this is a trade show, not really for off the street fans to play pins n stuff. i mean there is pins to play but its more a business oriented trade show than a 'lets go play aaall the pins and party'.

so if you go, dont be disappointed

the only games you need for neo geo are;

some kind of 'king of fighters'. they made about 1000 versions.
one of the metal slugs
fatal fury / garou mark of wolves (same series)
aeero fighters
bomberman

I converted fully over to linux over 10 years ago. was longtime freebsd user since the late v2 releases.

xubuntu is my flavour of choice. right now, I have one app that I run under wine (diptrace, my schematic/pcb software because Eagle is way too expensive to buy).

ratcheting molex crimper;

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JLN93S

its the bomb!

I owned a dreamcast for a week. that was my first 'console'

but as kids, my neighbor had an apple ii, I had a c64, one kid had a 2600. I never got consoles. I mean, games on my Amiga blew away any shit on a NES. Amiga 500 came out when NES came out in Australia (both iirc 1987?) The Amiga blew it away.

if I remember correct, it came out of a converted cab, so it wasn't a factory SF2 , it has the glitches in the ver. of the roms it did the handcuffs, resets & invisible throws ...

aah one of the rainbow rom hacks?

working my ass off on my DIY pinball machine. I put up a little video of my solenoid driver board the other day. gotta buy some ply and start messing on the layout and working on the main control board. lots of shit happening!

I was always a commodore guy. C64, C128, Amiga..

there are some great stuff for these old machines now. I'm building a new PSU for my C64 that can power two c64s, two drives and allow switching of drives between machines and stuff. no more 1 power brick for everything.

legacy of the ancients was fun. I think it was the second last game to use that engine. Legacy of Blacksilver was the last, and imo better of the two. rumours of a third never turned out. (LOA/LOB/LOC!)

I liked Questron 2 probably more than the others but Legend of Blacksilver was good too, I think it was the only one of them all (questron 1,2, ancients, blacksilver) not made by the same people, and it shows. Lot more refinements in the Q2 engine.

expect insane prices. there will be no 'good' or cheap deals to be had

Thought I'd add to the gear list;

good solder station, variable temp; Hakko 888D
desolder gun (shits all over soldapullit); Hakko 808
bench top psu, I recommend something like the GW Instek GPS-2303, dual outputs of 30V/5A or something lower end like the Mastech HY3005D (aka KORAD KA3005D, Tekpower HY1803D, etc)

ultima 3, 6
wasteland
magic candle 1
pool of radiance
curse azure bonds
rogue
dungeon master
eye of the beholder
bards tale 1/2/3

I remember seeing them in 'clubs' down in australia. sports clubs would have gaming poker machines (slots), so there would always be a kids arcade room. cocktails and tents were often found...

this year my goal is to sell my Starship Troopers and pick up a Last Action Hero, Tales from the Crypt or... one I really want, RBION! I want an RBION so bad.

honestly, I hope its the EM because its easier to work on that the early Gottlieb solid state. Gottliebs old SS boards are BAD. they have LOADS of electrical issues to the point its easier to buy a new made replacement board (niwumpf or rottendog) than with the poor design of these boards.

Gottlieb System 1 is some nasty shit to be working on.

if your really lucky, re-seating the connectors will fix things. just remember it is a 1979 pin tho, things are going to be very brittle so be very careful.

start here;
http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/#intro

and here
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1