# Neo Geo SC14 Unwrapping!  Will it work after years of storage and trip from France?

**Source:** Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2024-09-23  
**Duration:** 34m 53s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMHMXb-PjyM

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## Analysis

Kaneda unwraps and tests a restored Neo Geo SC-14 arcade cabinet that had been in storage for three years after being restored in France. The machine successfully powers on after the unwrapping process, though the hood shows some restoration imperfections. Kaneda discusses Neo Geo collecting culture, pricing dynamics, and his shifting philosophy toward collecting as he ages.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] SC-14 Neo Geo cabinets in good condition are worth $10,000 or more — _Kaneda states pricing estimates while examining the restored unit_
- [HIGH] The Neo Geo collecting community and cart collecting forums are hostile and drove him away from buying carts — _Direct personal experience statement about community interactions_
- [HIGH] Finding Neo Geo collector-quality cabinets in good condition is extremely difficult; market value estimates don't account for restoration labor costs — _Kaneda's direct experience and critique of market pricing_
- [MEDIUM] The FOMO around arcade cabinet collecting has diminished; people who wanted these machines already have them — _Kaneda's market observation about collector sentiment shift_
- [HIGH] The SC-14 cabinet had 60,000 plays when in arcade operation, representing significant revenue for operators — _Observable arcade play counter on the machine during unwrapping_

### Notable Quotes

> "I hate the whole market of Neo Geo collector quality cabinets like these, because everyone's like, 'Oh, it's only worth $2,000.' Like, find me one, yeah? ... add shipping to that, add restoration, add all the work that needs to be done, and no one ever accounts for the hours it takes to actually restore these things. It's like the labor is supposed to be free."
> — **Kaneda**, mid-video
> _Critique of collector market pricing not reflecting restoration labor and acquisition difficulty_

> "the Neo Geo community, the cart collecting community, the form is brutal, man. I mean, they drove me out of Dodge like instantly when I was just trying to buy carts. I never realized there could be so much anger around something that so many people love."
> — **Kaneda**, early video
> _Commentary on hostile community dynamics within Neo Geo collecting_

> "I prefer pinball because pinball, like, every game's random. Pinball, you can—like, there's like, I don't know, it's like pinball's like having a golf course in a box because it's just you against the game and every game is different."
> — **Kaneda**, end of video
> _Personal preference for pinball over arcade cabinets; explains shift in collecting priorities_

> "the chase to find these cabinets... the chase to get them is always far more rewarding than having them, because the one thing that you can't recapture when you buy these old cabinets is just... the fun of going into the arcade and everyone was in there playing and enjoying like Neo Geo like in its heyday"
> — **Kaneda**, late video
> _Philosophical reflection on collecting vs. nostalgia; suggests diminishing returns on ownership_

> "I'm kind of—I'm done arcade cabinet collecting. I'm done buying a ton of pinball machines. I just want to have a few things that I enjoy, and that's that."
> — **Kaneda**, near end
> _Major personal stance shift on collecting philosophy_

> "It's working, it's working! Um, but where is the volume? That's my next question."
> — **Kaneda**, power-on sequence
> _Moment of relief and successful test of restored machine_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host/collector unwrapping and testing the Neo Geo SC-14 cabinet; pinball enthusiast transitioning away from heavy arcade cabinet collecting |
| Julian | person | Arcade restoration professional who restored the SC-14 cabinet from Japan to France |
| Neo Geo SC-14 | product | Rare arcade cabinet being unwrapped and tested; described as 'Holy Grail' of Neo Geo collecting; successfully powers on after restoration and 3-year storage |
| Neo Geo | product | Arcade gaming system/platform; Kaneda states it's his favorite system and he owns multiple units (SC-14, Neo 9, SC-19, red mini MBS) |
| Metal Slug 3 | product | Neo Geo game cart used to test the SC-14 during unwrapping |
| Melissa | person | Owner/operator at Coin Taker arcade where the SC-14 was stored for approximately 3 years |
| Chris | person | Co-owner/operator at Coin Taker arcade with Melissa |
| Coin Taker | organization | Arcade venue where the SC-14 was stored before being shipped to Kaneda |
| Kaneda Pinball Podcasts | organization | YouTube channel hosting this live video content |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Neo Geo arcade cabinet collecting and market dynamics, Arcade restoration quality and hood repair
- **Secondary:** Collector community toxicity and gatekeeping, Personal collecting philosophy shift toward minimalism
- **Mentioned:** Pinball vs. arcade cabinet gameplay and appeal

