How should I proceed with this NEO GEO?

Hi,

First post here!

<OFFTOPIC>Man, I wish I had found this board a few years ago, could have saved me a lot of time. Nice to see so many people from all over the world keeping the NEO GEO alive </OFFTOPIC>

My brother still has his NEO GEO that he bought when we still lived in Germany. When we moved to the U.S. I remember going to every store with the Neo Geo RGB cable asking for some kind of adapter so we can use our Neo Geo on an American TV. Most of the people had never seen a cable like that before. We pretty much gave up on the NEO GEO after that. This was in 1995/6 and the NEO GEO has been sitting in it's box in a closet ever since. The other day I saw it in the closet and I figured I'll see what kind of information I can find on it. I've read a lot of older posts in this forum and am wondering if I can still breathe life back into the NEO GEO.

Specific Problems:
- Since we bought it in Germany I'm assuming it is a PAL System.

- I can't seem to locate the RGB cable but I'm sure we still have it somewhere. I will need a A/V cable for the time being. The sega Genesis cable should work right?

Worst case scenario It won't run because it's PAL.

Would it be best to buy a PAL/NTSC multisystem monitor? (Had one in Germany)

Would any RGB capable monitor be multisystem?

Any advice on how to proceed is greatly appreciated.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the forum, most of the time you will find your questions to be answered quickly.

As far as your issue, you cant use a Genesis cable for it as it uses a slightly different DIN (cant remember right off hand the #'s)

The best thing I would recommend is to send it off to get the Svideo and Composite output mods from either Kenny or Jeff Kurtz.

Both seem pretty damn good in those respects.

Also NEOFREAK9189 has a scan converted for sale in the Everything Else forum that might help you.

.Originally posted by Decepticon
Let me be the first to welcome you to the forum, most of the time you will find your questions to be answered quickly.

Thanks! I thought the NeoGeo was a system long and forgotten but just reading these forums brings back the excitement of having a NeoGeo in the house.

As far as your issue, you cant use a Genesis cable for it as it uses a slightly different DIN (cant remember right off hand the #'s)

Yeah, I was reading contradictory statements about that and wanted to know if it is true or not. One guy in here wrote that the NeoGeo uses a 270 degree DIN while the Genesis uses a 262 degree cable ?

The best thing I would recommend is to send it off to get the Svideo and Composite output mods from either Kenny or Jeff Kurtz.

I assume they convert the system from PAL to NTSC? Probably isn't cheap. And doesn't that void the warranty??

Also NEOFREAK9189 has a scan converted for sale in the Everything Else forum that might help you.

This might be the best alternative. I would be able to have RGB ability aswell as PAL playback. I assume NEOFREAK9189 has a good reputation on these forums?

Hey thanks a lot Decepticon. You helped me a lot.

More than happy to be of service...just a hint but that "Quote" button over the post is alot more effective

As far as them converting it to PAL and whatnot I am pretty sure that the system itsself is capable of NTSC signal. Im sure their video mods might work but check with them first.

As far as Neofreak, I have never personally done any business with him but he seems like a pretty good guy.

Your best bet if you have any concerns would be to ask him for references and also post a reference check in the selling forum.

Searching doesn't hurt much either.

Good luck in getting it to work and enjoy your stay, you will find out the Neo is far from being a dead system.

If it's a pal system converting it to ntsc is very easy: you just have to change the crystal (a $1 component readily available at any electronics shops) and connect pin 7 of the Sony video encoder to vcc (in pal mode it's connected to ground). People doing this mod shouldn't charge more than 20-25 bucks unless they want to be called thieves. If you send it to someone to get it ntsc-modded you might want to mod it for s-video as well since composite sucks big time.

Note that whether it's ntsc or pal the system doesn't lose its RGB capability, so you can always use an upscan converter to hook it up through RGB to a PC monitor.

The Neo DIN port IS 270°. Not sure about the Genesis as I don't have one to check...

jazz said:

.Originally posted by Decepticon

The best thing I would recommend is to send it off to get the Svideo and Composite output mods from either Kenny or Jeff Kurtz.

I assume they convert the system from PAL to NTSC? Probably isn't cheap. And doesn't that void the warranty??

