sengoku 2 US AES, but the board is a green version, instead of the more white tone on the master list. I'm leaning towards it being a conversion, but I'm unsure if there's a possibility of there being different boards for that particular game. Any help would be EXTREMELY appreciated!

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

MVS-Scans. They are the resource on board revisions

@lustechsource5197 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info! I've read about reproduction carts for other consoles can have have different voltages that can damage the console. Is that a danger with NeoGeo also?

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Not that I’ve ever heard of our seen

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Or*

@zangardo3937 4 жыл бұрын

nice video. Is this the start of the new geo series?

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Not yet. But eventually :) it’s a one off video for now

@Riz2336 Жыл бұрын

I used to collect MVS carts and thankfully there's a site that documented the photos of all the legit boards, I only got burned on one cart and that was Metal Slug

@VideoGameEsoterica Жыл бұрын

Yes the board scans are legit a great resource

@Skizzix_ 4 жыл бұрын

Great content as always, I think as a rule of thumb in general for aes and mvs people should be asking for board pictures and checking the board themselves once they come in. Also unless my ear deceive me I hear some Saturn Bomberman music, A fellow man of taste. Shame that it will likely never get released again as in my opinion its the best official multiplayer bomberman experience. Though the fan game Power Bomberman is probably better.

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Best Bomberman ever. And yes rule of thumb is no board photos = don’t buy. It’s just too risky

@returnofmerenguespersempre6664 8 ай бұрын

Great video thanks! So basically if I have a kof 95 or ss2 aes copy Im "good" since noone bothers with making fakes of cheaper games?

@VideoGameEsoterica 8 ай бұрын

Yeah def safe :)

@returnofmerenguespersempre6664 8 ай бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica thank you very much!!!

@GiulioMa 3 жыл бұрын

Thumb up for you man!Thank you for this video! Btw I have got in the past a Japanese Fuun 2 Aes, I wondering if it is a legit one...😩Could you help me please?!

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Fuun 2? Sorry not sure what you mean?

@GiulioMa 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Sorry, I mean kizuna encounters japanese aes. I just read your comment on a blog in which you talk about the distinctive smell. Very interesting. I will subscribe to your channel right away. If possible I would like to contact you privately to show you some pictures of my aes cartridges to know if they are original....

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Feel free to email me. I can take a look. VideoGameEsoterica at the Google email company

@GiulioMa 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Done!!!Thank you in advance!

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Replied to your email

@alexanderthomson7993 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome video! I've been trying to track down a reasonably priced copy of garou and I'm wondering if you are willing to sell yours. Thanks

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately no mine is it for sale currently. I can ask around for you but what do you consider “reasonable”...so I know what your limit is. I know a bunch of collectors so if someone has one it helps me to know :)

@alexanderthomson7993 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica well I would like to get it for maybe 800$ but I'm willing to go much higher.

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

I’ll ask around but I think you’ll have to come up a bit if I find one. Like $950 is a good price for something not on eBay. If I hear of one for sale I’ll lyk

@alexanderthomson7993 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica thanks 😊. If you find one, just reply to this comment or email me at alexander.thomson@hotmail.com

@lain328 2 жыл бұрын

When you got down to the last four it was surprisingly easy to tell which one was the conversion/repro. Why I was able to easily tell this? If you look into the backstory about the cartridge size you'll soon realize that the original advertised Max size count was 330Mb. Pretty much anything over this size needed additional Hardware which none of the cheaper games can provide. For example you'll never find a conversion of metal slug X in higher because it requires additional Hardware. Unless they make a new PCB.

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

Also I left a visual tell. Did you notice? LOL

@lain328 2 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Not sure if I saw that visual tell. Personally I was thinking it was Pulstar for a good while but once you got the last four I was like yep it's definitely Pulstar.

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

I left a secret hint in. Obviously Neo Bomberman never released on AES but Pulstar in the opening shot is NOT in a protective case. At least if I am remembering correctly

@NeoTurboManiac78 4 жыл бұрын

I once opened my Japanese AES copy of King of Fighters '96, using two bank cards, because I feared it was a bootleg, due to having a defective manual. The pages were out of order, upside down, and some were uncut. It turned out it was legit and SNK doesn't have the best quality control. I agree that the game's value is the best indicator, without having to open the carts. For the cart labels, yeah they weren't placed perfectly, especially for some of the early games, which had the Japanese label sticking out underneath an English one.

