total noob stumbled on a couple of naomi cabinet...

[genecyst]

Hi, i'm totally new to this area of gaming but i'm thinking of making the next big step for my wallet: my first arcade cabinet after one thousand of consoles.

I've found a couple of complete naomi's cabinet priced around 400 €. the buttons are a bit smashed but i can change them with the good ones i have on my dreamcast arcade stick.
i haven't found other similar cabinets looking for price comparison so i'm going to ask you if they are overpriced.

Also, what you suggest to look for searching defects or broken stuff?
thanks in advance!

[hermit crab]

What does the 400e include? Monitor, power supply, Naomi motherboard, a game? I'd say it's a pretty good price as long as the monitor is included. And it's in good condition. The monitor is really the most vital part, because it's the most expensive one to replace. But pretty much everything can be replaced easily since it was such a common cab. You can buy parts here for example: http://www.giz10p.co.uk. Buttons can be bought from any arcade parts supplier not just those specializing in Sega so absolutely no need to take the ones from your DC stick.

[matrigs]

Idd if it's complete with a naomi and a game than 400 Euros isn't a bad price, but depending on the state of the cabs it's not fantastic either.

As mentioned above - the screen is the most vital one. Try to open up some test screens in a game, mainly cross-hatch and something with a solid colour all over the screen. Look for burn-in (when you can see a "shadow" of some graphic or text at all times on the screen, like "insert-coin"). Check the geometry.

I guess these are standup cabs? Remember you can make a sitdown out of them. http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Sega_Naom ... Conversion

With this cab - keep two things in mind:

First, the screen is rotatable, but has no rotating mech. It's a bitch to do that alone, so you will need a partner and a few minutes to rotate it every time you want to play some tate (vertical shmups) stuff.

Second, in European cabs there were mostly two types of screens used - a Sanwa 29e31s or a Nanao MS-2932. Both are 31 kHz only. Keep that in mind as you cannot play original jamma games or other low-res games on the cab right out of the box. There are of course upscalers and converters, but this gets you into lag territory, inconvenience etc. If you want to stick to hi-res games (xbox360, mame-pc, or stock naomi) it's absolutely fine.

Now it would be nice if you could check what kind of screen you have in them. The Nanao MS-2932 is the better quality one of those, but it is 31 kHz only and will be. The Sanwa 29e31s is worse, quality wise, however can be refitted with a chassis for tri-syncing it (15kHz, 24kHz, 31kHz) so you can play all games. Note that this is a 150 GBP investment + the picture will be worse in lowres than on a dedicated low-res screen.

Also regarding using jamma and other games - most probably the cab isn't fitted with a jamma connector and harness, so in case you want to play other games you have to not only manage the screen but also the controls, which is another investment.

I have a Naomi with a Sanwa 29e31s myself and it's only my cab of choice because i bought it for 150 EUR in working condition. If you need some additional help with one, PM me.

Depending on your location (i can only guess Germany? cause those Naomis are popular there) you might want to search for a pricier but more flexible cab, like a Sega New Net City or Sega Blast City. Both have excellent tri-sync monitors so you can connect pretty much any source to them. Rklok from Holland sometimes has these and provides freight shipping: http://www.rklok.nl/ He mailed me in July that there is a Blast City in stock, maybe he still has it. Otherwise look into the trading section of the ArcadeOtaku forum (it's invisible for unregistered members) as there are cabs for sale in europe sometimes.

[genecyst]

wow guys, thanks a lot for the whole lot of infos. I'm going to get some news by the owner in the next few days couse he stated he has a lot of other cabs from his unkle past activity.
I'm from north italy by the way.

The 2 naomi's i've seen are virtua tennis and virtua striker.
I'll keep them in tate mode always. i don't plan to play anything else than vertical shmups...

Thanks again guys, as soon as i'll have some news i'll come back!

[matrigs]

The 2 naomi's i've seen are virtua tennis and virtua striker.
I'll keep them in tate mode always. i don't plan to play anything else than vertical shmups...

Then still keep in mind what i wrote about the screens being 31kHz and and the lack of Jamma.

Oh and in case you want to go more into Naomi games - Giga Wing 2 and Zero Gunner 2 are some pretty good reasons to turn your screen.

[hermit crab]

It's true that the high resolution monitor is not good for old low resolution games.

But on the other hand it's much better for the hires games. And there's a bunch of cool hires Naomi shmups like Ikaruga and Trizeal. There are also other cool hires verts (running on Taito Type X hardware for example) like Raiden 3/4, and the monitor will be great for those too. Might not be the cheapest games to buy as originals though.

[genecyst]

i don't understand if my dreamcast gd-roms will work even on the naomi. i've read somewhere this info, but i don't understand if they are exactly the same or not... i should have a whole lot of nice shooters...

[hermit crab]

Nope, Dreamcast games won't work with a Naomi GD-ROM drive. Your Naomi might not even gave a GD-ROM drive (but you can get one for it if you want to), some games weren't released on optical discs but as "carts".

If you want to play Dreamcast games with the cab you'll have to put a Dreamcast in there. A DC VGA box will let you connect it to the monitor, for controls you'll need something like a MC Cthulhu or PS360+ board.

[matrigs]

It's true that the high resolution monitor is not good for old low resolution games.

Well i wouldn't call it "not good" - you wont be able to connect any low-res source AT ALL without further processing.

Nope, Dreamcast games won't work with a Naomi GD-ROM drive. Your Naomi might not even gave a GD-ROM drive (but you can get one for it if you want to), some games weren't released on optical discs but as "carts".

If you want to play Dreamcast games with the cab you'll have to put a Dreamcast in there. A DC VGA box will let you connect it to the monitor, for controls you'll need something like a MC Cthulhu or PS360+ board.

I have a dreamcast in my Naomi as well and it works pretty good, even with a homemade VGA Box. I used an old Dreamcast pad which i hacked and connected to the control panel.