What's the cheapest way to get into Neo Geo?

[retrosportsgamer]

I know you are looking for original hardware but for me, the PS2 route was significantly cheaper and got me a "good enough" solution. You could always buy one of these PS2 Neo Geo sticks
http://www.neogeoforlife.com/viewpage.php?page_id=282

and pick up great titles such as:
Metal Slug Collection
SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1
Samurai Showdown Anthology
World Heroes Anthology
Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol 1 and 2
Art of Fighting Anthology
King of Fighters (various games)

You could even play them on a backward compatible PS3 to clean up the textures and load times a bit. This ended up being the best bang for the buck for me.

Yup, I have all those. I was still considering getting the actual system at some point, primarily for the games not covered by those collections.

I got an AES and picked up those games after; it's around $100 for that whole lot new from amazon (even less if you pick and choose around for used).

What better way to test drive a game or group of games before picking it up for the real system (and paying the same if not MORE), while at the same time you're putting some money into the companies that put out these ?

Emulation is another option but I'm not a PC gamer and my laptop doesn't pretend to be.

I did get the Arcade Classics for the Wii - heard that was the better version, the others are all PS2.

I have an itch for the SVC Chaos AES cart but want to pick up the oXbox version first to give it a whirl.

[itsmattxp]

If you want the "cheapest" way to play Neo Geo games then definitely emulate it. Yet, since you said that you want to play on the original hardware, the "cheapest" way to play the games is on the Neo Geo CD. I had one of those and damn, do those load times suck. Granted the earlier games don't really have as much of a problem with load times but why buy a system where you're limited to only the earlier releases. You might as well emulate at that point since it will be infinitely better.

I eventually ended up going with the MVS route and getting a CMVS. I believe you can probably get a cab for cheaper but I didn't have enough space at the time. I thing you might want to keep in mind before you enter this console is that a lot of the games on the Neo Geo just plain suck. Only buy the games you'll actually play or you're just going to end up spending a ton of money on shitty games.

Also, the AES is way too much money and since I think you're more of a gamer than a collector, I think the MVS would be a perfect fit.

[Bradtemple87]

MAME is all I have to say here. I play on my Mac with my tournament edition ps3 stick, lots of perfect arcade roms

[thatdanGguy]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet about the mvs -> Aes converter is that unless you have the unibos installed in your Aes console those mvs carts are going to play in aes mode. Which is fine gameplay wise but when you start a game you are typically only giving 4-5 credits i.e. continues.

I suppose for fighting games this isn't that big of a deal, but for any of the metal slugs or magician lord or some other credit muncher, this can be a drawback as you can't just credit feed your way through a game.

This is how I played my mvs carts before I bought an mvs board, and it was cool, and trust me, with only 4-5 credits I got pretty damn good at MS3 playing through it over and over. But after getting a one slot board and putting that in my cab, well nothing beats that. Not to mention the $80 I payed for the board pales in comparrison to the $400 or so for the stock aes and converter.

So I'd say go for an mvs board, probably a one slot boards with headphone pins and controller ports so that you can use a supergun if you don't want a cab. That way the supergun can be used just for power and display and you would still be open to using the aes joysticks, pads or whatever else you wanted with no modding to the controllers themselves. The multislot boards are cool, but some need different power requirements, due to the multi-cart nature, and I'd imagine aren't as easy or slick looking in a supergun environment. Although I'm sure people have found some super slick ways to make that look great

Another benefit someone mentioned earlier is the supergun gives you the most options if you ever want to start collecting other arcade hardware in the future. My self, I tend to go for the cart based systems like Naomi, STV, MVS, etc. They shelve easier, and obviously it's easier to swap a cart than a pcb (although that really isn't all that hard if you plan right). I have to tell you, once the arcade bug bites, and you see how easy it is you'll want to do more of it, so you might as well plan for the future.

[retrosportsgamer]

My current AES issue is the compatibilty with LCD televisions. I'm just using the pack-in composite cables (red and yellow only) and I get very slight wavering on the right of the screen; as if someone had another device nearby to disrupt the signal. From what Ive read it's a refresh issue with lcds so I may have to look into an extinct CRT to handle. Has anyone had this kind of issue?

[retrosportsgamer]

My current AES issue is the compatibilty with LCD televisions. I'm just using the pack-in composite cables (red and yellow only) and I get very slight wavering on the right of the screen; as if someone had another device nearby to disrupt the signal. From what Ive read it's a refresh issue with lcds so I may have to look into an extinct CRT to handle. Has anyone had this kind of issue?

I'm looking at a 27" Sony Wega FD Trinitron CRT to set up for some of my retro systems. Craigslist seems plentiful thankfully.

Anyone else deal with this with their NEO GEO?

[retrosportsgamer]

I'm pretty interested in this setup:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MEBIDX:IT

What do you guys think that bundle is worth?

[fedexin]

I'm pretty interested in this setup:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MEBIDX:IT

What do you guys think that bundle is worth?

I'm pretty sure the winner of that auction JUST had their first game load on that system

[Breetai]

I'm pretty interested in this setup:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MEBIDX:IT

What do you guys think that bundle is worth?

I'm pretty sure the winner of that auction JUST had their first game load on that system

Not sure that a voltage converter would really be necessary. Anyway, it's a CDZ. The load times are better.

[swiftzx]

I'm pretty interested in this setup:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MEBIDX:IT

What do you guys think that bundle is worth?

I'm pretty sure the winner of that auction JUST had their first game load on that system

Not sure that a voltage converter would really be necessary. Anyway, it's a CDZ. The load times are better.

Fixed