Neo Geo AES - Serial # Question

Hello all.

I wouldn't say this is rare and obscure, but I could use your assistance on a question that was submitted to me on the Neo Geo AES system. The visitor's exact question:

"How can you tell the difference between a neo geo u.s. version vs. japan
version? What does the serial# of the system have do with its value?"

I am aware of the correlation of the serial number and the motherboard revision and video output capabilities. I have no idea if there is a relationship in this number that identifies it as a Japanese or North America release. I have the AES Gold NA system, but checking the serial (027768) really tells me nothing. The person who asked me the question has a serial # of 000110 (yes - very low).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Terry

 

Umm, if you know it isn't a rare issue, why not post it in general gaming?

The serial number has little to do with its value, unless you want a particular revision.

How do you tell if its Japanese or English? Obviously you know the games aren't region locked. The system determines the language, not the game. There are a number of ways to tell....

1. Put a game in and see what language is used.
2. Play certain games and see whether the blood is red or green. I think Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown.
3. Pick up the manual and see whether it is in English or Japanese. English looks like the words you see on this very forum, Japanese is a bunch of characters ;-)

For anything more advanced, you're better off asking on the popular forum for Neo Geo. It should be one of the top google results for Neo Geo ;-)

 

The North American, and Japanese consoles are exactly the same, save some settings inside. Serial numbers don't give away which model it is, but it's apparent because even games with english cases will play in japanese.

It's very easy to switch out the bios chip inside for the better unibios, to allow for language switching, and a cheat engine of sorts.

Also, every AES system can play every game, the games contained the ROM data for both languages. Hope that clears things up.

 

Ooh yes, forgot to mention that - if the system has the UniBIOS in it and is unboxed, you would probably have great difficulty telling what region it is!

 

Thanks for the quick response and confirming that the actual serial number does not designate the region release for the AES. I was pretty sure that this was the case, but I could not verify it. As you have stated, simply turning on the AES will tell you what region it is currently set to. I believe the person that submitted this question to me is trying to identify if his newly acquired AES was modified in any way (switched manually to English) and wanted to be able to check the serial number to verify the region of release.

Thanks again for the help guys... it is appreciated.

 

huh? green? My mvs is a US with a US bios and my samurai showdown 2 and 4 both have red blood. So either japan got green blood or maybe I have the wrong samurai showdown?

 

Well, I don't know for sure, but the case with sam sho V special was that the fatalities were too "real", or gory or something, so they recalled the games and had the games PROMs re-burned. Some games have cool gore, some don't. Unibios fixes it though, Razoola is awesome :nod:

 

Well done there! I said Samurai Showdown, not Samurai Showdown II, nor Samurai Showdown IV: Amakusa's Revenge. I do not use the phrase "Samurai Showdown" to mean the whole range of games, I would say "the Samurai Showdown series", nor do I have the need that so many Americans have to put a 1 in front of a game that doesn't exist in the title just because a second game has been released. When I say Samurai Showdown, I mean the game Samurai Showdown.

That said, I can't remember whether it was just the CD version that had green blood or if the AES version did, too.

 

Surely you mean Samurai Shodown?

 

LMAO! That's what comes of posting at stupid o'clock in the morning ;-)

 

I'd argue that the serial number does affect value as certain SN ranges have better video quality than others.

 

Only marginally, only if you're worried about that and only if the seller knows! ;-)

 

I agree Maks - I was just originally checking in this thread to see if it had anything to do with the country of origin (Japan or North American).

 

Well, there are some people who seek systems in the 300,000+ serial number range because they were the last ones released and should theoretically last longer than the first release consoles. Apparently, systems with a serial number of under 90,000 have a motherboard which can be modded for RGB which has additional value to some people.

 

Er the Neo Geo outputs RGB as standard anyway...

 

There was a component mod by someone on the NG forum. Whether it needed a certain PCB I can't remember. It's quite bad that I've forgotten his name and all info, as I helped him source the parts he was after!

 

It's actually kind of a fiasco, there's two people who really service the home consoles, Jeff Kurtz (JMKurtz), and Kenny (KPJ).

Jeff is a good guy, who has great prices on the mods, and Kenny is a whole 'nother story.

He was determined to learn how to mod, and swore his prices would be the best. Lo and behold, his prices are outrageous, he buys up cheap games and marks them up a load, and has become the new Neo Geo antichrist (in place of NGF, a looong story)

There's a little piece of Neo Geo history :thumbsup:

 

Jeff Kurtz! That's him!! I thought his name was Jeff but I didn't want to say it in case it wasn't! He is a great guy indeed, I would highly recommend him.

Oh, so people aren't so mad at those other two now, then? I've forgotten their names, too. Too much bitchiness in the NG community, it seems!

 

Well, this is simple you have two revision : low serial, and high serial.

Low serial range start at 1 and end at 33000.

The low serials, works at 5v and 3a with a custom SNK psu. Early japanese and european model are concerned. Moreover, RGB signal of these models has the best image quality (no dithering or flickering).

The high serial start at 40000 to the end. It work with a "standard" Genesis PSU at 9v and ~800ma\1a. However, RGB output give a strange image, edges are blurry and sometime, it has some dithering on plain colors.

Best choice is a low serial japanse Neogeo (for BIOS). Otherwise you can take an European Neogeo, but you will have an US BIOS.

 

Well, Chris and Dion messed everything up so bad, you end up just accepting it, and pointing the finger at the next guy.

Long story short, these guys started "Correcting" the inserts on games, completely ruining them. SNK sued them, these idiots managed to win, and now could put official on all their product. Then they started selling everything at high prices, selling boots, selling conversions, it was a mess.

Plus, they were douche-bags.

http://neogeofreak.com/stock/boxd.jpg