Arcade's convertor FINALLY drops in price

Just to let you guys know, videogamedepot.com is selling Arcade's convertor since yesterday for $350 with one freebie MVS game.

This can only be a sign that the "AES2" is on the way, if not, I would see no other reason for Arcade to drop it like that... he must be selling to VGD for about $300.

That is very cool, hopefully it will drop another $50 soon. With time I hope...

I hope !Arcade! isn't fibbing about this "AES2" thing... I would love for it to become real soon.

Bryan

I dont care how all singing and all dancing it is, $300 for an adapter is plain fucking wrong! Thats like more than I paid for my One slot set up + metal slug 2 and Pop n bounce. Is there anything complicated in it? Or is it just some cheap piece of shit like every other convertor ever made? Why some company like "Datel" of that other household name "Honey Bee" dosent make a cheap one for like 29.99 is beyond me! Still, I suppose that it means that people dont have to buy pirate carts for five times the price of MVS ones!


Metal Slug.
"I'm gonna pave the road with you idiots"

Metal Slug those are my feelings exactly. I cannot see paying $350 dollars for a converter. That is just crazy. You can buy a 2 slot for a third of the price and get the NGH joystick ports and memory card slot.

Well, you're perfectly entitled to think buying a $300 convertor for the Neo Geo is plain fucking wrong, but I don't understand your logic in saying one could be made for $29. I bought the convertor for $400 and haven't regretted it one time. Let me tell you why: Games!

For what you pay on the convertor, you more than make up for in game prices. Like I said in another post, with the five MVS games I own and play on it, the damn thing's already paid for itself twice, if not more. So you scored a one-slot for that price? That's cool, but not everybody can get a good deal like that. The cheapest MVS cab I found here in town was a 2-slot for $400, and there was no telling how much shit that thing had already got put through. Plus, not everybody is tecnologically inclined to fix it if it breaks in one way or another. I know I'm not able to fix it, and I'm not exactly the dumbest peanut in the turd.

If you buy an MVS from out of your town, look to pay serious money in shipping. Yeah, the convertor is high, no denying that at all, but you also gotta consider how many developers do you think are gonna "waste time developing for a dead system"? The exclusivity alone, and that being the "cult following", us, explains part of the high-assed price. Most companies won't tackle something they don't think will make them a mint, which makes sense naturally. You also gotta figure the price of parts and the labor in throwing it together. Those friendly guys in Canada that make the thing gotta eat and pay bills too.

What I don't understand is why there's animosity toward something that can obviously help a lot of people out. Yeah, the price sucks, but then this price won't even buy you half of a Garou home cart either. I'm not an employee of !Arcade!, I'm not getting a check to plug the convertor, and if you wanna hate !Arcade! with a purple passion that's your business (not necessarily implying you yourself hate !Arcade! Metal Slug). I'm just another Neo Geo junkie that loves the games and can't figure out why people have their mind made up about something without looking into it.




*fixed some grammer*

[ May 04, 2001: Message edited by: Lou Gojira ]

Speaking of the AES2... you guys should check out the gamego website. Thier news update today is mighty interesting... C'mon just look!

Originally posted by outsider:
<STRONG>Just to let you guys know, videogamedepot.com is selling Arcade's convertor since yesterday for $350 with one freebie MVS game.

This can only be a sign that the "AES2" is on the way, if not, I would see no other reason for Arcade to drop it like that... he must be selling to VGD for about $300.</STRONG>

Click to expand...

That's awesome, as I am seriously considering buying one this summer. Thank you for the info.

weres all the doubters now???
just like the convertor issue,another reality..

gamegos got the contest going,check it out...

