Another MVS Thread... First time buyer.

[mrkola]

After searching for months/years, I've finally found a Neo Geo cab that is within pickup distance and in my price range. So naturally, with this being my first Arcade cab and my first Neo Geo, I have a few questions.

1. The seller wants 200 bucks with Bust A Move and has other carts available with it for 25 apiece. From what I remember, the titles available are; Samurai Showdown I/II, World Heroes, KOF '94, Art of Fighting, and Fatal Fury 3. Would you guys consider these to be good prices for these games, or should I try to haggle the price down on a few? I plan on picking up two or three of these and finding others later.

2.Thirdly, it looks like the cab itself is in good shape (pics from the seller included below), but the button configuration is slightly different than other MVS' I've seen. I know that almost all 1 slot MVS units were conversions of older cabinets so I'm assuming that's the case here. How hard would it be to get this control panel to something that is more standard for a Neo Geo?


3. What do you guys think about the Multi-carts that are available? Are they mostly garbage? Or are they worth it for some of the rarer titles/convenience?

I've also read the other thread about the 4 slot Phades was going to pick up, so most of my transportation questions have been answered. Any other advice/things to look for is appreciated

(Also Mods, if you feel like this should be merged into the other thread, feel free to do so. )

Pictures (from the seller):

[Stark]

Yeah that's not an original cab for sure. Not sure how I'd feel about having the buttons in a square like that. Still $200 for that plus Bust-a-Move seems like a good deal to me.

One thing with the multicarts ... you can't have hi-scores. So if that's a big deal to you it may be a turn off.

[mjmjr25]

The cab could be original and just for whatever reason had that odd panel installed at some point, would have to see the sides or better pic of marquee. In either case, working cab and MVS slot, and a decent game for $200, sure, why not - you can swap in a different panel, or even make one and just align the buttons the right way yourself.

As for the carts...none of those are $25 carts, most are $10-15. Fatal Fury 3 can do $25, but usually $20 is a good number.

Multi-carts are surprisingly reliable - if nothing else, it's a good way to try out a game on your cab before dropping $100+ on a title.

For the panel, you can custom make one, buy something original that fits, or buy something NOS. Would need better pics or at least dimensions to see what it is you need exactly.

[marurun]

$200 for a working MVS is a good deal whether the cab is original or not. I'd pay that for one.

[indecks]

Definitely not an original Big Red MVS. The top looks similar to one, but most if not all american Big Red MVS cabs came with a minimum 25" monitor, not counting the MVS Mini, which came with a 13". What you have looks to be like a 19" screen.

The control panel scheme is not SNK and the actual control panel itself is definitely not SNK original. The sides match the CP on this cab, so the CP wasn't swapped out.

For $200, if the screen is nice and you got a few games, it's not a bad deal. You could always just redo the CP and use the SNK style layout.

[mrkola]

Thanks for all posts guys! Definitely helped when I went to buy the thing. I went and checked it out yesterday and everything seemed to be in good shape. The seller was an awesome older gentleman who's been in the arcade business for 35+ years. I originally offered $50 for four of the games he had, but he ended up making me an even better deal for $70 dollars. I was also pretty psyched to find that he had Aero Fighters II (The first MVS game I ever played, way back when our local Pizza Hut had one). All told, I got the MVS, and 6 carts for $270 .

As far as the cab itself goes, it looks like it was a conversion from a Data East cab of some kind. I thought that the square config would bug me more than it does, but I feel its usable enough for the time being. The CRT looks great, no burn in from what I can tell, but the picture does cut off a bit and warp on the right side. From what I've read, people are saying I should adjust the horizontal width coil on the thing. So I'll probably try that once I get a plastic tool to do so.

Pics:

Carts:

Many of these came with the placeholder cards and stickers. On a side note, I noticed on Aero Fighters 2 that there seems to be a sticker over the original label? Was this something ops did when they got a Japanese cart?

Cabinet:

Motherboard:

Looks to me like this is an original MVS 1 slot board. From what I'm reading this is Unibios compatible?

Data East Serial (In case anyone may know what this originally was):

Overall I'm pretty happy on the purchase . Been having a ton of fun with it so far. I'll definitely be joining over in the Aero Fighters II high score thread ^_^.

[mjmjr25]

Nice get, and yeah, throwing in AF2 for a $20 spot is excellent, it's a $35-40 cart.

There are a few different reasons to have a fake label, the one you suggest being one of them. Others include original shell was damaged and moved to a new cart, or the original label was just in rough shape so a replacement was made.

You'll also find labels w/serials cut out, operators did this to avoid a cart they sold being traced back to them.

Original labels can add value to a game, particularly more uncommon games, and even moreso if a low serial number. Even more yet if in kit form and the kit box and cart serials match.

Those mini marquees, about $2-5 apiece, can be quite a bit more, again, on uncommon games.

The margin on your screen, as you've been told, a very easy fix, just adjust the horizontal.

[fastbilly1]

Nice get, and yeah, throwing in AF2 for a $20 spot is excellent, it's a $35-40 cart.

More like $40-50. I paid $50 for mine last year, but since it was the first vert I 1cced, I thought it was money well spent.

All in all that is a great haul, congrats. The label issue is more common than it should be. Bootleg carts are common, bootleg labels are even more so. I do not believe it modifies the value at all. Often someone will make a US label for a Japanese game.

[ExedExes]

Once you mentioned it was a DE cab, I could tell right away by the control panel. It was used in their mid-80s arcade games, but it was probably a Kung Fu Master cabinet -



I could not get used to that Tekken button layout. It might work pretty good for KOF 94 and Shodown, but nothing else.

[mjmjr25]

Nice get, and yeah, throwing in AF2 for a $20 spot is excellent, it's a $35-40 cart.

More like $40-50. I paid $50 for mine last year, but since it was the first vert I 1cced, I thought it was money well spent.

All in all that is a great haul, congrats. The label issue is more common than it should be. Bootleg carts are common, bootleg labels are even more so. I do not believe it modifies the value at all. Often someone will make a US label for a Japanese game.

AF2 has come down quite a bit - there are (2) on NG right now, one for $35 and one for $40, and both have been there a few days. Most guys are listing them right at $35. In fact, AF3 has come down too, picked mine up for $50 about 6 weeks ago on NG.com

The labels, for common carts, not a huge deal, but for purposes of rare titles / hologram labels / low serials or matching serials for a kit, it can mean hundreds of dollars. A guy on shmups claimed to have a TSS US Kit and posted in the "what's it worth thread" and most replies were in the $500+ range, depending on condition of box and kit bits. Guy posted pics and serials on the cart had been cut out - no way to verify it was the original cart to that kit - only got $300 for it, so that label cost him $200. Pretty common thing w/the pricier games, a fake label on Pleasure Goal 5 on 5 is a nice chunk of lost change, among others.