How Many Games on Your Cabinet?

[Vulgar Soul]

Okay, so while I love the arcades and old school gaming like all of you here...some people of course don't share that same interest.

While this is first and foremost a personal project, I want other people to play and enjoy my upcoming cabinet as much as I do. One thing I was concerned about is how simple and quickly accessible the machine and the games should be to people. I have a front end loaded with at least 2,000+ games from a full set. I originally wanted the machine to be an All-In-One, everything-and-anything-available MAME cabinet, but we all know some games have aged better than others. I wonder if having a big selection of 2,000+ games would only confuse and put off most people than if I offered few, or even a single game like a real cabinet.

So what is your choice of game selection on your cabinet? And what are your experiences with people (especially your average Joe, Call of Duty/Halo obsessed friend or family) approaching and enjoying it? Check all options that apply if you own more than one cabinet.

[BobA]

Thousands and thousands do not make a good cab.   Who cares how many you have if they will never be played.

[DillonFoulds]

I got 2 cabinets. One is my be-all emulation machine (TY to the UG Hyperspin project!) and the other is my cocktail with only a few games that I'm a big fan of (and mostly verticals).

I do like the idea of being able to pull up any game when someone asks. I don't use the full MAME set, nor any Good sets (by cowering), but there are still thousands upon thousands of roms.

[shateredsoul]

......

so.. my cabs going to have waaaaaaaaaaaay too many games.  And it's going to confuse the hell out of people.  BUT, when I have company I think I'm just going to launch Hyperspin with only one wheel (mame) and that should be fine.  When I'm playing or me and the guys, I want access to all those systems.  I'm going to have pretty much every popular (and unpopular) system from atari to wii and everything in between.  Yeah yeah i know i know 

[Ginsu Victim]

Thousands and thousands do not make a good cab.   Who cares how many you have if they will never be played.

I have complete romsets for MAME, NES, SNES, Genesis, PC Engine, and Gameboy Advance on mine. I like having options.

One day I plan on making a vertical-only bartop or cocktail with a limited number of games on it.

[Paul Olson]

I have a garage full of dedicated cabs, I think 9 vids and 3 pins at the moment. One of them is a Neo Geo cab with a 120 n 1 cart. Inside I have my MAME cab. It has the full rom set installed, but less than 200 are accessible through the menu I show everyone. I can get to the others if I want to test a game, or if someone asks for a specific title. Even what I have on there now is too much choice for most people.

I don't really understand putting console games in a cab, I sit on the couch to play console games.

[Smeghead]

Half the fun for me is sifting through the 1000s of games discovering great fun new games ive never seen before!

but BOY O BOY theres some crap in there too lol

[RayB]

None are on my cabinet. The ceiling is not high enough and they would fall off.

[shateredsoul]

heyo!

[leapinlew]

Few Dozen (less than 50) is all I can put on a cabinet before you have to compromise. If you have a dedicated 4 way cabinet with 1 button and a vertical monitor - there is no way you can run thousands of games well.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I have my quad cab which holds thousands.  The main reason?  Although I don't play them all, I mainly built my cabinet for OTHERS to use when they come over.  I have yet to have a person ask, "Do you have that game..." and not be able to produce it.

That said, I also have a vertical cab only running about 40 or so classics with 2 buttons and a 4-way.  I play that machine more myself. 

DeLuSioNaL29

[Malenko]

they are all on there, for the most part, but most of the time is spent on the list labeled "favorites" which ironically is comprimised mostly of games I actually own.

[DashRendar]

I have my quad cab which holds thousands.  The main reason?  Although I don't play them all, I mainly built my cabinet for OTHERS to use when they come over.  I have yet to have a person ask, "Do you have that game..." and not be able to produce it.

+1

[transfan]

Thousands and thousands do not make a good cab.   Who cares how many you have if they will never be played.

Thousands and thousands do not NOT make a good cab, either.  Front ends have favorites lists, genres, etc.  There's no reason to not have as many titles available as possible as long as they are well-organized. 

My suggestion:  Use hyperspin and make custom wheels for custom genres.  Sports, fighting, racing, etc.

