NEO•GEO MVS-U4/25

The NEO•GEO MVS-U4 cabinets were released in Japan, in the style called a "candy cab" by U.S. collectors. They offered several monitor sizes, and came with a 4-slot NEO•GEO board which would accept four different game cartridges. There are over 150 titles to choose from, so picking 4 is tough :)

Japan had a completely different approach to arcade machine construction relative to the rest of the world. U.S. machines were wooden stand-up cabinets covered by eye-grabbing artwork unique to each individual game. Japanese machines were subtle metal sit-down cabinets that could have the games changed easily to maintain revenue. 

I wanted to add a candy cab to the collection, and I figured the most interesting way would be to import it directly from Japan. This process is slow and not exactly cheap, but I'm super happy with the result. I left the machine set up for 100-yen coins to add authenticity.

I wanted a broad spectrum of titles, so this cabinet is currently running Blazing Star, Puzzle Bobble, NEO Turf Masters, and Waku Waku 7. Anyone running classic NEO•GEO hardware should consider upgrading to the Universe BIOS, giving much greater flexibility over regions, allowing high-score save to memory card, and many other options.

Since this MVS-U4 was imported from Japan, it's intended to run on 100V power. Opinions vary greatly on whether it's OK to plug directly into U.S. 115V power, and I felt most comfortable using a transformer to drop the voltage.