My plan was to (someday) swap the boards, pairing the two-slot board from the one machine into the cabinet with the bigger monitor. That would make one great machine and one okay one. The plan was to then sell the okay machine and keep the great one.
Like most of my projects, I never got around to it. When I began to run low on space I decided to sell the two-slot/smaller monitor Neo Geo machine. This is what it looked like when I sold it:
I sold the machine to a fellow collector named Stingray, who picked the game up in the back of his minivan. The guy drove down from Tulsa (about 2 hours) to pick it up, and while he was down we visited for a bit and ended up eating lunch together. He was a super nice guy. During lunch he told me all about his plans to fix up the Neo Geo. I just smiled to myself, thinking, "Yeah, I had plans too, but they didn't happen."
About a month later, Stingray sent me the following picture:
Down to the stenciled artwork, this is pretty much what a new Neo Geo machine looked like back in the day. The entire cabinet had been sanded down and re-painted. Along with the artwork, new t-molding had been added as well.
I was always jealous of that machine and a little embarrassed that I had never done the work myself. In the same token (hah), I always found that second picture inspiring. It showed me that, with a little elbow grease, a crappy-looking game can be restored and made to look brand new.
I keep searching for elbow grease on eBay to this day. Haven't found any yet ...