[extendedplayarcade]

I was thinking of making a cabinet dedicated to only trackball games.  But yet again I think a lot 

[transfan]

I was thinking of making a cabinet dedicated to only trackball games.  But yet again I think a lot 

It would be awesome if you could somehow interface it to your mind...
Then you wouldn't even need a control panel

[SlayerAlex]

one extreme is to have every dedicated cab ever, the other is to have 1 cab for everything. The everything route doesnt make much sence. Most of those games are crap, or use controls that you dont even have.

In my lifetime though id like to compromise with:

1 for vertical games/ spinner games
1 neogeo cab for neogeo games
1 6 button 2 player cab for street fighter / misc fighters
1 huge 4 player/ trackball cab
and
1 driving cab or cockpit if i ever find a good deal in my area.


5 is a good number, ah man that would be sweet

[Vulgar Soul]

one extreme is to have every dedicated cab ever, the other is to have 1 cab for everything. The everything route doesnt make much sence. Most of those games are crap, or use controls that you dont even have.

In my lifetime though id like to compromise with:

1 for vertical games/ spinner games
1 neogeo cab for neogeo games
1 6 button 2 player cab for street fighter / misc fighters
1 huge 4 player/ trackball cab
and
1 driving cab or cockpit if i ever find a good deal in my area.


5 is a good number, ah man that would be sweet

Yeah, I was thinkin of something like that.

I would love one for vertical shooters; one nice lean 2 player, 6 button fighter cab; The 4 player,trackball all-in-one cab; a 4-way, 2-4 button "80's classics" cab; a spinner games cabinet; and maybe a driver cab.

Until than, I'm gonna have to organize the front end!

[Turnarcades]

I wanted as much available as possible to find those hidden gems, without having clutter. I guess I'm between the 'everything' and 'select hundreds' as I started off with a complete set of over 20000 across loads of platforms, then spent many months removing clones, mahjong, regional variations, indistinguishable hacks and variations to what I call a 'concise full set'. I'm now happy with what I've got and being a perfectionist, painstakingly went though re-naming roms, screenshots and FE lists, unzipped and recompressed roms and shrank screenshots down. I've now got a selection of about 8-9000 across about 15 platforms with no duplicates or stupid appendations like '[!], [G], set 1' etc.

[SammyWI]

Thousands and thousands do not make a good cab.   Who cares how many you have if they will never be played.

Thousands and thousands do not NOT make a good cab, either.  Front ends have favorites lists, genres, etc.  There's no reason to not have as many titles available as possible as long as they are well-organized. 

My suggestion:  Use hyperspin and make custom wheels for custom genres.  Sports, fighting, racing, etc.

This I agree with.  But, I use GameEx as a front end.  It has basic favorites list and also premade ways to list and sort by genre, type (vector, trackball, etc), manufacturer, year released, etc.   Plus a neat feature that lists similar games that you might want to try when you select a game.

There is something to be said for a simple, limited set of games.  But I like variety.

[nitz]

When I first set up my cab, I went through a complete MAME set and handpicked out my favorites and those hidden gems and felt I was all set. I think I had a list of around 200 games. Then I had a friend whose pretty into arcade games ask for a couple of games that I didn't have and I was kicking myself for not just putting them all on there.

So then I took a complete MAME set, filtered out mahjong, mature, trivia, non-working, most CHDs, most clones, most Japan only games (some look interesting but I often can't figure out the gameplay and can never read the text!) and games that I don't have the controls for. I think that left me with around 2200 games, and then I was able to bring up pretty much any game requested!

But IMO having them all on there makes it too cluttered and gives too many choices for the average person. It certainly does for me anyway - I think it's more fun to pick from a relatively short list of classics than sift through thousands of games and not being able to decide. When I get my cab going again, my plan is to have a list of vertical games + a list of horizontal games (I plan on a rotating monitor) each with 50-100 games at most. I'll keep the rest of the games on there, but not easily accessible so I can still bring up those games for an arcade enthusiast, but they're not in everyone else's face all the time!

[extendedplayarcade]

I don't think i have enough brain cells left but I am sure there is plenty of room in there for a 4 player control panel.

