4-Slot Neo Geo Big Red MVS Cabinet Quick Tour & Restore - Neo-Alec | Basement Brothers
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Ever wanted your own Neo Geo arcade cabinet? Here's the story of how I bought my original Neo Geo 4-slot Big Red MVS machine on Facebook Marketplaces (Craigslist isn't the place anymore) and the restore work that went into bringing this machine back to its former glory.We'll also talk about whether you should buy one of these things!
Sanding, priming and painting
CRT RGB arcade monitor
Vinyls applied
New T-molding
New LED mini marquee lights
New Big Red marquee
New control panel
New controls, buttons, sticks,
New Neo Geo MVS motherboard
Unibios
Coin cell 2032 battery mod
Memory card reader and headphone jacks
Credit LED indicators
#neogeo #mvs #arcade
That's a goergus looking machine, looks pratically brand new!
Hey thanks! I can't take most of the credit though. There are a lot of amazing people making gorgeous repro art an hardware for these machines these days.
While its really cool to have the cabinet at home, Im definitely fine with the console, playing on TV. Thanks for the insight, Alec!
Thanks! I wanted to give some perspective that no one else on UA-cam is providing. My wife and I had a lot of stress and regret from this purchase, but we're relieved now that the project is done and we can play on a beautiful cab.
I know a pizza store owner with a dilapidated big red cab. I'm pretty sure he would sell it for 100$. I just don't want to go down that rabit hole and watching this video reminds me how much trouble it is. I like arcade cabs at the arcade but not at my house.
I am coming from the future. You better have bought That Neo geo cab from the Pizza owner.
I think it's still sitting there...I want to want it but I just don't want it, you know? Where the hell am I going to put that thing?
I got my MiSTer. I'm doing okay.
mvsx fits better at home
@@riggel8804before in the cabs arcade now in you house, the future is now guy.
You may not prefer playing on an arcade machine, but it just doesn't seem right for you to NOT own one of these! ;)
I've got a 1-slot that someone converted from a Double Dragon machine. It 's ratty and the CRT is burnt in and desperately needs recapped. But I love it, even if I don't get to play it often. It's a hit with guests though.
Yeah, there is that factor. I've always been a Neo Geo guy, and I have to represent.
You have to try a Mame Arcade cabinet so much variety.
Nice job on the restoration. Looks very sleak and its nice seeing a video about the original big red instead of the mvsx stuff flooding everywhere lately.
Great Video - I love your channel, particularly your Neo Geo content (Obviously!). You did a fantastic job restoring the cabinet to it's former glory. Sure, it may be somewhat imperfect, but it certainly is a beautiful sight to behold. I completely understand your reasoning for changing out the joysticks, from my own experience, the Happ sticks have far too much play in them for my liking - Although this may also be because the Pro-Gear spec AES sticks are my standard too - NOT the Arcade.
I also appreciate your honesty regarding the fact that you're not really an arcade gamer, but a console gamer. I have friends who own cabinets and were all about them for a month or so, but now hardly ever play them. Personally, I don't really have the space, so it's not really an option for me (and I just don't like the 1up alternatives).
Keep up the great work - looking forward to your next review - Cheers from the UK!!
That’s insane that you also got a beast busters cabinet! I would love to get one of those!
Yeah, it was so random finding that machine. The person I got it from bought it from an estate sale, and based on the tokens I found, it used to be on location in a casino not too far away.
you're unlikely to get perfect crt monitors. with the growing scarcity of monitors, just recap and leave it, maybe buy a backup for when/if the tube dies.
This one has a small amount of burn-in actually -- one horizontal line 1/3 down the screen. Not sure if a recap is necessary, but with the burn-in, maybe not even worth it.
@@BasementBrothers right, but since they aren't produced anymore, what I mean is you're likely going to have some burn. I see a lot of people aquire cabs, especially in the candy cab communities, going for that pristine no burn monitor and outright discarding an otherwise good working monitor. If you do, save it, because arcade monitors were made to break so they could milk operators, and they're pricey now.
If you're lucky enough to have a k7000 wells monitor, tube swaps with 25" consumer televisions are a viable option.