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Kaneda expresses joy at successful unwrapping and machine functionality, appreciation for restoration work, but tempered by criticism of collector market pricing, community hostility, diminishing collecting enthusiasm, and philosophical fatigue with acquisition. The mood is celebratory but introspective about the diminishing returns of intensive collecting.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Neo Geo cart collecting community is hostile, gatekeeping, and unwelcoming to casual buyers; culture-specific toxicity driving away potential collectors (confidence: high) — Kaneda's direct experience: 'the Neo Geo community, the cart collecting community, the form is brutal, man... they drove me out of Dodge like instantly'
- **[market_signal]** FOMO around arcade cabinet collecting has diminished; Kaneda observes the collector market has cooled and early adopters already own desirable machines (confidence: medium) — Kaneda states 'the kind of the FOMO around it all is a little bit over... anyone who wants these things kind of has'
- **[market_signal]** Arcade restoration market undervalues labor; restoration costs, shipping, and dealer markups not reflected in quoted 'market value' estimates for collector cabinets (confidence: high) — Kaneda critiques: 'no one ever accounts for the hours it takes to actually restore these things. It's like the labor is supposed to be free'
- **[product_concern]** Restored SC-14 hood shows visible restoration imperfections: paint cracks, seam lines, and areas that need additional sanding/refinishing despite professional restoration work by Julian (confidence: high) — Kaneda identifies paint cracks, visible seam lines from hood cutting/repair, and notes 'not perfect, it's not terrible' condition requiring potential touchup painting
- **[sentiment_shift]** Major personal pivot away from heavy collecting in arcade cabinets and pinball machines toward minimalism and selective ownership (confidence: high) — Kaneda explicitly states 'I'm kind of—I'm done arcade cabinet collecting. I'm done buying a ton of pinball machines. I just want to have a few things that I enjoy'

