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Author Topic: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...  (Read 25158 times)

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Jasonmm

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My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« on: July 23, 2010, 01:48:49 pm »
I know this is 'build your own' , not 'buy your own'. So I ask ...

I recently bought one of those big fancy mame machines from ebay ...

While I didnt actually build it .... I did ALL the design work , from start to finish with ideas I learned here ....

Would anyone care if I review it here ? ...

It will be a few more weeks before I get my hands on it ....

Jason

« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 09:30:39 pm by Jasonmm »

jimmy2x2x

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I would love to see it, show us your designs too and the final product - see how close it is

I would be interested in the internals too if you can get a few good pics

Jasonmm

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When I get the unit finish , I will review ..
J
« Last Edit: July 24, 2010, 09:49:41 pm by Jasonmm »

jimmy2x2x

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Well that looks absolutely fantastic!

Very nice finish, excellent spec

Now there seems to be a small fact left from your in depth description, sorry to ask but how much?

Jasonmm

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....
« Last Edit: July 24, 2010, 09:49:59 pm by Jasonmm »

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Re: I know this is 'build your own' , not 'buy your own'. So I ask ...
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2010, 03:49:30 pm »
....

Did you die?  What happened?  Where's the review?

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Re: I know this is 'build your own' , not 'buy your own'. So I ask ...
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2010, 07:30:44 pm »
Maybe he was put off by the post made just before his last post.

Jasonmm

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My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2010, 08:33:58 pm »
Okay , here goes ...

I bought a mame cabinet from www.dreamhomearcades.com , owner David Lewis.

I am buying this cabinet for my little brother, Aaron, age 32, who has Autism.
Aaron breathes, sleeps, dreams video games. I enjoy them also but mostly it’s for him.

Let me say, I am not rich; I am not a pimp, a drug dealer or even a felon. This was a big big big purchase for our family. Members of my family currently drive cars that cost less than this cabinet. In fact, David took pity on me and gave me a discount and set me up on payments.

On a sad note, we recently lost our dad to cancer in OCT. '09. So I wanted a gift for Aaron’s birthday, that was so over the top, so awesome, something with that WOW FACTOR. Something that can make a guy forget his troubles, even for just a while.

Why did I go with www.dreamhomearcade.com ?
1. For Aaron, it need to be a arcade machine ... While Aaron knows his way around a PC , we didn’t want a keyboard , a mouse , a cd player , we wanted a arcade machine. It had to have that feel, look, and balance. Also everything needed to work perfectly on arrival. I didn’t want to load any ROMs, find any .chd files, configure any front-end or game. At the time, I didn’t have the knowledge, time or desire to learn.
2. Believe it or not, I needed to know, that 2 games in particular were included in the unit. Aaron HAD to have game X and Y or the whole thing would of been considered a failure. Other cabinet builders hinted about games, or said how I could load them. At www.dreamhomearcade.com he had a list on his web page, the 2 games I needed were on that list. He said they were tested and worked perfectly. Something so simple was really the difference between sale or no sale.

Aaron already had a full size Wrestlefest cabinet in his room, so its only after I figured I could convert that into a mame cabinet that I even thought about mame, ROMs, fronted or this forum. And I am glad I did.

While I have seen a bunch of beautiful stuff on this forum , 2 cabinets really rocked my world ... Knievel's Neon cabinet and Knievel's Flyercade. Combine both cabinets with Aarons other passion The Detriot Pistons, this was my theme. The neon and portholes of the Neon Cabinet, with the team colors theme and feel of the Flyercade.

www.dreamhomearcades.com will make you any cabinet you want ... Sence my brother and I are pretty big guys we went with the "Stealth" cabinet. The extra leg room was too hard to pass up.

Here is there basic "Stealth" cabinet.



We decided to add the oversize 48" control panel. Like this.





Wheres the candy you ask ?

While we did away with the neon we did add lighting effects..

We made the side art light up like the marquee. We added 'spot' lights to kickplate and center court logo, kinda like this ...



We added a VGA video out ... like this ...



We added a light gun and removable driving wheel.
We added leaf switches to the buttons.
We added 3 buttons to the trackball.
We requested a rectangular cut, ‘basketball court’ style to the control panel.
We requested a relaxed fit to the 2 player CP. ( plently of room between player 1 and 2 )
And he use offical Detroit Pistons team color paint for the cabinet.

