Neo Geo MVS/AES Memory Card - help!

I bought a Neo Geo Memory Card, it says on the front that it is for AES.

I have a Neo Geo MVS and i've been watching and reading that you could play a game on the AES and save on the memory card then go take it to the MVS at the arcades and load your data there and continue gameplay...

The Neo Geo Memory Card doesnt fit my MVS card slot! - I bought it from Japan, its official and i live in Australia and therefore have an Australian Neo Geo 6 slot MVS...

here is a picture of my Neo Geo MVS

http://s953.photobucket.com/albums/ae14/Nuclear_Neo/?action=view&current=neogeo6slotcabinet.jpg

here is a link to the ebay auction where i bought the memory card from

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280473914176&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I know it says AES on it but i always thought there was only one type of Neo Geo memory card that was compatible with both the MVS and AES? Is their different type of region memory cards? i had a look through the little card slot on my MVS and i couldnt see any pins sticking out however on the memory card there are heaps of holes obviously requiring pins for it to work. the memory card wont even go in its not stiff or anything.

fair enough if it is only for the AES, il just keep it and im planning on buying an AES anyway, but if anyone knows why it wont fit in the MVS as i thought the memory card fit both the AES and MVS that would be appreciated! If anyone knows what a MVS compatible memory card looks like/has links to id love to have a look!

Thanks!

By the way i made a thread a while ago where the MVS i bought had a monitor fault and it wouldnt display anything but everything else worked, its now working great! it has a bit of discoluration in the bottom left hand corner but i've bought a deguassing wand to fix that! Had a guy that i sent the Chassis too and he repaired all the dead capacitors, the Yoke was also fried and he replaced that with a better one.. once i set that up and turned it on the chassis had smoke coming from it.. when putting the pins into the chassis on the back of the board the traces must of bent/became loose and snapped and so had to re solder the broken traces, once that was done it was good! Really liking the Neo Geo MVS!

from your description looks like you´re missing the memory card module:

As far as I'm aware there's only one type of external card reader, the MV-IC. Did you verify that the board is installed in the machine? You might have to take it out and clean the hell out of before you can get the card in there it as they are frequently full of crap that people stuck in there.

MV-IC.

Oh, I see.

Look at the two headphone jacks on that machine. It's far apart unlike the ones on the MV-IC. You'll have to flip open the control panel and verify whether you have the mem card reader. If not, install one yourself.

Hi, thanks for the replies everyone, thanks for the photo metallizer! - i opened up the control panel and i do indeed have the memory card reader exactly what is in your photo, it looks like it hasnt been adjusted properly and so the memory card wont fit all the way into the slot properly, it looks pretty new and it wasnt hard to slide the memory card into when i unscrewed the board and put the memory card in there, so im going to adjust it later on so that its the right height so that the memory card reader can fit.

thanks everyone for the information!

by the way... is it a high chance the battery in the memory card is dead and needs to be replaced?

SNKorSWM said:

Look at the two headphone jacks on that machine. It's far apart unlike the ones on the MV-IC. You'll have to flip open the control panel and verify whether you have the mem card reader. If not, install one yourself.

Click to expand...

ahh interesting, the memory card reader i have has 2 headphone jacks on the board but there is no hole on the front panel for them to fit into, and then it has the wires that spread out to the two headphone jacks on the far left and far right (which work great) . I've never really had a look at the memory card reader board and such, until i got the memory card haha. thanks for the info! i think i got it now

its very interesting that there are so many possibilities and other things that can be missing when you go and buy an MVS, i bought it and the monitor had a fault, fixed that, the head phone jack 2 wasnt working, it had a wire that needed to be soldered on. the buttons needed to be replaced (i really need a new joystick for first player, its really loose and when you select characters in a game like king of fighters 98 the cursor scrolls really fast when you try to pick a character (i assume its the joystick, the second player joystick works great)

several other things as well that can happen, atleast its easy to access and i assume replace, i really need some help with the marquee, its missing the panel that holds the mini marquees (could i build one with wood and paint it black, cut out some squares for the marquees and fit them in?)

.. the 6 slot motherboard was a bit iffy at first as well but i gave it all a good clean, the whole inside of the cabinet had a thick black dust layer on it all lol. Oh yeah and the seller had unplugged the fan because when you plugged it on it would rattle like crazy and that was because it had a screw in it and heaps of muck, that works smooth now as well!

got the degaussing wand today and that fixed the discoloured patch! pretty cool!

thanks everyone!

Ok, i've readjusted it so now the memory card slides in smoothly, i turn it on and then put the memory card in and nothing happens... isnt a menu meant to pop up? i clicked the test switch and went to memory card test and put it in and it does nothing... if the battery inside the memory card is dead should it still be able to pick it up? if so then is it dirty the memory card reader/memory card?

