Buying My Old Big Red Back 19 Years Later

[lithy]

This thread will be used to document as I go through the cab that I bought in December 2003, sold in December 2005, and have now bought again in November 2024. Yes, the exact same cab, not the same kind, the same one.

I'm still trying to dig up old posts I made about my old cab, lots of them are buried in wasabi's posts because of some shenanigans back in the day.

Purchased at the December 6th Arcade Game Sales auction at the Knoxville Expo Center for a bid of $240, after taxes and fees, total was about $290.

2003 Auction Dates

Post Auction Report w/pics

http://www.auctiongamesales.com/AuctionDates.htm Auction Game Sales is having an auction again this time at the Knoxville Convention Center (we'll see how that goes) Anyone else going to go? I'll be there taking as many pics as I can before they tell me to stop.

www.neo-geo.com

Sold in December 2005 through the forum to a user who never really posted before or after. I was asking $700, I don't remember but I think I took less than that but don't remember how much less.

English MVS carts

Ok, no prices on stuff right now, will listen to all offers, buy a bunch of stuff at once and I'll cut you a nice break. All legit Bust a Move Metal Slug Garou Mark of the Wolves Strikers 1945 Plus Aero Fighters 2 Magical Drop 2 Magical Drop 3 League Bowling Alpha Mission II Neo Bomberman...

www.neo-geo.com

I'll discuss everything I did to the cab while I had it those first two years later as I update where the cab stands now.

I have been looking for maybe a year to buy a Big Red again, preferably a 4 Slot (ver. 3). I very nearly bought one in Ohio, I was talking to the guy asking when I could come pick it up that weekend when he sold it to someone else. Anyway, fast forward to last week and I did my typical Facebook Marketplace check. Saw the listing and immediately recognized it as my old cab. Posted Wednesday, I saw it Thursday morning and messaged hoping I wasn't too late since decent cabs seem to get bought up reasonably quick. Told the seller my story, included a picture, and got the ok to pick it up the following Monday. This one was priced just about right in the middle of the market in my opinion at $1200 and knowing what I know about the condition, I think it was a solid deal with 4 carts included (SamSho, Slug X, KOF98, and Windjammers).

So let's start with, how did I immediately know it was my old cab? The main thing was a chipped corner on the memory card/headphone bezel. Sure it's possible another cab had that but the match was perfect. Combined with a few other things I'll cover later I was positive just from the photos.

Here is my cab in my dorm room in 2004-05 school year.



Here is the main photo from the Facebook Marketplace ad

 

[Teddy KGB]

Reunited and it feels so goooob.

PS - congrats!

 

[100proof]

Congrats. Nice little slab of kismet.

 

[Tarma]

That's pretty awesome - looking forward to the rest of the story...

 

[max 330 megafartz]

This thread makes me happy.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Based thread

 

[terry.330]

Neat.

I used to have that same version Big Red as well. Got it off a forum member back around 2006 and sold it about a decade later. Sometimes I miss it but then I remember how much space it took up. Fond memories though, nothing like owning such an iconic and nostalgic piece of the prime arcade years. Well I guess double nostalgia in this case.

 

[max 330 megafartz]

I miss my MV25UP-0 so much it hurts.

 

[Moob Butter]

An MVSX just doesn’t cut it the same way.

Nice story, like buying back an old car. I look forward to part 2.

 

[StevenK]

Can't believe the guy you sold it to just flipped it

 

[theMot]

Nice story, like buying back an old car.

Or getting back with your high school ex in your 40’s after she has had 5 kids with Leroy.

 

[neo_mao]

Nicely done lithy. Now you can put your NTM skills to the test on the real deal.

Also, imagine having an MVS cab in your dorm room. Sure beats n64 4-player Smash Bros

 

[lithy]

Ok, so next up in details.

I had long since lost details of the buyer of my cab, but I did remember he was somewhere in Georgia, the Facebook post was still in the outer Atlanta burbs. So I drove down Sunday evening, slept at a rest stop, showed up first thing Monday morning to buy it. Then I met my parents a couple hours away in northern Georgia for lunch and drove the rest of the way home. Unloaded it safely myself and got it into the garage with a hand truck without much trouble.

Asking the seller about it, he said they had had it for 'forever'. So I asked if forever was maybe about 2005, he said that sounds about right. It was his son though that bought it, so he didn't know too many details. But I think it might be pretty safe to say that the guy I sold it to has been the only one to have it since I let it go. I might still see if the seller wouldn't mind putting me in touch with him just to ask him a few questions.

When I got my cab originally, like most that come out of service and then sit in operator storage, it had a rusty control panel. The control panel overlay was cracked and rough and the controls were pretty much shot and would have to be redone. I pulled the entire control panel, stripped it, and used naval jelly to remove the rust. I took it to auto body shop to do some final cleanup and have them powdercoat it in a nice glossy black. If I did it again today I might go with a more matte paint and I wouldn't screw around with naval jelly and just take it straight to be sandblasted, but in any case, the end result is that because the cab stayed in personal use and not in the field, it still looks very nice today. It shows some light wear, but by comparison to a lot of what I saw online, I won't have the desire/need to strip and redo another control panel.

