Picked up a Neo Geo cab for free, woot.

[Frax]

Not much, but it's a start for something I consider a personal arcade childhood favorite..

CL poster said it was a 2-system, but I guess since it's missing the marquee, it doesn't really matter, does it?! If anyone can ID this 25" tube that was in it...no neckboard or chassis, but on the upside I didn't see any screen burn on it? LOL.

I haven't decided if I'm going to just clean it up a bit and make a custom CP for MAME application, or try and go the whole 9 yards and get a MVS back in it. Appears to have most of the wiring harness but some things are loose and I don't know too much yet. Cleaned about 10 mud wasp nests out of there before I brought it in the house. One of those crazy buggers had built the nest right on one of the joystick microswitches!

(Upon further research, looks like this is a very common 25" tube...still need some assistance identifying what chassis I will need to get it running though...I'm assuming I don't need the chassis or power supply to at least test it with the rejuv unit since it would be disconnected at neckboard anyways.)

 

[Frax]

Some more pics...

 

[PrairieDillo]

You are looking for a K7400 chassis. Let me know if you need pics. I have a MVS4-25V1 with this monitor and a spare K7400 monitor (nothing for sale) in my garage. I can take pics to illustrate/match.

My K7400 Neo Geo matches your monitor tube. It's a harder chassis to find.

You have shown the 3 prong power plug going to the monitor chassis with a green ground wire.
This is 120V and does not come from an ISO trany as that's built into the monitor.

I hope that helps.

Well as much as it seems like you got it for free... well it's gutted and has very little value because of the cost of restoration.
It's only value if the cab is in solid condition and you want to combine another cab to complete one.
You should put a list together of what you need and price it out.

From what I see:

MVS PCB $70-150 depending on which board.
Marquee lights (they were probably shot also) $10 use a flourescent tube
Memory card board and the mounting bracket on the CP. $30??
CPO $50+
Monitor Chassis $100+???
Marquee $20-30
Paper Bezel (replicate)
Tinted front tempered glass ??
2 rear panels (easy to replicate)
Power Supply $30-50
buttons and sticks $40
Side decals (there's a guy on the neo geo boards that replicates these in cut vinyl)

and still w/out games... Collecting games can be an expensive hobby.
Unless you already know a buncho about MVS machines go search out the "School Me Neo Geo thread."

 

[B-boy Tekken]

Neo Geo's are so awsome. Great find. Have fun restoring it.

 

[Alpha-tron]

While it's true, free is not always good. It might cost you more to put together a machine than what it is worth. Sometime building a machine has it's own rewards.

 

[sosage]

I'm a bit more optimistic looking at these pics. I think you have a very solid foundation for a nice MVS machine. I'd totally take it on myself if I was in your shoes. Prairied's price list is right, but *I* think it is worth it. I've seen much, much, much worse gutted Neo Geo's. I think your sides are actually way better than either of my machines. That control panel alone only needs a day of sanding and painting to turn completely around. If the wiring harness is there a PCB, a chassis, a cheap power supply and like...10 bucks worth of sticks/buttons will get you a playable game (and you'll be over the hump for all the technically difficult/expensive shit). Everything else is cosmetic stuff that can be pieced together for the right price if you're patient.

If you wind up looking into drilling up that control panel, PM me. I have the exact same cabinet with a CP that was drilled for Street Fighter. I've sanded and painted it so I can convert it back to a MVS, but I'd rather have a non-drilled CP if possible.

Sorry. Strike that. I need one with the memory card "holder" plate. Looks like yours is missing for some reason (IIRC it was welded on...maybe this was a 2-slot where the memory unit is on board?). Not necessary, but would bug me.

 

[Frax]

The guy that had it was an ex-op, and he said it was a 2-slot, so maybe it was onboard like you said. Not really too familiar with that part of the Neos..lol. *Edit* Oh, just figured what you might mean....there's slots below the CP for memory card, headphones, etc. There wouldn't have been anything up near the top of the CP for a memcard.

Also noticed last night that the monitor also has no yoke...they really did just pull it apart, so I doubt I'll be trying to save it. I actually have the paper bezel for the monitor, it just didn't make it into any of the pics...so we can strike the easiest line off the list.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Yeah if you are dedicated to restoring it, all the more power to you.
I just didn't want to to go down a road where you feel like it's money pit and abandon it having wasted/spent money.

It would be nice if all neos could be restore but some are just missing too many parts. It may be up to your resourcefullness to get this back together and in a reasonable budget.

You'd be fine with just a K7000 in there also. Don't need to have the K7400 since you are missing too many parts. K7000's are pretty common and used on the V2 and V3 versions of these machines. Just keep in mind to put in an ISO tranny when you put in the new monitor.

K7000 fully working $150-200 anything near $100 is a good deal and get it.
ISO trany is like $15

Your CP will need some work but with some time you can get it all nice looking.

Project

Primered

Painted

Populated

 

[sosage]

The guy that had it was an ex-op, and he said it was a 2-slot, so maybe it was onboard like you said. Not really too familiar with that part of the Neos..lol. *Edit* Oh, just figured what you might mean....there's slots below the CP for memory card, headphones, etc. There wouldn't have been anything up near the top of the CP for a memcard.

Yeah. With the 4/6 slot CP you have a metal plate that is welded that sits just above that memory card slot. It acts as a shelf for the memory card/headphone unit. It actually makes getting one stick and a button difficult to get to. Not sure if the 1-slot does the same thing.

The memory card slot is built into the 2 slot, so I think* the PCB just goes up against the CP.

