I got my first arcade cabinet -- 2 Slot MVS Neo Geo machine

[Tanooki]

Any general tips or help on this would be great. I mean I understand how to get into it and change games, lock the hinges (what a reach), screw with the bios and all that.

I was wondering other than neo-geo.com what other solid resources of info are out there on the stuff. I ended up with the cabinet which is in stunning shape 9 legit games and 1 bootleg multicart with 161 games on it as well.

I'm curious about prices on games, best places to locate (obviously ebay is a choice), any weird quirks I might bump into, also noticed that multicart sometimes will trip out and load the game in the other bay for some reason is that normal?

[KalessinDB]

Prices on games: Mike's price list is my go-to right on this very forum.

Place to find games: eBay will have them, but price will be inflated 90% of the time. Neo-Geo.com is great but their forums are insular and toxic so be prepared to spend a lot of time integrating into their community before you can buy anything. Arcade-museum.com aka KLOV can have some fantastic deals (got my best deal ever on there for a Metal Slug 5)... But has just as many eBay prices. There's almost nothing listed at normal price, it's all either above or below in my experience.

161 being occasionally glitchy: absolutely normal in my experience.

Other useful sites: mvs-scans.com and neogeosoft.com are my most used to compare labels and board scans, as well as occasionally check which games are officially released in which regions.

Incidentally, US/JP/EU is all determined by your BIOS, but Korean games are legitimately different and usually censored. Samurai Showdown is the big offender there, but iirc there's a few others too. Worth watching out for.

Bootlegs are common but USUALLY play just fine, if all you're worried about is gameplay.

That's all the initial worries I can think of.

[JoeAwesome]

Prices on games: Mike's price list is my go-to right on this very forum. Seconded.

Place to find games: eBay will have them, but price will be inflated 90% of the time. Neo-Geo.com is great but their forums are insular and toxic so be prepared to spend a lot of time integrating into their community before you can buy anything. Arcade-museum.com aka KLOV can have some fantastic deals (got my best deal ever on there for a Metal Slug 5)... But has just as many eBay prices. There's almost nothing listed at normal price, it's all either above or below in my experience. Same. If you go with N-G.com, take your time contributing to the forum before buying. If you go to KLOV, do research (see Mike's guide).

161 being occasionally glitchy: absolutely normal in my experience. Yep. Some games on the 161 will glitch no matter what, but then you have quirks like this where the 161 cart has to be in a specific slot or can't be sharing slots with XYZ game. There's no rhyme or reason, so you can either find a combo of games that play nice when the 161 is in, or take out everything but the 161 to play those games giving you issues.

Other useful sites: mvs-scans.com and neogeosoft.com are my most used to compare labels and board scans, as well as occasionally check which games are officially released in which regions.

Incidentally, US/JP/EU is all determined by your BIOS, but Korean games are legitimately different and usually censored. Samurai Showdown is the big offender there, but iirc there's a few others too. Worth watching out for.

Bootlegs are common but USUALLY play just fine, if all you're worried about is gameplay. If you're going to buy a known bootleg, don't pay crazy prices. $25-$30 shipped, tops. Note, this doesn't include protos/NGCD conversions.

That's all the initial worries I can think of.

Here's some additional thoughts on this for help.

[Tanooki]

Hey you two, I appreciate that, good info. It would seem to me really that if I don't intend to actively prattle about NG stuff neither resource would be all that good if they're humping ebay prices 9 out of 10 times. I'd be better off just doing my casual cart watching for weeks/months + on end and scoring something through there than dealing with drama. I'm fed up with forum drama, over it, got a reddit account instead and just look at little things that matter mostly, plus here, and kind of DP stuff though the admin went insane a month ago so I mostly stopped posting.

The 161 I knew had some games on some releases of the board having audio drop out (Blue's Journey) or wonky audio Sonic Wings (AF) 3. Not a huge deal, but for me, I've tried both before reading that and they were cool. I did not know about the combo of it being a whiny bitch with some legit games. I guess some games that want to boot a certain memory call or some sort that's similar to the BAM in slot 2 was causing it just to boot that instead as most games were fine, some would just pop that up which is why I removed it. It's here and there I think because I didn't see it occur at the old owners home, not a big deal as the cabinet is excellent.

