HomeMVS
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Well you can see the final product of about a years work to bring Neo-Geo
gaming home at an affordable price. There are lots of different questions
and problems you will have to overcome to build a setup like this, but hey
if I can pull this off then almost anyone can with the right help! Below I
will detail all the steps that you will have to go through to build a HomeMVS
setup of your own.
Game Board Selection
So you want to build a Neo Geo SuperGun? Great, but there are some design
and technical decisions you have to make. First off is the type of MVS board
you want to use. SNK (the company that made the Neo Geo) made different versions
of the MVS, where there were multiple "Slots" where you can plug
in multiple games into the same board at the same time, and use a button to
select which game you want to play. They come in the following slot configurations:
1, 1 Mini, 2, 4, and 6 slot boards. A lot of the boards actually have some
nice features, such as real Neo Geo controller ports, a headphone jack, and
a Memory Card slot (for using the home system memory card to save your game).
These features are on almost all the boards, except the Mini 1 Slot. Which
doesn't have any of those features, because it's really small compared to
the other boards (hence it's called the Mini 1 Slot). For a more complete
comparison of all the MVS boards check out HardMVS
(one of the best sites on the MVS). Ideally, a 2 slot board would be perfect
for my setup. However many people have bought up a lot of the 2 slot boards,
making them expensive. I got a great deal from MD
Game Sales on a 4 slot, and I'm very happy with it. The only problem is
that it makes my overall system HUGE, but hey for the deal I got on the 4
slot, I'll make room to set it up.
What needs to be built
Obviously you can't just buy a MVS board and expect to be playing later that day. There is a minimum amount of stuff you need to build/buy. They are the following:
A JAMMA harness
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The JAMMA (Japanese Arcade Machine Manufacturer Association, in case you were wondering) Connector, is how most arcade boards interface with everything . It almost looks like a cartridge connector, and it kinda is. You'll be doing everything through this, video, sound, controls, power. So it's important.
This is the connector used to hook the MVS up to an arcade cabinet. This is your interface to your system, everything you hook up will go through this connector. There are many different ways to get one of these. They can be bought and built by hand, but personally I just bought a full JAMMA harness and just hooked up the wires necessary to the output, anything that was not connected to the MVS I just left floating. A good place to buy one would be eBay.
The only other thing that you should know about it is that when you hook
up you're RCA sound out, like the video connection, you want to run the Speaker
+ to the inside of the RCA connector and the Speaker - to the outside of the
connector. However, my MVS boards sound output was partially busted, so I
had to wire this up from the headphone connector that was on my 4-Slot. This
actually worked out really well because it turns out that my board may have
only been outputting Mono sound from the JAMMA connector. Like I said earlier,
head to HardMVS And make
sure you hook it up so that Left is Left and Right is Right. 
Below you can see a table comparing the Neo-Geo Harness to the JAMMA style harness:
|
NEO-GEO
|
JAMMA
|
A Power Supply
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I used a standard PC power supply to power everything in my setup. However, after I had ordered my wood, I realized I could build this with a "AC Adapter" since the only thing you need to power the board is the +5V and Ground, the -5V and +12V are setup on the JAMMA connector, but they are not needed for the MVS if it's not in a cabinet. The power supply I'm using is helpful in that it gives multiple wires for Ground and +5V so I don't have to worry about splitting everything up too much, but it does substantially increase the size of my system.
I made sure that I got a AT power supply. This is because I wanted to make sure that I had a true "On/Off" switch for the power supply, the newer ATX style power supplies do not have a true power switch as it's meant to be controlled by a computer motherboard.
Another important note about the power supply is to see what color wire is carrying what voltage. I'm providing a chart that lists common conventions followed for wire colors/voltages. There is normally a chart on the actual power supply that describes the voltages on each wire! The chart below is for reference only! NEVER ATTEMPT TO TEST VOLTAGES OR STRIP WIRES ON A LIVE POWER SUPPLY! I am not responsible to any damages you do to yourself or your equipment!
|
Color
|
Voltage
|
| Red |
+5V |
| Black | Ground (+0V) |
| Yellow | +12V |
| Orange | -5V |
The Joysticks
Yes, this is the part you'll be using the most, the Joysticks. They are one of the most important parts of your setup, and they are almost the easiest to build. The actual stick and buttons can be ordered from Happ Controls. I ordered the Ultimate Joystick, and I have been very happy with it. Some people prefer the Competition or the Ultimate sticks, and I may experiment with those on my upcoming MAME cabinet, but for now the Ultimate's are doing quite a nice job. These are all 8-way joysticks so you don't have to worry about it being Neo Geo compatible. Also for the buttons, get the Ultimate Pushbutton, they're by far the best. I actually bought the color buttons to correspond to the actual Neo arcade layout. You'll notice something special about them however, they don't just have buttons for the Neo Geo. I ended up making these Universal Joysticks, so I gave them a very nice button layout that gives me the Neo Geo layout, the Capcom layout, and enough buttons to map to a Playstation 1 or 2, as well as an XBox, Dreamcast, or PC. You can find out the specifics on how I designed and built these on the Joystick Page.
However, if you just want to use your joysticks on a home Neo MVS setup, then you're in luck. What you can do is buy a MVS board with AES joystick ports. This will allow you to purchase any Neo-Geo joysticks or joypads and plug right into the system and play. While this is more expensive, than actually building your own controls, it's a lot easier, and some people just prefer the SNK style sticks or pads.
