neo geo restore or mame?

[jasonl2972]

Ok,hope this is in right section.First let me say i love this site,i've learned alot from reading everything on here and this is my first post and project.
 So i've been researching about building a mame machine and gathering some parts here and there.But today on craigslist i find someone giving away a neo geo 4 slot arcade machine,with no pics and not working.i see this as a good chance to get myself a cabinet to start a project.i e-mail him and i'm the first guy so he gives me an address and says its outside at the end of the driveway.He never mentioned what was wrong with it.i ran and got it and took it home.
 Well,from what it looks to me,this thing has all its parts and is in really good shape,it even had about 4.00 dollars worth of quarters and close to a hundred in tokens in the bin.He didn't have keys,but when i removed the back panel i found them hanging on the back of coin return.Tried to plug it in and turn it on,but of course nothing.
 Now to my questions.I am really having second thoughts about mame'ing this and i'm wondering what i should do.It really looks in good shape,the cab is perfect with very minor damage.does look like it had some moister in its past but no damage to electrics.
 How can i test things like the monitor?should i sell/trade some of the parts to help pay for a mame build?are the games worth much to anyone or other stuff on it i wouldn't use if i went with mame,or is this just to nice to cut up?I'm kinda lost,all my thoughts up to now have been to stick a computer and lcd monitor with new joysticks and buttons wired up,paint a cab nice nice,and be all happy.Now i'm kinda torn,this thing looks really nice.Also the coin counter had almost 46,000 on the count!Someone had fun on it alot.i'm trying add pics but can't figure it out yet

[jasonl2972]

ok,i think i got the pics working

[jasonl2972]

sorry,2 more pics,then i'm done.

[HaRuMaN]

Restore that bad boy.   

[jasonl2972]

Restore that bad boy.   

Thats what i'm thinking,just never did any research on restores,was always thinking mame.May have to change all my plans now.

[Well Fed Games]

Normally I would say, "whatever you want", but the potential of a restored neo geo is pretty incredible. If the games in the marquee are actually in it- MS 2 and Bust a Move, at least, you have a nice start already.

That is one of those one in a million Craigslist finds. Nice job!

[jasonl2972]

Normally I would say, "whatever you want", but the potential of a restored neo geo is pretty incredible. If the games in the marquee are actually in it- MS 2 and Bust a Move, at least, you have a nice start already.

That is one of those one in a million Craigslist finds. Nice job!

All 4 games are in it.Puzzle bobble is there instead of bust a move,but the others,king of monsters,metal slug2,and world hero's are all there,whether they work or not i have no idea.

[HaRuMaN]

First step, check the power supply, see if it is working.

[Mikezilla]

Normally I would say, "whatever you want", but the potential of a restored neo geo is pretty incredible. If the games in the marquee are actually in it- MS 2 and Bust a Move, at least, you have a nice start already.

That is one of those one in a million Craigslist finds. Nice job!

All 4 games are in it.Puzzle bobble is there instead of bust a move,but the others,king of monsters,metal slug2,and world hero's are all there,whether they work or not i have no idea.

Dude. Those are all the best games IMO. Thats awesome, good find. 

[opt2not]

Restore it.

[jasonl2972]

First step, check the power supply, see if it is working.

 Ok,i checked the power supply,it seemed to have power when i bench tested it,but back in the machine it didn't.so i traced it around and guess what..the power cord was bad,even though it shows no damage.so i changed it and the thing works!!!!!
 I can only get 2 of the 4 games working.one plays well but has some snow in the pic,the other plays but the pic is blockie,the buttons work with alittle cleaning of the contacts.So far so good.i messed with a few buttons and ended up in settings mode,but have no clue what i'm doing so i got out of it.I'll keep cleaning it up and see what happens.The guy i got it from would not be to happy if he found it was only a power cord that was bad,i know i was shocked.i'll take pics of the game play if someone needs to see the problems i'm talking about and may have a idea of what to try.thanks for the help guys

[opt2not]

For the carts, it's a good idea if you take a cotton swap, and some isoprophenol (rubbing alcohol) and rub out the dirt on the cartridges' PCB connection pins. You can also use a pencil eraser to rub the dirt and dust out. Just pull the carts out, clean the contact pins and place 'em back in.
I do this every time I get a new MVS cart, 'cause most likely, they dirty.
This, and sometimes making sure they're securely inserted into the Mobo can both help fix up some of the image/booting issues.

