How can you tell if a Neo-Geo AES cart is legit?

[digitalpress]

I've heard of MVS carts being converted into AES carts and I'm sure there are a number of other ways to pirate them. Is there any sure-fire way of telling for sure?

[Geddon_jt]

Joe,
Go to www.neo-geo.com and click on the master list link. There you will find links to pics for every officially released home cartridge. If it doesn't look like what's on the list, it's fake. (with the exception of a few insert variations, such as the dog tag US games). If it's blank next to the game under the region you've found the game in, that means it wasn't released in that region. (for example, avoid English versions of Pulstar and Blazing Star). And obviously there are also listed tons of games that never had a home release whatsoever. So if you have a home cart of Breakers Revenge or Money Puzzle Exchanger, for example, it is a guaranteed conversion.

It gets tricky when you have a high-quality copy of an original cart label for an officially released game. Then, you just have to crack it open and look at solderpoints.

Or, take a pic and email it to me and I'll tell you :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Ninja Master's, or maybe Metal Slug? :D

Anyhow, I was thinking the same thing. If the soldering job was very good, it might not be possible to easily tell...

[Geddon_jt]

Ninja Master's, or maybe Metal Slug? :D

Anyhow, I was thinking the same thing. If the soldering job was very good, it might not be possible to easily tell...

Yeah. The great thing though is that Neogeo games use multiple gigantic chips (40 pins each) in the cartridges. It's very, very easy to tell most of the time the difference between a hand and machine-soldered cart. The official games have perfect soldering where you are bound to have at least a couple misshappen globs among the hundreds of solderpoints on a conversion ;)

[DreamTR]

Best thing you can do is not take in any games that don't have manuals for the higher end titles...

[tholly]

this is suppose to be helpful....i dunno...

http://www.jamma.nl/gallery/bootlegs

[vincewy]

Most likely conversions (since no one is willing to conversion original cheap AES games) titles:

Blazing Star
Neo Turfmasters
Metal Slug
Ultimate 11
Magical Drop 2 and 3
Ninja Masters
Twinklestar Sprites

In the past, having a manual (with thin, light glossy paper)was a guarantee it's legit cart, not any more, you simply need to open up the carts and look at the solder point

The following are all fakes, MVS only but seen a lot as conversion:

Neo Bomberman
Shock Troopers
Strikers 1945
Super Dodgeball
Puzzle Bobble
Neo Driftout
Prehistoric Isles II

[XianXi]

Best thing you can do is not take in any games that don't have manuals for the higher end titles...

Unless they're dirt cheap, of course. :D

[whiteowl]

thanks joe for posting this topic and for selling me a NEO GEO AES from the DIGITAL PRESS store. Now alls i need is an English copy of Ultimate 11. 8-)

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah. The great thing though is that Neogeo games use multiple gigantic chips (40 pins each) in the cartridges. It's very, very easy to tell most of the time the difference between a hand and machine-soldered cart. The official games have perfect soldering where you are bound to have at least a couple misshappen globs among the hundreds of solderpoints on a conversion ;)
Now, this is probably a foolish question - but can one be certain that all the original joints were machine soldered? I assume so, but there's always the possibility...

[XianXi]

Yeah. The great thing though is that Neogeo games use multiple gigantic chips (40 pins each) in the cartridges. It's very, very easy to tell most of the time the difference between a hand and machine-soldered cart. The official games have perfect soldering where you are bound to have at least a couple misshappen globs among the hundreds of solderpoints on a conversion ;)
Now, this is probably a foolish question - but can one be certain that all the original joints were machine soldered? I assume so, but there's always the possibility...

Well my friend Joe bought his AES back when it first came out and had it in storage since then, he recently wanted to do the video mods to it. When we opened it up the some of the soldering looked like a human did it on a few of the connections.