To convert, or not to convert. That is the question...

TMOSteel

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To convert, or not to convert. That is the question.

The Answer:

Hell Yeah!

I recently had some conversions done by Dion and I wanted to share the experience. Hopefully, more people will take advantage of the conversion process and get the games they really want, but are out of reach either due to cost or availability.

I had Metal Slug, Ninja Masters and Captain Tomaday converted, and they came out amazing (I actually thought Dion had sent me a Japanese Ninja Masters cart by mistake, it looked so real!). I had never had any carts converted before, so I had little or no information on how to proceed, other than knowing I needed and MVS cart and an AES cart for the conversion. Dion was great: he answered all of my questions, told me which sac carts I could use for which games and game me the total cost for the conversion and the artwork (I had the carts completed with stickers and inserts, and will follow-up with the manuals when they are available). I must have asked him about a million questions before any money had even changed hands, and he answered each and every one of them (many in the same day). At this point, he had no way of knowing if I was actually going to go through with the conversions, or if I was even going to have him do them. Nonetheless, he assisted me all the way. In the end, his information convinced me that having him do them was the way to go (he even picked up the sac carts I needed to do the conversions right, and at a great price).

One thing I do recommend: know your carts. By that I mean know what the cost of the original cart is (if it's a released cart) and weigh that against the cost of conversion. I made out great on Metal Slug (I acquired the MVS cart with 5 others when I purchased a 2 slot MVS board) and with the conversion, artwork and sac cart came in at about $330.00 total. Compared to $1000.00+ price tag of an original Metal Slug, how can you go wrong? Also, make sure to look into the price of a cart that has already been converted as well (Dion has these available at Neogeofreak.com) as that may be more cost effective: my Ninja Masters came in at about $295.00, where an already completed cart was about $300.00. As far as the unreleased carts like Captain Tomaday go, do the same thing: get the cost of conversion and artwork, and weigh it against the price of a completed cart. You can still come out on top, if you shop around for the MVS and AES carts. That's what I did.

The day may come when I'm converting my own games, so it's nice to know I can get the artwork alone if I want to do the work myself. I'm sure I can rely on Dion for that information as well.

With the ton of MVS carts out there, you just can't go wrong!

-Michael
 

Neo Bomber Man

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All I can say is you are one lucky boy to have had that kind of service. As this has the potential to look like another attempt on D***'s part to plug himself, I'll go ahead & say that I have dealt with Michael before and I would not assume him to be affiliated with one made up company. I believe I sold you Fatal Fury on eBay long ago, under the ID triadmember.
 

TMOSteel

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Good memory. Yes, that was me. It's too bad that so many people report that they have had less than satisfactory transactions. I don't feel it was "luck" per se, I just think in all the e-mail sent back and forth, we developed a pretty good rapor, that's all. People usually treat you the same way you treat them, I have found. Like I said though, I had no problems.
 

NGF

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To convert, or not to convert. That is the question.
The Answer:

Hell Yeah!

I recently had some conversions done by Dion and I wanted to share the experience. Hopefully, more people will take advantage of the conversion process and get the games they really want, but are out of reach either due to cost or availability.

I had Metal Slug, Ninja Masters and Captain Tomaday converted, and they came out amazing (I actually thought Dion had sent me a Japanese Ninja Masters cart by mistake, it looked so real!). I had never had any carts converted before, so I had little or no information on how to proceed, other than knowing I needed and MVS cart and an AES cart for the conversion. Dion was great: he answered all of my questions, told me which sac carts I could use for which games and game me the total cost for the conversion and the artwork (I had the carts completed with stickers and inserts, and will follow-up with the manuals when they are available).

Michael
------------------------------------------

It was a pleasure dealing with you.
Some people have to remember that "converted" cartridges need to be "made." They are not "stocked" items.

The process can take time if we at NeoGeoFreak has to find, order, send payments, and wait for the sac/mvs parts to arrive to us.....then we have to do the conversion.

To save time and money, it is better for "YOU" the customer to take the time to find, order, send payments out, and receive all the needed sac/mvs parts to your door. At that point, all one needs to do is send the parts to NeoGeoFreak to have them completed and officialized with the NGF "collectors recognized" art.

