40 replies to this topic

[bennybingo]

http://newjersey.cra...2282251904.html


What nice cabinets here...sent to the land of MAME. I have nothing against a MAME cabinet, but Tempest and Star Castle just shouldn't get messed with in my opinion...just my opinion tho

[JayWI]

The cabs might be in good condition but the guts could be a different story. I've seen cabs that look great on the outside but they're worthless for their original games. Better to have them saved as MAME machines than tossed in the landfill.

[rmaerz]

Those are not MAME machines (which are illegal to sell). They are running 60-in-1 JAMMA boards. These cabinets are flooding the arcade auctions right now.

If he sells them for $1200, his ROI is roughly 200% on each machine. The monitor costs $400, the board and wiring around $125, power supply for $25, cabinet light for $15 and around $35 for joystick & buttons. Labor on mounting and interconnects is minimal.

The cabinet itself $100 with coin door, control panel, marquee, monitor glass all intact. You may have to replace the control panel overlay and cost varies per each machine. Most likely they would buy a reproduction overlay to cut down on cost.

Most of the labor would be spent on the outside of the cabinet. You can sand rust off from the coin door, bolts and brackets and apply a coat of spay paint. Add some shiny new screws and brand new T-molding. Magic Eraser works good on cleaning the sides of the cabinet. Damage to the wood can be patched and touched up. I probably spent more time cleaning meticulously and vacuuming than anything else.

Fortunately, these machines can be easily restored back to a Star Castle or Tempest machine. What do these machines have in common? They are both vector games.

[ovalbugmann]

Quote

Saw this and threw up in my mouth a little.

lol

[UberArcade]

I agree. I hate to see a classic cabinet turned into a multigame. Part of me would like to slap the fool that did it. They could have been easy to fix for somebody that knew what they were doing. But at least the cabinet was saved. Finding a cabinet in good condition with the art in tact is the hardest part of restoring a game. They could be converted back, but now you would have to try and repair the control panels as well. I am sure all of the original guts have been taken out too. So yeah, that guy is an idiot.

[S1500]

UberArcade, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:24 AM, said:

I agree. I hate to see a classic cabinet turned into a multigame. Part of me would like to slap the fool that did it. They could have been easy to fix for somebody that knew what they were doing. But at least the cabinet was saved. Finding a cabinet in good condition with the art in tact is the hardest part of restoring a game. They could be converted back, but now you would have to try and repair the control panels as well. I am sure all of the original guts have been taken out too. So yeah, that guy is an idiot.

You know, it's all just atoms once you boil down to it. You could have one part of an arcade cabinet(just one part) and cherish & love it forever, have it sit in storage for decades.... or you can make use of it like in the linked cabinet above.

If you saw some exotic sports car that is 99% destroyed, is it worth trying to restore that 99% which will cost countless years & dollars, or do something else with that good 1%?

History is not being destroyed with these cab conversions. Jeesh.

[JayWI]

Some arcade cabs are used in bonfires. Multigame machine or reduced to ash? Pick one.

[rmaerz]

One thing to keep in mind: if instead one of these cabinets were a rare Pepper II cabinet, I'd have to pay $1200 for it. Pac-Mans are pretty common but Star Castles are not.

[Albert]

I should never have clicked on this thread. My heart weeps (this coming from the owner of a Tempest machine).

..Al

[the.golden.ax]

Any heinous act can be justified as just molecules. Dead Tempest cabs are worth far more than $100.

AX

[rmaerz]

You're going to see more and more vector cabinets be converted to 60-in-1s because there just aren't enough people knowledgeable enough in repairing vector monitors let alone arcade PCBs.

There is a world of difference between running a vector game on a raster monitor versus the native vector monitor.

[rmaerz]

Good timing for this thread by the way since I'm just about complete with my 60-in-1 cabinet.

Here's the story:
Last summer I picked up a Congorilla cabinet that came with a Donkey Kong Japanese board set and had a broken monitor neck board. I shipped the monitor chassis to arcadecup.com who capped it and replaced the neck board.

When it was shipped back, I hooked everything up and I had video but a "ghosting" image on the screen. With the help of a local collector, he found that the plates on the back of the picture tube had come loose and needed realigned. So, that was fixed.

The next problem was that on the girders level the barrels would disappear and reappear. Also, our girl was missing a head and there were wavy lines on the left side of the screen. We took the board set out, reseated the ROMs and that fixed some of the problems but introduced others.

I tried to find someone to repair the board set but no one wanted to touch it since it was Japanese board set. I already had close to $300 invested in this cabinet and as it stood the cabinet had no value. And because it was a Japanese board set there's more to it than just slapping a new DK board set in it because the connectors are different.


So, I bought a 60-in-1 board set to give some life to this thing. The cabinet came with wood grain T-molding which I couldn't find anywhere. I installed orange T-molding which I think looks sharp. Here's how she looks:


Now, notice how I didn't sodomize the control panel. It's a painted control panel which I left as-is. It has the stock joystick and I replaced the buttons. I did not add any buttons to the control panel to play games like Phoenix that use a second button. Screw it...


I left the artwork as is. Someone drew nipples on our girl's boobs which came off with a Magic Eraser.


