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Post by toei on Apr 2, 2023 23:36:16 GMT -5
And that's just 1991. Arcade games became much more expensive pretty quickly, while SNK was still releasing new fighting games operators could get for a few hundred bucks. A Daytona USA cabinet retailed for 16,000 pounds in the UK in 1994. That was about 24,000 USD then (I'm quoting the UK price because I can't find the US price, but the Japanese price of 2,200,000 yen is consistent with that). But that's a big racer with peripheral. What about, say, Virtua Fighter? 6000 pounds, or 9,000$ US.
And reports have SF2 cabinets making 1,300 to 1,600$ a week in 1991, meaning you'd pay for it in two weeks max. Pretty crazy.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 2, 2023 23:49:24 GMT -5
Man, I wish those arcades were still a thing. It really was so much different back then. Of course, I don't think any of us could have imagined how much gaming we'd have at our fingertips. Heck, the amount of free gaming, at that.
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Post by nullPointer on Apr 3, 2023 13:59:14 GMT -5
Tales from null's nefarious past ... I actually knew a guy who had a Neo Geo AES back in 1994-5 or so. The only game I clearly remember playing on it was Samurai Showdown (which I loved), so that might have been the only game he had for it. But this guy had a ton of really nice stuff and it was never really too clear where it came from. We all just figured he must have come from money or something. Any hoo, fast forward six months or so, and that guy is getting carted off to prison for check fraud. (His arrest in and of itself was a pretty wild story as he managed to escape from the cops at one point) At any rate ... I guess that was one way to 'acquire' a Neo Geo back in the 90's.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 3, 2023 15:12:20 GMT -5
Whoopsie. Livin' the dream... until they cart you off!
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 3, 2023 16:04:51 GMT -5
Isn't the Neo Geo "scene" rife with stories of fraud and fake carts and other such nonsense?
In any event, I have a small set of MVS and AES carts and am pretty much "done" with buying such games. Never payed more than $50 a cart.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 3, 2023 16:06:29 GMT -5
I wish I'd gotten in just a little earlier. I still may end up picking up one or two legitimate carts, but right now the $500 I plunked down on the Darksoft cart will have to do, haha.
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Post by anayo on Apr 3, 2023 16:53:08 GMT -5
There may have been a time when you could scoop up Neo Geo stuff for dirt cheap, but I missed it. My only chance of scoring now would be if a Neo Geo collector died and it turned out they designated me as the heir in their will.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 3, 2023 17:39:06 GMT -5
If you want to avoid eBay, it might be worth hitting up folks at the Arcade Projects forums instead. That's where I ended up buying my Neo Geo MVS for a reasonable price. www.arcade-projects.com
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 3, 2023 18:17:07 GMT -5
There are still some MVS carts to be snagged for under $100. NeoStore.com is a fun place, outside of eBay and forums.
The hardware itself is a barrier of course. MVS carts are cheaper than AES, but there's no simple "MVS console" of old. Several options exist but none are truly cheap.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 3, 2023 19:05:41 GMT -5
My combo ended up being an MVS board with a nice case around it, coupled with an Axunworks mini supergun. Works well enough for what I wanted to do, anyway. There are also a few options for converting the controls out as well if you don't have SNK hardware - he sells an adapter that handles a lot of PS3/360/PS4 controllers, and I use a third-party 360 pad with it.
I think I was just shy of $300 on the hardware when all said and done. Maybe not the cheapest, but not the worst either, and I can get other arcade boards if I want to work with the supergun. The flash cart was the big expenditure. But yeah, there are still some carts that are under $50, and a bunch more under $100. It's not cheap, but it could also be much worse. I think I might try to snag a Metal Slug X cart, that's probably the big one. I noticed the original SamSho doesn't sell for much, either.
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