I had found an NOS control panel overlay (I think on eBay, but again, failing memory). This was before any reproductions were available, I have no idea how quality of the reproductions is these days, I might pick one up at some point to have it just in case, but I like that it is an original part. So with the brand new overlay on, I swapped the cart install sticker and memory card/headphone board over and put in brand new buttons, cherry switches and Happ Super joysticks. I know the Supers aren't generally popular for serious players, but I like them for the 'original' look. And I suck at fighters so whatever. At some point in the years since the joysticks were replaced, they have Sanwa gates on them, so I'm assuming they're Sanwa sticks too, but I'm not sure how to tell what model, will look and take pictures if I pull one.

I'm planning to pull the buttons just so I can get the overlay off and do a good cleaning. It's gotten a little scuzzy around the buttons and edges. Also, unfortunately one of the overlay cap bolts went missing along with the nut from underneath (I did find the washer and the toothed lock washer still floating around inside the cab, but no luck with the nut and bolt, EDIT: I found the nut too! Now all that's missing is the carriage bolt but since that would have likely fallen outside of the cab it's probably gone). Should be easy enough to find a suitable replacement unless someone on here has parts from an original cab.

That's enough story hour for now. No pictures from back in the day of the control panel, but here is where it stands pre-cleaning.





Did some in place cleaning, looks better already. Still probably disassemble to clean at some point.

 

[lithy]

Neat.

I used to have that same version Big Red as well. Got it off a forum member back around 2006 and sold it about a decade later. Sometimes I miss it but then I remember how much space it took up. Fond memories though, nothing like owning such an iconic and nostalgic piece of the prime arcade years. Well I guess double nostalgia in this case.

It is definitely one of those things where, while I thought a lot about buying another cab over the years, I certainly don't regret selling it when I did. In the 6 years after I sold it, I moved 6 times. Now in the last 13.5 years I have moved once and have a nice spot it will fit in the garage, so it's a good time to get it back.

 

[Moob Butter]

It is definitely one of those things where, while I thought a lot about buying another cab over the years, I certainly don't regret selling it when I did. In the 6 years after I sold it, I moved 6 times. Now in the last 13.5 years I have moved once and have a nice spot it will fit in the garage, so it's a good time to get it back.

Put it this way, you’ve saved $1000s on storage costs for nearly 14 years.

 

[ggallegos1]

This thread makes me happy, I'm so glad that you found the same cab again and you're celebrating it with us.

 

[lithy]

Another thing I did when I originally had my cab was to spruce up the marquee.

I replaced the acrylic marquee because it had a crack that was long enough to be visible from the outside. I found an NOS part and swapped it out. Not a big deal looks or effort wise, but today the marquee is still uncracked and all 4 mini marquee holders are still intact.

Cab restoration parts wanted

I'd only like parts if they are new/like new as if not I can stick with my original parts from the cab :) Let me know what you have and how much you'd like, and here's what I need. First the cab I have and parts must fit is this type http://www.hardmvs.com/xml/usa/MVS-4-25v3/MVS-4-25v3.jpg...

neo-geo.com

I just did a cleaning in place. Wouldn't hurt to take it off completely at some point to clean up the dust in the areas between the acrylic and the metal panel that I can't reach but since you can't really see them when the cab is closed up it's hard to think that's a priority.

The bigger improvement was to replace the electroluminescent panels back in the day. Way back when there was a guy that showed up offering replacement panels. He was tough to purchase from, I don't think he ever scammed anyone, but I remember even at the time before the instant gratification of a lot of internet commerce today, his response time was exceptionally slow to non-existent. I did order a set though and got them. My panels which were a combination of dead or very dim. Replacing the EL panels involved unsoldering the old ones and prying them off the adhesive holding them to the PCB. Then cutting the wire on the new ones to length, soldering it on and sticking them back down to the board. Easy enough work now but I was young and dumb and still learning as I went. However, it worked on the first shot and today all four panels are still working nice and bright. Once I have some mini marquees it will look great.

Old thread about EL panels

Electroluminescent / Indiglo Replacements

I still don't get it. Exactly what does this kit include? Just the el-bulbs or the el-bulbs attached to a repro pcb? I wan't some pictures of the actual kit before i buy one.

www.neo-geo.com

Some photos

Before cleaning, not too bad to the naked eye, but a wipe down produced some very dirty paper towels. Definitely dirtier than it looked. Reddish too, must have been Georgia clay dust.



After cleaning



EL panels



One question to post. Notice I have a mini marquee holder in front of the EL panels. My acrylic marquee also has mini marquee holders and putting them in there keeps them nice and flush against the marquee so I prefer to use that. But my memory is that I had to leave the holder in place on the EL panels to keep things tight. Is this true for anyone else with big red cab?

 

[Gentlegamer]

Big Red?

 

[Vectorman0]

This is a great story. I expect NTM is first on your list of carts to buy.

