Just bought a NEO GEO. School me.

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I'll be picking up a NEO GEO 1-slot tomorrow. I figured it plays a ton of great games and there seem to be plenty of multi carts available to test the waters. Is the 161-1 the way to go? What is this I'm reading about a converter? Is that necessary to run the multi-cart?
 
I can't say anything about the multi-cart since I haven't used one before, but being that you have a 1 slot, it seems like a good way to go. The Neo Geo system used a modified JAMMA wiring that requires you to use a "Neo Geo JAMMA" to regular JAMMA adapter. This generally applies to 2 slot, 4 slot, or 6 slot machines and has to do with how they wired stereo sound right into the JAMMA harness. Some 1 slot boards used the regular JAMMA with mono sound so it's possible yours won't need anything if you do want to play other JAMMA boards in the cabinet. Is it a conversion or a dedicated? I would think SNK used stereo on any of the dedicated cabinets, but I'm not sure on the 1 slot.
 
Sorry I can't school you.
But I also have a single slot Neo Geo Jamma (project in a carbord box).
I got the harness and Power supply for single slot jamma game.
if you can't find the info on the web. I can give you a rough Idea where everything does hook up i think.
I know this wiring mess does that a pot for sound.

Good luck on your project.
 
Take a look at your PCB and see if its an older or newer one. The older ones dont like the multicarts too much. I went thru 2 of them before moving on to a newer 1-slot PCB. Been running a 108-1 with an MV-1C for over a year now with no problems.

All the Multicarts to my knowledge are MVS. So the only "converter" I can think of that you might be referring to is an MVS-AES converter which you wont need unless you plan on buying AES carts. The 138-1 has an extra board that goes between the harness and PCB, maybe thats the converter you are thinking of? I have no expierience with the 138-1 but research tells me the only benefit of it is being able to remove games from the list (a plus since most of them are KOF and hacks anyway), but it also takes forever to load games.
 
the 138-in-1's are, AFAIK, out of production. it is the only cart that has the extra menu board that goes between the harness and the Neo Geo PCB. the menu board allows you to edit the game list and the menu is pretty slick with nice screen shots but it's also by far the slowest to load games (20-30 seconds.)
 
the 138-in-1's are, AFAIK, out of production. it is the only cart that has the extra menu board that goes between the harness and the Neo Geo PCB. the menu board allows you to edit the game list and the menu is pretty slick with nice screen shots but it's also by far the slowest to load games (20-30 seconds.)

The load times are quite ridiculous... You could literally go get a cup of coffee, wait for it to cool off a bit, drink it, then go back for a refill... Then enjoy some Neo Geo.
 
some of the games seem to load faster than others. i've gotten used to the load times, and the 138-in-1 has for me the best selection of games and the front end is much, much better.

now, if they could've just made a version with faster load times there'd be no competition.
 
I think the higher number you go with the multi-games the more problems occur, thats just what ive heard. I currently have a 100 in 1 and it plays perfect on my (older) 4 slot. Some games are darker than others, like SVC chaos. But I haven't really had any issues of sound or game play.

The one slotters are all Jamma so you should be good with wiring. My conversion cab came with a 2 slotter and was wired for MVS. Only difference is with the sound being in different pins but I just bought a MVS to Jamma converter to play StreetFighter, Mortal Kombat etc.
http://www.jammaboards.com/store/neogeo-mvs-to-jamma-adapter/prod_198.html

hope this helps
 
I have a 1 slot with both a 100 in 1 and a 161 in 1 multicart. Both work excellent with no glitches. For 105 bucks or so, you can't really go wrong getting the 161 in 1 based on the cost per game.
 
I have a 1 slot with both a 100 in 1 and a 161 in 1 multicart. Both work excellent with no glitches. For 105 bucks or so, you can't really go wrong getting the 161 in 1 based on the cost per game.

Great to hear! Looks like most of the 1-slots are set up the same way so hearing that the 161-1 runs well is encouraging for my machine. I'll be picking it up this weekend so I think I'll go ahead an place my order to get a few days of jump on getting that 161-1. Thanks!
 
All right, I got my Neo Geo home and have been working on painting and cleaning it up while I waited for the 161-1 to arrive. It arrived yesterday so I popped it in. The screen flashed a few times and I got the menu but then it froze within 30 seconds. I turned it off and on a few times but couldn't get the menu again. I adjusted the power but nothing changed. Are there known issues or ways to adjust things to get the multi cart running?
 
Try cleaning the edge connectors. What kind of PCB are you using? Like I mentioned, the older 1-slots hate multicarts.

Crap. I'll have to check out the PCB and try to clean the edge connectors. The game it came with works fine. Damn, I don't really want a NEO GEO if I can't use the multicarts with it.
 
you can also try the old NES cart trick of sliding it over to one side or the other. Sometimes the pins don't get a good connection.
 
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