Eldios10. Yeah, Totally!
LOU, You have misunderstood me there chap! I'm not having a go at collectors, I'm having a go at any company that can produce a simple convertor, and charge the kind of price for it that you would pay for a top MVS title! As far as I am concerned it is total mercenary profiteering. If you pay $350 for a rare cart, at least it is a genuine rare item. If AES carts were about as expensive as MVS carts, the company concerned would only be trying to get $100 for their convertor. What they are in fact doing is trying to bleed every last drop of blood out of us gamers, by pricing it at the very highest price that the market will accept. You act like they are doing you a favour? Trust me, They aren't! They are selling you an item that would probobly still turn them a good profit if they sold it at £40. Can't you tell when you've been had?

Metal Slug...
"If you're gonna pray, do it now!"

Originally posted by DRUNKEN SHAOLIN DEVIL:
<STRONG>weres all the doubters now???
just like the convertor issue,another reality..

gamegos got the contest going,check it out...</STRONG>

Click to expand...

Is the AES II going to play MVS games? I still haven't heard a solid answer on this. Or is it just a redesigned AES, kinda like the Genesis 3 redesign? Anyone have solid answers?

Believe me DJB, I am craving for an answer to this.

This is what I know:

-its supposed to play AES games
-it has a JAMMA adapter, which means you could play a JAMMA board, including of course an MVS board (like a supergun)

Thats basically all that was stated at first.

NOW, after that, Arcade was selling some MVS carts on eBay saying something along the lines of "after all the testing with our new system, we have a bunch of MVS carts left over"

I take it, that they have added an MVS slot directly to the system, making both AES/MVS playable... is this true? Who knows, I'm only assuming on what has been laid in front of me. Arcade provided me no answers when I questioned him directly by email, or on this board - and everyone else close to arcade said nothing.

Will it play both? With it have the JAMMA adapter? Time will tell - that is unless someone here in the know reveals something we dont know.

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: outsider ]

>>>LOU, You have misunderstood me there chap! I'm not having a go at collectors, I'm having a go at any company that can produce a simple convertor, and charge the kind of price for it that you would pay for a top MVS title! As far as I am concerned it is total mercenary profiteering. If you pay $350 for a rare cart, at least it is a genuine rare item. If AES carts were about as expensive as MVS carts, the company concerned would only be trying to get $100 for their convertor. What they are in fact doing is trying to bleed every last drop of blood out of us gamers, by pricing it at the very highest price that the market will accept. You act like they are doing you a favour? Trust me, They aren't! They are selling you an item that would probobly still turn them a good profit if they sold it at £40. <<<

Not that I want to turn this into a flame war, but it's this exact kind of mentality that keeps people from making products. They go out of their way to produce something to make EVERYONE'S life easier (especially PLAYERS, no collectors), and naysayers (cheap asses) like you try to make them look bad. You spend the money to develop a product like this ("simple converter" shows how misinformed you really are), find the connectors and parts, assemble it, test it and try to sell it to a niche market. You think Arcade! is having naked chick parties at the beach with free booze from all of the money that they're making? Get real. Technology costs money, it's nothing new. And if you'd rather buy a real AES cart for $300, that's your right. But to insinuate that this is some simpleton converter made by a band of thieves is not only downright negative, it also puts a damper on other folks in the Neo Community who might want to take a risk to keep the system alive a bit longer. And yeah, stuff like the above irritates me because nobody has to take the time or the risk to make this kind of product. I don't pretend that they aren't making money, but they deserve to for doing it in the first place.

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: haohmaruGO! ]

Dont worry guy's in a couple of months it will be at like 150$ trusts me.....

As far as I am concerned it is total mercenary profiteering. If you pay $350 for a rare cart, at least it is a genuine rare item.

Click to expand...

Okay, I'm not attacking you Metal Slug. You sound like a very well read person, but I can't understand your train of thought here. You're saying it's okay for a collector to reap the rewards of a booming market (i.e. sock it to the "bandwagon jumpers" and the "gotta have it all and right now" types), but it's not okay for a developer to charge a steep sum for a product that can ultimately save you some money in the long run? Funny, the video game mags were saying the same thing about SNK 10 years ago, when they incessantly bitched like cackling old hags in a bingo hall over the hefty price tag of the Neo Geo. "This system is too much money for too little fun." Or the doomsaying of how the price was gonna kill it: "Magician Lord- The best game there is or ever will be for the Neo Geo." What I find particularly amusing is how EGM, those capitalist, band-wagon mentality lemming basturds, stopped the bitching and moaning when SNK had bought ad space from them and printed the three ad supplements. They actually had some nice things to say about SNK for a while there. Imagine that. Oh well, that's another ball of wax I'd better not get into...

