Local Captain America cabinet

[DutchDude]

There is a Captain America - 4 player cabinet for sale locally.

Instead of building my own cabinet, would this be a good choice?

It looks like a 25" monitor, but is it a hi-res monitor? Whould it run all games using an ArcadeVGA card?

Please let me know your thoughts quickly, before it is gone....

Oh, and what would be a good price for this, providing the monitor is decent?

[Ken Layton]

If I remember correctly, those games came in really nice Dynamo 4 player cabinets with Wells-Gardner 25K7191 monitors. The control panels were large and roomy.

[paigeoliver]

Ok, 4 player cabinet in decent condition totally dead, about $100ish. Add $75 if the monitor works, add another $75 if the boardset is working. Subtract ebay cost of any missing pieces (don't forget about shipping).

[Ghosteater]

Dutchdude, don't know if you were looking at the same cab as me, but I just picked up a Captain America cabinet. If the one you were looking as isn't dedicated, and is set up as a Jamma cab (like most of them are), then it can be a really good deal IMO..

The one I got I'll be using the monitor that came with, and only need to put in a trackball and spinner (if I'm felling fancy) and then pick up a J-pac, ArcadeVGA, and Optipac card for the interfacing (or wire it myself.. Not worth it IMO, Ultimarc's cards are a great deal..).

The monitor for Captain America is a 25" low-res monitor (15khz), so it won't work with 720 or Space Ace or other games that require a higher res and sync rate.

Most of the Captain America's are Jamma cabs as well, which is great for Mame conversion!Jamma cabs are soooo easy to hook up to, thanks to the J-pac. And you don't have to butcher the cabinet to get a PC hooked up to a Jamma cab, you can still hook up Jamma game boards to it later if you want, which is super cool.

Side question for the old hats reading this far in - is the ArcadeVGA card REALLY needed if you get the J-Pac? Doesn't the J-Pac already 'thunk' the video signal down to 15khz and boost the signal to ensure good video that can't harm your arcade monitor? What's the benefit of the ArcadeVGA over that? Is it the extra resolutions it supports via it's drivers?

Anyways, it's a really quick and easy conversion from what I'm looking at, and has saved me a LOT of money over building a cabinet from scratch, as well as it looks sooooo much sweeter since all the art and coin doors and such are in, all stuff that just nickel and dime's ya 2 death when building a cab...

If I can figure out a way to get the trackball to not need it's faceplate, I can have it pop up right in the middle of Cappy's shield star, which would look GREAT with the blue illuminated 3" ball..

Go to Mameroom's site for their cab plans, they've got a materials list that breaks down the costs of building a cab in great detail...

IMO building a cab would be optimum, since you'd end up with a cabinet in perfect/new condition (which you'll never find buying a used cab) but the costs in materials and personal time need to be considered seriously... I'm not a carpenter, I'm a gamer, hence my following the dark side - the lazier, quicker, easier, and most importantly - cheaper - route...

Cheers!

[paigeoliver]

IMO building a cab would be optimum, since you'd end up with a cabinet in perfect/new condition (which you'll never find buying a used cab).

No, you just have to look harder to find a perfect/new looking cabinet. I have a Dynamo mini that looks like it is fresh out of the crate (cost was $52). My Artic mini also has that fresh out of the crate look (until you look at the back corners, where it apparently sustained some drag damage being moved around the warehouse for years).

Granted, cabinets in 9+ condition like that are fairly hard to find, but they are out there.


One good source for late model cabinets in fairly excellent condition is video poker machines. These are usually 10-15 years newer than your average used cab (your average used arcade cab was made in 1982, while your average video poker was made in the mid 90s). Also they will come equipped with a late model CGA or VGA monitor, which means less monitor headaches down the road.