Back to the Neo Geo Cabinet...

Today is my birthday. Nothing like celebrating doing...nothing...I like a lazy day.

But I really didn't want to just do absolutely nothing. I got up and worked on getting the control panel on the Neo cab.

I started by labeling all the wires going to the buttons, joysticks, and other panels inside the control panel. Yes, I could have easily just looked up color coding for all the wires, but I had masking tape and a sharpie, so why not.

Here it is, freed from the cabinet. Notice all the rust on the bottom of the control panel. That needs to go.

I had to snap a pic of the joystick assembly simply to make sure the orientation of all the bits of it are correct when I put it all together later. The bottom pic shows the actual housing for the joystick with a strong spring inside of it. I figured I should just open it and clean out all the gunk that has built up from all the use it's got. There was some build up in there, I'm thinking it's just plastic shavings from the motions of the joystick. Easily removed and cleaned up.

This is the overlay for the control panel. After unscrewing it from the panel, I took this out to clean it up. HOWEVER...

There was A LOT of rusting by the button holes on the metal control panel. In turn, it scratched up the overlay, leaving these marks on it. I tried cleaning all the rust stains on the back of the overlay, but I didn't want to risk scratching it up even more.

This is what was behind the overlay...Yup...that's A LOT of rust there. Looks like there was something spilled and it wasn't cleaned up properly. I have my work cut out for me here.

The next part of the project involves getting this metal control panel cleaned up of old paint and rust, get primer on it, and spraying it down with a matte black paint. I'm probably gonna use a paint/rust stripper bit for my drill and take it down that way. But I'm not sure how quickly I'm able to pull this off, since it is fall here in the Pacific Northwest, and it's getting kinda cold...and I really don't want to just paint this in the garage. I may attempt it, but only time will tell.

I got new switches to replace all the button's and joystick's switches. Before I installed them, my daughter assisted me in getting the switches from the buttons removed and separated. I immediately got all the parts soaking in hot, soapy water. I had to change the water a couple of times because of how dirty it was.

Most of the buttons on the left player side had a lot of grot inside the buttons themselves. A lot of scrubbing with an old toothbrush and hot, soapy water got rid of most, if not all, of the gunkyness that was inside. It looked like a whatever was spilled on the control panel leaked all inside the buttons, in turn, making the switches semi gunked up as well. I still have to get rid of the rust on the joystick shaft, but that should be relatively easy.

I let the parts dry for an hour or two, before reassembling them and installing the new switches. They all have that nice, clicky feel to them.

Up next, getting that metal control panel prepped for new paint.

PRGE 2019 DONE!

And, just like any other time, I'm exhausted. Amazingly enough, we were able to break down the Xbox LAN area faster than usual. A lot of people made the breakdown of the LAN area and the booth much easier.

So, as always, before I totally knock out, here's what I ended up getting.

...I guess I should've tightened up the shot...anyway.

Games that I got:
Jaguar Raiden and Alien Vs Predator
NES Pac-man (Tengen label) and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Famicom Gomokunarabe (whick makes my "Pulse Label" Famicom cart collection closer to complete) and Star Luster.
Xbox 360 Ridge Racer
Not shown: Power Instinct JAMMA board

Console:
A Pikachu Nintendo 64. Funny story about this one. I've been on the hunt for one of these for a while now. This year, I was determined to get one. On the night of set up for PRGE, I saw one out. It was set for a decent price, but with a random controller, not the original Pokemon one that it was originally packed with. I really was just interested in the console itself, and he was willing to cut a deal, but I didn't want to jump on it just yet until the following day.

The next day, I went back to the same booth, but still reluctant to jump on the deal. I walked on to the next booth that had the same console for sale, for the same price with the original controller! I talked the price down a few bucks, and, well...I have the console I've been looking to get for a while!

Etc.:
I picked up some SCART cables for the Genesis Model 2 and an adapter for the Model 1. That little black box is the CARBY; am HDMI adapter for the Gamecube!

I also got a special limited edition cartridge for the Classic Tetris World Championships...Well, I think it's a cartridge; too afraid to open it. It was given to me by one of the assistants from the CTWC for repairing a few NES consoles for them...or rather, refurbishing the cartridge connector. Not bad, really.

To end the PRGE festivities, I was able to meet up with a few friends that I've meet through one of the forums I've frequented. It was an amazing night, finally able to sit and chat with these friends I've made throughout the years and just not in quick passing at the expo itself. They've come from across the US and also Canada to come in this event.

It's been a great PRGE! And next year, it'll break the tradition of the October event to August for next year.

Neo Geo Marquee Cleaning...

I haven't been feeling well, with fall allergies, and helping with getting Xboxes ready for PRGE, there was little to no energy to get anything done. So I just did some cleaning in the Neo cab.