I bought it classed as working and in good condition so im not sure.. what games does it let you save on if you get game over? i played metal slug and nothing came up.. any ideas anyone?

Thanks!

At the end of a game, when you decide not to continue, that's when it asks to save. I don't think a dead battery would prevent that from coming up. It would just make it lose the data as soon as it was unplugged.

First, verify that both of the big data cables are connected from the MV-IC to your main board in the correct places. Second, shine a light inside the card slot and make sure there are no damaged pins in there. Finally, make sure you are plugging the card all the way in. Mine makes a small click sound when it's plugged in right.

Just remove the card reader and make a mounting template and do some drilling and filing.

Murray said:

At the end of a game, when you decide not to continue, that's when it asks to save. I don't think a dead battery would prevent that from coming up. It would just make it lose the data as soon as it was unplugged.

First, verify that both of the big data cables are connected from the MV-IC to your main board in the correct places. Second, shine a light inside the card slot and make sure there are no damaged pins in there. Finally, make sure you are plugging the card all the way in. Mine makes a small click sound when it's plugged in right.

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for that. I unplugged the 2 big grey data cables from the memory card board MV-IC and took it out, it had heaps of gunk on the pins and all. some of the soldered pieces look a bit different, darker like they have broken off but i soldered them back, so all the board is clean and fine (i assume).

it still wouldnt detect the memory card in the hardware setting test switch.

so i looked where the two big grey data cables followed, down to the motherboard, one of them was loose and i pushed it and that clicked back in, tried it again and it still wouldnt work... so i unplugged them both and clicked them back in assuring that they were plugged in, both at the MV-IC and the motherboard.

put the memory card in until it clicked and tested again and still nothing.

My friend has a neo geo AES that works, i might consider taking my memory card and trying it at his house. Is it the same concept in that if you die in a MVS game, or in any kind of game that it will ask if you want to save? if i did this on the AES and it worked i know the memory card is ok and its something to do with the MVS memory board or connection

Any tips?

In games that allows saving progress on a memory card, you get the prompt after the Game Over screen ONLT IF you already have the mem card inserted (i.e. it won't ask you to insert the mem card). And if you keep the card inserted after the game ends, you will also get a warning that the card is still inserted.

If you don't see either of these happening, you might want to check the actual connector pins that the mem card slides into. Being in the arcade, there's no telling what people would stuff or spill into that slot, which can either corrode or bend a pin and cause it to lose contact.

SNKorSWM said:

In games that allows saving progress on a memory card, you get the prompt after the Game Over screen ONLT IF you already have the mem card inserted (i.e. it won't ask you to insert the mem card). And if you keep the card inserted after the game ends, you will also get a warning that the card is still inserted.

If you don't see either of these happening, you might want to check the actual connector pins that the mem card slides into. Being in the arcade, there's no telling what people would stuff or spill into that slot, which can either corrode or bend a pin and cause it to lose contact.

Click to expand...

when i plug it in before the game it just doesnt detect it as being in there, same with in the hardware test setting when it says to insert it nothing happens it says nothing... ive had a look at the contacts but il have another peek.. i'm not sure whats wrong with it - my friend has a neo geo mvs 4 slot in australia as well and his memory card board wasnt alligned to the actual memory card slot like mine, his doesnt work either - maybe its Australian cabinets, wasnt popular in australia the memory card or something?

Nah, it's just that arcade operators don't usually bother with maintenance to parts that aren't essential to earning money, so most of them won't be spending money to fix or replace the mem card reader even if they knew something was wrong with it.

SNKorSWM said:

Nah, it's just that arcade operators don't usually bother with maintenance to parts that aren't essential to earning money, so most of them won't be spending money to fix or replace the mem card reader even if they knew something was wrong with it.

Click to expand...

Ah, that makes complete sense, well i dunno what im gonna do with mine.. il think about it i mean its all there its just the question of what parts arent working.

I guess if some things arent working that arent that necessary they just dont bother which makes sence, my headphone jack 2 wasnt working but that was cause one of the cords wasnt soldered on properly, fixed that and it works good although in king of fighters 98 some of the attacks have different noises compared to when you take the headphones out! - were the headphones used to fully appreciate stereo surround music in the games? or an addition for say having the neo geo arcade machine in a restaurant that would rather peace and quiet over machine guns firing and people screaming, good idea i must say!

