I couldn't resist. Seriously, I was looking through Craigslist and happened upon this Neo Geo MVS cabinet, for $50. Boo-ya!
It came with two games, Samurai Shodown and Puzzle Bobble. I always loved the Samurai Shodown series, and Puzzle Bobble is lots of fun (and who doesn't love the little dinosaurs from Bubble Bobble?).
The guy brought it to the house, I paid, and there we are. I bought it knowing that the monitor wasn't working right. He said the board worked. Well, that isn't quite correct. After hooking it up to a spare monitor I had lying around, tt boots up, but gives a memory read error, which is pretty common for these systems. The nvram battery ends up corroding and leaking over the traces on the board. I've ordered a logic probe and between that and my DMM, I should be able to figure out what's wrong and fix it!
On the plus side, the monitor does turn on and you get a neck glow, just no picture. Likely something wrong with the chassis of the monitor. I'll have to investigate and see what's wrong there.
To really get it looking good, I'll have to get a MVS 2-slot marquee, and some paper marquees for the games I own. The plexiglass bezel is scratched, so need a new clear one, along with a plastic monitor cover. The control panel could use some love, and some of the buttons are missing microswitches. Also needs new T-molding and some of the wood in the back looks like it has water damage, so that needs to be replaced.
Seems like a fun fixer upper, and I couldn't have bought the MVS cartridges alone for $50, so good deal!
Till next time!