Buyers were scammed.



It looks like the Aero Fighters 3 Neo Geo game sold for $30,000 a few months ago -which was supposed to be the never officially released American edition- is fake after all.

As you may remember, a few months ago, an Aero Fighters 3 copy for Neo Geo -which was supposed to be the unreleased USA version of the game- was sold for $30,000 at an Airport.

Here's a little background:

There's a Neo Geo game called Aero Fighters 3. Until this month, it was assumed that it had never been released in the US. It never was, officially. But at least three copies are now known to exist anyway, and one of them just went for over $30,000.

Reader Michael DiCioccio, a hardcore Neo Geo collector, says that he found out about the copies of the American edition of the game - of which there were only three ever made, presumably as testers/demos and never publicly released - from an ex-SNK USA employee, and that they've been sitting in storage for 16 years. He got hold of two (that's it pictured above), had them verified as authentic and sold one for at least $30,000. At an airport. Hopefully in an aluminium briefcase, wearing a trench coat.
Well, it looks like the game is a fake and the buyers were scammed, as one of them (the one who apparently paid the $30K), has now posted a long explanation (including pics) of his shocking discovery at the Neo-Geo.com forums.

THE MANUAL

OVERALL : The manual is not original and had been printed less than a year ago

FACT M001 : The global shininess of the paper is not correct. It is too shiny
When looked at the natural light, the shine is not correct at all. It is too shiny.

FACT M002 : The paper of the EPILEPSY WARNING is not right. it’s not salmon but orange.
All the neo geo game have the same color of epilepsy warning card, except 2 of these. Guess what, the KOF 2000 US(red), and the AF3 US( orange) : fake.

[...]

STICKER ON CARTRIDGE

OVERALL : The sticker on the cartridge is not original compared to 150+ carts.

FACT S001 : Sticker is too glossy, like a mirror " the NO CELLULITE EFFECT"
The glossyiness of paper is not right compared to an original release.
Any release, Japanese, American, looks, when looked at the sun, looks like a cellulite. When looked carefully, the aerofighters 3 doesn’t look good. It is too shiny.
Strange fact, the sticker looks a lot like Ray Young carts. Mirror like, not cellulite like.
Take a Prehistoric Isle 2 or a Stricker1945 game : Guess what, it's mirror.
Take all games released by SNk, it has more a " cellulite look"
Take the Aerofighter3, guess what, it's mirror.

[...]

THE AF3 : THE INSERT

OVERALL : The insert is not original from SNK.

The insert is the most crazy fun part of the story. Unlike all the other elements, it’s not always the LACK of quality of detail of the game which pops up, but the « TOO MUCH» quality. Bootleger DavidG, to create confusion, redrawed some parts with a vector software like Adobe Illustrator CS5. So when you look at it, it looks perfect. But it’s too perfect for 1995/1996 releases.

FACT I001 : The meg count on front.
If you look carefully at other inserts from the same period, the megs writings always have white « disorders», due to the offsett priting. For example on the Stakes Winner, there is space bewteen the red and the black. This is not perfect, it's a little bit of a charming offsett process.
Look right now the S1945+ FROM RAY YOUNG.Then, wait for me to show you the AEROFIGHTERS 3 US.
You can check out the original thread below for detailed info.

Really bad news for him. Most likely he won't ever get a refund...

NEWS SOURCE #1: The Final Chapter of the Fake Aerofighters 3 (via) Neo-Geo
NEWS SOURCE #2: lantus360 (via) Twitter

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!