I do have a problem with the player 1 joystick also, it feels quite loose and not as firm as player 2's joystick, its also a different type joystick on the first player one. it plays fine but on some games like when your selecting a character in king of fighters 98 it scrolls really really fast when your trying to select a character and its really hard to pick the one you want, where as player 2's joystick lets you pick what character you want with ease, you dont notice it with some games that require you to push the joystick left or right twice to select the character but in king of fighters you notice it, very anoying.

im not sure if its the joystick or a loose connection or a setting that makes this happen? you dont notice it in games like metal slug because you move left or right but i dunno if it would stuff up combos in some fighting games, it hasnt at the moment but its been hard to pull some off in samurai shodown 2. Any idea where i could buy a decent neo geo type joystick thats not terribly expensive?

Thanks

Nuclear Neo said:

I guess if some things arent working that arent that necessary they just dont bother which makes sence, my headphone jack 2 wasnt working but that was cause one of the cords wasnt soldered on properly, fixed that and it works good although in king of fighters 98 some of the attacks have different noises compared to when you take the headphones out! - were the headphones used to fully appreciate stereo surround music in the games? or an addition for say having the neo geo arcade machine in a restaurant that would rather peace and quiet over machine guns firing and people screaming, good idea i must say!

Click to expand...

Stereo surround??

The headphone connector is provided for noisy environments. Why SNK envisaged every game player walking around with a pair of headphones, I don't know.

Hewitson said:

Stereo surround??

The headphone connector is provided for noisy environments. Why SNK envisaged every game player walking around with a pair of headphones, I don't know.

Click to expand...

Ahh - my bad. I thought the music was better in the headphones, different beats coming from each headphone piece... the nintendo virtual boy is similar isnt it? different noises come from each side to make it sound better. Although the fighting games are just punches and stuff im probably wrong and your right :P, that makes complete sense! funny about that with people walking around with headphones into arcades.

Its a nice feature especially for home use, i can turn the volume down on the speakers and just plug in headphones and play the game while someone watches a movie in our games room. Arcades, depending where it was i guess would be pretty loud and im sure some people wanted to hear all the epic music and sound effects that come from the headphones.

Hewitson said:

Stereo surround??

The headphone connector is provided for noisy environments. Why SNK envisaged every game player walking around with a pair of headphones, I don't know.

Click to expand...

This was back in the day of carrying around Tape Cassettes/CD players. You can honestly say you dont remember people walking around with this stuff? Hell, I still see people around campus and what not with ipods and other music playing devices. I almost always have a pair of earbuds or something similar somewhere on me.

Speaking of which I got a memory card and memory card device more than a year ago and never did anything with them

I need to mount this to my Neo 25 candy in some sort of fashion. I was thinking about mounting the device on some wood and setting it down in the cabinet and then running 2 4ft long male to female 3.5mm jacks from the device through the cab into the joystick and buttons area. Then I'd drill a hole just big enough to slip the metal part of the female end through and hotglue around the inside to hold it into place. Hopefully the hole I make will look clean enough that I dont have to trim around it in some sort of fashion. What do you guys think?

Also, I have and offical memory card thats never been used that Ill play stuff like Last Hero on that doesnt work on 3rd party cards, but for the bulk of my games I was thinking about getting a 512 or a 1mb. Any recommendations on cheap to semi cheap 3rd party cards that will work? Does only SRAM work is there any sort of flash that would work?

Hewitson said:

Stereo surround??

The headphone connector is provided for noisy environments. Why SNK envisaged every game player walking around with a pair of headphones, I don't know.

Click to expand...

Back then when Sony Walkman was hot, people do walk around with headphones in their pockets or ears. Nowadays I still use it so I can turn the volume in the speakers all the way down and rely on the headphones to play at night without waking the neighbors.

Yotsubaclover said:

Also, I have and offical memory card thats never been used that Ill play stuff like Last Hero on that doesnt work on 3rd party cards, but for the bulk of my games I was thinking about getting a 512 or a 1mb. Any recommendations on cheap to semi cheap 3rd party cards that will work? Does only SRAM work is there any sort of flash that would work?

Click to expand...

Third party JEIDA v.3 or higher can work. HOWEVER, you need to use the mem card manager on the AES to format it first. MVS doesn't have the mem card manager (unless you have UNIBIOS installed to use console mode) and if you plug it in without formatting first, it will crash the system.

SNKorSWM said:

Third party JEIDA v.3 or higher can work. HOWEVER, you need to use the mem card manager on the AES to format it first. MVS doesn't have the mem card manager (unless you have UNIBIOS installed to use console mode) and if you plug it in without formatting first, it will crash the system.

Click to expand...

Here's my thread about 3rd party mem cards and all that I learned:
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179935&page=2

Should find something helpful in there I hope.

Hey, thanks for the link.

SNKorSWM said:

Hey, thanks for the link.

Click to expand...

Happy to help!
Memory cards were quite a frustrating experience for me, lol.