Anyway, how are you so certain that a convertor can be made and sold for $29, or $100 like you seemed to later suggest? I mean, you sound like you're believing what you say, and you're not playing Doubting Thomas for the fun of it, but where is your proof or facts that give you this idea? Like I say, I think I got a good deal as far as the games I get to enjoy using the convertor, without getting reamed and taken to the bank by some collector out to make a name for himself for each and every "rare" game I'd normally have to buy on home cart.

If you think I got shafted on the convertor, that's cool. You're entitled to your opinion. But if nothing else, look at it this way. We could say for sake of arguement that you're correct in your opinion and I got screwed once. But how many times will I get screwed from now on? When I'm paying $45 for an MVS cart of the exact same game that's getting sold on home cart for $800 or more to an overzealous collector, who's getting sucker punched then? When I'm buying an MVS game for $60 and the home cart of that same game is being sold to another guy for $600+, who got sucker punched there? See what I'm saying? You take one bite to the wallet with the convertor, but after that it's smooth sailing...

Am I making sense, or just rambling incoherently due to lack of sleep?


Brigette Bardot
My Barefoot Muse

it's BRIGITTE BARDOT, NOT BRIGETTE!!
don't play with brigitte, she's mine.

Is that how you spell her name? I've seen it spelled about four different ways now, so I just stuck to spelling it like in the credits of "And God Created Woman". She's yours huh? Funny, she never mentioned you. I think I've just stolen her away.

Damn, wouldn't it be cool if she was still the care free 19 year old like in the pic? Oh well, at least the movies never get old...


Brigette Bardot
Formerly mathieu74's,
but now she's mine!

You two guys are disputing two separate points. Lou is supporting the value-added side of the !Arcade! convertor, the intrinsic value held in the actual product's capabilities. To him, and many other people, the !Arcade! convertor is more than worth the price for what it enables the owner to get in return -- access to lots and lots of affordable MVS games. Metal Slug and HaohmaruGO! are arguing about the price of the components used to make the !Arcade! convertor and are not taking into account the value-added portion of the assembly of the components and what it the convertor means to people.

I frankly don't own a Neo Geo, though I would like to someday, I suppose. I don't know the details of the !Arcade! convertor, but I understand it is the best MVS -> AES convertor available. And that "bestness," if I can coin a word, and convenience comes at a price. Would I pay $350 for it? If I wasn't a student and had the money to burn I might. Would I if it were $100 and I had a Neo Geo? You bet. But as an economist, I'm discussing the point from an economic standpoint of value-added and having a unique product in an oligopolistic market.

Haouhmarugo: If you believe that the R&D costs of a "Simple Converter" merit a $400 price tag then you are sadly deluded. Oh, and if you could perhaps re-read my thoughts on this subject, you may understand them better, and not take them so hopelessly out of context.

Lou: I agree with a lot of what you are saying Lou, your points are well made! I dont doubt for a second that it is a usefull product, which expands the neo-gamers arsenal no end. My problem is the price. If you can justify that expense, then great! But even you must be able to see that the company involved is taking advantage just a little?
After all, the rest of the gaming community looks at us like we have more money than sense (Which maybee we do!) The problem is, when companies start to see us that way. I never said that "Buying" the item for $350 was "Fucking wrong" I said that "$300 for an adapter is plain fucking wrong!" It seems to me that you are being charged for "All that money, it will save you" which is not really fair. This isn't an item that been years in development, its a fairly simple item with a price-tag based solely on its target audiences capacity to spend money, and not in any way based on its production costs.
Problem is we are used to being squeezed when we buy SNK products, so now we just accept it. I can defend the cost of carts to myself on rariety grounds. I may even be able to justify buying a converter for reasons of avaiability. I could not however, see a $350 converter as a reasonably priced product. Its the same kind of rampant capitalism that allows Drug Companies to try and justify the horrendous prices of anti H.I.V drugs to people in the third world. Now maybee that analogy is taking it a bit too far, but as a gamer who specialises in collecting all the unusual aspects of video gaming, I'm just sick of being skinned!