As Michael said, his cartridges look "amazing." So amazing that he thought we sent him an original Ninja Master's AES cart. We later clarified that it was actually a "convert." WE look forward to helping you take your collection farther than you imagined you could. Get ready to explode to the 140+ cart mark. And this goes for all other Neo fans.


thanks again,

NGF
www.NeoGeoFreak.com

[This message has been edited by NGF (edited November 28, 2000).]
 

NGF

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Currenntly there are only 10+ people that have 140+ AES carts and about 20+ people that are past the 130+ cart mark. By this number we mean "different" cartridges. Not the same cart in both English and Japanese.

The old "100 club" doesn't seem so impressive anymore. Time for the fans to kick it up a notch.

People can see some "serious" collectors at http://members.aol.com/discman888/collect/page2.html

And even on that page, their are many people that have not sent in pics of their collections. They are just waiting to take and send in pics. People will be shocked to see some of these collectors who will finally come forward.


thanks again,

NGF
www.NeoGeoFreak.com
 

NGF

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calki000@uwp.edu (Kyle J Calkins)

Yes, convert those MVS carts. A modded home system is the sweetest candy
there is. I just picked up my Metal Slug conversion from Dion in the
mail. Insert looks awesome and the sticker is right on, something SNK
can't do on many of their carts. How many of you own carts with
completely off-center stickers? But what I mean is Dion's sticker
SHINES! So far I have gotten MS, Shock Troopers, and a Ninja Masters
conversions from Dion and all of them rock.
Later Neo Fans,
Saber-tooth Kyle C.
calki000@uwp.edu (Kyle J Calkins)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We thank you for the kind words.
It's been a tremendous pleasure helping you and many of the other NGFers out there.
NeoGeoFreak is here for the main reason of promoting and supplying NeoGeo items
to the fans. The more everyone helps the cause, the longer we will support the AES system.
We at NeoGeoFreak will keep offering these conversions as long as all the fans keep ordering.

Together we can all keep the Neo pumping.


thanks again,

NeoGeoFreak.
www.NeoGeoFreak.com
 

NGF

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Converting is the only way to have ALL the AES carts. And the only recognized versions are from NeoGeoFreak.

We can and will help all Neo fans who want to take their AES collection to the next level.


thanks again,

NeoGeoFreak
www.NeoGeoFreak.com
 

The Black Knight

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Heh, now Dion is bringing his friends (or false aliases) in to fight for him. People like Dion need people like Chris, fake IDs, and these new people as well, for constant reassurance. "They are the assholes, Dion...it's ok...NGF is crump, NGF is BIG TYME"...et cetera.

...say, didn't one of those Dion "threats" from a while back come from New York? The one he denied, about "never giving Shawn his carts"? That IP would be right around that area in NY too...hmn...

In any case...NGF, I find it rather humorous that you think a few truly anonymous posts proves that NGF is (and always has been, as you love to claim) legitimate, friendly, and a good company. What a crock. Your reputation is so full of holes that "eyewitness accounts" over some message board you keep crawling back to wont help at all. No one's fooled.

One wonders why you even take the time to write petty messages, or solicit your friends (Dion? Friends? Riiight.) to write them. I'd be worried about a lot of other things if I were you...like someone finding incontrovertible proof your crumpy stock is fake? Wouldn't that suck?

*grins*

- The Black Knight
 

TMOSteel

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Your not serious, are you? My post had to do with converting carts, period. The fact that Dion did the work was not the topic of it, if you read it again. I could have written about Jeff Kurtz doing the conversions to my AES console, but that wasn't what I felt like writing about. Dion happened to be the one to do the carts for me, and I felt he did a good job. Period. I was just giving credit where credit was due. If you have some beef with him, don't go bringing me into it, let alone assuming I'm not who I claim to be. Anyone who has sold or purchased from me in the past two years on eBay can vouch for that. Go look up the username, it's the same I use here, in every forum I belong to and my email for the past 10 years. How do you expect someone to feel free to speak his mind if you are going to attack them for who they choose to do business with? Last time I checked, that was still my choice.
 

chimpmeister

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Hey TMOSteel, I agree that converting CERTAIN carts makes a lot of sense. What I disagree with is sacrificing much newer, rarer protected carts for conversions. Stuff like KOF99 (I know its not THAT rare but still a horrible thing to do), MOTW (no one would be stupid enough to sac that one), etc.