Here's the inside with the Jamma board:


A big plus is that little harm was done and that it's using an arcade monitor instead of crappy LCD monitor.

[bennybingo]

Albert, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:59 AM, said:

I should never have clicked on this thread. My heart weeps (this coming from the owner of a Tempest machine).

..Al

I have a Tempest as well...I was bummed

Always wanted a Star Castle too! And those are difficult to find in that condition!!!

[Albert]

bennybingo, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:57 AM, said:

Always wanted a Star Castle too! And those are difficult to find in that condition!!!

Yeah, I'd really love a Star Castle. I played the heck out of that game when I was younger.

..Al

[Christophero Sly]

Star Castle!? Noooooo!

[rmaerz]

Albert, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:58 AM, said:

bennybingo, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:57 AM, said:

Always wanted a Star Castle too! And those are difficult to find in that condition!!!

Yeah, I'd really love a Star Castle. I played the heck out of that game when I was younger.

..Al

I played the heck out of it at High Scores Arcade for the Donald Hayes Challenge a few weeks ago. I scored 19K+ and Donald scored 21K+. Not bad to finish less than 2000 points behind one of the if not the best classic arcade gamers today and given that I do not have access to a Star Castle cabinet.

I played it again this past Sunday at the Kong Off. After all that playing, my left hand is sore (the hand used to move left/right).

[the.golden.ax]

I tried to win a Tempest (not working) on ePay that was in the area of MGC (went too high $280 I think)... non-working screen and PCB. Now I'm after another Atari dedicated cab in Chicago, but the seller was not answered in three days. My only window to obtain is Monday morning on the return trip. It's one of my favorite Atari cabs (and at $150 working it is a great deal) if only they would answer.

AX

[bennybingo]

the.golden.ax, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:43 PM, said:

I tried to win a Tempest (not working) on ePay that was in the area of MGC (went too high $280 I think)... non-working screen and PCB. Now I'm after another Atari dedicated cab in Chicago, but the seller was not answered in three days. My only window to obtain is Monday morning on the return trip. It's one of my favorite Atari cabs (and at $150 working it is a great deal) if only they would answer.

AX

I got my Tempest machine off of eBay for $300 delivered (local delivery). With $100 worth of tweaking and parts, she is running perfect. It is one of those arcade machines that shows all the years of living in a real arcade. It came with nice artwork, with some visible wear from the days where people lined up to play her (complete with a few cigarette burns and initials carved in the side art).

I love it!!! It adds character and brings me right back to those days in a smoke filled, dimly lit arcade. I really enjoyed this game the most back in the day, but I learned to love it once I became the owner of my own cabinet. I never get bored of it. This is bar none my favorite game ever!!! I would recommend making this one of those "must haves" if you have the room for it. You will never regret it!!!

[Mitch]

rmaerz, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:49 AM, said:

Those are not MAME machines (which are illegal to sell). They are running 60-in-1 JAMMA boards.

Those 60-in-1 boards use MAME as their built-in emu. A really old version of MAME at that.

Mitch

[atarian63]

My first arcade machine, (1989) was a cocktail Tempest machine, I sold it in 2005, I always regret selling it. I love vectors, I have an Ireland made atari Battle zone mini.(the coin slots say 20P) and a sitdown Star Wars. Will NOT be selling these.

[HatefulGravey]

Many of these 60 in 1 cabs are now using LCD tvs. The picture looks like they might be, but you can never be sure unless you get a good picture of the screen. This cuts the $400 monitor cost mentioned above. Every 60 in 1 board I have seen has a VGA out to make this very easy.

[bennybingo]

BTW...I live in NJ and I was referred to an arcade repairman who is very reasonable and also works on vector monitors. He fixed mine (along with taking care of all sorts of other tweaks and preventative maintenance) and it cost me less than $100. He even gave my OutRun Machine a once over while he was at my house. PM me if anyone needs his contact info.

[rmaerz]

HatefulGravey, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:02 PM, said:

Many of these 60 in 1 cabs are now using LCD tvs. The picture looks like they might be, but you can never be sure unless you get a good picture of the screen. This cuts the $400 monitor cost mentioned above. Every 60 in 1 board I have seen has a VGA out to make this very easy.

#1 those LCDs are so simple to hook up (dare I say) a caveman can do it

#2 those LCDs look like shit compared to an arcade monitor

And regarding MAME: whether it's a MAME front end or not, the 60-in-1 boards are legal to sell. Perhaps the manufacturer has a licensing agreement.

As far as what we traditionally think as a MAME cabinet running off of computer, I think as far as you can go to selling it legally is to wire up all the components to the encoders and interface to a computer. Without reading the licensing agreements, I don't know if you can resell free versions of Linux. I know you can scratch Windows off the list and you definitely cannot load MAME and ROMs on the computer.

[mr. toast]

Now THIS made me throw up a bit

http://www.arcadeath...images/dump.jpg

[rmaerz]

mr. toast, on Sat Mar 26, 2011 4:01 PM, said:

Now THIS made me throw up a bit

http://www.arcadeath...images/dump.jpg

I saw those pix before and I don't recall if those are the cabinets a bunch of guys rescued and moved them into a barn.

In any event, when you look at those photos a lot of those are salvageable.