I am very excited and we should recieve this cabinet early Aug. I will be back with pics ...

« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 09:31:33 pm by Jasonmm »

Jasonmm

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Re: I know this is 'build your own' , not 'buy your own'. So I ask ...
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2010, 08:39:16 pm »
Here are some more pics ....






Here is a video



So visually it cameout awesome ....
« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 09:14:07 pm by Jasonmm »

Jasonmm

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More ....
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2010, 09:08:47 pm »
The bad ....

a.This cabinet cost me $4000 to the door. No matter what you say or think , thats alot of cheese ...

b.For what ever reason .... David and I never did really comunicated well , I admit , my build grew as time went on. And I am sure he grew frustrated with me.

I got the feeling , he really didnt want me to design the cabinet , just be happy with what he could make ... And I am sure for most people that works well ...

Some people are phone people , some are email people , its really really hard to communicate well via email. I am a email person , he is a phone person.

He has a +2000 ebay rating with tuns of nice comments about his communication skills , so maybe its just me.

c. ( Did you know , when you review someones account on ebay , for like the last 90 days you can see the exact item they bought and sold , and for what amount ... ? )
I want to complain about the hardware used , but the machine runs so damm well, ... but the motherboard , ram , cpu and hard drive all looked refurished from ebay ... But hey , he warrenties.
He also sold me a refurished logitech driving wheel for $150 he got on ebay for $69. He sold me the a light gun for $150 , he paid $90 for. I mean for $4000 , you would think , he wouldnt do things like this.

The good ...

The machine runs awesome ... so smooth ... so nice ... Has a custom hyperspin menu ... looks and runs awesome ...
The monitor , a brand new shinney 29" arcade monitor that totally rocks ...
The warrenty ... I had a problem with my machine , that was probably totally my fault ... David took care of it .. had a new motherboard in my hand , fast...
Aslo I have no doubt that , if there ever was a problem , David would take care of it.

More later ...

« Last Edit: September 17, 2010, 07:09:50 am by Jasonmm »

jimmy2x2x

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2010, 09:50:13 pm »
It does look very nice!

Does this machine come with all the emulators and roms installed?

and he sends you a new hard drive with new roms and you return the old one, is that right?

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2010, 03:21:16 am »
Wow nice build!

I'm pretty sure he meant that the guy gave him tips and help in finding the roms.. like all cabinets being sold

Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2010, 07:33:08 am »
David is a cabinet maker ... he sells cabinets , not roms ...... Jason

jimmy2x2x

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2010, 11:13:00 am »
Glad to hear that!

How is the cabinet holding up, anything you would change if you could?

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2010, 03:57:41 pm »
David is a cabinet maker ... he sells cabinets , not roms ...... Jason

The cabinet looks awesome. However, he clearly lists thousands of copyrighted games on his web site.
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Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2010, 05:36:38 pm »
MY SUMMARY

I am VERY VERY happy with my cabinet ...

It has that wow factor !!! And I might be a tad bit eccentric, and this goes perfectly with that ...

Yea sure ,  I have a little buyers regret ... as $4000 is alot of money ...

But , The machine is perfect in every way.

I had a dream and he built it , just like his web site says.

If you want to order your dream machine , and money is no object I say give him a call.

A- is my overall grade ...

Jason
« Last Edit: November 10, 2010, 07:21:00 am by Jasonmm »

BobA

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #16 on: September 18, 2010, 08:00:09 pm »
Thanks for the review.   I hope the cab enriches you brothers life.  :applaud: :applaud:

Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #17 on: September 18, 2010, 08:23:11 pm »
Thanks for the review.   I hope the cab enriches you brothers life.  :applaud: :applaud:

thanks , for 3 hours a day it does .... lol.

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2010, 03:31:12 pm »
Looks awesome.  Great design.

Did you inquire about an orange trackball with basketball lacing painted on it?  Or at least "Spalding" printed on it?

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #19 on: March 22, 2011, 11:56:01 am »
I looked at there site, they definitely have some nice designs. I also like how they openly show the list of games they include with the cab which I thought was illegal and any one of those game publishers could sue their ass.

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #20 on: March 22, 2011, 05:47:47 pm »
Quote
I also like how they openly show the list of games they include with the cab which I thought was illegal

It is.

