Help identifying AES model?

[GohanX]

Dip Codes

This has the general info for that bios. You can mostly ignore the dip instructions, the main way I used it was to just boot the system in MVS mode in the region of my choice and change the softdips to enable blood, change options, etc. It's not as elegant as the Unibios but it gets the job done.

In a perfect world the installer put in a socket so it would be really easy to swap the debug bios chip with a Unibios yourself, but the dreaded "piggyback" method of installation was pretty common at the time.

 

[edd_jedi]

Update, I went ahead and bought the console. It turned out to have a 3-5 motherboard, and was a PAL console. It's in really nice cosmetic condition. I sent it to a company called Bytesfree who previously installed my NGCD SD Loader, and had the following work done:

• Replaced ancient Debug BIOS with UniBIOS 4.0
• Full recap
• 50/60hz switch (useless maybe, but as it's a PAL console I wanted to keep the 50hz option)
• RGB mod
• Stereo sound mod

I have also picked up a new power supply for it, as I was getting weird graphics glitches with a 161-in-1 multi-cart (they are known to draw more amps than the original PSU can supply.) I followed this guide to find the correct type, but due to the expense of importing one from America to the UK I found this one on eBay which is working great, no more glitches. So if you are in the UK and have a 9v AES, I can recommend the above PSU which is only £12.99.

Here's before and after photos of the mothterboard.

 

[Tarma]

Nice work. Recap seems a bit overkill as the AES (or any other SNK home hardware for that matter) is not known for bad caps.

How come the RGB mod? AES does RGB out the box, SNK even offered an official RGB Scart lead for them (for the Japanese market).

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

Nice work. Recap seems a bit overkill as the AES (or any other SNK home hardware for that matter) is not known for bad caps.

How come the RGB mod? AES does RGB out the box, SNK even offered an official RGB Scart lead for them (for the Japanese market).

ultimate rgb with ultimate pal switch

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah the recap was preventative maintenence rather than a necessity, but seemed sensible to have it done with all the other work. The RGB picture without the mod is quite grainy, it was especially noticeable on solid colours. It looks a lot better now.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

This switch is definitely useless on the Neo Geo. Only PAL optimized games would need such a switch.

 

[Neo Alec]

How come the RGB mod? AES does RGB out the box, SNK even offered an official RGB Scart lead for them (for the Japanese market).

The 3-5 revision has bad checkerboarding unless you do the RGB bypass mod. I assume that's what he means.

 

[Tarma]

The 3-5 revision has bad checkerboarding unless you do the RGB bypass mod. I assume that's what he means.

Oooh, I did not know this. Everyday is a school day! What did SNK do to make the RGB output shitty when creating this revision?

 

[madmanjock]

Update, I went ahead and bought the console. It turned out to have a 3-5 motherboard, and was a PAL console. It's in really nice cosmetic condition. I sent it to a company called Bytesfree who previously installed my NGCD SD Loader, and had the following work done:

• Replaced ancient Debug BIOS with UniBIOS 4.0
• Full recap
• 50/60hz switch (useless maybe, but as it's a PAL console I wanted to keep the 50hz option)
• RGB mod
• Stereo sound mod

I have also picked up a new power supply for it, as I was getting weird graphics glitches with a 161-in-1 multi-cart (they are known to draw more amps than the original PSU can supply.) I followed this guide to find the correct type, but due to the expense of importing one from America to the UK I found this one on eBay which is working great, no more glitches. So if you are in the UK and have a 9v AES, I can recommend the above PSU which is only £12.99.

Here's before and after photos of the mothterboard.

View attachment 60152

View attachment 60151

Nice, my AES has the debug bios and I’ve been thinking of upgrading it. Do you mind me asking what all that work cost? I’m guessing in the region of at least £100.

 

[edd_jedi]

Nice, my AES has the debug bios and I’ve been thinking of upgrading it. Do you mind me asking what all that work cost? I’m guessing in the region of at least £100.

It was just under £150 for all the work. The BIOS replacement (in a socket, just in case pigs fly and an update is ever released) on its own would have been £40. I've used James to do several mods for me on other consoles and the work has always been done to a high standard.

 

[madmanjock]

It was just under £150 for all the work. The BIOS replacement (in a socket, just in case pigs fly and an update is ever released) on its own would have been £40. I've used James to do several mods for me on other consoles and the work has always been done to a high standard.

Cool, I’d be tempted to get the bios done and the caps replaced while I’m at it - as you did as a preventative measure. I might give him a go. Thanks!

 

[GohanX]

Oooh, I did not know this. Everyday is a school day! What did SNK do to make the RGB output shitty when creating this revision?

In some of those revisions SNK had the bad habit of running their RGB traces near chips that created noise. The fix is really simple on those models though. Unfortunately, this has also created a trend of retronoobs wanting to RGB mod all the models unnecessarily when the problem only affects a few.

I had a component modded system I bought some time ago that I think was a 3-5, and it had visible vertical lines in it at all times, bad enough that I thought the system was broken and almost sent it back. It was an easy fix though and the system was gorgeous afterwards.

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah I did test this console before sending it off for the RGB mod in case it was OK without, but the 'checkerboarding' was really noticeable on the blue SNK logo when the system boots. Now it looks a nice flat blue. I should have taken before and after photos, but there are plenty of examples online already.

 

[Neo Alec]

Oooh, I did not know this. Everyday is a school day! What did SNK do to make the RGB output shitty when creating this revision?

Yeah, the issues with RGB on the different board revisions are common knowledge in the Tech Support forums. Not only is there interference from traces that can be cut, but also the RGB off the Sony encoder they went with on later models is not great. Hence people mod the system to "bypass" the encoder and use the raw RGB instead.

The earliest board revisions generally don't have this problem and don't need to be modded. But you can't always tell from serial number alone.