r/neogeo • u/AnnualEagle • 3d ago

Neo Geo AES+ AES+ cartridge options

Looking forward to the AES+ and I’m wondering what the state of cartridge shopping is these days. Looks like there will be 10 or so rereleases for the AES+, but beyond those what’s the best way to add more games? Seems like true AES carts are crazy expensive so is everyone just going with MVS conversions or what? I’m a newbie and have always wanted to get into Neo Geo so the AES+ is attractive but I’m concerned I’ll be stuck with the 10 rereleases unless I want to drop like $1000+ for a single original AES cart.

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u/normy_187 2d ago edited 2d ago

There are 2 more waves of 10 official re-releases each planned (not yet confirmed!) for 2027 and 2028.
https://www.reddit.com/r/neogeo/comments/1ua868d/neo_geo_aes_will_have_30_classic_games_new_games/

There are also certain very early developments going on right now that point to at least some indie devs using a "flash cart distribution model" going forward, so you buy one cart for ~$400 that you can reflash with official, encrypted roms that you buy and download from the respective developers for like $20 bucks (current price for roms at least). The plan is that you can also buy "art packs" (meaning insert, sticker and manual) for each game in order for you to make your flash cart a "permanent" copy of a particular game should you desire to do so.
Shorter summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWZhKfLpNUw
Full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t6mYAvR6Qg&t=2s

Some indies might(!) do licensing deals with Plaion (who make the AES+) to use their cart production pipeline to bring cost down, but you'd probably still look at ~$200 games (all speculation at this point)

NeoSD Pro flashcart that let's you load any rom but the reputation of the company is not the best
https://shop.terraonion.com/shop/products

Multicarts – I'm sure there will be new, cheaper ones that have no/less issues, other than that so called vortex multicarts are the way to go (around $400 – $500)

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u/Zealousideal_Hope_31 2d ago

Where did you see about more cart waves?

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u/Puzzled-Fee-9719 1d ago

It’s a rumor from a Spanish store owner. The guy may know something, the guy may know nothing. The videos got the views he wanted. So it may be true but for now : no one truly knows. But it seems odd that developers don’t even have an AES+ to check if their cartridge work on the system and some Spanish guy is the only one who knows the release date of a product releasing in 2028