Someone's selling me a Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo cab near me...

[sixwayshot]

The seller's asking $400 for it. And it looks nice, from the pictures. What concerns me is that the cab's got six buttons. Puzzle Fighter doesn't use six buttons. So I'm assuming that this is a converted Street Fighter Alpha or an X-Men: Children of the Atom cab that's had the artwork swapped out but not the control panel.

I was hoping to get it 'cause I love Capcom games, but also to try and get a hold of a CPS2 game that would use all six buttons. But I wouldn't do that immediately. Puzzle Fighter is a fine game by itself.

So, uh, should I pick this up? Is it worth the money? The seller won't go lower on the price at all.

http://images.craigslist.org/3k63m13...af8c5e12f3.jpg

[shawnbo42]

It depends on what you think it's worth. If it is worth $400 to you, then grab it. I agree, Puzzle Fighter is not a bad game. The cabinet, by the way, is a standard Dynamo cut-corner cab. HS-5's (the model numer of that cab) were released by the thousands with tons of SF's in them of various revisions. It is actually a fairly versatile cabinet. The monitor can be rotated vertical in about 10 minutes, once you're familiar with the routine. It is JAMMA, so that will give you capability to play many, many more games by switching out boards. Also, having the 6-button layout is good, because if you want to play other Street Fighter-type games, you have all the controls basically ready to go. The downside of those cabinets is there is limited access to the monitor chassis area, and you're kind of crowded trying to play two-player...it's a little bit of a squeeze, but it can be done. Ultimately, it's up to you, but I think that would be a good cabinet to start out with, IMO.

[sixwayshot]

Hm.

I've actually got another option, as well: A guy's selling a Neo Geo that's priced at a lower price than the puzzle fighter cab. Only problem, is that it's got most of the parts out of the cabinet. For the cash i'd be spending, this is what I'd get:


1 Cab
2 Complete Harnesses (includes LED Board Harness)
1 Set of LED Boards
2 Card Readers (1 harness )
4 Slot MB
2 Art of Fighting Carts
2 Samurai Shodown II Carts
1 Burning Fight
2 Unknown Jap Carts.
1 PSU
2 Isloation Transformers
a 2 slot Marquee, and a 4 Slot Marquee

He says that the monitor's alright-- a bit dim but the picture's clear.

See, I have no idea how to hook anything up. Is it just a matter of plugging the components in the right place?

Here's a few pictures of the cabinet, given to me by the seller:

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/7083/neocab1.jpg
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/799/neocab2.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6405/neocabparts1.jpg
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/7280/neocab3.jpg
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/1241/neocab4.jpg

It's not in the best condition, but it's the best deal i've found. Everyone else wants $500 for their Neo Geo, and I can't possibly afford that. I'm stretching it with the $400 for the Puzzle Fighter...

[Baloo]

I wouldn't go for that...the whole front panel is way too beat up...

[sixwayshot]

I don't think I'm going to go for that Neo Geo. Seems like a lot of work for someone who's new to arcade machines...

[Blur2040]

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[hellfire]

I say buy the super puzzle fighter cab

[sixwayshot]

You do realize that for about 60$ you can pick up a Neo Geo board for that Puzzle Fighter cabinet, yes?

Add a two wires to the JAMMA harness or get an adapter and you're good to go.

I'm no good with soldering. But I guess I have to start somewhere... Where would I find an adapter similar to what you're mentioning? And, uh, what the hell does it do?

Anyways, later today (as in: 9AM or so), I'm going to give a local arcade/vending dealer a call to see what sort of stock he's got. He's probably really overpriced, but it can't hurt to check it out.

[Blur2040]

I'm no good with soldering. But I guess I have to start somewhere... Where would I find an adapter similar to what you're mentioning? And, uh, what the hell does it do?

Anyways, later today (as in: 9AM or so), I'm going to give a local arcade/vending dealer a call to see what sort of stock he's got. He's probably really overpriced, but it can't hurt to check it out.