I was thinking of making a cabinet dedicated to only trackball games.  But yet again I think a lot 

It would be awesome if you could somehow interface it to your mind...
Then you wouldn't even need a control panel

[mwong168]

I think on my MAME cabinet I have around 240-250 games in total but only 10% of them get regular play such as Street Fighter or MK series.  The rest are still classics or ones that I remember playing occasionally in the arcades growing up like Narc, Puzzle Bobble, Ninja Gaiden, NBA JAM, etc.  I don't see much point in having 20,000+ games on your cab nor playing console emulators like SNES or Genesis on a cabinet when they were never meant to be played on a stand up cab.  To each their own I guess.

[versapak]

I think on my MAME cabinet I have around 240-250 games in total but only 10% of them get regular play such as Street Fighter or MK series.  The rest are still classics or ones that I remember playing occasionally in the arcades growing up like Narc, Puzzle Bobble, Ninja Gaiden, NBA JAM, etc.  I don't see much point in having 20,000+ games on your cab nor playing console emulators like SNES or Genesis on a cabinet when they were never meant to be played on a stand up cab.  To each their own I guess.

SNES and Genesis never meant to be played on a stand up cab?

There are tons of games from SNES and Genesis that are awesome on a stand up cab. Many console games of that era either were originally arcade games or followed the same design of play.

There were 1st party arcade controls released for those consoles for a reason.

[DillonFoulds]

Fighting games (such as BATTLETOADS!) work great on an arcade machine (and there's an arcade battletoads port, as well).

Most sports games play great, too! (Hockey for NES)

Platformers side-scrollers work, but they could be better with a controller. Same with RPGs.

Haven't attempted any shooters other than 007 goldeneye, and it too, was so-so. For sure you don't get the accuracy in aiming.

[mwong168]

SNES and Genesis never meant to be played on a stand up cab?

There are tons of games from SNES and Genesis that are awesome on a stand up cab. Many console games of that era either were originally arcade games or followed the same design of play.

There were 1st party arcade controls released for those consoles for a reason.

Did you ever see Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog in cabinet form at the arcades?

Yes and those arcade controls were mostly for popular arcade ports such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat.  I can't imagine playing certain games like Contra 3 using a SF2 arcade button layout cause some things are done easier on the original controllers.  Being able to hold both left and right triggers down comfortably and still be able to hit the other 4 buttons.  I was going to list NES as an example but then again I remember there were those Player's Choice 10 or red tent sit down cabs.

[DillonFoulds]

Red Robin's (Burger Joint) up in Edmonton, Alberta has (had? idk) a Mario Bros upright. Playable, not overly difficult, but I'm not a fan of arcade controls for side-scrollers. :S

[Gorotsuki]

Anything and everything!
May not have the proper controls,
or even like the game, but there's
hard drive space to fill darnit'.

[versapak]

SNES and Genesis never meant to be played on a stand up cab?

There are tons of games from SNES and Genesis that are awesome on a stand up cab. Many console games of that era either were originally arcade games or followed the same design of play.

There were 1st party arcade controls released for those consoles for a reason.

Did you ever see Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog in cabinet form at the arcades?

Yes and those arcade controls were mostly for popular arcade ports such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat.  I can't imagine playing certain games like Contra 3 using a SF2 arcade button layout cause some things are done easier on the original controllers.  Being able to hold both left and right triggers down comfortably and still be able to hit the other 4 buttons.  I was going to list NES as an example but then again I remember there were those Player's Choice 10 or red tent sit down cabs.

Ummm... Okay...

Not every game works with the same controls. What is your point?

Do you play Marble Madness on your arcade machine with a joystick?

No, of course not. Just as I wouldn't play any SNES or Genesis game on my arcade cab that didn't work well with the controls. There are hundreds of games that do work well with the controls though.

I know MANY people that do not like to play fighting games with an arcade stick. They like using a gamepad, because that is what they always used where they played the game. It is what they grew comfortable with, and they work just fine for them.

I use arcade controls, because it is what I have always used, and it works just fine for me.

[RayB]

Legend of Zelda (SNES) is quite fun using arcade controls.

[shateredsoul]

Anything and everything!
May not have the proper controls,
or even like the game, but there's
hard drive space to fill darnit'.

  damn straight