Now you need the Japanese Neo-Geo cabinet😁
Enjoyed the video, SKN forever. I love my big red. Got it from a laundromat. Was full of laundry coupons, from ppl dropping coupons through the memory card slot. Thankfully the memory card board was inside but not installed, love the headphone ports on it. I haven’t restored the artwork or panels, I like it’s weather arcade appearance. I agree restoring a big red can get out of control with the money and time invested. Reason why, I haven’t replace the dead EL panel, or the missing monitor bezel. I did replace the joysticks and clean, clean, clean, clean the motherboards. The boards were covered with caked on lint, that would short the legs of components causing data corruption. Dropped in the UniBios so I could finally see the end of Pulstar haha. I would like to try out that hyper neo geo. Thank you for the great neo geo content.
BTW - I'm majorly impressed with your Beast Busters Second Nightmare cab - Those things are really hard to find and yours looks to be in great shape. I know the game is no House of the Dead and gun games are an odd fit for SNK too - but DAMN!! I'm actually a big fan of the under-appreciated Samurai Shodown 64 games on the hyper Neo Geo - Hopefully one day, I'll get to hear your opinion on them.
Yeah thanks. Beast Busters 2nd was a great find. Very random pickup from Facebook. I wasn't looking for the game, but found it very hard to pass up at a ridiculously low price.
Neo music gives you a headache anyway, so why upgrade the speakers? 😝😝😝
BIGGER... BADDER... BETTER!
I just got one of these Awesome machines! Mine needs a little work too. I just got my side decals after painting the sides with several coats of ref latex paint. Where did you get the sticker for the memory card?
Nice! I used the memory card art from this pack I bought:
www.mk-arcade-restore.com/product-page/mvs-4-rev-3-neo-geo-side-art-arcade-cabinet
But if I were to do it again, I might have used all stuff from Szabo's Arcades:
www.szabosarcades.com/products/neo-geo-memory-card-and-head-phone-decal?_pos=1&_sid=7b6eb3e7f&_ss=r
I was happy when I sold my cab. They are a ton of work, very expensive, and very heavy. It became quite the burden. On the bright side it was a candy cab that I had set the monitor to vertical, and playing shooters on it was amazing. But despite that, I was still relieved to get rid of it.
Nice cab dude. I still remember you from your 'Neo Alec's Neo Geo reviews'. From the time when dinosaurs were still roaming the internet. If that was you.
Yep. Nice that we're both still around. You'll even see screen shots of my old web site once in a while on my UA-cam series. Thanks for watching.
Disable credit and level in soft dip to stop burn in. Also looks nicer without those on screen all the time.
Thank you for the great video. It has always seemed like a real headache, restoring a cabinet, but you guys did a good job. I personally have my consolized MVS on an AV cart with a sound bar and a projector. It is great to play on a six foot screen with stereo sound. I wheel it back into the closet when I need the space for other things.
Great video. Neo Geos are amazing. You need to turn your blue electron gun down a little on that tube.
Thanks. It could just as easily only be coming across that way in the video. I used a phone camera for this one.
Wait...why am i getting this channel recommended NOW, sorry im late here, great videos man, im a neo geo fan also and i have over 20 games with two neo geo mvs motherboards and a arcade cab, greetings from Bosnia and you my friend have a sub !
Hey at 15:03 how thick is that wood? I just got my own 4 slot and realized I'm missing that peace as well. The past owner put black foam board and taped the mini marquees to it. So I need to make a whole new peace myself.
Getting the thickness would really help!
3/4" Maybe just slightly shy of it. Good luck!
You should have used the original EL Panel board, all you have to do is replace the EL panel strips ($10-15 a panel on eBay) and it'll look brand new again.
Yeah. I found all the old documentation about doing that (which I remember seeing years ago) after I made this video. I agree, I wish I kept the original EL panel setup. I had all the stuff for it. Talk about another waste of money, and now it's less original.
@@BasementBrothers live and learn as they say. Still looks good.
I had a big red back in 2008. Got the cabinet from a friend locally for a cup of coffee. It was largely gutted as he had bought the cabinet just for the monitor but I did have most of the parts to put it back together already on hand as I was quite into arcade stuff at the time and would just pick up lots of stuff that were a good deal. Sold in circa 2012 with my collection of carts for practically nothing. Earlier this year I got the itch to get back into it and picked up an MV1FZS board and built up a supergun for it. Playing on the couch with my upscaler has been great but much different as my experiences with Neo Geo were 100% arcade as I hadn't even touched a home console until I was in my 30s. Either way, both options are still rad. Thanks for sharing this video.
