Hi everyone,
I'm new to the Neo scene; in fact, I just recently received my first arcade cabinet, from an eBay auction that I won. I had only seen an MVS once I think, and had never seen an AES or Neo CD. I had been playing with the roms (
) for a while, and the feeling of disgust and shame was overwhelming considering the games were the best I had played...perhaps ever. Now this is coming from someone who's owned a dozen home systems, hundreds of games, etc. You see, I never burned a single game disc, not even once. Not for PS1, nor PS2, nor DC, nor Xbox...yet I own a load of games for those. Even for GBA, even though I did download a lot of roms, I ended up deleting most of them and buying around 30 legit games.
So I was looking for a solution to this Neo Geo problem. Now, I did not want a Neo CD(Z) because I simply cannot stand load times, and I just hate seeing scratches on the discs. I would rather have paid more to avoid load times. The choice was between a supergun (which I enquired about on these forums last year) and an AES. But it did not pan out, and I left this crazy idea of getting into the Neo scene on the shelf for a while. I browsed through eBay auctions just for kicks, looked at websites that would sell Neo stuff, but I didn't get to buy anything...until an auction that was just what I was looking for. Since I was a kid, I had that crazy dream of actually owning an arcade cabinet, even though I never really thought I could afford it. Last year, I almost bought an Ultracade, but it cost so damn much it wasn't possible for me to do so. Now I'm glad I couldn't, since I discovered so many better games on the Neo (even though I only experienced the roms and ports). As a matter of fact, let me tell you how I discovered the joy of SNK.
My video game fanaticism began when I was around 4 years old and messed around on my father's PC, playing such games as Alley Cat, Ninja, Moon Patrol, Archon, Paratrooper, and even learning chess by myself. I soon discovered the NES, and then moved on to the greatness that was the 16-bit era, still unrivaled in my opinion. SNES, Genesis and even TG16 were all the rage. I spent time in arcades, playing mostly my favorite genre ever, beat 'em ups. I had bought a 2600 to see what I had missed, since it was a little before my time. I also had fun with the Game Boy and Game Gear. It was great to have video game news once a month, with tiny screenshots and obviously no videos...even back in 1994, reviewers were dumb graphic whores who barely cared about the gameplay. I read about the Neo Geo, but since I had never actually seen one, I thought it actually must have been the worst of the bunch ( ). But gimme a break still, in 1994 I was ten years old. Then, I was majorly burned by the dreaded 3DO, which I spent all my savings on (all 500 dollars). Thus began my very own rude awakening and gloom period, which included the Saturn and N64 (for some reason I was a Nintendo fanboy). I didn't have much fun back then, and the PC games I loved most, adventure games such as the Legend of Kyrandia trilogy, were fading away at the expense of realistic first-person shooters (I hate realism in any game). I almost hated video games by then. Then a savior came: the Dreamcast. I rediscovered the joy of 2D games (I hate 3D games too, by the way), especially Capcom fighters I had missed, such as SFIII, MvC, and...Capcom VS. SNK? What was SNK? I was truely clueless, I must admit. I did find their characters pretty cool, especially Kim, Rock and Geese. Then I did some research and discovered KOF, SS, AOF and FF. I was blown away. Then I played Metal Slug, Last Blade, SVC, and so many others. I was reborn as a video game enthusiast. Even though by then I owned a PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA and even DS (as you can see this reawakening is still in progress), I had so much more fun playing Neo games. I bought ports (playing online is pretty cool), I researched some more...and here I am, with my cab. The one cab I knew I had to have: the Big Red, more specifically the four-slot wonder known as the MVS-4-25 (ver. 2) as seen on hardmvs.com. It came with four games (and their respective mini marquees), which I will briefly review. I didn't buy this for these games, though...I wanted the cab.
Top Player's Golf: Uh...yeah. I'm no sports gamer, especially not a golf one, but this is still playable and relaxing.
Aero Fighters 3: I like shooters, but again I'm not a huge fan. This one is somewhat above average, although it gets very repetitive after a while.
Magical Drop II: Fun puzzle game, even though once again I'm no huge fan of this genre. This one's way hard.
Puzzle de Pon: The best game of the bunch in my opinion, and perhaps the single best puzzler I've played since Tetris. Worth buying all the way.
The cab works very well, and it's in pretty good shape considering it's been in use for many years, God knows where. Actually the coin counter indicates more than 160 000 coins have been dropped...that's a damn lot. Inside the cab, a date has been written: 9-16-91. This one's seen plenty of action, it seems. I wonder how many memories of gaming greatness are embedded in the cab's wooden soul... Nevertheless, it still works, and the monitor quality is near-perfect. It's actually stunningly beautiful. I haven't messed around with the dip switches yet. Now here's the important part: the controls. Well, I don't know yet about both C and D buttons for players 1 and 2...I'll need a fighter to figure that out. Both A buttons work well, and player 1's B button works well too. Player 2's B button doesn't work so well, however. Actually it works every other time you use it. It's pretty annoying, and I wouldn't want to change any of the buttons if possible. Do you guys know how I could tweak it? I have an X-Arcade, and I've tweaked the joysticks to near-perfection, but I didn't mess around with the buttons too much. Anyway...about my cab's joysticks. Player 2's is in superb condition, I bet it wasn't used much. Player 1's, however, feels very, very loose. All the directions work, mind you, but it's far from the tightness of the second joystick. I looked if I could tweak it as I did with my X-Arcade, but the contacts are quite rusty and abnormally curved. Is it even possible to tweak them anymore or to change them altogether? Thanks for any help you can provide.