Good job on getting your cabinet working!
Please don't mame it! (well you could if you want, but it's bad karma!)

[jasonl2972]

For the carts, it's a good idea if you take a cotton swap, and some isoprophenol (rubbing alcohol) and rub out the dirt on the cartridges' PCB connection pins. You can also use a pencil eraser to rub the dirt and dust out. Just pull the carts out, clean the contact pins and place 'em back in.
I do this every time I get a new MVS cart, 'cause most likely, they dirty.
This, and sometimes making sure they're securely inserted into the Mobo can both help fix up some of the image/booting issues.

Good job on getting your cabinet working!
Please don't mame it! (well you could if you want, but it's bad karma!)

That worked!i got all four games working,3 are alittle snowy still,but the blockie one is perfect now.i loose sound when i go to one of the games and then don't have it for any after that one,but shut it off and 3 games have the sound back.i'm going to continue the alchol cleaning on everything else and see how it goes.so far this is going better then i could ever imagine.

[yotsuya]

I'd restore it. Now that it's working, you could probably sell it as is and make enough to buy a generic cab and parts for a MAME. 

[HaRuMaN]

Awesome!  Power supply is always the best place to start.

I got a Merit Megatouch touchscreen game for $25.  Replaced the power supply, thing works.   

[Mac Green]

WAs this the free Neo Geo on San Diego craigslist? the one i saw recently had the same games and was free

[jasonl2972]

WAs this the free Neo Geo on San Diego craigslist? the one i saw recently had the same games and was free

No it wasn't.I got this one from Ma/Ct line.I'm from Conn. so it was a quick 40 minute ride for me.

[Mac Green]

Oh haha funny coincidence the ad also had no pictures

[Funnel]

Dude that is awesome! I'd definitely restore that bad boy. I'm trying to fix my neo geo 4 slot board, it's giving me a big headache right now. Post more pics!

[jtslade]

Great find! I got only the MVS big red cab which had been converted to a lame shooting game. I kept it original so that I could convert it back to a neo geo some day in the future.

Join the mvs neo geo forum, very helpful group and they can answer any question about the system.

Congradulations!

[FrizzleFried]

The multi-carts work great.  I had a 150-in-1 and a 161-in-1 before...

...I sold my older "big red" 4-slot but managed to pick up a version 1 4-slotter a couple weeks back.  I'm in the process of picking  up some of my favorite games.

[codecrank]

The MVS gods will smite you if mame this majestic big red.
 

[jasonl2972]

The MVS gods will smite you if mame this majestic big red.
 

Nope i'm leaving it original and have just been working on it alittle at a time (when i can stop playing it in between).
Its up and running great now thanks to all the great info i've gotten from everyone here.So its staying a neo geo.Just have to replace a joystick,my repair is holding but its not perfect,and try and track down the reason i still have some snow on the screen on 3 of the 4 games.Even after cleaning the cart's about 5 times and all the other connections.I decided to just build a cab for my mame machine and keep this one "stock".i'm certainly addicted to this hobby now though as i find myself constantly looking for other machines and spending hours reading everything i can on here.

[elkameleon]

Lucky duck! Those are some sweet games! I used to play king of the monsters on sega genesis back in the day, very fun!

[madmatt]

I agree with pretty much everyone else.  RESTORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MM

OUT 

[sslakkerr]

Nice pick up! I'm actually in the process of Mame-ing my neo 4 slot. I'll post a video of it once I'm done.

I would, as other said, try to restore it first to keep it authentic, plus the credit leds will light, and, although it's a longshot, the marquee elv's could work. That is a pricey repair if they don't work now.

good luck with the restore and again, great find.

[Syco54645]

Do what I did with mine (granted mine is a generic dynamo that just happened to come with a mvs in it), get a jpac and run both. Neo geo is jamma compliant so a jpac will just plug in. You can swap it as easy as swapping boards. When I want to play neo geo i pop the mvs in. When I want to play something else just swap it to the jpac. Works great.