 

[lithy]

General cleaning, very dusty, little bit of mildew. It was in a walkout basement and their house was on Lake Lanier so I'm sure central Georgia summers were plenty humid.

I'm not sure they ever cleaned it.

Top



Right side



Left side (this was just a warm cloth wipe down, need to go over it with actual cleaner considering how much dirt came off the other side when I did)

 

[lithy]

Smaller items of note

As per the sales forum post in the first post in this thread when I offered the cab up for sale it had one positive and one negative.

The negative selling point was "the test mode button is missing (roomate lost it)", funny enough when I found the cab on Facebook, it included this picture (seller took more, better, and more useful pictures than many cabs I see listed including a video of it running). Besides for more vaguely remembering the part of the label saying "Service Credits" and "Test Mode" that had been torn away by another sticker/label prior to me getting it, that little red button sitting below the main power switch is the missing button, it must have fallen into the cab and been found. I made sure to set it aside before we tipped the cab over again to load it up so that it wouldn't get lost in the empty void again. Good stuff, now I still have two buttons. Coin door is obviously kinda scuzzy, will be removing it to clean it up along with the plastic coin bin not pictured.



The positive selling point was the inclusion of Unibios 2.0. So when I got there it was still in place and plugged in so I asked to turn it on before handing over the cash, held down BCD and went into the Unibios menu. Just more proof that there is very little chance this wasn't my old cab. Downside I guess is that I have zero idea what I would have done with the original bios chip, not that I really would care to reinstall it but I dunno, maybe I should have one. I took a photo of the stacked socketed bios between the 4-slot board, but realized that doesn't really say anything since the original bios is socketed too. Maybe at some point I'll remove the board again to clean it. It is pretty dusty and could use a nice cleaning, but that day is not any time soon.

 

[roker]

best lithy thread ever

I love stories like these.

 

[Gentlegamer]

The Prodigal Cab

 

[lithy]

I reported in this thread that when I got the cab it had one coin mech bulb out. I know at some point I replaced them because I listed that they were working when I sold it. But they were burned out again when I bought it back.

Got my first cab

Bought a deluxe Neo 4 slot Saturday for a 240 bid, plus tax and auction fee was 289 and change. Great shape and came with 4 games. Anyway I've got a few questions and things I'm looking for Ok first, my green coming from the board to the monitor is touchy, I know its the harness because...

www.neo-geo.com

I had never had the coin door off the cab before, but since the coin mechs were really dirty, I wanted to pull it off and see how well I could clean them. A quick youtube tutorial later and I was removing the eight 5/16th's bolts with tab brackets. The bottom left (when facing the front of the cab) had a grounding wire spade between the bolt and the bracket. I wasn't going to attempt a complete teardown so just used a damp toothbrush and paper towels to brush most of the plastic clean. even found a small screw that had gotten lodged in the one coin mech. I can't figure out where it came from.

Cleaned the front of the cab while the whole thing was off, then replaced the bulbs with Sylvania 161 Long Life bulbs from Advance Auto Parts. I might look to see if there are any LED bulbs out there that would work. The Player 1 bulb is a little touchy and doesn't seem to want to work when pushed all the way in, but back it off a little and it works fine. Coin mechs still register quarters, credits the game, and also clicks up the internal counter. Once it was clean, reinstall was just the reverse of removal.

Before and after outside



Before and after inside



Before and after close in coin mech detail

 

[Voodoohead]

I reported in this thread that when I got the cab it had one coin mech bulb out. I know at some point I replaced them because I listed that they were working when I sold it. But they were burned out again when I bought it back.

Got my first cab

Bought a deluxe Neo 4 slot Saturday for a 240 bid, plus tax and auction fee was 289 and change. Great shape and came with 4 games. Anyway I've got a few questions and things I'm looking for Ok first, my green coming from the board to the monitor is touchy, I know its the harness because...

www.neo-geo.com

I had never had the coin door off the cab before, but since the coin mechs were really dirty, I wanted to pull it off and see how well I could clean them. A quick youtube tutorial later and I was removing the eight 5/16th's bolts with tab brackets. The bottom left (when facing the front of the cab) had a grounding wire spade between the bolt and the bracket. I wasn't going to attempt a complete teardown so just used a damp toothbrush and paper towels to brush most of the plastic clean. even found a small screw that had gotten lodged in the one coin mech. I can't figure out where it came from.

Cleaned the front of the cab while the whole thing was off, then replaced the bulbs with Sylvania 161 Long Life bulbs from Advance Auto Parts. I might look to see if there are any LED bulbs out there that would work. The Player 1 bulb is a little touchy and doesn't seem to want to work when pushed all the way in, but back it off a little and it works fine. Coin mechs still register quarters, credits the game, and also clicks up the internal counter. Once it was clean, reinstall was just the reverse of removal.

Before and after outside

View attachment 79915View attachment 79916

Before and after inside

View attachment 79917View attachment 79918

Before and after close in coin mech detail

View attachment 79919View attachment 79920

Great job!