MVS Neo Geo Cabinet - Scratch built

[Bod2019]

4 hours ago, fdurso224 said:

You're welcome Chris. Always a pleasure.

 

Interestingly, we are also doing a Q&A article with Paul (Mx5dob) that also commented on your fine work as well. He has an unusual piece in his collection called the SNK "Neo Print" and converted it to be playable. I never seen anything like that done before. So seeing you and Paul's works will really amaze the community as well. Brilliant fellas you both are.  

 

Anthony..

I recall seeing Paul's (mx5dob) cabinet and his setup, it looks great, it'll be good to read his Q&A.

[+Charlie Cat]

1 hour ago, Bod2019 said:

I recall seeing Paul's (mx5dob) cabinet and his setup, it looks great, it'll be good to read his Q&A.

Excellent Chris . We are working on both as we speak. When your article is complete and ready to be published, I'll post it up on here. The readers on ArcadeAttackUK would love to read on what you had to say in it as well. 

 

Anthony.. 

[Tanooki]

Well now that's impressive.  Despite the external differences, it's like I'd put it around probably 90% accurate to the actual cabinet.  I've got a 2 slot as people here would know, and they used the same basic cabinet and your measurements were slightly different, as was your side art as mine doesn't say 'system' but has the MVS logo with multi video system under it.  Just little things like that.  The CPO area the buttons are odd, BCD are flat, but should be more curved between A to D and you chose ball top joysticks vs the usual tear drop style you find too on the US unit.  But hey when you're going custom, you make it to how you want the fit, especially when going to that level of extensive effort.   It's a smart design, should share the plans maybe so others can do it given you went right in with that super gun, standard CRT TV on a smart thick wood mount (weigh far far less than the 20 to 25" original in a metal cage.)

 

If I was up on wiring and all that other, never really learned 'tools' other than what little I've attempted so carpentry is out, as I think that subwoofer would be fun for the various beats you get from blasts and shots in metal slug to blazing star type games.

[Bod2019]

On 11/29/2020 at 4:07 AM, Tanooki said:

Well now that's impressive.  Despite the external differences, it's like I'd put it around probably 90% accurate to the actual cabinet.  I've got a 2 slot as people here would know, and they used the same basic cabinet and your measurements were slightly different, as was your side art as mine doesn't say 'system' but has the MVS logo with multi video system under it.  Just little things like that.  The CPO area the buttons are odd, BCD are flat, but should be more curved between A to D and you chose ball top joysticks vs the usual tear drop style you find too on the US unit.  But hey when you're going custom, you make it to how you want the fit, especially when going to that level of extensive effort.   It's a smart design, should share the plans maybe so others can do it given you went right in with that super gun, standard CRT TV on a smart thick wood mount (weigh far far less than the 20 to 25" original in a metal cage.)

 

If I was up on wiring and all that other, never really learned 'tools' other than what little I've attempted so carpentry is out, as I think that subwoofer would be fun for the various beats you get from blasts and shots in metal slug to blazing star type games.

Hi Tanooki, thanks for replying.  I think your two slot artwork and CPO are actually different to the one slot cabinet.  See the promotional flyers attached. The ‘system’ text is present on the one slot.

 

My CPO was a reproduction from a scanned original, so is an accurate as can be without having an original.  There are many examples with the same button layout.  I’ve attached pictures of the real thing, as you can see, both are legitimate panels.  The only thing I don’t know is which preceded the other, or whether they co-existed?

 

Unfortunately it would be inevitable that my dimensions would be slightly off, I never had access to a real unit, so had to work off approximate dimensions, working backwards from there.  I’m just glad I got somewhere near enough.  I’m not sure it’ll ever really matter unless it were side by side with a real unit.

 

As for the sub, definitely give it a go.  It’s fantastic.  I was a little skeptical that it might not add anything at first, as I thought perhaps the frequencies aren’t there in the original music/effects (I had read somewhere that the frequency range of Neo Geo games wasn’t enough to justify it) but that was way wrong.  It’s great, especially the drum and bass track in Shock Troopers (I think second stage?).

 

As for plans, if time allows I will try and put together some better documents and maybe a video for people to refer to.  I know it would have helped me a lot at the beginning of this journey.

[Bod2019]

Thought I would throw up an image of my unit with the SNK family poster.  Forgive the slight geometric anomalies, those have arisen from differing focal lengths between my picture and that taken by SNK.