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

SNK’s quality control has all around iffy lol so I’m not surprised that happened

@ArmodiloGames 3 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry I have to ask this here, I've been struggling to look for help. But heck, you're reprable. I have myself a fine looking copy of kof 2000, boards okay, box as it should be, but when ever I boot it up before the title loop it will display an 'MVS SLOT CHECK VER.2 30' screen. I can't seem to find any mention of this screen anywhere, you're my last resort to confirm if this is a result of my console's mystery mods or if it's a conversion cart. Sorry for the trouble.

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

And it’s an AES cart? Go to Neo-Geo.com forums and join. Post in the “boot or no boot” forums with photos. You will get help (I’ll look too)

@ArmodiloGames 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Sadly enough, I made an acount for the NeoGeo forums, but I'm too internet illiterate these days to figure out how to post anything. I honestly tried. I am but a Neo chump ya see. (It is an AES)

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Without photos it’s hard to say but it sounds odd to me. Japanese copy AES?

@ArmodiloGames 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Yeah that's right, just before the title, its a black screen with white text, mvs slot check ver .2 30 00/04/25. I thought it awfully suspicious, but the physical unit is pristine, offset printing and all.

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

I’ll ask around

@daviddefortier5970 4 жыл бұрын

You separated pulstar saying the print quality of the cover looks good.. but to me it looks dark and muddy. I got confused when you said its not pulstar, then later came back and said it was pulstar after all

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

On camera it’s hard to balance all the diverse colors and brightness against one another. In person without a loupe you’d have no idea the Pulstar insert wasn’t original

@ConversusVans Жыл бұрын

Do those "fake" cartridges have complete reproduction PCBs with a black blob instead of an IC? That's normally the best way to identify fakes, but Nintendo was guilty of officially using epoxy instead of an IC in later Game Boy carts of Tetris. Manufacturers did that to cut on costs dramatically. Label quality is also a great sign; oftentimes I've seen stretched images.

@VideoGameEsoterica Жыл бұрын

Depends. Some make brand new pcb’s that are obvious. Others use MVS roms and sac carts and are much LESS obvious. Those you need to look at the solder joints / manuals / art for issues

@signorpaldoni 3 жыл бұрын

I know its the biggest on the noobs questions , but I used to collect AES (twenty-ish years ago, stopped completely in 2004) and I still own the ones i bought BITD...lately I felt like starting again , not going for a complete collection of course, just trying to get a few games that I loved and didn't have the chance to buy back then. Most of the cheap ones I can get pretty much everywhere (ebay, nin nin etc)...but since there are two expensive games on my wishlist (namely MOTW and KOF 2003) would anyone suggest me how to safely shop for these two? Which online shop is trusted, or something along those lines. Any help is appreciated!

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

The Neo-Geo.com forums are the best place to buy authentic games from trusted members. Only issue is DONT sign up and go right to the marketplace section. Become an active member and talk to people before trying to buy or sell. Hit the markets too soon and people will turn on you!

@signorpaldoni 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Super fast reply, thank you. I still have my old account and went there to check on the marketplace right now. Looks pretty deserted...is that normal? Anyway thanks for the tip, hope to find my games soon.

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah things don’t change hands that often. You can always post a WTB (want to buy) thread as well so people know you are looking.

@spagbowlsparmacheese629 4 жыл бұрын

Digitally printed manuals scratch.. they’re cheaper to make. Offset printing lasts longer but costs $$$ to make up plates etc..

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Makes sense!

@ahmadalkhashti7676 2 жыл бұрын

What about sealed AES games?

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

They were never really “sealed”, just closed with a sticker.

@turbolenza35 3 жыл бұрын

Original Pulstar has no yellow sticker.

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

That’s true too :)

@Viciouspiked 2 жыл бұрын

my question is why do people try to charge out the ass for conversion carts?

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

Because it’s Neo Geo and they think they can get it

@robertwilson3866 4 жыл бұрын

I guessed Pulstar because you didn't have it in a protective case - dead giveaway!

