Repair & Schematics
Neo Geo AES

UniBIOS (Neo Geo AES)

9min

The UniBIOS is an enhanced version of the official Neo Geo AES BIOS.

The UNIVERSE BIOS is for owners of MVS or AES hardware that want an easy way to change country region or between Arcade or Console mode on boot. Also included are other features that are not possible using the standard MVS bios.

The UNIVERSE BIOS is also designed to give easy access to things like inserting coins, test mode and memory card management when using the joystick ports only. Of course the BIOS still allows standard operation too.

Main Features

  • The ability to quickly and easily change operation from MVS to AES. Play your favourite games as the home console version enabling all the extra gameplay options that come with some games.
  • The ability to quickly and easily change country region (great for games that disable blood under USA region).
  • Access to the DEBUG DIP's and DEVELOPER mode.
  • Want unlimited lives or energy... Then cheat in games using the built in cheat engine which currently holds over 1570 cheats!!!
  • Hiscore saving support on AES hardware by smkdan (memory card required).
  • PICKnMIX (161in1 required), see menu for more information.
  • If you are not happy with the cheats already there then you can patch directly into memory any place you like adding your own.
  • Jukebox player where one can listen to game music without sound FX from gameplay over the top. Nice option if you want to create MP3's.
  • A ROM CRC32 check where you can confirm a games program roms are good.
  • True USA region support (correct coin display on bottom left and right of screen in the same way a true USA BIOS does.
  • Arcade VS-MODE support which is known to be in the version 6 JAPAN bios. Turn this feature on via hard dip 2.
  • PC-2-NEO which gives the ability to upload and download data from the system using a cable which can be easily built.

Other Features

  • Remapping of coin switches to select buttons and visa versa. This allows a SNK joypad pad to do everything.
  • Once region and operation mode is set the BIOS will remember settings until you change them again (memory card required on AES hardware for this to work).
  • Access to the standard Memory Card Utility no matter what Mode the BIOS is in (one could never access this menu with the normal MVS BIOS).
  • Access to Test Mode on boot without the need of wiring the Test Mode JAMMA pins or fiddling with DIP's.
  • Enhancements to the TEST MODE menu and hardware test screens.
  • Hide DEV slot check messages (and red warning screens) from some games when running on MVS hardware in console mode or AES hardware in arcade mode.
  • Look at internal memory with the built in memory viewer. This is handy for tracking faults with slots that don't work (multislot hardware) or carts that simply won't start.
  • The ability to soft reboot the system without the need of powering off and on.
  • Allows full fatalities in the AES unfixed cart of Samurai Shodown V Special (see below).

Expected Boot Behaviour

When turning on a working Neo Geo AES with the UniBIOS, if all is ok, you should get a pure white screen.

When turning on with a game in, you should see the UniBIOS boot screen showing the region and mode (Arcade, Console).

Splash Screen
Splash Screen
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Hidden Menus

The following codes should be used on the 1up controller while the splash screen is showing or held during power up if the splash screen is disabled;

Button Combo

Description

(A)+(B)+(C)

UNIVERSE BIOS Menu

(A)+(B)+(C)+(D)

Memory Card Manager

(B)+(C)+(D)

Test Mode (MVS only) Hardware Test (AES only)

(A)+(B)+(C)+(D) * (Use 2up controller for the following code)

Controller Test (AES only)

The following codes are available in game only, they will not work if you have disabled the in game menu (general bios settings);

Button Combo

Description

(START)+(SELECT)

In Game Menu

(START)+(COIN)

In Game Menu

(START)+(A)+(B)+(C)

In Game Menu

Universal BIOS Menu

Accessed by pressing (A)+(B)+(C) during boot;

In Game Menu
In Game Menu
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Memory Card Manager

Accessed by pressing (A)+(B)+(C)+(D) during boot;

Memory Card Manager
Memory Card Manager
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Hardware Test

Accessed by pressing (B)+(C)+(D) during boot;

Hardware Test
Hardware Test
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Controller Test

Accessed by pressing (A)+(B)+(C)+(D) on player 2 controller during boot;

Controller Test
Controller Test
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In Game Menu

Accessed by pressing (START)+(SELECT) in-game (so long as In Game Menu is enabled in General BIOS settings);

In Game Menu
In Game Menu
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