New Zealanders come here please

[Apollo]

Hi guys, I know there's not many of us but I thought I'd try this on for size.
I am ordering some parts from Bob Roberts in a couple of weeks and just thought I'd see if anyone out there wanted to make an order at the same time? If we all put in together it will save quite a bit on shipping I would imagine.
I am getting a Pac/Galag 4 way and some black carriage bolts.
If you would like to participate just email me at
pacman_eats_daphne@yahoo.com and we'll work out the details.

[lob]

Hey I'm from Palmerston North, tho living now in Sydney. Yeah, been puzzled for a while why there's a lack of NZers in the emulation community.

[Apollo]

There are a few Kiwis registered to this forum, hard to say how many people are doing the MAME thing out there on Godzone though.

[Tonz]

Hi, I'm in Wellington and fairly new to the whole MAME thing.

I Just recently built a desktop CP out of an  HP keyboard and some ex arcade MCA joysticks and buttons I bought from a guy down here who's selling up all his arcade cabs and bits & pieces since closing his arcade shop in Lower Hutt.

I will be building another more ambitious CP soonish with trackball and spinner etc and hope to get a number of parts from Bob Roberts but I'm not quite ready yet to make an order. (I have  been trying to persuade a number of other interested parties here to get involved also to try and keep shipping costs down.)

I'm also looking at getting an IPac (+OptiPac ?) from Andy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of arcade resources etc in NZ so unfortunately almost everything in the way of controls needs to be purchased through the US or Britain from what I can see.

[Apollo]

You might want to try Ozstick for the IPAC, they are in Australia ( funnily enough ). They are great, I've just recieved my IPAC from them and will be ordering the ArcadeVGA card fairly soon. They also have buttons & joysticks etc.
Try Coincascade in Christchurch, they have buttons and sticks as well.

[Tonz]

I should have clarified my statement to not many sites in NZ with reasonable prices. I have looked at both coincascades and Ozstick websites in my hunt for resources on the Net.

Coincascades don't seem to have a lot to offer in the cp parts lists. Ozstick seem to have about a 40% mark up on the ultimarc IPAC products and as Andy only charges around US$14 for postage to NZ there doesn't seem to be any real advantage going to Ozstick for Ultimarc parts that I can see. (not at least with the current NZ/US exchange rates) Their button prices aren't that flash either.

[Burtrude]

Before buying buttons etc from overseas try your local spacy parlour.

I just wondered in and asked the guy giving change if i could talk to their tech guy. Told him him what i was doing and that i was in need of parts and he was sweet as about it and hooked me up joysticks and buttons, all for extremely good prices.

As for an IPAC I just ordered straight from Andy. Took less than a week to get here. Damn thing beat me back to NZ

I've been thinkin about gettin a trackball so if you get a enough ppl interested i'd be keen to get somethin as well.

[Lilwolf]

I was so close to moving to New Zealand when I was about 4 or 5 its not even funny.  My dad bought land next to some friends who lived there.  And we where all packed up... And my parents got cold feet.  With 3 kids they figured it would be the last time they would ever see my grandparents (nice yearly visit would cost about 10k with all the plain tickets).

But I always like to think about what live would be like if they had made that jump.  

The friends of the family came back to visit about 3 years ago.  It was fun meeting them as an adult.  Hearing about life down there (or are you affended about "down there" since Australia kinda takes that term?).  

Anway, great to hear that I still would have been into arcades if we had moved there  

And good luck on your parts.

[Apollo]

My parents did the exact same thing when I was 8. It was mum, dad and 3 kids leaving family and the UK behind.
New Zealand is the most amazing country, I wouldn't live anywhere else.
"Down here" we turn all world maps upside down so that the UK and Canada are at the bottom and we are at the top lol. And we have to wear magnetic shoes to stop us falling of the earth.