Metal Slug!
"Theres gonna be bullets flyin' and widows cryin'.

Excellent points Metal Slug, and I can see where you're coming from now. Yeah, us Neo Geo fiends are probably desensitized to an extent as far as getting a bite taken out of the wallet. All I can say is give it some time. If you can't justify the cost of it presently, maybe it'll come down to what you consider reasonable later on. Good luck in whatever you decide on doing. But I do hope you can look into this convertor sometime or another, it sure is a cool little gizmo!

Originally posted by Metal Slug:
<STRONG>Haouhmarugo: If you believe that the R&D costs of a "Simple Converter" merit a $400 price tag then you are sadly deluded. Oh, and if you could perhaps re-read my thoughts on this subject, you may understand them better, and not take them so hopelessly out of context.
</STRONG>

Click to expand...

Nothing was taken out of context. You're basing your evaluation of their price on pure speculation and fantasy. If you seriously think that a company can afford to develop products like this by paying penauts (a.k.a. "McDonald's Money") as salary then you are not only sorely mistaken, you are also seriously in need of a business class.

Arcade's product is like anything else in video game land - it comes out, it's hot, it's in demand, it's a lot of money. As the product ages, the price comes down because the supplier can afford to do larger runs, has financing from previously sold converters, and has faith that his product will actually sell.

Bottom Line: The product DOES save players money, no matter how cleverly you try to word it otherwise. There are two choices here: don't have a converter at all and take it up the proverbial butt with every AES cart you buy, or have an "expensive" converter that allows you to play MVS games on your AES.

I'll take the converter option, thanks, even if it is a lot of money (but it really isn't, it's about the same as a "new" AES cart would cost. For the Neo Cart market, $350-400 isn't a lot of money).

TK

Actually, there is a third option. For the cost of a neo geo home cart system and one of those adapters, buy a super nova, an MVS 1 slot, and a couple games. This seems the most logical to me, because then you have a super gun to play your other fav arcade games on. Or even a 4th option; buy an MVS cabinet.

And I have to agree with slug here. Everyone who has made an adapter thus far (it's not just !arcade!...they are just following the lead) has been selling it for ripoff prices. Why? Just like it's already been stated; neo gamers = more money then sense and they will pay it because they are used to taking it up the rear for gaming stuff. You can argue about r & d all day long, but what about NES and kisado (the PCE to TG16) adapters? Those are the only other 2 adapters that I can compare because each of those had to change the pinouts in a similar fashion to the neo geo adapters and I don't think any other adapters ever had to do this. Even so, they were like $55 when in production.

These adapters are neat novelty items, but they aren't really saving anyone any money. And I can't understand why everyone was (is)all excited about them because the MVS alternative was always there at the same price. At most, they are a space saver.

Matt

well compared to a huge ass nova and 2 slot,i think !arcades! converter is a nice piece .who the hell wants that big ugly beast in front of their tv anyway?
and as far as prices go,shawn was selling a converter that didnt work for shit at $750 a pop.
you people have no brains sometimes..
the converter plays everything!plus its practical and alot less bulky than a nova..

who the hell wants that big ugly beast in front of their tv anyway?
----------------------------


Amen,
I hate how much room the novas take up.
Seems no matter what you do it just looks like a big mess. Instantly transforming a nice living room into a big sloppy mess.

I'm no super neat freak, but novas are just a pain.

I'd take a convertor or a actual cab over it anyday.

Finally the will sell them for the right price !!! <IMG SRC="smilies/glee.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/smirk.gif" border="0">