I wiped down the back of the monitor, the chassis tray, and the monitor frame of all the dirt. That was simple enough. Put a sticker that noted the date I changed the caps out, and was finally able to close the back of the cab by the monitor. There's still the actual MV4 that I have to clean and mod, then I can fully close up the back and call it good. The thing that's holding me back to start working on it is that I want to install a UniBIOS on the MV4, but currently, it's unavailable for purchase.

So, until then, I turned my attention to the front of the cab.

I started by cleaning the front glass of the monitor. When I first got the cab, all I did was just wipe the glass and monitor kinda free of dust. I finally got glass cleaner out and did a better, deeper clean of the glass and the monitor. I also got the dust and cobwebs out from around the front of the monitor. It's looking much nicer now!

And finally, I cleaned the top marquee. Most arcade cabs have stickers on the marquee from the vendor or a repair company. This one had one as well. It was partially peeled back, with a lot of residue remaining.

I had to fight the temptation of getting a razor blade to scrape the residue off, risking scratching the marquee. So, I used 91% isopropyl alcohol to remove the rest of the sticker and remove the residue, taking care of not getting the alcohol on the back of the marquee, so I don't run the risk of removing paint on the back.

I didn't take a close-up shot of the marquee, but here's one of the whole cab, where you can see the sticker at the top-right corner of the marquee.

And here's the marquee now.

Figure while I had it out, I should properly clean it, so now it looks nice and shiny.

I thought I posted it, but I got the bottom coin door opened up. I had to brute force it with a crowbar.

I ended up breaking a little of the case in the process.

I was hoping to get some change in there, but I was greeted with this.

A nice coin bin and another Molex plug for the power supply.

And there was also some Metal Slug 2 things.

I think next I'm gonna tackle the control panel. I figured out how to remove the whole panel from the cabinet, but I have to mark all the wires before I attempt that.

Moving to something different...

I decided to start on getting the control panel for that other arcade cabinet set up (an Atomiswave). Really not much to it; just getting the buttons screwed in there, install the joysticks, and done for that project.

Or so I though...

I was down a a couple of buttons, which was fine since I was planning on getting different ones instead (or 3D print some of my own). But for giggles, and because they were really grotty looking, I took all the buttons apart and washed them.

Most of the joystick parts were there. I'm only missing an E-clip for one of the joystick...as well as a bunch of nuts to get them secured down to the control panel. I may require more to secure the top of the panel to the bottom case of the panel. I'll have to stop by the hardware store to get the parts I need.

Since I cleaned the buttons on the Atomiswave, I might go and clean up the Neo Geo's buttons soon. We'll see.

Neo Geo Cabinet Power Supply DONE!

As we left off the last blog post, I sprayed down the grot-looking power supply innards. Initially, the plan was to just replace the internal fan of the power supply that didn't work anymore. But after opening up the power supply case, I was in for more.

Anyway, this is what it looked like after spraying it down with just hot water.

 Yes, way better than before.

I used some cans of compressed air to blow the water out from under the components and let it dry for a few days. During the downtime, I helped my friend prepare for PRGE. Tons of Xboxes getting prepped again.

Today, I was able to swap a shift with a co-worker to get a much needed midweek rest day. I used it to finish up the Neo's power supply. First things first, getting a fan to replace the broken one in the case.

For the curious, this is the original fan that was in the power supply. The nubs on the fan itself sheared off, leaving the metal cap on on there, just spinning, apparently.

There were many candidates for fan replacement.

I didn't opt for these: The one on the left has the temp sensing wire that I didn't want to mess with (which would be easy by just eliminating it), and the right one was too thin.

I contemplated putting in this light up one, but since it was going to be inside the power supply inside the cabinet where no one could see it, I decided against it.

 This is the one I ended up using. Perfect fit.

This bag is full of old computer case and CPU fans. There were several ones I could choose from...I got this bag from my friend that I'm helping with PRGE. A mutual friend of ours was doing a purge of old computer stuff and gave this bag full of fans.

Time to solder connections....and I'm running low on solder. I had to solder the AC connections back in and also the fan connections to the board.

After getting all connections soldered in and the case closed up, I took it to the cab and connected it together while outside of the cab. Running a test to make sure it turns on without blowing up.

Glad to say, it worked!

Listen to that "new" fan roar!

Before reinstalling the power supply in the cab, I decided to vacuum up the bottom of the cab from all the cobwebs, dirt, and chipped wood. After that, I screwed the power supply back in, connected all the cables together, and rechecked that the cab would turn on.

I'm at the point where I don't think I need to have the bottom part of the cab open in the back, so I'm going to close it up. I still have to clean up the monitor chassis tray and the back of the monitor before closing the upper part of the cab.

Next for this thing: UniBIOS for the 4 slot board and new switches for the buttons.