The Neo Geo AES+ proves we just want to own our games again

I am sick of paying for services that simply lease me a license to play a video game. When I first started gaming on the Atari 2600, Apple II, and Nintendo Entertainment System, you bought a game, and it was yours. There were no hidden fees, no required online check-ins, and no sudden delistings. Today, even ownership of Steam games is debatable, though Valve is generally good about letting you download titles you purchased before they were pulled from the store. GOG figured this out years ago on the PC side. You buy the game, you download the installer, and you back it up as many times as you want.

The mini console false start

The console industry dipped its toe back into the concept of ownership with the mini classic consoles. Nintendo kicked things off in November 2016 with the NES Classic Edition, followed by the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017. Both sold out almost immediately. Sega had a rougher start. They licensed their brand to AtGames for the Sega Genesis Classic Game Console, a device notorious for bad audio and cheap build quality. Sega eventually course-corrected, releasing the excellent M2-developed Sega Genesis Mini in 2019 and the Genesis Mini 2 in 2022.

The rest of the mini consoles, like the PlayStation Classic in 2018 and the TurboGrafx-16 Mini in 2020, did not sell quite as well. The market was getting bored of closed ecosystems. We wanted to use our old cartridges.

Hardware emulation takes over

Hyperkin tried to solve this in 2010 with the RetroN series. These Android-based consoles had physical slots for NES, SNES, and Genesis cartridges on a single machine. They did the job, but the build quality felt cheap and the software emulation introduced noticeable input lag.

The real shift happened with hardware emulation. RetroUSB actually beat everyone to the punch in 2016 with the AVS, a lag-free FPGA console that played NES games flawlessly. But Analogue became the daddy of the physical retro console industry. They started with the Analogue Nt, which used repurposed original NES parts, before moving entirely to FPGA systems that recreate the original silicon logic. They have covered everything from the NES to the Nintendo 64. You can use your original cartridges and CDs, they work perfectly, and they sell out every single time. I think I own all of their consoles.

Vinyl for video games

Around the same time, Evercade launched a brand new physical ecosystem. I wrote them off as shovelware at first. They found their footing after about the fourth cartridge release, and now it feels like vinyl collecting for video games. You actually own the physical cartridge. Unlike modern physical releases for the PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch, you do not need to download a massive day-one patch to make the game playable. Sometimes buying a modern physical game feels pointless because the disc is just a license key for a download. Evercade bypasses all of that.

Even Polymega, years after launching their modular base unit, started releasing their own curated physical game collections. I hope they keep making them. They are cool collections!

Real silicon in 2026

Atari completely turned its hardware business around after the release of the 2021 Atari VCS. The Atari VCS was better than it got credit for but that's a different story. They followed it up with the Atari 2600+ in 2023 and the 7800+ in 2024. These are new machines that play original cartridges, and Atari even started publishing brand new physical games like Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest.

Now SNK is taking the exact same route. PLAION REPLAI and SNK just announced the NEOGEO AES+, launching on November 12, 2026, for $249.99. Unlike the mini consoles, there is no software emulation here. The board uses real ASIC chips re-engineered to match the original 1990 hardware. You can use your old cartridges, assuming you were rich enough to own a Neo Geo back in the day. SNK is also selling new cartridges for $89.99. This is a massive win for game preservation and physical media.

I'm not sure about the math.

I honestly don't know if the math adds up. others have done research and the AES+ Ultimate package saves you about $10,000. But you can also own a lot of those games with Neo Geo switch collections.

If you move every few years or if you travel a lot, this might not make sense. That's the reason I originally sold all my books, CDs and DVDs. I moved about once per year. Having to just move a Kindle and iPod was much easier. That monthly fee is also a convenience fee. You can download any of those games over and over as long as you are still paying the large corporations.

Yes, this is about saving money on monthly subscriptions that you barely use. But it's more about owning the game physically forever. You never have to download updates. They look cool on your shelf. You don't need to worry about twitchy emulation or resolution mismatches. It's about simplifying you life. It costs more upfront. But I think it's worth it. Math doesn't always matter.

I still have my Master System games

If the Neo Geo AES+ sells well, larger companies need to pay attention. Nintendo allows you to play classic games on Switch Online, but that is a monthly fee. You are just leasing time. Look at the Wii Virtual Console. The Wii store is gone, and there is no legal way to play those digital purchases on modern hardware unless your old Wii is still plugged in and working.

Nintendo and Sega should re-release their 8-bit and 16-bit consoles with new cartridges. Give us a SNES+ powered by USB-C with an optional HDMI port, alongside a brand new print run of Super Mario World and A Link to the Past. Sega should finally release the fabled Sega Neptune prototype as a real product, complete with an adapter for Master System cartridges.

Sony and Microsoft are in a different position. They should stay the course with their modern consoles, but they need to offer absolute backward compatibility. A PlayStation 5 should play PlayStation 1 discs. An Xbox Series X should play original Xbox discs. Yes, it will rely on software emulation, but modern emulation is good enough that most people will not care. We just want to put our old discs in a drive and play the games we already paid for.