*Never seen the inside of a 2-slot, but that's what I guess from looking at my 2-slot PCB and the placement of the memory card slot on the CP.

 

[smalltownguy2]

That, my friend, is a perfect candidate for a MAME cab. Pull that 25" tube out of there, get rid of it, and put a TV in there.

Then visit BYOAC at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

You'll dump LOTS of money on that cab trying to restore it. Like $500 lots. Best to hold out for a better Neo Geo than that.

 

[Frax]

Well, for me, 500$ would be worth it, but that'd be a few months in the future at least. I've blown my budget for a while. Once I get my rejuv unit I plan to test this tube and see if it's at all salvageable, because I don't see any evidence at all of screen burn. Can't really do anything until I get that out of the way. If the tube tests out okay then I'm going to have a fight on my hands. If possible, I'd like to not modify the internal structure too much if I do decided to turn it into MAME so that if I find a 25" at some point that would work in it, can just take out the TV..

Either way, I'm planning on getting the cabinet to look like it should...I loved Neo-Geos as a kid and those are a lot of the games I remember. The games I want, aside from Puzzle Bobble, aren't really too expensive on MVS. Some I've even seen on eBay for 20$ shipped...that's nuts. The monitor is the single biggest hurdle for me, personally. I've done paintwork on metal before...did a custom computer case a while back that turned out completely awesome. Sanded the entire thing down from painted beige yuck all the way down to bare metal by hand..that was a rough few days. (No pun intended.)

 

[PrairieDillo]

Just so you know. $500 should be able to buy you a complete one with games. So this had better be a very solid bare cab. I got my V3 for 150 after selling a free water damaged working one for 200 with games. I then plopped down for a few resoration parts for it. It's pretty done all but the Marquee.

You may be dedicated which cool but Id rather see you save that money toward a cool cart collection.

 

[Frax]

If up mean structurally, aside from some edge damage along the t-molding and at the very bottom, it's pretty dang good structurewise. Way better than my Nintendo cab which has slot damage chipped out corners etc. I wouldn't be against buying one that was working with a bad cab and then pilling the parts from it to fix this one, so that may be an option too.

 

[PrairieDillo]

well that's the most reasonable thing I've heard and IMHO your very best strategy. With the side decals worn off, you would have to repaint the whole cab and use the vinyl cut stickers for side decals.

no one has produced stencils yet... but we've talked about it.

 

[sosage]

Yeesh. We did talk about that didn't we. My plate is super full at the moment.

As for what to do, don't feel pressured either way. I'm just mentioning what I would do in your shoes. I tend to go into this hobby (and most hobbies) the same way I do with cars. I'm putting money in being okay with the reality that I may not get all of that money back. With Neo Geos I am typically okay with not coming out ahead, just cause I think they are really cool machines. There are a lot of people who stress over getting their investments back, but I find that tends to make things not as enjoyable *for me*.

 

[Frax]

Haven't done much digging, but I'm guessing the reason a stencil isn't readily available because there seems to be a lack of high res scans of the side logos.. Oh, and I really do appreciate all the advice. I'm just keeping my options open with this thing for the time being. I'm stretched extremely thin right now and don't really have any space to work in anyways. I would love to just go ahead and MAME it in some fashion that leaves it restore-able back to original while we're living in this tiny hole of a condo. I don't even have a place to FIT the thing right now much less anything else. I have to find a way to make it unobtrusive fast or I'll probably have to give it away. :|

 

[Frax]

Got my rejuv today. One of two things...either my rejuv unit doesn't fully work...which you know..it's ebay...might be a possibility...

Or this tube's completely farked. Meter for the red pegs out on set cutoff and test modes, can't adjust the G2's for any of the tubes at all in high or low settings...blue reads completely dead on all tests....

Gonna toss it tonight, sucks. Hopefully I have better luck with my Nintendo monitor.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Got my rejuv today. One of two things...either my rejuv unit doesn't fully work...which you know..it's ebay...might be a possibility...

Or this tube's completely farked. Meter for the red pegs out on set cutoff and test modes, can't adjust the G2's for any of the tubes at all in high or low settings...blue reads completely dead on all tests....

Gonna toss it tonight, sucks. Hopefully I have better luck with my Nintendo monitor.

I'd test that tube with a known working rejuvenator before tossing it, but it wouldn't surprise me that the tube had dead guns. It would explain why the yoke's been taken. If the tube crapped out, the operator would have taken the chassis and yoke and abandoned the tube.

 

[Frax]

Don't have access to a known working one, or I wouldn't have bought one, lol. I figure for what it would have cost me to have an actual repair shop do it once for the nintendo monitor was probably worth my gamble to buy one at a reasonable price off eBay. I don't really see why they'd strip everything by the actual tube if it worked so it was a longshot on that part anyways....

Was hoping that I'd get some luck but no-go. At least it was free! Hopefully I cam salvage this 20ez Sanyo or I'll have a real disaster on my hands. :/

 

[Frax]

Okay, so after seeing in Craigslist that I can pick up a 25" CRT TV for 25$, or in some cases two for that price in my area...

Probably going to MAME it for now...build a custom CP to hold the tankstick and sand/paint the Neo one as soon as possible to stop corrosion and clean up the cabinet as best I can over time....just don't have the money to chase a project this size right now and I have most of the computer parts needed for a good MAME computer.

So now the question is..I gotta get this tube out and get a TV in the same space somehow. How the heck is this traditionally done? Remove the TV from the housing and then just mount the PCBs wherever they will reach to? I would like to make as little modification to the inside of the cab as possible so that I can get an arcade monitor back in there at some point....