Neo Print

The Neo Print was one of SNK's attempts to pull the last dollars from the NeoGeo brand. It was a small purikura (photo booth) which ran on a MVS-inspired board, and had a camera and printer interface. Players users could add various frames to their picture with more-or-less common themes, SNK characters, before printing to sticky photo paper.

PCB picture: http://mvs.gotwalls.com/images/e/e1/Pstm-p1_set1_top_nocover.jpg



It was apparently exported to the US for some time ([video ad on Youtube]).

A variety of cartridges were produced with different themes and for US/JP localization.

!!! Preliminary info !!!

Cartridges

 * The cartridges have the exact same mechanical format as MVS cartridges.
 * The PROG boards have an identical pinout, some in fact are simple MVS PROGBK1 boards.
 * The CHA boards are custom made for the Neo Print and have a different pinout, they have no fix ROM and pre-muxed C ROMs.
 * Electrical safety compatibility with MVS carts ? Apparently they just freeze on a black screen without damage.

=Board=


 * Power: 5V only. Current rating ?
 * Backup RAM, or at least an RTC.
 * Z80 has its own 8MHz oscillator ?
 * 68K runs at 12MHz.
 * 5x 16V8 PALs for glue logic.
 * NEO-SDR-T chip for ext I/O and dipswitches.
 * The board doesn't seem to have an embedded system ROM, the cartridge's program does everything.

Video



 * The sprite rendering logic is probably quite different from the regular NeoGeo systems.
 * There is no fix layer, and sprite graphics are loaded from a 16-bit bus.
 * The video timing seems to be "genlocked" to the NTSC camera's video signal, PSTG-SNK is used as the only custom graphics chip.
 * It seems that the camera's video is not simply overlaid with generated graphics but converted digitally and processed as tiles.
 * All video I/O is done in S-video (chroma/luma).
 * VRAM is made of 4*128kB 8-bit SRAM, probably as 2*256k words.
 * A NEC µPC6620 triple 8(?) bit video DAC feeds a common Fujitsu MB3516 RGB encoder chip for output.
 * 6x NEC µPD42280 dual-port video RAMs (2 fields for each color component) filled by 3 NEC µPC659 video DACs.
 * NEC µPC1862 video sync maestro (NTSC).
 * 2 Sony chips for mux/demux or color burst generation for monitor and printer ?
 * 2 Mitsubishi M52065 triple 2-to-1 high speed analog switches.

Audio
Sound comes from the same YM2610-YM3016 pair, driven by Z80 and fed by regular V ROMs (both PCMA and PCMB are used ?).

=Printer=

The stock printer in the Neo Print cab was a Mitsubishi CP-710E (analog video sublimation printer). The Neo Print "emulates" the original printer remote control via the PRT1 and PRT2 ports (mini DIN 8, stereo jack).

It actually does a "screengrab" from the S-video signal in its internal memory before printing. Apparently, the printer itself does the picture arrangement (1x2, 2x2, or 4x4) and rotation processing to fit on paper, not the Neo Print itself.

As the photo paper was pre-cut, the Neo Print could only make 4x4 sheets. Software modification should be easy to print a full-frame picture.

=Camera=

To do. Probably any S-video capable NTSC camera works.

=Why it sucked=


 * SNK obviously tried to hop on the 90's sticker craze, but as in the usual SNK tradition, it was too late.
 * The frames were pretty bland, and the characters weren't that popular (Sega had a similar purikura system with a Pokemon license.)
 * Stickers are VERY small. Third time I'm writing it.
 * It hasn't much to do with the NeoGeo in the end. Proof: it's for girls.
 * As any photo booth, it has to be reloaded with paper and ink rolls. Cab operators want money and no servicing. Refilling the thing every 200 vends had to be annoying.