Narrowing down the game room lineup.

[paigeoliver]

Ok, I am finally getting into the home stretch of figuring out which games are going to make it into the gameroom and which games aren't (had a bunch of machines in storage, had some machines in my gameroom that weren't mine, etc). I know I have a bunch of weird stuff, it is just what I was able to scrape up since I started collecting again 6 months ago. Been unemployed that whole time and really only have about $500 in all of this (although I already owned the frankencab and some of the PCBs and neo geo carts).

I have room for 17 games. I own 25.

The first 4 slots are decided.

1. Pole Position Cockpit.
2. Mame Frankencabinet.
3. City Connection.
4. Mystery game that I am getting as a gift. I am sure it will be a keeper.

That leaves 13 slots left to fill. Here is what I have. Game size doesn't really seem to matter much. All the walls in my gameroom seem to be odd enough sized that each one can take at least one bigger game in place of a smaller one, if not 2.

Category 1. Working all the way.

Shuffleshot. 27" in the proper Dynamo cabinet.
Bass Fishing. 25" in a red Dynamo cabinet.
STV Jamma cabinet. 25"
Video Trivia. In Crazy Climber Deluxe cabinet. Have spare boardset and a few spare question cards.
19 in 1. Robotron themed and super clean (but not a Williams cab). I just got a jrok board, so I might upgrade this or see below.
Capcom Bowling. 19" Dynamo.
Clowns. Poor condition but works perfectly.
Double Up. 1981 era video poker. Has spare boardset.
Pro Tennis. 4 Player Pong clone, Williams' first video game.
60 in 1. Cabaret, scratch-built.

Category 2. Easier projects. I know I can get these going.
Cabal. Just needs reassembly and the new artwork applied.
Tekken Tag. Tekken Tag in a Robotron cabinet with a missing marquee. Works fine, I have a jrok board that could be used in here.
Naughty Boy. Clean and dedicated. Needs a cap kit and a board/board repair.
TMNT. No artwork or boards, but I already bought NOS joysticks. Would do it sans sideart.

Category 3. Harder projects.
Midnight Marauders. Empty cabinet, perfect shape for a mame positional gun cabinet, and I have a gun for it.
Pole Position 2. Complete. Doesn't work.
Missile Command Cocktail, no glass, seems to have a board problem.
Space Invaders Deluxe. Empty cabinet in nice shape.
Sarge Cocktail. Seems to have power problems.
Head On. Power problems. Possible monitor problems as well.
Hustle. Power problems.

Finally. Working boards I own.
Neo Geo. with about 15 carts and a multicart.
Double Dribble.
Surf Planet (with stick)
Contra
The End
Pac-Man
jrok Multiwilliams
World Class Bowling.
Some tennis game.
Some golf game.
WWF Wrestlefest.
Scramble
Probably forgetting a half dozen more.

[Nephasth]

Unemployed for 6 months and your worried about whittling down the collection a little...

[paigeoliver]

Eh, I have been picking up a lot of $25 items, freebies, trading projects for monitor work, doing multimachine pickups in exchange for gas money and one game out of the haul, etc. By the time I finish repairing my $50 truckload of monitors and selling off the extras I will be well in the black on my collection.

Current job market is terrible for men without degrees (ME). Right now I am staying home with my daughter until I can find something better than my wife's job, at which point she will come home.

Unemployed for 6 months and your worried about whittling down the collection a little...

[HaRuMaN]

Wanna sell the contra board?

[Cakemeister]

jrok multiwilliams if you have a way to get the right control panel.
Neo-geo.

[ChadTower]

Seems logical that you don't need a PPII if the PP cockpit is already present.  Those boards are easily swappable if you feel like changing it up.

[dfmaverick]

Take your list and start removing your favorites one at a time until eight are left. Get rid of those that remain by finding a good home for them.

Everyone else will have various reasons for keeping certain cabs, but only you can decide which have the greatest meaning/value to you.

Don't keep something if you don't use or plan on using it.

[paigeoliver]

I already have a big 27" cabinet with a frankenpanel. I like having a bunch of machines. Plus, I tend to trade and deal enough that my collection will eventually upgrade to something much better than this.

Personally I'd smash 90% of that crap, slap a flat screen on the wall, build a pedestal, and spend the rest of the money on other vices.

 

[paigeoliver]

Probably. It had a cap knocked off by the previous owner. Said cap is in my parts order I am expecting tomorrow. I want to get that cap on there and make sure it is 100 percent. It booted on my test bench with the cap missing though, so it should be good.

Wanna sell the contra board?

[HaRuMaN]

Probably. It had a cap knocked off by the previous owner. Said cap is in my parts order I am expecting tomorrow. I want to get that cap on there and make sure it is 100 percent. It booted on my test bench with the cap missing though, so it should be good.

Cool.  I have an X-men board with a missing cap.  Boots & plays fine, too.  I should probably get around to putting a new one on there, though.

[Gray_Area]

...I tend to trade and deal enough that my collection will eventually upgrade to something much better than this.

I recommend doing that now, with the intent of ending up with little or no surplus.

[Paul Olson]

Since you have 13 slots to fill, make a list of the 13 games you would most like to have. Get rid of any of the games you have that are not on that list. You don't need to fill every space; it is better to have games that you really want. I started replacing everything with only the games I really wanted last summer, and I am enjoying the collection much more now. Last month, I had for good games and a crappy one that weren't on my list of must have games. I sold them to make space and money for the 2 games left on my list. Now I have all of the games on my must have list, and I will have space for 5 more games (once I get rid of some non arcade stuff).

[paigeoliver]

The main problem is that my want list. Space Duel, Roadblasters, Pac-Man, Speed Freak, Q*Bert, Golden Tee Classic, Star Wars, Moon Patrol, etc is of a quite higher quality than what I currently have, and getting there will take multiple trades, sales, and good luck. I have always sort of specialized in grabbing deals and cheap obscure titles and then trading up with the people who have more money than time.

So, really, this is more of a "what goes on the chopping block now" sort of post.

My heart is really wanting Sarge, Head On and Hustle to get going, but I fully realize those can be both money pits and titles more appropriate to either large collections or focused collections.