To end this long-winded rant, here's a pic of my cab in my room. If you want more pics (of the monitor during gameplay, of the inside of the control panel, etc.), I can take some. Just give me some directions.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/Djister/Cab.jpg
I'm new to the Neo scene; in fact, I just recently received my first arcade cabinet, from an eBay auction that I won. I had only seen an MVS once I think, and had never seen an AES or Neo CD. I had been playing with the roms (
) for a while, and the feeling of disgust and shame was overwhelming considering the games were the best I had played...perhaps ever. Now this is coming from someone who's owned a dozen home systems, hundreds of games, etc. You see, I never burned a single game disc, not even once. Not for PS1, nor PS2, nor DC, nor Xbox...yet I own a load of games for those. Even for GBA, even though I did download a lot of roms, I ended up deleting most of them and buying around 30 legit games.So I was looking for a solution to this Neo Geo problem. Now, I did not want a Neo CD(Z) because I simply cannot stand load times, and I just hate seeing scratches on the discs. I would rather have paid more to avoid load times. The choice was between a supergun (which I enquired about on these forums last year) and an AES. But it did not pan out, and I left this crazy idea of getting into the Neo scene on the shelf for a while. I browsed through eBay auctions just for kicks, looked at websites that would sell Neo stuff, but I didn't get to buy anything...until an auction that was just what I was looking for. Since I was a kid, I had that crazy dream of actually owning an arcade cabinet, even though I never really thought I could afford it. Last year, I almost bought an Ultracade, but it cost so damn much it wasn't possible for me to do so. Now I'm glad I couldn't, since I discovered so many better games on the Neo (even though I only experienced the roms and ports). As a matter of fact, let me tell you how I discovered the joy of SNK.
My video game fanaticism began when I was around 4 years old and messed around on my father's PC, playing such games as Alley Cat, Ninja, Moon Patrol, Archon, Paratrooper, and even learning chess by myself. I soon discovered the NES, and then moved on to the greatness that was the 16-bit era, still unrivaled in my opinion. SNES, Genesis and even TG16 were all the rage. I spent time in arcades, playing mostly my favorite genre ever, beat 'em ups. I had bought a 2600 to see what I had missed, since it was a little before my time. I also had fun with the Game Boy and Game Gear. It was great to have video game news once a month, with tiny screenshots and obviously no videos...even back in 1994, reviewers were dumb graphic whores who barely cared about the gameplay. I read about the Neo Geo, but since I had never actually seen one, I thought it actually must have been the worst of the bunch (
). But gimme a break still, in 1994 I was ten years old. Then, I was majorly burned by the dreaded 3DO, which I spent all my savings on (all 500 dollars). Thus began my very own rude awakening and gloom period, which included the Saturn and N64 (for some reason I was a Nintendo fanboy). I didn't have much fun back then, and the PC games I loved most, adventure games such as the Legend of Kyrandia trilogy, were fading away at the expense of realistic first-person shooters (I hate realism in any game). I almost hated video games by then. Then a savior came: the Dreamcast. I rediscovered the joy of 2D games (I hate 3D games too, by the way), especially Capcom fighters I had missed, such as SFIII, MvC, and...Capcom VS. SNK? What was SNK? I was truely clueless, I must admit. I did find their characters pretty cool, especially Kim, Rock and Geese. Then I did some research and discovered KOF, SS, AOF and FF. I was blown away. Then I played Metal Slug, Last Blade, SVC, and so many others. I was reborn as a video game enthusiast. Even though by then I owned a PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA and even DS (as you can see this reawakening is still in progress), I had so much more fun playing Neo games. I bought ports (playing online is pretty cool), I researched some more...and here I am, with my cab. The one cab I knew I had to have: the Big Red, more specifically the four-slot wonder known as the MVS-4-25 (ver. 2) as seen on hardmvs.com. It came with four games (and their respective mini marquees), which I will briefly review. I didn't buy this for these games, though...I wanted the cab.Top Player's Golf: Uh...yeah. I'm no sports gamer, especially not a golf one, but this is still playable and relaxing.
Aero Fighters 3: I like shooters, but again I'm not a huge fan. This one is somewhat above average, although it gets very repetitive after a while.
Magical Drop II: Fun puzzle game, even though once again I'm no huge fan of this genre. This one's way hard.
Puzzle de Pon: The best game of the bunch in my opinion, and perhaps the single best puzzler I've played since Tetris. Worth buying all the way.
The cab works very well, and it's in pretty good shape considering it's been in use for many years, God knows where. Actually the coin counter indicates more than 160 000 coins have been dropped...that's a damn lot. Inside the cab, a date has been written: 9-16-91. This one's seen plenty of action, it seems. I wonder how many memories of gaming greatness are embedded in the cab's wooden soul... Nevertheless, it still works, and the monitor quality is near-perfect. It's actually stunningly beautiful. I haven't messed around with the dip switches yet. Now here's the important part: the controls. Well, I don't know yet about both C and D buttons for players 1 and 2...I'll need a fighter to figure that out. Both A buttons work well, and player 1's B button works well too. Player 2's B button doesn't work so well, however. Actually it works every other time you use it. It's pretty annoying, and I wouldn't want to change any of the buttons if possible. Do you guys know how I could tweak it? I have an X-Arcade, and I've tweaked the joysticks to near-perfection, but I didn't mess around with the buttons too much. Anyway...about my cab's joysticks. Player 2's is in superb condition, I bet it wasn't used much. Player 1's, however, feels very, very loose. All the directions work, mind you, but it's far from the tightness of the second joystick. I looked if I could tweak it as I did with my X-Arcade, but the contacts are quite rusty and abnormally curved. Is it even possible to tweak them anymore or to change them altogether? Thanks for any help you can provide.
To end this long-winded rant, here's a pic of my cab in my room. If you want more pics (of the monitor during gameplay, of the inside of the control panel, etc.), I can take some. Just give me some directions.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/Djister/Cab.jpg
.