The Neo Geo AES+, a remake of SNK's '90s home arcade console, is currently delayed until September 2027, but it almost didn't happen at all. While you'd be forgiven for thinking AI data centre demand exclusively ties to GPUs, RAM, and high-spec components, it's also hogging up the very flash chips the system will rely on, and creators Plaion say the project was "almost dead."
In a conversation with VGC, Plaion's hardware & software director Ben Jones dives into the AI-driven predicament that almost cancelled the Neo Geo AES+. The main retro console remake rigmarole stems from procuring the aforementioned flash chips, following an extremely successful launch.
“After we announced AES+, we received an overwhelming response and really significant levels of preorders,” explains Jones. “So I straight away went into the procurement phase, and advised our partners in the Far East what our requirements were, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been refused ordering chips, and I’ve worked with Plaion for nearly 20 years in this field. I was like, ‘What do you mean you can’t get these chips? Oh, AI.’”
The chip rejection ties to the exact same shortages, ramping up the price of gaming PC components, gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck OLED, and just about anything that uses memory. However, this specific instance of RAMageddon highlights just how much datacentres are choking hardware production as we know it, as it suggests that if you're not dealing in AI, you're at the back of the fabrication queue, even if you're using chips designed to mimic '90s tech.
Effectively, the Neo Geo AES+ was at risk of being cancelled completely. But, having already obtained chips for the console's iconically huge cartridges, Jones reveals that a workaround is now being put into action.
“We had already made the two ASIC chips in the cartridges that kind of deal with the memory chips, and then send the message to the machine itself. We had thousands of these chips ready for the cartridges," explains the Plaion director. "With that in mind, we tasked ourselves to try and see if there was some kind of a workaround with using what’s called Serial NOR flash, which is basically the same as parallel, but because the NeoGeo only uses parallel flash, you have to do a conversion that lets you use serial flash, which is in easier demand and you can basically get them."
The workaround of converting signals from parallel to serial has delayed the Neo Geo AES+ to 2027, but the company's Chief Technical Officer Bruno Steux says it "didn't have a choice" given the circumstances. Otherwise, the wait for chips would have caused the retro console maker to "wait too much time, and probably spend too much money."
Praising Steux, Jones remarks, “If you hadn’t had the solution for the flash, I think everything was dead. But that’s the journey. And remember, we’ve been working on this for years as well, so it was a bit of a ‘nothing stops this train’ moment. I had to go to Taiwan, I had to speak to everyone, we just had to exhaust all options and be 100% focused. We had to deliver.”
The story here is that the wider AI-driven shortages and chip fab priorities almost buried what is effectively a new way to remake retro consoles. The Neo Geo AES+ is pricey at $249.99 with no cartridges included, but it will mimic the OG system on a hardware level without using FPGA chips or emulation. The machine is also accompanied by the very recreated cartridges that saved the project from being canned, and with those coming in at $69.95 a pop, this is undeniably a remake for players with cash.
Of course, cancellation risks and supply constraints are the least of the Neo Geo AES+'s worries. Enthusiasts are already questioning whether this remake is truly a 1:1 replica or if its chips will hit the same notes as existing tech. There's also cause not to pick up the resurrected arcade system due to SNK's ties to Saudi Arabia and its human rights issues, including LGBTQIA+ criminalisation.
Swing by the best retro handhelds if you'd rather play Neo Geo games on the go.