I just wanted to say I really love the Neo Geo videos and also I actually really relate to you with the whole being a console gamer thing, I love arcade games and I have fond memories of playing various arcade games in my life but there was always something special about playing console games.
I want a candy cab so bad (in the future).
I have a “Frankenstein” 1-slot in my parent’s garage. It works, but the controls are trash, and it’s definitely not a big red unit.
Sadly, my MVS games haven’t been played in a long time.
I should go the Supergun route, but I don’t want to have to do any work to get that experience.
Dude, I can't thank you enough for this! I recently purchased a one slot "big red" for $150. It came with the joysticks and I thought it was worth it just for that. Since the MVSX is $500, I went ahead and snatched it up. It didn't come with a monitor so I was looking into options. And looking at your video answered a lot for me: the amount of work, the costs of refurbishing to the point I was proud of showing off, and of course, if it was worth it. Now I'm having second thoughts so I may end up selling it. I mean, you're right, playing in your living room in a comfortable chair is probably the best way to experience this! THANK YOU!!!
The CRT is way cool
Wow that's awesome man. I bought a cab from Texas years ago that I found out was a converted MVS cab all black with no Neo Geo labels on the side, 161 cart, and dirty, weird and crappy controls. I was just so happy to get a neo geo arcade machine at the time. Now I'm trying to figure out should I restore it or sell it, especially since I got my little mvsx from unico.
Really glad to see you reverted the machine to a CRT. Personally like the effect, it brings vs a regular LCD. Really inspired me to take a crack at restoring my MVS soon. Did you replace the control harness that connects all the buttons and the sticks? I bought a replacement harness however I cannot find a guide online to help me install them. At a bit of a loss here.
Glad you like it. I actually didn't install the CRT -- the owner before me did. One less thing for me to worry about.
I did not replace the hardness -- mine didn't really have any problems. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out though. What type of motherboard and cab do you have? There's only one spot where each connection fits, so as long as you wire up the connectors where they fit, it should eventually make sense. Did it come with all the power leads, marquee and credit indicator wiring? I can see how it could take some time to sort all of that out.
@@BasementBrothers Same exact 4-slot big red as in your video. Hence why I found this video so helpful. Hadn't found a video that was as thorough as yours. I had purchased this harness online:
www.diyretroarcade.com/products/pre-labeled-full-jamma-harness-for-neo-geo-mvs-arcade-system.
I guess I might be a bit overwhelmed jumping into arcade hardware as I have more experience working with consoles.
The rest of the cables are all in working condition. I did want to give the Szabo decal/overlay set a try, as it seems like a great all in one solution. And I did want to get the monitor recapped as it seems to be dimming more on one side than the other.
Other than that, everything else is working great. Excited to get back into it!
Okay, looks straightforward enough, Jose. The majority of those wires run to the control panel. Looks like they even included the ground cables that pass ground from one button to the next. Depending on the condition of what's already installed in your cab, you may not even have to replace the black ground leads. I would just start plugging those metal connections to the buttons and sticks. They labeled the jamma loom, so you can match the colors of the wires to the metal connectors, so you know what they're for. Otherwise, just start plugging them in and find out what buttons the wires are for.
The white connector that I can see in the pics goes to the monitor. There should be a few wires that run to the coin slots for adding credits, and the test switch. There should also be some power leads that run down toward the power supply.
Do you have wiring for the memory card, headphone jacks, credit indicators and marquee? From the pics, it doesn't look like that's included. I would tackle that all separately, and then wire tie things together once you have it all installed and running in the directions you need.
@@BasementBrothers Sorry forgot to address this in my last reply. Yes, all the memory card, headphone jacks, credit indicators and marquee wiring is up and working. It's really just the button wiring that required replacing, which seems to be what this harness addresses.
When I opened it up the first time, everything was zip-tied together, so I had NO IDEA what went where. I think it's just a matter of cutting those zip ties and jumping into it. From your explanation, I seem to have everything I need.
Thanks again.
Owning arcade machines can be a massive money-sink (especially the older and rarer ones). Playing on a CRT through a nice stereo system is by far the more comfy option. I love playing on cabs for vs though. It's been nice watching the vids as they come up.
Great video! I’m picking up a 4 slot next week!