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## Transcript

all right I'm I'm so curious to see if this Neo Geo works it has been um it has been a few years since this thing was uh restored all the way from Japan to France Julian over there uh does great restoration work uh and I was just in the midst of like moving having a second baby covid hit all this stuff happened and so we're going to do an unwrapping of the I mean some would say this might be the Holy Grail of Neo geoc collecting let's get some people in the house here let's go share this with um with my pinball Fanatics let's see here this is um this is going to be fun because I I just I'm I hope it works this is always a nerve-wracking moment for those of you in the arcade space whenever you um whenever you unwrap or unbox an item that is shipped across oceans and continents will it work when you turn it on will the CRT monitor be in one piece you know all these things can go wrong um let's see come join live um let's do this hold on one second gang I love social media for this stuff the rest of it absolute garbage we're going to do a live stream right now I love Neo Geo by the way like it is still to this day my favorite system I have an sc14 which we're going to unwrap a neo9 an sc19 and a red mini MBS unit the small ones they made so I I you can't you can't say I'm not an neoo fan um but I grew up with neoo and so that is why I love the system so much it brings back so many fond memories and you know look I will say this the Neo Geo Community the cart collecting Community the form is brutal man I mean they they drove me out of Dodge like instantly when I was just trying to buy carts I never realized there could be so much anger um around something that so many people love let's do this okay next I'm G to backstamp it publish hold on one second we're going to do this on wrapping guys in one second I know you're like this is the worst video ever um just moved into this new house a few months ago I love it not a lot of room for pinball or arcade machines but you know you make sacrifices for the family and this is that sacrifice all right so we got people here let's do this all right so I've got I'm GNA turn the camera around I've got an mvs card what do we got here we got Metal Slug three by the way people who collect the AES cards and spend T of thousands of dollars on like Neo Turf Masters it is the weirdest and strangest subculture imaginable um all right so let's do this let's walk over I've got my cup of joe this thing got delivered at six o'clock in the morning little tour here got my Supreme chair I love it um all right you ready for it there she is she's so small let's set this up so you guys can see I think right on top of here might be best yeah all right top of my my vase right let's turn it down a little bit okay as you can see I I'm I'm a five foot a 5 foot n this thing is Tiny it looks like someone just put an an sc9 in a vice and just squeezed I have four slot in you nice Brian so I did want to sell this you know I wanted to sell other ones I listed them I'll say this though people have no idea how hard it is to find these things in good I have no idea what this restoration is going to look like they needed to do work to the hood they needed to do every so let's see I've got a new coin slot on the outside an original one that I'm going to put on this I think this one has a different one but let's let's open it up oh where to start I think we um to pull it out a little bit thing about these things too gang is like you can't find these things for sale like I hate the whole Market of Neo Geo collector quality Cabinets like these because everyone's like oh it's only worth $2,000 like find me one yeah I get you might be able to find a destroyed one in Japan for 3,000 add shipping that to that add restoration add all the work need to be done all and and no one ever accounts for the hours it takes to actually restore these things it's like the labor supposed to be free so let's pull her out so we can get get underneath this wrap kind of just like what I like to do is get a knife and just you know just cut away from the unit itself here's the here's the key hopefully it works now this is not this is one of the this this is the most fun moment ever gang is the the unraveling of the sarcophagus if you will it's just something about this is so much fun I really should go from the bottom up because there's just so much of this what I don't want to do is puncture I don't want to get anywhere near the actual unit itself I'm going to make this even more so you guys can see let's just keep on wrapping it this way show that it's going to be glorious when we see that blue for the first time looking at here I'm going to get you guys in here we're starting to see those beautiful Neo Geo colors I mean let's do this let's get over here let's swing her out so you can see the full thing all right that's perfect all right so let me I'm just going up and down this thing unwrapping it get you guys a little bit closer I'm worried he's going to stab I know I'm worried about stab in the cabinet too that's why Always sharp edge out up here when I wrapped um when I had my sc19 I had them crate it which was a lot easier to open up because when you create it you just you just take a crowbar and pop it open better to work from the back side all right good advice turn her around here we go there's cardboard here so I'm not going to risk stabbing or puncturing but I'm going to be very careful okay all right all right now we're going to lightly get this tape off sure want to make sure this I'm not near any of the blue uh so I bought this unit I want to say I want to say like maybe four years ago like right before Co or right when Co hit it's been sitting at coin taker for like three years God bless Melissa and Chris she's like get rid of this thing um so all right we got a lot of tape here I'm going to try to get the seam here starting to see some of those Neo Geo colors important thing is when you're doing this don't get impatient and Rush any of this when you get impatient and Rush that's when you make a mistake and you're like you'll scratch it and for you OCD collectors out there it'll drive you nuts now we're all right okay this should start to get a lot easier now this I know I just stabbed myself in the knee with the top tip of the knife this tape isn't the most fun to peel back but it let's give you guys a little bit more height here all right you can see we're getting the back off got to be really careful around the hood the Hood's the most fragile part and last thing you want to do after a restoration process like this is mess up your hood on one of my other ones I had little hairline fracture on the hood because I like took it off too fast never again all right let's turn it around so I think we're going to start to get to the good stuff all right as you can see starting to see unit blue there I've got the original one here this was like a replacement one but it looks really good actually love the yellow um uh just found