My Neo-Geo 2 Slot MVS + Maximus Arcade

[sloth911]

I was searching the internet, craigslist, and ebay looking for a MAME cabinet or a mutli-arcade cabinet for my recreational finished basement. Knowing very little about this stuff, I happened to find a great Neo-Geo 2 Slot MVS, what a great find! Not to mention the great online community that I also found!



I found it on ebay from a seller that lived about 15 miles away. I checked it out in person, haggled with both the seller and my wife. I paid $350 for the cabinet, knowing very little about the MVS system or Neo-Geo. It came with two games: Savage Reign and Bust-a-Move. Both games play work great. The counter on the inside is at 47,593.



The seller stated that he purchases used cabinets from a roller rink in the Philadelphia region. He said he "replaced a board on the monitor" to make it work again. I am not sure what he did, and at the time I checked it out, I probably wouldn't have understood what he did anyway. He also used some paint to touch up some of the damaged red paint.

Being in my early 30's, I did waste a lot of time play arcade games, but I only played the Neo-Geo a few times in one local arcade, and since I was use to Street Fighter 2 on the SNES, I would only last a few seconds before someone would tear me apart on the Neo-Geo, so I would just move on to another arcade game.

Despite the controversial nature of the bootleg carts, I decided to purchase a 138-in-1 multi-cart to replace the 2 games that came with it. Using internet reviews of Neo-Geo games and my own personal taste, I currently have about 35 games "on" the default menu. Many of the games are new to me, but they are just as fun as all the great SNES games I grew up playing.





I also purchased new joysticks and buttons for LizardLick and replaced the older ones. I ordered a 4 slot marquee from mamemarquee.com and some mini marquees from ebay, which are still in the mail.



Due to my unfamiliarity with most Neo-Geo games I decided to convert the cabinet into a MAME/Emulator system.

Here is a list of the stuff I did/used:

1. Neo-Geo 2 Slot MVS Arcade Cabinet - Jamma http://hardmvs.com/xml/usa/usCabs.htm
Bought this locally from ebay, can easily convert back to stock MVS cabinet for normal play.

2. Dell Optiplex GX270 Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
Bought from ebay - wanted the fastest P4 I could find.

3. Arcade VGA Video Card http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html
This is an ATI card that automatically outputs a signal that is compaitble with an arcade monitor. Almost plug/play use.

4. J-PAC PC to Jamma http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html
This plugs into the Neo-Geo Jamma harness, connecting all the buttons/monitor to the Dell.

5. X-Keys Stick http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkstick.php
16 programmable keys that can be used for hotkey macros

6. MicroXP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e76E-...
One of the smallest/fastest hacked version of XP out there.

7. Maximus Arcade http://www.maximusarcade.com/
Emulator Frontend that allows one to easily navigate mutliple emulators and hundred of rooms while interateing marquees, snapshots, titlescreens and intro videos.

8. Volume Tray 2.0 http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimed...
Program that allows me program hotkeys for the up/down volume control

9. Intro video by delusional2971 http://www.youtube.com/user/delusiona...

10. Emulators from: http://www.emulator-zone.com/

Here are two videos of my setup:





Here are pictures of the cabinet before the conversion:
http://picasaweb.google.com/reckner/NeoGeoCabinet#

[HaRuMaN]

Do you still have that multi game cart?

That's a nice looking machine! 

[Bender]

Nice Cab!

how is "micro xp" different from "tiny xp" and where do you get it?
is there a 64 bit version?

[sloth911]

I do have the multi-game cart, are you interested?

I think MicroXP is smaller than Tiny - not really sure.

Micro has very, very limited drivers - for example, I had to install USB drivers.

[HaRuMaN]

I might be

[Q*Bert_OP]

I have 120 in 1 carts. PM me for details. 

[WhereEaglesDare]

You linked to the PCI-E version of the AcardeVGA Card, did you use that?  I thought all the GX270s were AGP only...

[DeLuSioNal29]

The Neo Geo cab is in gorgeous shape.  Nice find.  Glad you are using the intro too.     

DeLuSioNaL

[jtslade]

Looks great!

[XCVG]

Lucky! I've been looking for a Neo board for ages and still haven't found one. Anyway, looks pretty good! I see one thing that may be a problem though. You won't be able to play 6-button games with the Neo layout (not well anyway). It may not be a problem for you, though. Personal preference talking here.

[sloth911]

The ArcadeVGA card I have is the AGP version.

I have programmed all the 6 buttons games with the med/hard kick/punch buttons leaving out the light kick/punch buttons. This works fine for my needs and everyone has seemed to adjust pretty quickly. I have not found a good layout for MK yet.

I have been thinking about buying a second control panel and making a 6 button layout. I have also been looking for a SFII cabinet - but I have yet to see one locally with a monitor as large as the Neo-Geo.

Thanks for the feedback.