 

On 11/29/2020 at 4:07 AM, Tanooki said:

ball top joysticks vs the usual tear drop style

Forgot to mention, I intend to get 'Bat tops' for my joystick, they were out of stock when I bought the components, I'll get these as soon as they're available again, they just screw on, simple swap.  I wasn't too sure when I was building it if I would prefer ball top vs bat top, at least if I get them I can make my own personal choice.

[+Charlie Cat]

14 hours ago, Bod2019 said:

 

 

 

I love those classic MVS flyers Chris. I went on Ebay to find and purchase them for the collection.  Still try to find more versions to add in my folder bro. 

 

Antony..

[Bod2019]

22 hours ago, fdurso224 said:

I love those classic MVS flyers Chris. I went on Ebay to find and purchase them for the collection.  Still try to find more versions to add in my folder bro. 

Me too.  I’d love one in a frame, in the room, but feel I’ve pushed my luck with the wife by just having the one slot cabinet.?

[+Charlie Cat]

3 hours ago, Bod2019 said:

Me too.  I’d love one in a frame, in the room, but feel I’ve pushed my luck with the wife by just having the one slot cabinet.?

Hmmm. That give me an idea Chris. I'll let you know what it is right now through PM. 

 

Anthony...

[VGP&H8ERZ]

@Bod2019,

 

First off i want to say great Job! it looks just like i remember them growing up. I am looking to recreate one myself this year(I hope haha) if i am up to the task. i have been watching and looking up how to build cabs for a while. I have always wanted a Neo Geo cab. I have over the years collected games and a few Boards and build a Consolized one but never thought to go all in until recently. i am currently living in japan and getting my hands on anything US is pretty impossible and the local cabs are great but too big and not what i remember. So i recently got a great deal on a working 4 slot board and said its time to get started haha.  Anyway thank you for all the information within this Thread. its going to be a great help. Its been mission impossible to locate any Dimensions etc. I have been taking lots of screenshots of vids etc to get some or the more Key things Visually. I think the hard part will be the control panel. I like the way you did it and i an thinking of adding Holes for the Coin counters. Also i have a few Ides of maybe doing it with Thicker acrylic or maybe bending thin Sheetmetal in the shape and reinforcing it with two sheets bent in the same way and gluing or welding them together in someway. I still considering but i have no clue if i can do it or not. I have pretty much 0 Exp in any kind of wood working or metal bending etc. i am more of a electronics guy but its always a good time to learn. 

 

what you have provided will be a great help and thank you again for recording as much as you did but did you ever get a chance to Write down some more details in regards to your build? any extra is always a big help. 

 

Fantastic job again.

[VGP&H8ERZ]

Also I have been looking for a good place to get full Side Art Where did you end up getting yours from?

[ClifG]

@Bod2019 this is amazing work! You've inspired me to make my own DIY MVS 4-slot cabinet. I have a 24" CRT and just picked up a 4-slot MVS board and the shogun ultra from beharbros. A few questions about using the supergun if you have time...

 

Were you able to figure out how to switch cart slots through the supergun? Normally I'd expect we'd need to figure out the proper jamma connection to make and wire up our own button for it, but since the shogun is MVS-specific I am hoping there's a simpler way.

 

Also, did you run into any problems with scrolling judder with the shogun? I'm running the scart out of the shogun ultra through a retrotink rgb2comp, then component into my CRT, and when scrolling in Metal Slug X, for example, you can clearly see juddering as the screen scrolls (pixels "jump back and forth a bit" rather than scrolling smoothly). I don't have this problem with the rgb2comp on any other scart input so I'm wondering if it's the shogun. Sadly the documentation for the shogun is very sparse/lacking but I'll also reach out to Yosi to see if he has any help.

 

Again, really great work on the cabinet! If you ever did get around to writing up more or getting higher quality scans of some of your plans, I'd love to see them, but otherwise following along in this thread and searching elsewhere for more details should help me out. I do also want to ask what @VGP&H8ERZ asked about the side art. Yours looks great and I'm also going to need something similar!

[ClifG]

Oops! I don’t know why I thought you had built a multi-slot MVS 😂 I’ll do some more research into how to trigger a game select but it’ll probably not be something the shogun supports natively