Should I gut my MVS and convert it into a MAME cabinet?

[trunxkam45]

Hey,

Yea it's been some time since I last posted. I recently thought it may be a good idea to gut my MVS cabinet and just use my old computer and an lcd screen to turn the thing into a mame cabinet. but then I had a grand idea.

Neo geo cabinets are only 2 player but several arcade games are 4 player. I am considering placing an lcd screen on the other side, cut that side out and have it flip down so I can place my 2 player arcade stick on there. Here are some diagrams which might help.

Current setup(except for the wheels):

Twin monitor:

Twin w/flap for players 3 and 4:

I have NO experience in any of this at all. I guess the first step would be to determine what to pull out of my machine and what I can keep.

Also, what I'm most concerned about with gutting my neo geo is losing that arcadey sound. Can mame fully emulate the arcade experience in your opinion? I assume part of it is having the right hardware.

 

[BobbyPeru]

Original hardware is wildly over-rated.

I say gut it, throw a few screens in there, pimp it out with a trackball and some flashing leds, and you're good to go.

Take it to the next level!

 

[LoneSage]

Hey,

Yea it's been some time since I last posted.

It's ok, nobody noticed.

 

[city41]

Original hardware is wildly over-rated.

And MAME cabs are wildly dumb. Why ruin a perfectly good cab?

 

[trunxkam45]

Well for me, owning a neo geo cab is something I never considered being a reality. It was a really good deal as well!

Now that I have one, it's pretty cool having friends come over huddled over bust a move. But the thing is that when there are 4-8 people it's not as cool. People always ask "do you have this game?". And I was just gonna replace the battery on my board, give the cab a nice new coat of paint and buy a multi cart.

But a few days ago I was kicking around the idea of really opening it up and converting it into a MAME machine so I have all the crazy games.

Now with 2 screens/4 players, here's the thing. With ONE pc, is there a way to have two people playing one game on one screen and the other two playing a different game? I'd imagine I COULD have each screen hooked up to a different pc and then just have the 2 pc's play via lan for like 4 player sunset riders or something? But yea, I'd rather not have to build another computer for this.

 

[hyper]

Take it to the next level!

 

[gum_drops]

Don't mutilate a perfectly good Neo cab. Buy another cab or have some people play your ps3/360/whatever and wait their turn.

Edit: Keep an eye out on craigslist, you may be able to snag a 4 player cab like Xmen for example.

 

[trunxkam45]

Don't mutilate a perfectly good Neo cab. Buy another cab or have some people play your ps3/360/whatever and wait their turn.

Edit: Keep an eye out on craigslist, you may be able to snag a 4 player cab like Xmen for example.

Yea I just found a 4 player x men cabinet that needs a new monitor going for $100. I figure that might be a good mame conversion project for my bro's wedding. Sell the PCB get some cash for a nice new lcd screen, sticks, buttons, etc.

 

[Adderall]

you don't need to mess with your cab to get what you are looking for.

Using items from ultimarc you should be able to get your cab running MAME without hacking it up. Then just connect a 2nd monitor and maybe some Joypads to the computer and put it next to your cab.

 

[rcantor77]

It's funny you ask this question... 2 years ago I had my cab setup with MAME, it was great. But after continually having to mess around with drivers, patches and everything that goes wrong in windows, I gutted it and stuck an MVS mobo in it... best thing I ever did.

So in answer to your question, No, keep as a Neo cab... the way it should be.

 

[Xian Xi]

Leave the MVS cab as it is and get a cheap cab to convert.

 

[trunxkam45]

I think I'm going to go with adderall and keep the neo geo "guts" intact but just allow for an easy mame switch via jamma.

Before all that though, I will definitely get my battery replaced. Just opened 'er up and noticed there's some leakage.

 

[terry.330]

Fuck your friends wanting to play other shitty non MVS games.

Get a case of good beer and Neo Turfmasters, that's like 8 hrs. of fun for everyone right there.

 

[system11]

The people mentioning the idea of gutting a 4 player X-Men make me sad.

Any dedicated cab gutted is a shrunken market and history destroyed. It's vandalism, pointless vandalism. If you want a MAME cab, there are ways to just hook one up through the JAMMA loom into the proper monitor without mutilating anything as mentioned above. If you want something truly custom, then why not build a cab from scratch? While there are some horrible examples I've seen some good ones too.

 

[Renmauzo]

Had you given any thought to building a cab for MAME purposes instead? There are a number of guides and a pretty detailed book on the subject and would be a fun project where you get to tailor the specifics any way you want.

Probably the wrong forum to ask about mutilating a Neo cab though, lol. It chokes me up a bit to see cabs for sale that clearly used to be Neo Geo machines converted into garbage.

 

[pipes]

Fuck your friends wanting to play other shitty non MVS games.

This.

Also, what type of answers did you expect when you post in a Neo Geo forum and ask if it's a good idea to mutilate a piece of Neo Geo history?

 

[trunxkam45]

ok ok now hold on everybody. I'm not one for wanton destruction and am a true lover of history, especially video game related. That's one reason why I even have the bloody machine. To be clear, I am looking to restore it. I already said I'm doing the Jamma thing Adderall mentioned.

As evidenced by this thread, the cabinet is not looking so hot.

I will have to repaint it and apply decals to the sides. One problem I encountered today was that the layer under the panel is very rusty and I'm not sure how I can take off the panel overlay to clean underneath...

As long as someone is playing the games, neo geo will never die. To be fair, people have different ideas of what preserving history means. Some consider emulation better since it makes games more accessible. I'm not going to lie; even though I got my start on actual arcades, I was only able to play most neo geo titles through emulation. I understand emulation AND why people convert their cabs. (I don't understand superguns for the most part)

Yes to many of us the bright red cab with four colorful buttons is neo geo and any alteration of that would therefore tarnish the image. However, just as one can turn a neo geo cab into anything, so too can plain old cabs be turned into neo geo's.

Like this. I gather there is less of a nostalgia factor for War: Final Assault.

 

[RAZO]

I sold my street fighter II ce cab years ago on craigslist. Before I decided to sell it, I spent weeks restoring it and making it look as clean as possible. When the dude from craigslist came to my house he was super happy. When he told me he was going to turn it into a mame cab, I almost was about to tell him that I changed my mind and that I was going to keep the cab because I couldn't stand the thought of someone gutting the cab that I spent my precious time restoring. Mame Cabs are a waste of space.

 

[SSS]

a kinder fate

retire it

 

[trenog]

retire it

:/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/

 

[trunxkam45]

So I'm trying to clean up the area underneath the control panel overlay. But I'm having a tough time removing the overlay:

The buttons have been unscrewed all the way but I don't know how to take them out without cutting those screw collars?

 

[Kid Panda]

You pop the micro switches off and then you can unscrew them all the way and pull the buttons off

 

[trunxkam45]

Thanks!

So I popped my cherry... microswitches off and took off the overlay.

I'm thinking about making a copy roughly the same style but with space for 8 buttons.

Here's what it looks like underneath..

 

[Kid Panda]

I would go ahead and scrub that top down while you have it off just for good measure

 

[trunxkam45]

Well I tried scrubbing off the rust with baking soda paste + copper wire:

It looks a LITTLE bit better but I couldn't remove everything.