Opening the Neo Geo AES Joystick Plug
A faulty AES I bought came with a Joystick that didn't register the Start button being pressed. I had had the case for the joystick off to test the button operated fine and it did, so I guessed it was a problem with the either the connector or the cable.
I wanted to open up the plug connector but didn't want to damage it at all. I found an easy way with 2 bits of thin flexible plastic (removed from packaging that probably had a christmas present in, I try and hang onto the stuff for this or for repairing DPADs)
Looking at the casing it's easy to see the clips on both sides holding it together, start by putting a piece of the thin plastic sheet in as far as it will go up to the clips
Insert a THIN flat screwdriver or similar object in-between the plug and the pastic, twist the screwdriver slightly to pull the casing apart and wiggle the plastic strip until it goes up and over the inner clips
Repeat this on the other side of the plug and you can simply pull the casing apart, done carefully there won't be a mark on it :)
(this photo above is after I repaired it, the purple wire and it's connector had popped out of its socket)