Well a more ambitious me would want the humongous 6 slot cabinet, but lets be realistic. I wouldn't know where to put that thing. I actually would like to get a hold of an MVS-2 mini. I've only ever encountered those at least twice and thought it would be a neat novelty to take home.
God bless you my friend !!! I've the same Neo Geo big red cabinet and your video will help me a lot to restore it !!!
Glad I could help!
Great video 👍🏽 but I would really love for you to make a video on your complete MVS collection. 🙏🏾
What sort of video? I am currently working through reviewing the games one by one.
Great video. Do you happen to recall the length of t-molding you needed on the big red?
Great Video. Glad you are honest about the restore/building your own system. It is definitely not for everyone.
Just watched through this again and love the detail of all the parts and sites you used!
I just found a craiglist listing for 4 "not working" arcade cabinets and one of them is what looks like a complete 4 slot cabinet like this one. No interior shots so I'm hoping I get a message back with good news. They're asking $100 for all 4 so I'm hoping it's repairable and I can just snag the Neo Geo and finally have one for myself.
Great deal, but get ready for plenty of work! Think of it as a fall/winter project, and be prepared to invest lots of time and money.
Szabo’s work is worth waiting for. Good choice.
Great video. You restoration is quite similar to how I planned to restore a "big red" I had my eyes on.
Amazinggggg
Whats your top 4 MVS games?
IL american sticks work really well for all games.... happ sticks have gone downhill
Yeah, perhaps. In terms of feel though, I've found it really depends on what you're used to.
That turned out really nice! I have one, but I'm leaving it as is for now. I kind of like the cigarette burns and stuff. Proof that it was at an actual arcade back in the day. Cheaper to leave it as is too lol.
Hahaha. It's fine bro, and thank you. I always wanted one since the 90's and was like a dream besides purchasing an AES. I really had my mind made up years ago regarding them, and seeing yours really makes me want one even more bro. 8^)
Anthony..
nice!!! I have a 4 slot ! trying to restore wish I can send you pics of what I got for $300
Sounds like a good deal if it's in a condition that can be restored.
Great looking machine. I love those deluxe 4 slot cabinets. I have a MAME machine that was originally a 1 slot Dynamo cabinet. It was hollowed out with no motherboard, marquee etc. Nice 25 in Wells Gardner monitor though.
nice video. waiting for the day i can have a mancave
Here's hoping you achieve the dream! I finally got one at age 38.
sooo... i've shared this vid with my buddies.. i have an MVS-4, just like yours.. and in 2015 i gutted it and added buttons as I didn' t have any attachments to Neo Geo games... you would hate me.. and inside is a pandoras box! doh! yah, i am exactly like what ur saying.. its a huge expense to get a cab totally restored to like-new process and mvs is so propriety that makes swapping anything a lot of work. and all the shipping was exp.. and then yes its stressful... so yah, sell this, as MVS BIG red are worth a lot and if ur wife is ok with it, get a candy cab, or another cab that u will really play some games on.,
It won't be possible to recoup the money I spent restoring it. I think I'll hold onto it for now. I'm a Neo Geo guy, and I want a Neo Geo cab.
I need the glass dimensions
Do you want to sell it lol
Excellent video! It’s been my dream to have a fully restored Big Red cab like this. I even tried to build a bastardized/conversion cab this past year out of a Virtua Fighter I found a good deal on. It went HORRIBLY sideways very quickly and I pulled the plug. I was very thankful to just unload the cab for cost. It’s like buying an old, used car with high miles - what can go wrong DOES go wrong! I’m now looking for the ultra rare case where someone is selling one fully restored. :)
Good luck!
3 years later, Szabos STILL on a 4 week wait,
Yeah, I think it's worth it. I believe everything is made to order.
This was such a great overview 🤘❤️
Very helpful video Alec! Just thinking, seeing how many parts you've actually replaced for great looking aftermarket parts, wouldn't it be a much cheaper option just to go from scratch?
Buy the wood, the vinyl etc, a loose MVS board (which I already have), do a consolize mod, and use a great looking 25" Trinitron tv you could get basically for free here in Europe, and get pretty similar results. Or am I wrong?
Probably cheaper, but I wanted an original MVS cab. If you want a DIY project, then you can build your own. Sounds like even more work than this was.
Great video!
Great Stuff!
Noice!
Quick question.. foam or wool rollers? I just bought foam and remembered from another guy complaining about using a smooth foam roller.. said it skated too much over the surface when paining. I'm going to use an oil base primer and paint so maybe it will be better.
