Newbie questions about superguns

[liquidcross]

Hey folks...I'm a longtime NeoGeo fan, but I've never had the privilege of playing the real thing in my home...only ports.

So I want to build a supergun. I know I could do it...I've got the electronics savvy. The only thing that's holding me back is the price of building the unit itself. It seems that having to build the system, AND controllers, AND buying a RGB-to-NTSC converter is going to be astronomical. I've seen commercially available superguns for around $300...

...but for Neo Geo stuff, don't you need to buy official Neo Geo sticks to use button "D"? Every commercial system I've seen comes with a 6-button controller, but they never seem to work with Neo Geo unless you buy a more expensive "pro" stick.

Is buying a commercial system even worth the trouble? Or should I bite the bullet and shell out hundreds to build my own system and controllers?

Any advice and/or anecdotes would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[materia]

I've heard from friends that their mas super nova's worked great. They never mentioned any problems with buttons.

[liquidcross]

materia said:

I've heard from friends that their mas super nova's worked great. They never mentioned any problems with buttons.

I emailed MAS Systems yesterday, and they just got back to me about all that. It seems that the Super NOVA may be the way to go...

[Kazuya_UK]

You can build your own reasonably easy if you have a few basic electronic skills (unlike me ), but if you are lazy or don't want the hassle then a Supernova isn't a bad way to go from what I know. I'll post up a proper reply when I get home from work, I'm a bit short of time right now

Kaz

[liquidcross]

Kazuya_UK said:

You can build your own reasonably easy if you have a few basic electronic skills (unlike me ), but if you are lazy or don't want the hassle then a Supernova isn't a bad way to go from what I know. I'll post up a proper reply when I get home from work, I'm a bit short of time right now

Kaz

I've got the necessary skills...it's more of a price thing for me. Building the joysticks and buying or building a RGB-to-NTSC converter would inflate my costs to the point where it may just be more cost effective to pick up a Super NOVA.

[Kazuya_UK]

liquidcross said:

I've got the necessary skills...it's more of a price thing for me. Building the joysticks and buying or building a RGB-to-NTSC converter would inflate my costs to the point where it may just be more cost effective to pick up a Super NOVA.

That's a good point actually, I always forget that peeps in the US have to have the RGB converter unless it is gonna be used on something that accepts that type of signal. That will bump the cost up a bit.

My old supergun was setup so that the D button worked, but one thing you could also do is to get an MVS board that has joystick ports, because then you could plug a normal Neo Geo pad or stick in directly. For info on the various types of mvs boards, go here:

www.hardmvs.com

Hope that helps,
Kaz

[liquidcross]

Kazuya_UK said:

That's a good point actually, I always forget that peeps in the US have to have the RGB converter unless it is gonna be used on something that accepts that type of signal. That will bump the cost up a bit.

My old supergun was setup so that the D button worked, but one thing you could also do is to get an MVS board that has joystick ports, because then you could plug a normal Neo Geo pad or stick in directly. For info on the various types of mvs boards, go here:

www.hardmvs.com

Hope that helps,
Kaz

Cool, thanks. I'll have to look into that. I'd wire up a RGB-to-composite adapter myself, but I'm worried about frying my TV.