Thoughts on this mame cab

[rapomstage3]

This is locally for sale at 800.00. Unit is running windows XP and has a duel core AMD cpu with 2gigs of ram. 23" HD Monitor. Custom 2.1 sound system. 320 gig hd. cab is clean. its running an older mame32 but i already have mala and all the latest everything i can transfer. lights work sound and subs work. the pc is connected to monitor via hdmi. Im not super crazy about the button layout but its not a bad start. I do want a trackball. and it has some custom board instead of the ipac which i think ill change. I was gonna offer him 600.00 and go from there. What do the experts think?

[rapomstage3]

seriously. should i hold out? build instead? buy it? just drop an opinion it will be appreciated.

[Hoopz]

How important is buy and play to you v. saving a few bucks?  How important is having a trackball v. that layout?  How quickly do you need a cabinet v. getting a good deal?

You shouldn't pay anything for a PC to play Mame.  Any P4 and above is going to run almost everything without issues.  You can easily find a P4 or higher for nothing or next to nothing on Craigslist, Freecycle, Goodwill etc.  You can pick up a 25" or 27" crt television pretty cheaply or for free too.  Depending on what controls you want (trackball, encoder, joys and buttons for two people, you are looking at $125 to $150 (ballpark).  Find a empty cab and offer to haul it away or pay $25. 

If you're frugal and take your time, $300 should get you what you want (again ballpark).

If you want to build, do you own tools?  How much time do you have to work on it?  Again, it comes down to convenience, cheapness, desire to play now v. build.

$800 is high.  $600 is better but more than I would spend.  What's the most important thing right now for you?

[syph007]

No way that's worth 800.  23 inch monitor in my opinion is tiny.  Im putting a 22 inch in my bartop.  PC is old, and i remember AMD was not a recommend cpu for MAME, but this could be old info I'm remembering.  

I wouldn't want it for any price, but if you like the cab shape, im sure you can make it look better.  If you dont love the cab, i dont see any point in buying it at all, as making the cab part isnt hard.

If it was me Id scrap the whole control panel, so no value in that all all since Id buy U360s.  Id want a bigger monitor, so thats gone.  Whats left is the cab body and coin door.. thats worth a couple hundred.

[rapomstage3]

Thank you

[Yohan]

My two cents is that at the end of the day it is what will make you happy that matters.  Is this worth $600 to $800.  Well that all depends.  Will you enjoy building your own?  If not then surely your time has value.  Do you like reading over the forums and making sure that every item that you pick is right for you?  Every item that you pick can have a huge price range according to your budget and tastes.  You could decide to spend half of that value on just art work.  

The first cabinet that I had I did everything on a tight budget.  I was in college and I had to make sacrifices. In the end I probably spent $400.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted but it got a lot of play and I had a blast on it.  This time around I am spending more but I am getting exactly what I want.  Would I buy this, no because it isn't right for me but it could be right for you.  You might want to make a list of what you really want and how much those things cost.  It may make your decision easier.

Like I said, just my two cents.  

[Donkbaca]

Pc worth a hundred bucks, monitor is tiny, a 23 Inch 16:9 screen is smaller than a 19 inch 4:3. I would get a new monitor. The joysticks and encoders are worth a hundred bucks at the most. Cost to build a cab out of wood is about 150 bucks. I wouldn't pay over three

[rapomstage3]

can someone recommend a cabinet or kit. I don't want to wait for one of these amazing deals everyone talks about. you guys must eat 4 leaf clovers and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- rabbits feet. 100$ pcs and 150$ cabinets aren't falling from the sky where i live. Im in NH and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- is expensive. I'm not sayin i mind but seriously there's nothing here and shipping is crazy. I'm not gonna build a cab. control panel maybe. But "you can find a blank for this much money. well where. please show me. honestly i would just buy the cabinet if i could but he wont sell it like that.

[Hoopz]

Be patient.  We all understand where you're coming from, but if you're patient, you will be able to find what you want.  Look up member Frizzlefried and read his first posts.  He's in Idaho and swore that he'd never be able to find a cabinet there.

He's got a nice game room now with plenty of machines.  He's sold some too to make room. 

Unless you wanna drop the dough for an existing build.... You'll be paying a premium but that may be in your best interest. 

[rapomstage3]

thanx. How bout a working virtua fighter? does anything wierd need to be done to get it to work with mame. i know its not jamma. but the cabinet seems cool.

[BobA]

Sega for virtua fighter is a sega standard not jamma so you would need to build a converter with finger boards to connect jamma to such a cab.  It would be easier to just rewire the cab as jamma and then a mame conversion is easy (jpac).  Not an easy starting place for a beginner.

[rapomstage3]

 I agree

[rapomstage3]

does anyone recognize this cab? i was wondering what monitor sizes i could squeeze in.