As for ones to convert, stuff like Metal Slug, Shock Troopers, Ninja Master's, are examples of great carts to convert. But just converting for the hell of it, to bump up your collection numbers, is a waste.

Slug 1 is by far the best one to do, helps alleviate the ridiculous shortage/high price of that home cart.
 

TMOSteel

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I hear what you're saying on the newer carts like KOF99 & MOTW. What I'm curious about is that in all these years, no one has been able to duplicate or copy the AES boards? I'm suprised some bootleg AES carts never surfaced in all these years, but maybe the Neo was never seen as a "mainstream" market for them. Has anyone ever looked into this?
 

chimpmeister

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You're right, the Capcom boards have been pirated bigtime over the years. But I do believe that there are bootleg MVS boards, if that's what you're talking about. Or are you referring to the MVS or home cart motherboards?

Capcom built in a suicide feature to their CPS2 B boards (game boards) with a battery, after about 5 years they die, kill themselves when the battery dies out. Thats why I'll never buy any of their boards (A or B) for collecting purposes, although there are a few I'd like to get (like 19XX).
 

TMOSteel

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I was referring to the boards for the AES carts. If they could be duplicated, there would be no need for a sac cart at all. Any chance of this happening?
 

Neo Bomber Man

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I've been thinking about that for a long time, personally. I could have some people spoken to about such an idea & see if it could lead to anything, but many people just don't want to dedicate themselves to projects like that when they have no guaranteed return on investement, and since they generally are not Neo Freaks, haven't the real drive nor desire to go beyond the drawing board.
 

NGF

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Having just the boards (or boards made) will do no real good. Part of the importance of the "sac cart" is that you also get the correct box for the insert.

Without the box for display reasons, you might as well just have a stupid black cart or plain MVS.


thanks again,

NeoGeoFreak
 

The Black Knight

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There's always a solution.

A lot of people say CPS2 boards are useless because of the suicide battery. Try wiring two battery cases to the outside, and replacing the batteries by simply snapping a new one in every four years. Not any harder than dusting your Neo Home Cart collection off.

People who talk about cracking a board open every time you want to replace the battery must love doing that kind of work, and don't worry about ever slipping up the 3rd or 4th replacement.

And to top it all off...a lot of people complain about the decryption of the CPS2, saying it's all for dirty emulation. Once that's cracked, sure, you might have rudimentary (read: sorry ass) emulators, but you'll also have the ability to take that data to a dead board and replace it, so that it DOESN'T rely on the battery. It's done with later CPS1 boards right now, because that data isn't encrypted.

So even if your board burns out, you still own the game, to someday be repaired at a later date. But it wont burn out if you set up an easy battery replacement system. You'd think someone like Mr. Kurtz could add to his Neo-Geo jobs with a little CPS-2 easy-replace battery modding, and charge some astronomical price for it. Or maybe I should. ^^

Oh wait, not Neo-Geo talk...that's bad...*runs*

- The Black Knight
 

Big Bruno

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Well Flame Wars aside.

"To convert, or not to convert. That is the question."

My Answer is "maybe"

sure having a bunch of Neo carts line up on a shelf with a insert may look nice but is it really better? What is actually gained by owning one? I have over 130 Neo games now in one form or the other and all I can play on my home system so what is the advanage of having a converted carts?

I always weigh out price vs what I am getting and to me converted carts really are not worth the money, currently. even at $330 for a metal slug seems high being the arcade cart goes for around $40-$60 and I can play it on my home system.

I guess it is all about people wanting to impress other people with thier collections. I admit I like it when people tell me, "oh I wish I had that" or "hey that is a awesome setup". But 20 years from now neo games will be pretty much worthless. Even NGF has come down in prices. I still also prefer a factory pressed board over a converted cart done by anyone.

Just a opposing oppinion on the subject.

[This message has been edited by Big Bruno (edited November 29, 2000).]
 