Personally I wouldn't mind buying a bootleg if the price savings was fairly solid over an original. I mean if we're talking $50 vs 100 I'd or $20 vs $40 I'd get a real one, but if you're into $30 vs $200 or $1000 yeah I'll take the boot as I have no interest being a collector of this even if it is a big ass console kind of with the huge cartridges.

One thing I'd like to find is a storage solution perhaps. Currently they sit nicely on my media shelf, about 12 would fit to one of the 3 sections but I wouldn't feel too bad if I got one of those old plastic boxes they came in to keep em clean if they're cheap.

[KalessinDB]

Hey you two, I appreciate that, good info. It would seem to me really that if I don't intend to actively prattle about NG stuff neither resource would be all that good if they're humping ebay prices 9 out of 10 times. I'd be better off just doing my casual cart watching for weeks/months + on end and scoring something through there than dealing with drama. I'm fed up with forum drama, over it, got a reddit account instead and just look at little things that matter mostly, plus here, and kind of DP stuff though the admin went insane a month ago so I mostly stopped posting.

The 161 I knew had some games on some releases of the board having audio drop out (Blue's Journey) or wonky audio Sonic Wings (AF) 3. Not a huge deal, but for me, I've tried both before reading that and they were cool. I did not know about the combo of it being a whiny bitch with some legit games. I guess some games that want to boot a certain memory call or some sort that's similar to the BAM in slot 2 was causing it just to boot that instead as most games were fine, some would just pop that up which is why I removed it. It's here and there I think because I didn't see it occur at the old owners home, not a big deal as the cabinet is excellent.

Personally I wouldn't mind buying a bootleg if the price savings was fairly solid over an original. I mean if we're talking $50 vs 100 I'd or $20 vs $40 I'd get a real one, but if you're into $30 vs $200 or $1000 yeah I'll take the boot as I have no interest being a collector of this even if it is a big ass console kind of with the huge cartridges.

One thing I'd like to find is a storage solution perhaps. Currently they sit nicely on my media shelf, about 12 would fit to one of the 3 sections but I wouldn't feel too bad if I got one of those old plastic boxes they came in to keep em clean if they're cheap.

Plastic boxes are called Shock Boxes and they're aftermarket (and a little pricey for my tastes - not insane, but for me I figure these were initially arcade games after all, I just want some decent protection and a nice spine on the shelf). The original kit boxes the games came in had other stuff in there (mini marquee, move strips, dip switch listings, etc) and were a fair bit bigger than the cart, and just plain cardboard with a label like what's on the cart. For aftermarket boxes (since kit boxes tend to stay with kits and cost a lot more than bare carts), your choices include the aforementioned shock boxes, some very basic sleeves made by Chris from windy city gaming, and Neominiboxes made by an Italian gentleman. Mike and I both use the Neominiboxes, and if you want in on them I'll be sure up give you a heads up next time I'm ordering - he does some pretty significant group discounts so it really only makes sense to buy 50+ at a time in my eyes. Loris Biaggi's his name on NG if you want to check them out.

Also with klov you won't be paying eBay prices 90% of the time, it seems to be legitimately 50/50 as far as I've seen if they're above or below what I would call forum cost. But definitely do your research and go slow. Also if you come on any lots of games don't be afraid to reach out, I've split lots with people before and would do it again, because sometimes there's awesome deals to be had but for example I don't want to bother reselling the fighters I already have or whatever.

The problem with the 161 is the problem with the multi slot Neo in general, just exacerbated. Voltage is usually the culprit - if you put the 161 in the last slot that will often fix the issue but not always. It also doesn't really play nice with memory cards at all. The motherboards are just finicky - I have a 4 slot and often have to juggle game order to get them all to boot, or reseat games multiple times. Just old hardware. Incidentally, sound isn't the real issue on AF3 - it's straight up unplayable. After the first stage or so, bullets stop despawning. That's one of two games with major bugs - the other being... One of the fighters. Last Blade 2 maybe, or MOTW. There's a super move that will crash the game entirely. I forget exactly which, I sold my 161 and honestly had stopped using it months before I sold it too.

Darksoft - who has already made CPS2, CPS3, and STV multis - is making a proper, Everdrive-like SD based multi currently. I think he's shooting for initial release to be July iirc? It will be much pricier than the 161, but should be worth it if his work on previous systems is any judge. Arcade-projects.com is his site and they're good people there, very helpful. It's a relatively young site he and Mitsurugi-W founded after basically being run off of NG, but they've got a lot of heavy hitters in the arcade scene there and lots of knowledge. Not a huge marketplace yet but who knows what the future brings.

