Megatouch Aurora VS JVL retro

[divemaster127]

I have a brand new JVL retro with itunes, 09.  The retro looks great & is build great & I had heard the hardware is very sound.  The downside is the games are fair at best.  The megatouch I have read has better games, but the megatouch hardware is not as good.

I am thinking about selling my retro & going with a  new Aurora, I would just like some opinions
thanks
dm

[lilshawn]

reliability wise, i'd stick with JVL

ive fixed a half dozen auroras last week.

what about a JVL HD? it's got all the old games and a bunch of new ones. sound is pretty good...even has sub woofer.

[divemaster127]

yah, i considered the hd3, those are very sweet

[lilshawn]

in all seriousness, i'd avoid the megatouch aurora line. The boards are crap, the inverter in the LCD monitors are crap. the hardrives are crap. they over heat even though they put 5 friking fans in the damn things.

it comes down to bad design. The EVO the Aurora,  hell pretty much the whole ION line is crapilly designed.

the only megatouches we haven't had problems with yet are the RX (knock on wood.) I believe this is because the cabinet is big enough to promote air flow, and the micro ATX board with the atom processor generates little heat.

[ed12]

listen to the man
he is dead right
ion's are a pile of do not touch

ed

[divemaster127]

thanks for all the info, I will keep my retro or jump to the HD.  There is a used retro on ebay right now, Im watching how high its going to go, to see if its worth jumping to the JVL HD
thanks
Gary

[lilshawn]

I've been contemplating the idea of gutting an aurora... (since right now i have one that someone decided to toss on the floor and it needs about 800 in parts to fix) and building a large wedge shaped box to house it. kinda like so:




but i digress,

Promoting proper airflow is key to keeping these damn things going. If you do decide to get an aurora I can suggest some modifications you can do to it to get some air flow going the proper way. It would be easy peasy for a home setting, but when you need to retain the cash boxes and locks and coin acceptors, there is not much I can do. I suppose that leaves me a little biased.

IONs are end of life now, i imagine you can start to pick them up relatively cheap in the next year or so.

[mahkeymike]

lilshawn, Whats the extent of damage to the aurora? If you decide to gut the parts out, I might be interested in the shell providing price is right.

[lilshawn]

it's the shell that's damaged. pretty much hit base first and taco'd the entire thing. breaking the harddrive and the monitor OSD control panel in the process. There is less screwed up parts than broken parts. i think there is 2 plastic parts that aren't broken and 1 serviceable enough to make work again.

the cast metal support halo which provides the main upright support to the case is broken. Just that part is $291, then the clear plastic halo for the light effects is $37.35 rear cover section is broken, $103. Monitor control panel is smashed - $30 joystick assy - 243.14 ...smashed harddrive 49.90. so basically after taxes and shipping we are looking at north of 800 after it's all said and done.

Apparently the bar owner knows the guy who damaged the machine so between us and him, we are going to attempt to recover the cost. If not, we will probably just hold the remaining good pieces for spare parts.

[mahkeymike]

lilshawn,

I can do plastic repair providing there isnt any missing pieces. I dont know the parts list for the aurora's so i cant say i can visualize what you described without looking at the tech manual, but from what you described $800 sounds like almost a total loss if you also consider labor.

[divemaster127]

Well lilshawn I owe you won, I was really towards the aurora before the post.  I bought a new JVL echo today, so I am going to sell my new JVL Retro, & will be posting in the buy/sell section

[lilshawn]

cool cool, the echo is basically an HD without the joystick and buttons...which nobody really used anyways.

[divemaster127]

Yah, its the JVL HD3, not sure what the differance is between HD2 & the HD3 is.  I just know the 3 is the newest model

[lilshawn]

Yah, its the JVL HD3, not sure what the differance is between HD2 & the HD3 is.  I just know the 3 is the newest model

sorry, i said HD but meant Encore. The Encore and the Echo are the same except for the echo not having a joystick. all the games are the same.

the hd was just the game updates HD2 has the HD games plus some new games...HD3 has HD2 games plus new ones...

the HD2 software is kinda buggy (they forgot to put some adjustments and options in some games)...but it's all fixed up in HD3

[paigeoliver]

Are you an expert on these things?

I have an upright Megatouch 5 and a countertop Touchmaster (with a 1999 era software revision that has Centipede and Breakout). Any decent upgrades for these to be had cheaply or should I just enjoy them as is?

[lilshawn]

Are you an expert on these things?

I have an upright Megatouch 5 and a countertop Touchmaster (with a 1999 era software revision that has Centipede and Breakout). Any decent upgrades for these to be had cheaply or should I just enjoy them as is?

problem with upgrading the megatouch software is, you need more and more processing power and ram. the boards in the older machines just can't cut it. Ghz processors and megabytes of ram. even the aurora machines need to be upgraded to 512 mb ram to get newer software to operate properly.  you may still be able to upgrade... take a peek at this chart and see where you sit with your hardware...http://www.meritind.com/Service%20Center/Kit%20cross%20reference.pdf it's a little outdated (2007) but has what you need.


as for touchmaster, you are SOL, the company went tits up after purchase by WMS Industries just after the release of the system. Midway is currently in bankruptcy liquidation. even we have a machine or 2 of these piled up in the warehouse.

[paigeoliver]

Eh, sounds like a hassle, I only have $100 and $3 worth of capacitors invested between both machines. Probably not worth messing with.

Really my only concern is how dated the trivia questions get on these things. These two aren't that bad yet, but my Greyhound Video Trivia setups are horribly dated. I have two revisions of the main software/motherboards and 3 sets of question rom cards, and really the only safe categories between all of them are bible, general and the Mash and Dallas categories (provided you watched those shows, I only watched Mash).

Are you an expert on these things?

I have an upright Megatouch 5 and a countertop Touchmaster (with a 1999 era software revision that has Centipede and Breakout). Any decent upgrades for these to be had cheaply or should I just enjoy them as is?

problem with upgrading the megatouch software is, you need more and more processing power and ram. the boards in the older machines just can't cut it. Ghz processors and megabytes of ram. even the aurora machines need to be upgraded to 512 mb ram to get newer software to operate properly.  you may still be able to upgrade... take a peek at this chart and see where you sit with your hardware...http://www.meritind.com/Service%20Center/Kit%20cross%20reference.pdf it's a little outdated (2007) but has what you need.


as for touchmaster, you are SOL, the company went tits up after purchase by WMS Industries just after the release of the system. Midway is currently in bankruptcy liquidation. even we have a machine or 2 of these piled up in the warehouse.

[mahkeymike]

paigeoliver,

I dont know what touchscreen is in a touchmaster, but atleast for the megatouch 5 you are probably better off getting a XL gold or platinum mobo and key. Ive seen them pretty cheap and probably have atleast one working setup in some of the old XL cabs i have in storage.