a button on the ground is that a good sign I don't know maybe it's an extra one hopefully it's an extra one all right I've seen you I've lost my knife in his Madness oh there it is okay let's keep cutting away I mean I give jing a lot of credit to really pack this thing in we got to be really careful do not to damage This Hood out let's see what we got here oh towel in here lot this is from France us what you got I'm just trying that it is is that's a good joke it is good joke needs a gizmo 2000 okay here we go see not the best Hood see the thing is I think this guy he cut it here and they fixed it little sloppy work there not perfect for some reason the guy cut it here and when they were restoring it you know they added a piece here to go all the way down um it's not perfect it's not terrible but you know it is what it is I don't OCD OCD over this stuff anymore got so many cabinets you know it's just a cool little unique I don't even need I don't even know if those things are if that's even level I guess it's got to be level cuz this is right where the the cut back happens all right going take my glasses off so I can see it a little better sides trying to like get stuff oh my God there's so much all right so let's walk around it you can see how small it is let's go back to our I'll tell you what I'm showing out here see the guy cut it here John Youssi like a little line there but not bad this one's a little worse need some touch of paint like kind of cracked it a little bit see that now look not sure if you know for the price of these things see it just needs to be painted again you could sand that down paint it perfect I always think like when people do these things you know I wouldn't send it to customer unless it was absolutely perfect but you know that's just me that's just me I'm a little a little hot in here let me get some air and the Big Moment of Truth if it works or work all right let's see if this thing works these these go for the SC1 14s it depends who you ask I mean in good condition this one's really nice you know again I would I would it would I would just have the hood refinished again you know just just to get rid of these lines which you could do it needed like another it's like it needed like another sanded down another coat of paint that's easy to do I I don't care about that like you could always you know the fact that it has the original hood is like the important part all right what we're going to do now but I think we got the key I think um you know for an sc14 you're looking at I got to be candy gang like you're looking at like 10 G's or more like in this condition probably more but also I feel like the the vibe around arcade collecting and cabinet collecting has changed a lot people are just the kind of the the fomo around it all is a little bit over I think any anyone who wants these things kind of has I mean I will say the rest of the cabinet looks absolutely gorgeous mean I'm always trying to hide the wires I'm deal with hiding the wires at another time all right so here we are let's get better angle here for you guys let's see if she works let's open her up put a card in here and turn her on hopefully the whole thing doesn't blow the house Sky no see inside how beautiful this does look inside I mean he does a really good job I mean it's very clean in supply it's not secured to anything which is is kind of crazy to me um you know normally on a would be a lock here for the coin box but let's put in Metal Slug three into slot one here's your dip switches this is your motherboard here want to show you like it slides out did a good job on all that and let's just turn her on and see what happens here's what's cool it has 60,000 plays when this thing was in an arcade 60,000 you know divide that by four for quarters that's a lot of money these operators are making back in the day all right I'm going to turn it on but I want you guys to see if anything goes on let's do baby where's the volume it's working it's working um but where is the volume is my next question should be on board somewhere you you need to get that Neo Geo startup sound ready the monitor looks amazing here we go we need the iconic startup sound ready I got like a I guess the ROM it's got like um a bios on that machine thank youco mission one I mean the colors are so good in this it's actually really neat I've never seen an sc14 before I think what's interesting about it it works tiny little hood damage that we could fix when does this thing turn fun I mean it's fine all right clean up this mess is I will say um after having these units I see the blue the blue button there's a little damaged after having these units and chasing them down the the Chase find these cabinets which is not even a chase you know you just you either got to be in Japan and know someone who Imports them and restores them but the the chase to get them is always far more rewarding than having them because the one thing that you can't recapture when you buy these old cabinets is is just I don't know the fun of going into the arcade and everyone was in there playing and enjoying like Neo Geo like in its heyday when those were the best graphics in the world it's still fun but you know I'm kind of I'm done arcade cabinet collecting I'm done buying a ton of pinball machines uh just want to have a few stuff that I enjoy and that's that I think that's sort of as I get older in life that's my that's my new sort of feeling is just have a few things we'll see if this thing even stays here you know I think it looks kind of neat in this open concept but again I don't I don't know I don't know I'm kind of see uh and I definitely like you know if the price is right I would just sell it I mean I again like I have too many I don't have enough time and that's it but it it fits well there it does it does fit well there I think it's kind of nice I'll see when you when you walk in by the way the frame Samsung the frame is the best when you when John Youssi like coming in out the back you know I think it looks cool there the colors go with everything in this house all right so there you have it after three years in storage uh sc9 sc14 all right I mean I have I've had so many of these things it doesn't even it doesn't hit anymore like wow but I prefer pinball because pinball like every game's random pinball you can like there's like I don't know it's like Pinball's like having a golf course and a box because it's just you against the game and every game is different when you play these games um you know it's always the same game you're just studying the code and you know it's all repetition anyway guys happy Sunday thank you I do love this house it is so nice um can see my bubba neon sign can you how do I get closer on bubba will he eventually there it is I got to get out of frame everybody be good happy Sunday thanks for being a Canadian member if you're not joined if you're Neo Geo guy my condolences you guys are overpaying for everything bye

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1808e542-678d-4b5f-b471-17bb6e93d41e*