[Tanooki]

Huh ok interesting, back in the day in CA before the guy at Game Adx in Oceanside went crooked in the 90s he had dozens of them in those shock boxes I guess. They were white, looked like oversized puffy Disney VHS cases with some sleeve art in the things. Never had a system so I didn't make him open stuff up, unless those were the console carts. I knew of the general cardboard boxes, couldn't care about that really nor do I want to start applying stickers to the glass anyway. I've got that nice SS2 move list, sort of tempted to slot it in between the plastic lip and the glass on the bottom for fun.

The neominiboxes I'm curious, I'll have to google or something to find a picture/dimensions of them. I'm limited where I think I can store the 9 carts I have sitting on the shelf as it's just a media thing for DVDs/CDs really but it may work. What kind of price are they alone vs bulk?

My intent is VERY slow. I know it's bad I suppose, but the 97 games that aren't hacks on that multicart will suffice for a good stretch. Bowling I'd want. NAM-1975 probably that too as well as Magician Lord. Not really sure what else without going down this list I found here which lists all the multi-carts and the games they have out of the entire MVS library -- http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/MVS_Multicart But that'll take time, as I still need to figure out what the hell is on there outside of the fighters still. Found a cool third/first person sword fighter I never seen before, can't figure out how to block. I may just take an afternoon and pound away at gamefaqs and find the FAQs for as many of those 97 as possible and archive them on my drive/backup drive so I have some kind of move reference. I already intend to download what I legally own on the other 9 ROM + Guide as it is.

You're right about AF3 I read that, I'll see if mine has that as the audio junk I read about I wasn't experiencing and a neo-geo forum link said there are variants of the 161 which lack some(all?) of the audio issues if not other problems. And the other fighter I'm fairly certain was Last Blade 2 (edit, looked it up, it's prone to resetting), I'll live, prefer the first after falling in love with the NGPC before seeing the arcade one. I'm not rolling in cash so maybe in time I can get the ones I find I love on that 161 that aren't over my cap on price and eventually just shelve it or sell it perhaps. Odds are I'd just keep it for stuff I could do once in a while but otherwise use the real games for the stuff I care more/most for. That list but that is SNK as it is, is very fighter heavy and I tended to enjoy much of their non-fighters, even that sports stuff like Neo Turf Masters.

So you're saying there's a potential 'everdrive' coming for the neo geo eh? That could be fun, and probably less buggy than the 161.

I need to find more info on that, it's all over the board on google. I want to see what kind of bugs really exist and other stupid stuff like badly set difficulties. Does it save anything as far as settings/scores or not or you have to re-do the soft switches each time. Stuff like that and other quirks. The stand alone games are just that, pure, no issues. Oh and you know I did move the multi cart from the right slot to the left, maybe it flows better in that spot as I don't recall it being pissy about loading the game in the other slot there. Something to test later whenever I get a new cartridge that isn't on that board.

[KalessinDB]

Only thing I can answer off the top of my head (I'm on my phone so doing multiple tabs is annoying) is in regards to saving settings and such - without a memory card, the Neo memory saves the last 8 games played. If you go beyond that, you need to reset the soft dips. As yes, many games on the 161 default to difficulty 8 aka highest. 4 is generally standard.

[Tanooki]

Ahh yeah I knew of the 8, but I can't figure out how to hit the softdips for the games on the 161 so that maybe stuck.

I looked a bit more I have the MVH MV2F style board with the on board memory card reader and dual headphones jacks. I checked out that original coin ticker in there it's parked at 12269. Never in the grand scheme got much use so I guess that's why it's in such nice condition (less time for losers to beat on it and kick up the front.)

I am curious, two things I can't figure out. The test switch button works, but the other for services appears not (but that could be the 161 at fault.) I can't seem to find a way to get into it and re-tool the difficulty as a few games are set on 8 which sucks but if it can't be so be it. The other would be, does this have some battery inside the metal frame of that box over the board? It doesn't appear to save the date/time after I set it and power it off.

[KalessinDB]

Answered in the other thread a second app

[Tanooki]

Oh hey check this if you would?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBhs61DD3kE

He has the 120in1 and it appears he left his home neo geo omega system ON and did the dipswitches, is this correct? I'd love to be able to permanently set the entire bloody cart to the default of 4. I just don't want to break my new toy if I have to power it off first.