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Bought the Big Red Neo Geo cab I owned 20 years ago back

L

lithy

Student
Joined
Nov 8, 2024
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Location
Pittsburgh, PA
First post, gonna skip the Introduction forum, since there's not much to say. I'm in the Pittsburgh area and a long time member at n-g.com

This is the cab that I bought in December 2003 ($290 with Baseball Stars 2, King of the Monsters, Alpha Mission 2, and a bootleg Bust a Move), sold in December 2005 (under $700 don't remember exact sale price or games included), and have now bought again in November 2024 ($1200 with Samurai Shodown, Windjammers, King of Fighters 98, and Metal Slug X).

Yes, the exact same cab, not the same kind, the same one.

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.

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Here is the main photo from the Facebook Marketplace ad

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Some before and after exterior cleaning photos after getting it home.

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Some additional details, storytelling, and pics is posted in my thread about the cab here.

https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/buying-my-old-big-red-back-19-years-later.272054/
 
In the 20 years since I sold it, it stayed with the same family, in their basement, and definitely didn't see much use, although it definitely didn't get much attention either, but that's fine, it will be a great starting point for me since little has changed.

20 years ago, I replaced the acrylic marquee because it had a crack extending from a screw hole 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.

Before after cleaning, doesn't look like much but a lot of dirt came off.

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Also 20 years ago, there was a guy that made EL panels available that would work for a replacement, I bought a set and installed them and they are nice and bright still today.

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Something I had not done before was remove the entire coin door assembly, but got to do something new, took it off and cleaned it up as best I could (leaving the coin mechs in place). Replaced the 161 bulbs again that had burned out since I last replaced them 20 years ago.

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I had the control panel repainted back when I originally owned the cab and put a NOS overlay on that I obtained I think from eBay (this was before reproductions were available, although I may want to buy a repro while I can just to have). The control panel is a little dirty, one carriage bolt went missing (although I found the washer, lock washer, and nut inside the cab), and the contacts could use a cleaning, but otherwise the paint and overlay are still in very nice shape and the credit LEDs work. The joysticks were replaced with a different style since I sold it but that's the only change I have noticed on the machine.

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And the last post for now, I purchased an All-in-One and new Unibios from @leonk so while I wait for that to arrive, I pulled the board to give it a good cleaning, remove the (original! eek) battery, plan to replace it with a coin cell holder and an ML2032. And that way I can swap the Unibios 2.0 I put in 20 years ago before it goes back into the cab and finally start playing some games.

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This guy was still hanging in there, just a very little bit of corrosion off the negative pin and some stuff on the board that cleaned up, but it was still saving.

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I’m impressed you were able to fit a cabinet of that size inside a college dorm room. Congrats on reacquiring it.
 
That’s amazing that you ended up getting your original cab back. What a great story.
 
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