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/neo.../prod_198.html

The standard JAMMA wiring harness supports 3 action buttons for each player. Where companies wanted to have more than 3 action buttons per player, they came up with different solutions. SNK solved the problem for Neo Geo by adding the buttons into unused space on the JAMMA harness. Capcom used additional wiring harnesses that connected to their game PCBs elsewhere. These are often called Kick Harnesses.

Seeing as that cabinet is wired for 6 buttons, it likely has SOME kind of Capcom style Kick harness that is used to hook up the lower row of buttons (the kicks, get it?). Though you could run wiring from the JAMMA harness to those buttons to enable the Neo Geo "D" button, you could also do it buy buying the adapter above, and then building a cable that hooks the kick harness to that adapter in such a way that you end up with a working Neo Geo D button.

I suggest reading about the JAMMA pinout, then the Neo Geo pinout, and then kick harnesses and you should be able to figure it out.

[sixwayshot]

Hmm.

I think I'm going to grab that Puzzle Fighter cab, if I don't find anything cheaper/nicer that the local arcade dealer's selling me. If I really want, I can buy a particular board from online or from someone on here.

I do have a question, though.

The site that sells that Neo Geo converter board also sells this board-- an 18-in-1 CPS2 board. The site says that it uses actual hardware, but I'm skeptical. Has anyone here used one of these? A board like this would be awesome as I could play most of the CPS2 games that I want to without swapping boards. Do you guys think it's worth it to get that board?

[Blur2040]

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[sixwayshot]

I'd love to get CPS2 boards for each of the games on that multi-board. But I can't. I won't have too much cash after buying a cab, which will pretty much leave me with money for one CPS2 game. And, even then, just a lower-priced one. That board enables me to play the Capcom games I love on real hardware, without breaking the bank or playing 'em on MAME. Which I intend to do, at some point. I'd love to make a MAME countertop machine. I could bring it to my dorm. But right now, my current goal is to get an arcade cabinet, on actual hardware.

If anyone here can sell CPS2 games to someone on a budget, I'd be more than happy to buy 'em.

[Ed Oscuro]

I wouldn't buy either of the cabinets. No reason to spend a lot of cash on a cabinet unless it's a new game-inspecific multi game system (like a Taito Viewlix, Egret II, something along those lines). $400 is a lot of money for just one game. Would be better to find a reasonably priced cabinet and then plug in boards as you want, which is what you're leaning towards already (as does most everybody else who doesn't have spare garages to host dedicated cabinets in).

[sixwayshot]

Yeah, $400 is a lot for one game, but I don't have a lot of options. I'm going to meet up with a local arcade/vending dealer tomorrow and see if he's got anything interesting. I may find something nice.

[Ed Oscuro]

$400 would have gotten me mostly done with my supergun / xrgb 2 combo, though. Forget what the stick added to it, but not a lot. That was relatively new stuff too, not some old cabinet with a lot of service hours on it.

[sixwayshot]

$400 would have gotten me mostly done with my supergun / xrgb 2 combo, though. Forget what the stick added to it, but not a lot. That was relatively new stuff too, not some old cabinet with a lot of service hours on it.

Did you build it from the ground up? Or was it a pre-made setup?

[Blur2040]

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[Ed Oscuro]

Did you build it from the ground up? Or was it a pre-made setup?

Had somebody build mine 'cuz I am lazy. When I said $400 would go most of the way, I was thinking the entirety of the SG, a joystick somebody else had made (with a Seimitsu joystick in it), some other random stuff. XRGB-2 added another $200 or so and VGA monitors ranged from nearly free (thrift 17" / 21" finds) to $700+ (my main computer monitor).

[retrofan]

Where can you find an XRGB-2 these days? aside from eBay...
Thanks

[sixwayshot]

I'm heading to the guy's place in an hour or so. Gonna see the Puzzle Fighter cab. Apparently the guy's a local collector. Seems like an interesting way to spend a day, at the very least.