We used a woven one. Just like painting interior walls.
Quick question.. bondo over the vinyl black edge to paint the sides or strip.the sides of vinyl first then paint?
I didn't remove the vinyls from mine, but you could. Maybe I did it the lazy way. I just did bondo over it and then sanded.
Great job restoring that 4 slot cab! I'm in the process of restoring a 6 slot I bought recently and seeing your video gives me hope I can do it as it's now in my basement with serious 0 chances of getting it back in the garage to repair as i thought i could..
Anyways.. the bottom is the worst and boy was i shocked when i seen you were able to just bondo over it and paint. Mine seems like the original black vinyl and wondering if i can do the same? Just sand it down fix it all and smooth it out with bondo. Did you use an oil based primer and finished with latex top coat?
Also the red side.. did you do the same to prep? The new vinyl red side? No info given.. was those layed on top of the old? Was it a sticky back material or did you need to use a laminate glue?
Yep, for the bottom of the machine, you're exactly right. For the vinyls, bondo'ed and sanded -- no primer. Good luck with it. You can get it done.
@@BasementBrothers thanks.. at the store now. Read the label on the bondo they have at lowes and dont sound like something I can use in the house:/ extremely flammable fumes.. how ya get away with that? What brand did you use?
@@VaporEclypse Bondo brand body filler #2 from 3M. Found in the auto department. You'll want to open all your windows for a day or so because it smells like hell.
I should mention we did a bunch of stuff that should've been done outside in the garage because we weren't willing to move the machine. Sanding really shouldn't be in the house. I had to wipe down and vacuum the whole basement twice.
@@BasementBrothers :) I plan on a plastic tent around the area of the cab before sanding.. thanks.
Nice job on the restoration. I just think you could have looked around and bought a nicer cabinet, certainly one that’s doesn’t need bondo and has better artwork. Szabo’s arcade and others have nice prints but it’s not original, that’s the whole point of owning a neo geo mvs cabinet i know you had no choice since you had to bondo everything, either way I’m sure your video will help others not to make the same mistake. Overall it makes you happy enjoy it! Great neo geo video’s maybe you can show us your mvs console my recommendation is the open mvs it has the best rgb output much better then the omega or any of the AliExpress models
Yeah, I really feel this. I was looking specifically for the 4-slot with the speakers at the top. When one showed up nearby it was hard to see the imperfections in the pics online. Once I saw it in person, well I'd already rented a truck and made the trip so it was mostly too late. If there's any consolation, the local supply has dried up and the price has only gone up since I bought it. Also, my wife prefers a fully restored one in the house, not just an original in decent condition.
Interestingly, no one has ever asked about my CMVS.
I understand everyone has to keep the woman happy. 😃 I’m surprised nobody asked you about your CMVS. I’m curious to your setup. I use to play the MVS games on my AES with a converter. I bought a really nice kit from avram, and assembled a mv1c board. The kit outputs really high quality rgb it’s the same upgraded rgb board that was released that helped improve the original omega’s rgb board. The project is called the open MVS it was featured on Retro RGB ‘S channel. I’m looking forward to seeing new videos both you and Scarlet Sprites are the best Neo Geo UA-camr’s. Thank you for your work the community really appreciate’s it.
@@neovlad1831 Yeah, my CMVS has that AV board from Tian Feng too. Anyway, maybe I will talk about the CMVS in a video some day. Thanks for asking, and for your compliments.
Beautiful!!!!!
0:06 "Hello, today I thought I'd take a break from Neo Geo video series", last video: 3 months ago...
7:41 "La raza" = the race.
It takes about 1 month of weekends to make a new video. If I'm going to use my free time, it's not worth it for videos that only get about 500 views. I know that the Neo Geo series has a very loyal following, and I respect and love my fans for that, but at 500 views per video, it's not worth giving up a month of weekends. I do it because I like making videos I want, but at only 500 views... I want to feel like what I'm doing actually matters to people.
The next video gets made when I get around to it.
@@BasementBrothers One way to get more views is to monetize the channel, monetized videos get recommended more and are higher in the search list than unmonetized videos.
I like the videos, keep up the good work.
Videos are all monetized.
@@BasementBrothers Ah, I didn't notice.
Let me know if its ever up for sale
Don’t sound too excited 🤣
Not sure what you're referring to.