As for the cost how much of that was shipping the beast to your door?  If he made 30-40% margin I would have no issue with that...so let's say shipping was $500 (no clue just guessing) and his costs were $2100 and he made $1400 profit that would seem fair (to me).  What a lot of people forget when they ask us in the hobby "how much did it cost you" we usually reply back with a total of parts...not labour. So take that $2100 and figure at least $1200-1400 in materials so you are left with maybe $750 or so for labour...How long do you think it takes to build one? Some of us take hundreds of hours but let's suppose they have a system down and templates for all major cuts and hell even stock I would say its still roughly 40 hours (joining, wiring, configuration, finishing, correspondence) and then you are left with about $18 per hour or so...still fair imo as that isn't what I would call a good wage.

The main thing is you appear happy and I think if you are happy then your requirements were met and it was a worth the investment.
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Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2011, 07:18:34 am »
My Review , 7 months later.

After a7 months of hard play and lots of fun , We are very happy with our cabinet.

David at dreamhomearcades.com, http://cwcode.ath.cx:8082/page.aspx?index=00000001

has done everything he said he was going to do and more !!!

When you work with subcontractors , like I have found out , thats 99% of the battle.

Its been a pleasure working with a true professional ...

Its been a relief actually ....

2 thumbs up for dream home arcades ....

Every check out his youtube channel ? this guy makes amazing things ...

http://www.youtube.com/user/DreamHomeArcades

Jason

« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 01:02:07 pm by Jasonmm »

Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2011, 07:32:50 am »
I looked at there site, they definitely have some nice designs. I also like how they openly show the list of games they include with the cab which I thought was illegal and any one of those game publishers could sue their ass.

I dont understand this thinking , you guys are all worried about something , no one else is worried about.

How do you know he didnt pay for them ? Its something we all do anyways. Its like we cant talk about it ...

I wish we could get past this point , and move on to the good stuff.

Like isnt his list amazing ...  http://cwcode.ath.cx:8082/gamelist.aspx
His free game upgrades for life .... totally rocks

I wish I could buy a configured hard drive on this site from someone for my other mame machine , and I know I am not the only one ...

Jason

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2011, 10:25:32 am »
I love his Back to the Future themed cab... the flux capacitor in place of the coin door is genius..


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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2011, 12:13:51 pm »
First, what a cool thing to do for your Bro, and the value is there, obviously, with hours a day of enjoyment. 

I totally concur with Epyx's comments in support of the price structure.  I build all kinds of things, furniture, arcade equipment ;D, additions, decks, for myself and family. I don't build anything smaller than a building for other people/paying customers because they rarely get the value/cost of time as Epyx described. 

If the builder of this thing let you know that he would use some refurb/ebay parts in advance, then I'd say he's done great.  If not, that's a little shady, but the help with keeping the thing under warranty and software updated is worth putting up with that BY FAR.  I have way more hours in figuring out frontends and software than building anything. 

Thanks for the review and if anybody asks me about a turn-key cab I will tell them to consider dreamarcades.  I would not do it myself to that level of customization for that amount, so I would feel pretty good about the buy if I were you. 

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #25 on: April 23, 2011, 09:30:32 am »
You did a great thing, what was your bro's reaction when he got it!!!?
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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #26 on: May 16, 2011, 03:28:48 pm »
Yes you have to post the video when he saw the arcade game for the 1st time. Personally I would stand in silence and maybe cry a bit. The cab is stunning!
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Jasonmm

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #27 on: May 21, 2011, 03:04:55 pm »
I got a couple pics .. I dont have a video ... He was very excited ofcourse ... When we goto the Pistons game for real, I ask him , How many poeple in the Palace tonight , have there own Pistons acrade ? He knows ... lol 

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Re: My review of www.dreamhomearcades.com ...
« Reply #28 on: August 18, 2011, 05:56:39 pm »
Hi Jason! I'm currently racking my brain thinking of purchasing a dream home arcade. I did a google search and found your review. I also live in Michigan and love your cabinet. I was just wondering if youve changed your mind in any way on your review or could offer suggestions on what you may have done different like maybe including some things or leaving some others out. I would appreciate any advice you could give as im sure youre already aware this is a big decision. Thanks, Mike