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Haha can't blame me for hiding a spoiler

@neogenesis7706 4 жыл бұрын

I thought it was pulstar because you didnt have it in a sleeve lol

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Lol it was a slight joke for the observant

@jonniefast Жыл бұрын

my blazing star is real 🥺 my copy of pulstar... is a conversion 😈

@VideoGameEsoterica Жыл бұрын

Did you know it was a conversion when you bought it? Hope so lol

@robertwilson3866 4 жыл бұрын

Have often wondered if my KOF 2004 AES is a fake but it's really hard to find images online to compare it with. That's the problem with rare games

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Do you mean 2003? lol because there isn’t a 2004

@signorpaldoni 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica I think he was jokingXD

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Lol you never know

@mannion1985 2 жыл бұрын

The smell. that's it.

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

They smell so distinctive

@nikoxenos6237 4 жыл бұрын

Fun video. A whodunit.

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

Haha yeah I wanted it to be a bit fun

@adrianebattilana2949 4 жыл бұрын

❤️

@VideoGameEsoterica 4 жыл бұрын

;)

@demonology2629 4 жыл бұрын

If conversion have actual SNK MVS chips in it, then its actually legit 🙏🏻☯️🐲

@VideoGameEsoterica 3 жыл бұрын

Quasi-legit. Not something you'd want to pay market AES prices for

@demonology2629 3 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica Yes you are RIGHT! 🙏🏻☯️🥶

@jp980- 2 жыл бұрын

🚫🥾

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

LOL I didn’t even know there was a boot emoji

@fuzzbear677 2 жыл бұрын

I'm going to tell you some thing I just got fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves American English conversion but trip this out this is a high-quality conversion and you know what I'm talkin about the ones that are made with all Snk Hardware authentic those are the conversions that cost from 800 to 1000 and some dollars because they are made with 100% snk Hardware the insert the manual everything was done 100-percent professionally authentic snk Hardware no fake Rome's no fake chips or nothing like that with those are high-quality conversions that cost money I know you seen them befor if you want great qualities and close to athletic you got to get those meaning if you go and get a mark of wolves authentic and open it and will have the same snk Hardware as a the conversion that I have he did such a good job you can't even tell it's like a virgin I paid $837 for it top that if you can respond I would love your feedback on this 🕹🎮😀👍🏾

@VideoGameEsoterica 2 жыл бұрын

Is it marked as aftermarket? Because of its not that’s the type of thing I can’t get behind. Sure you say it’s a conversion...and if you sell it you’ll probably let the next person know. But a lot of people out there sell these as real

@fuzzbear677 2 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica and it's a little heavier than the other cartridges all cartridges don't way out the same you can tell if you look at the board's they brand new it was done nice yeah all real Snk Hardware authentic it's other collectors out there that make them a hundred percent authentic that's why they cost so much I seen nightmare in the dark for like $1,500 trust me t here nice 🕹🎮😀😡

@fuzzbear677 2 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica it was only one Fury market of wolves American conversion that I seen in that's the one I bought and 181 people had it in a basket on eBay and I'm the one that bought it I paid $837 for it he wanted more but I talked him down like a hundred dollars Ivy did it was nice it was awesome and if you open the boards you can see nothing but snk Hardware which in my words makes it authentic just like the original🕹🎮😀👍🏾

@fuzzbear677 2 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica I'm glad I got my hands on it I can tell you that I seen the original Mark of the Wolves America at the Neo store and that was $11,000 which I'm not going to pay I paid $837 close to original the insert the manual everything was done professionally when you look at this I'm very happy with it's one of the best conversions out there even better then nci it if you seen it you would try to buy it from me thanks for your time nice talkin to you brother keep putting great video out there you'll see me on KZfaq one day 🕹🎮😀👍🏾

@fuzzbear677 2 жыл бұрын

@@VideoGameEsoterica oh one more thing brother the dude that made this says he won't make anymore because they're too expensive to make he says it's the last one I got it from a cat out of Philadelphia I may get a mark of the Wolves Japanese original cuz those are more common later on I'm out nice talking to you brother 🕹🎮😀👍🏾