Grabbed this bad boy for $100 from someone who thought the screen was broken. A half-hour of fiddling around with knobs later, and it works almost flawlessly. There is a bit of distortion at the top of the screen that's indicative of a bad capacitor or two, but nothing that impacts gameplay unless you MUST know your score in King of Fighters. The cabinet itself needs a bit of work, but some new plexiglass and a coat of red paint should do the trick.

It's a one-slot. It was originally NAM 1975, but I grabbed a copy of KoF '97 and Samurai Shodown II on the cheap from eBay. I plan on getting a multicart once I have the scratch.

The-Excel wrote:

Few things are more satisfying than buying something thought to be broken and turning it into something more than it was worth to the previous owner. This is the only reason I would get a Neo-Geo: http://cgi.ebay.com/Twinkle-Star-Sprites-MVS-Neo-Geo-JAMMA-Arcade-SNK-/310164327378?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48373c0bd2 I've played it on everything except actual hardware. Everything I own that can emulate it has.

Some of those cart prices are insane, though. Especially when you factor in idiot sellers on eBay thinking "Oh, it's Neo Geo, it must be rare". Some of the better deals on MVS carts can actually be found through arcade suppliers, as most titles that aren't actually rare (but marked up on eBay) are about the price of a 360 game.