Consolized Neo Geo MV-1C Arcade Board (Done w/ Pics)

[Iori]

I finished off my consolized Neo Geo arcade board about a week ago, didn't think about posting a pic before, but was just browsing a few Neo posts up here and decided I would go for it.  This is the opposite of what is usually posted up in the projects area, but I thought this might be interesting for some too...

I used a dead Neo Geo CD console to house the board, wired up a laptop power supply, jamma controls to db15 controler ports (standard for the Neo), RGB -> NTSC (RCA and S-video).  The Neo CD is a fairly tight fit for this project, but I really like the look of it once it is done.   Just finished it this weekend, here are some pics:


Here it is in action, playing some MotW.


Here is a closer shot of the unit from the front.


From the top with no cart, you can see some of the wiring and the pcb, so I'll just keep a cart in at all times to keep the dust out.


Here is the back of the unit.  I used RCA/S-video connectors that were part of the original NeoCD for the project.  Just desoldered them from the NeoCD pcb they were on and wired them up to the jrok and MV-1C.  The square button is a pause button, red is service and there is a black test button hiding behind the PS cable.


Here are the insides, not as clean as I wanted things to look, but not too bad...  Hopefully I don't have to open the thing up often or better at all.

A fun and pretty fast project... learned to solder and waited for parts to come in the mail alot.  

[CthulhuLuke]

Looks pretty awesome man!  A lot cheaper than a phantom convertor I bet.  So what exactly is that little convertor thing in the last picture on the top inside of the neogeocd case.
Btw you put a new chip in your board? or is it set on arcade mode only?

[Iori]

Looks pretty awesome man!  A lot cheaper than a phantom convertor I bet.  So what exactly is that little convertor thing in the last picture on the top inside of the neogeocd case.
Btw you put a new chip in your board? or is it set on arcade mode only?

Thanks!    The project actually cost about the same as a Phantom-1 I guess:

$165 - MV-1C board
$80 - jrok RGB -> NTSC converter
$35 - dead Neo Geo CD unit
$15 - harness
$20 - Power supply unit
Plus cost of extra wires, led other little things.

So really the cost was over the cost of a Phantom, but I don't have have a Neo Geo home system so if I wanted to go that route I would have to spend another $300 for the Neo too.  Also the Phantom doesn't work with some of the newer carts that I want to be able to play later on (KoF 2003, SS V, SVC:Chaos).

The thing mounted on the side is a Jrok RGB -> NTSC encoder, here is a link if you are interested in checking out more about the Jrok: http://jrok.com/hardware/RGB.html  It can be used to connect most arcade boards that use standard monitor to a TV via S-video or Composite.

I don't have my board chipped with a new bios so it can play in console mode yet.  I really want to do this, but with the MV-1C it isn't easy unfortunately.  The Bios chip is soldered on to the board and it is not the same size as the bios chip in the older boards so you have to desolder the current bios on it and then have to either buy or build a bridge from the smaller bios pin out to the larger old one...  I really want to do it, but it looks to be a major pain...    If anyone has any experience/ideas in doing this I would love to hear them!  

Thanks for the comments!

[CthulhuLuke]

Very awesome, I've thought about making a supergun out of a MVS board sometime, although I don't have that many MVS carts laying around so I'd have to get my bro to pick some more up.  Btw, building a joystick for the Neo Geo or MVS units is SUPER simple because you can actually use a female DB-25 connector I believe it is, I'm not 100% sure on that, I'm sure the dudes at www.neo-geo.com will tell you.  That'd be pretty cool to have your setup all custom like that with a custom arcade stick.
  btw have you seen these MvS boards?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=3289018121&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
I'd probably use one of these and make a front loading system, although the top loader would be hella cool as well, just hard to find for cheap.

[Iori]

Yea, I have seen those... in some ways I would rather have a board like that, because you can get stereo out (mine can just do split mono) and replace the bios easily.  I am pretty sure that the board pictured is a MV-1FZ, not sure though.  That board is compatible with most games, but I have heard of a few people that had problems with SSV and Rage of the Dragons on that board.  Would have a hard time mounting it in the case I wanted to though.    From what I have heard there should be no cart that has compatibility problems with the 1C, from what I can tell the 1C is the one MVS board that is still in production now.  Most people who like to do these conversions seem to prefer the MV-2, the 2 slot model, because it has a memory card reader, controller ports wired on to the board from the beginning, no compatibility problems and the bios can be swapped out easily.  The down side is that they are HUGE at least compared to 1C or the other smaller 1 slot boards.

Yea I got some help over at N-G.com on this project actually.  The Neo Geo home console uses db15 connectors so I went with the same for this so I could use regular Neo controllers.  I might think about making a custom control later, but not until quite a bit later I think...  A Dreamcast/PS2 one would be first on my list for that now.  

[glitch77]

How should I go about hooking up the stereo output of my 6-slot to my line-level converter? On a mono board it is easy, just take the pos and neg, but on a stereo board, there are only left and right pos. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Iori]

How should I go about hooking up the stereo output of my 6-slot to my line-level converter? On a mono board it is easy, just take the pos and neg, but on a stereo board, there are only left and right pos. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Do you have a headphones out on this board?  If you do that is the easiest way to connect stereo...  I haven't wired up stereo output before (mine is just split mono, that is all it supports) but if you don't have a headphones connection of don't want to use one I can dig a link up for you I think.

[glitch77]

I am building a supergun remember, so I want to use the JAMMA pins for everything.

I think that I found a schematic and you just use regular ground and the audio out to make one side, and regular ground and the other audio out to make the other.


(Just found the image, and Im right.)

Answered my own question.

[Iori]

My bad... was thinking consolized MVS...