Click to expand...

I'm assuming you were joking about the warranty thing.

Anyway shoot over an email to jmkurtz@columbus.rr.com

for the S-vid mod

I assure it is not expensive, but I cannot post the price here.

You should have no problem with the AC adapter also, if you do, ask in the email.

MKL said:

If it's a pal system converting it to ntsc is very easy: you just have to change the crystal (a $1 component readily available at any electronics shops) and connect pin 7 of the Sony video encoder to vcc (in pal mode it's connected to ground). People doing this mod shouldn't charge more than 20-25 bucks unless they want to be called thieves. If you send it to someone to get it ntsc-modded you might want to mod it for s-video as well since composite sucks big time.

Click to expand...

Hmm sounds easy. Did a search on the forums using 'crystal' and came up with a lot of results. Although I didn't find any real defintive tutorial. One post said to cut a wire the other post said to just pop in two pins. If there is any soldering involved I would probably not do this myself.

(BTW. How do you open the NEO GEO? I unscrewed the one screw on the bottom but the case is stuck together really hard. )

The other question I had,

Does the scan converter also convert the signal from PAL to NTSC? Or is this just for RGB compatibility? For example if all I did was use the scan converter WITHOUT changing the 'dilithium crystals' or modding the system in anyway. Would I be able to play without any problems?

Thanks.

jazz said:

Hmm sounds easy. Did a search on the forums using 'crystal' and came up with a lot of results. Although I didn't find any real defintive tutorial. One post said to cut a wire the other post said to just pop in two pins. If there is any soldering involved I would probably not do this myself.

(BTW. How do you open the NEO GEO? I unscrewed the one screw on the bottom but the case is stuck together really hard. )

The other question I had,

Does the scan converter also convert the signal from PAL to NTSC? Or is this just for RGB compatibility? For example if all I did was use the scan converter WITHOUT changing the 'dilithium crystals' or modding the system in anyway. Would I be able to play without any problems?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Good use of the "Quote" button there

To take apart the system you need to remove the rubber feet on it as well and there are screws underneath.

Wonders if he has a Euro Kizuna... If you do I'm interested... 50 dollars shipped.

Anyhow, welcome, hope you get your problems straightened out. I'm not really a tech guy I just like to hang out here, some smart people here.

Glad I asked probably would have broken the case right there.

So I have the case open right now and from what I've read on the forums I might have an NTSC verison after all?

NEO-AES3-4

Top left corner has:
NTSC1 with a wire
PAL2 no wire

Top right corner has:
PAL1 no wire

Also one of the "silver shiny things" (sorry I'm not a hardware guru) says 3.579545
?

jazz said:

Glad I asked probably would have broken the case right there.

So I have the case open right now and from what I've read on the forums I might have an NTSC verison after all?

NEO-AES3-4

Top left corner has:
NTSC1 with a wire
PAL2 no wire

Top right corner has:
PAL1 no wire

?

Click to expand...

It sure looks like you do, maybe someone else can confirm this for ya.

jazz said:

So I have the case open right now and from what I've read on the forums I might have an NTSC verison after all?

NEO-AES3-4

Top left corner has:
NTSC1 with a wire
PAL2 no wire

Top right corner has:
PAL1 no wire

Also one of the "silver shiny things" (sorry I'm not a hardware guru) says 3.579545
?

Click to expand...

Jumper settings and crystal show you have a ntsc machine that should work perfectly on US TVs (if you use a composite cable)

@MKL

Thanks that's one thing less I have to worry about.

Jumper settings and crystal show you have a ntsc machine that should work perfectly on US TVs (if you use a composite cable)

Click to expand...

You had to throw the "if " in there didn't you!

Composite cable being the red, white, and yellow cable (often referred to as A/V cables)? Well I'm going to go over to Fry's today see what I can find. If not I'll probably buy one them scan converters.

Thanks to everybody for their help.

If you dont have the cable, Im sure Fry's wont have it either.

Your options then would be to either buy a cable from the forums or eBay or else send it off to get those video mods.

I would recommend the latter as that way you dont need a proprietary cable that is getting rare.