Neo Geo AES early carton box releases - rarity/thoughts?

[Ed Oscuro]

Carton (i.e. like SNES, "cardboard") boxes were used for many Japanese release games (though all also got a plastic box release). Not surprisingly, they can be worth more when the box is in good enough condition (Neo-Geo.com lists games at about 3x price for a "high" condition cart box as they would for one in "low" condition), but not as much as you might expect - this style of release might not have been all that uncommon at first. They look good, too - the top, bottom, and sides are printed with a solid color (black for Nam-1975, red for Sengoku) and the game's title logo.

Both Nam-1975 and Sengoku have shown up recently in the carton box, whereas I haven't seen either as plastic releases. So, anybody comments on this?

[Gamereviewgod]

I have Ghost Pilots and Rayguy. I paid roughly regular price for both. I've seen Ghost Pilots a few times, but Rayguy like this only once. Neither of these have solid color boxes though.

[Ed Oscuro]

That means the flaps have more artwork printing on them, or..? Sounds neat, could use some info as I'm only working from Nam-1975 and Sengoku.

[The_Chosen_One]

I have a few, I know there are around 12 in all. Most of them aren't too difficult to find although I believe The Super Spy fetches insane amounts for the carton box version. There was one other I remember being rather expensive as well but it doesn't come to mind at the moment.

[Ed Oscuro]

Correct on all counts (17 carton releases)! I'd noticed about The Super Spy; it edges out Cyber-Lip (eh, that I'd be perfectly happy to have as a plastic box...) by $50, again from neo-geo.com...also, apparently ASO II only came in the carton box.

[rick weis]

i only have 3 that are in carton boxes ghost pilots, ASO II, baseball stars.

and for the dum question for the day, what does AES stand for?

Rick

[dojosky]

i only have 3 that are in carton boxes ghost pilots, ASO II, baseball stars.

and for the dum question for the day, what does AES stand for?

Rick

AES= stands for Advanced Entertainment System

[NESaholic]

AES= home console
MVS= arcade

[Cthulhu]

The cartons are really hard to keep in good shape since they're pretty thin and easy to dent...

My JP Alpha Mission 2 is -trashed-. The game itself still plays fine though, which is all I wanted when I bought it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Fresh off losing a whole three paragraph reply to Lendelin's topic... :/

The cartons are really hard to keep in good shape since they're pretty thin and easy to dent...

One thing I don't get is how the heck you're supposed to OPEN these boxes with flaps without doing damage. The flaps catch so the inside flap often bends at the middle so tabs on the top flap and flaps on the side/spine can slide past each other horizontally (sounds odd, but if you've opened a PC game box in recent times you know what I mean). The copy of Nam-1975 I got was like that. I prefer the Super Famicom (I guess the GBA is like that, too) style with a straight-across, no cut tabs style box with nothing to catch on. I suppose it's more dangerous if you're given to vigorously shaking your box up and down until the flap pops off and the tray slides out, but it honestly shouldn't be that big of a problem in practice. Oddness.