N

NGPSkinhead

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I would like much more to own a complete boxed mvs-cart as a converted mvs-cart for home, just because converted carts are unofficial and MVS-carts are. You can use the converter if you don't want to buy a MVS system. I don't buy games to be impresive to others, I buy games to play and collect for myself, but don't need a 100+ collection. I just want pure gameplay
 

TMOSteel

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Actually, pure game play is exactly what I was talking about. I don't "collect" carts to collect them, I collect the ones I want to play. I'm not looking necessarily to have every Neo game, just the ones I enjoy. I'd love to be able to play "every Neo game" on my home system, AES or MVS, but as far as I knew, no one has come up with a converter that can do that. I've got a 2-slot MVS board, but just have not had the time to rig it up for home use. And as far as coming up with the money to build a cabinet for it-talk to my Fiance (hah!). Seriously, though, what if the cost of conversions could become dirt cheap? Hence the reason to try an duplicate the AES boards. As far as a case and cart box-we are talking plastic here. I would think that would be the easiest thing to duplicate. Granted, they would have to be made in volume to keep the cost down, but that might be feasible. At some point, it seems, there may not be any more sac carts, especially for the newer MVS games. I still think the conversions are an affordable way for some of us to obtain the carts we want, especially people without a working MVS board.
 

endgamer

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Conversion is a way for me to play unreleased home carts in a home cart capacity without having to buy a mvs thingie that doesn't play all the games unless the latest one (Arcade! is it) really is all that then I'll definitely get one. And the reason I don't have a MVS cabinet is because I don't have the room. I love playing games and collecting games but only the ones I play so as with any system that usually is about 24 because EVERY system has a bunch of crap, NEO GEO included and I don't need to play much less collect crap!
 

Big Bruno

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Well true there has not yet been released a convertor that can play all carts yet, but there is one out there.

On the carts you had converted though all of them will play on the old converter. including captain tomaday. At least on the one I bought for $150 last May.

But as I said it is all a matter of taste when it comes to converted carts. I personaly just can not justify myself Spending a lot more money On the same game when there is nothing extra I am gaining From a conversion.

And yes I also have a MVS setup so converting, lets say my Super dodgeball mvs cart would Prevent me from being able to play it on my mvs. I guess I could buy 2 super dodgeball MVS carts but what would be the point of that
smile.gif


[This message has been edited by Big Bruno (edited November 30, 2000).]
 

Big Bruno

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Originally posted by endgamer:
Conversion is a way for me to play unreleased home carts in a home cart capacity without having to buy a mvs thingie that doesn't play all the games unless the latest one (Arcade! is it) really is all that then I'll definitely get one. And the reason I don't have a MVS cabinet is because I don't have the room. I love playing games and collecting games but only the ones I play so as with any system that usually is about 24 because EVERY system has a bunch of crap, NEO GEO included and I don't need to play much less collect crap!


Well right now there are only, what 3 carts that will not play on the old convertor (Prehistoric island 2, Strikers 1945 and garyu(sp?)). I am speaking of carts that SNK did not come out with a home version of. SO in truth there would only be 3 carts worth converting at all. All the other unreleased carts will play on the old convertor.And of course when the new one is released even these carts will play on it.

I guess 4 if you include Irratating maze but from what I have played of the game and what I have seen it go for in auction and on ebay the conversion is not worth the money IMO.


[This message has been edited by Big Bruno (edited November 30, 2000).]
 

NGF

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These are the games that will not play on the current adapters:

MotW,
Metal Slug 3,
Prehistoric Isle 2,
Strikers 1945 PLUS,
Ganryu,
KoF99,
KoF 2000,

All new titles coming soon will not be playable on the current adapters.


Also, many old games do not work on the current adapters such as: Windjammers, Baseball 2, and many others.

And currently, there is no adapter that can play a protected game. Don't be foold by "picutres."
An "all working Neo MVS to AES adapter" has yet to be made.

thanks again,

NeoGeoFreak.


[This message has been edited by NGF (edited November 30, 2000).]
 

Big Bruno

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Yeah that is true, But out of those carts you mention the only one to even considered worth converting would be

Prehistoric Island 2
Strikers 1945 plus
and Ganryu

all the others are available in home format. and even playing these games in a home format I do not think they offer any special features or new options. At least when it comes to strikers, I have not seen the others but going from other unreleased carts the menus are usally very simple and the options are almost non existant.



[This message has been edited by Big Bruno (edited November 30, 2000).]
 

NGF

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You're right, so far only PI2, Ganryu, and Strikers are the games that have not been released on AES format. But do you think Nightmare in the Dark, Ghostlop, Sengoku 3, or any of the other newer titles from SNK, or other third party companies will be made and released on AES? No they won't. From NeoGeoFreak, yes, but not from SNK/Aruze.

And all those games will have protection chips.

thanks again,

NeoGeoFreak.
 
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