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| paigeoliver:
Ok, I took a bit of an inventory today, and I am beginning to form some more solid plans on projects, and changes to current machines. Amazing Maze (currently holding a Capcom layout). Reinstall factory overlay, swith over to new 4-way sticks, one for each player. That will make this cabinet into a horizontal 4-way one, so I can finally play Rally-X and Zoo Keeper without letterboxing. Install a set of casters on the bottom of the cabinet, not so much to be able to move it, but simply to raise it up a few inches. This cabinet is almost unique among games as it actually places the 1st player on the right and the second player on the left (as labeled on the overlay). Will need 2 new 4-ways. Dynamo mini. (Currently has trackball, start buttons, and 14" display). Replace 14" display with 21" model. Add player one and player 2 joysticks (wicos), with 4 buttons each. I did some measuring and this cabinet will actually hold a 2 player layout in addition to the trackball, it is just BARELY short of being able to handle 6 buttons though. I never play 6 button games anyway, so no loss. Those are the most immediate changes. Those changes alone will mean that I can eventually cut my collection down to 3, if needed. |
| Wade:
--- Quote from: paigeoliver on February 06, 2004, 01:58:54 am ---Hmmm, maybe I will just bite the bullet and scratchbuild a larger "Deluxe" type cabinet with 2 8-ways, trackball, and spinner (and rotating monitor). I could sell my (largely redundant) Space Firebird mini, one of the Defender cabinets, and perhaps the Turbo or Sprint 2 to help finance it. --- End quote --- Why have a rotating monitor? If you use a 27" or 25" monitor vertically, you can play vertical games very close to their original size. This just seems like the perfect compromise to me, when there is space for a large monitor in an appropriate cab (read: not a classic but one meant for a large monitor and 2+ players) then I just don't see the drawbacks. --- Quote ---From there perhaps I could slap the original panel back on the Amazing Maze and downgrade the computer and just have it run the original game. It doesn't have sound in Mame, but that is OK, because (get this) sound was "optional" on the original cabinets anyway (mine was a no sound cab, no speaker, no audio wiring, and an obviously factory speaker hole block off plate where the speaker normally goes). I think I will go ahead and drop a computer in the Battlezone. The missing vector monitor and boardset would cost as much as a working Battlezone would anyway. On the Solitaire I am thinking rotate the monitor to vertical, and move the trackball to a more sane location. As far as the Sprint 2, Turbo, and Defender goes. I am going to try to learn patience, and just wait until I can afford to restore them (in the case of the Defender, since parts are always available), or until the parts I need pop up on ebay. For the Magical Spot cocktail, I am still up in the air about it. I could PROBABLY trade my two dead 13" monitors for a working one from a guy I know, but the boardsets for that game are largely unavailable. Which basically leaves me with 3 options; Mame running original game (which has sound issues), run a different but similar game, or sell it to someone who might do something worse. Making an all-in-one cabinet will go a long way towards making it easier to downsize my collection when the time comes to do so. I figure I will have to lose two to eight games when I get married. How many of course will depend on the girl, and where we are gonna live. --- End quote --- Well, hopefully when you find a woman she won't force you to do anything. I'm sure there will be a point when she starts asking why you have so many broken games and so many games that all do the same thing and have a PC in them. An all-in-one mame really makes sense for a lot of reasons. I really don't understand why you would want to keep around a bunch of boxes that essentially do the same thing, if you have an all-in-one that can do it all? I have a versatile upright mame and a cocktail mame, and I can't help but feel the cocktail is redundant when all the same games can be played on the upright. I'm probably going to get rid of the cocktail eventually in favor of a classic cocktail. At least that way, the game is actually holding some value, rather than just sitting there taking up space. --- Quote ---Thanks for all who have been the voice of reason in this post. Now here are a few responses specific to Wade's post. --- End quote --- You say it as if my response isn't the voice of reason... :) Trust me, I'm making very reasonable suggestions. --- Quote ---All of my current complete Mame cabinets (besides the Gorf, which I didn't build myself and haven't even been picked up yet), are in nice yet fairly rare cabinets that have unavailable boardsets and still wouldn't be worth much if they did work (Space Firebirds have a common issue of missing shot animations that no one knows how to fix, mine had that, Solitaires aren't worth jack, and most are dead from battery problems now, Amazing Maze has available boardsets because it uses the Space Invaders boardset, but unavailable input board, and working it would be worth maybe $100, Artic cabinets were all bootleg to begin with, it is a much better game for being Mamed). --- End quote --- So they might not be worth fixing. But they would make good cabinets for someone else wanting a Mame, right? So at least, you might be able to get rid of them if you are wanting to clean up or narrow down your collection. --- Quote ---I actually have a rather largish apartment. I do have a dedicated gameroom, but right now all of my working games are in the living room (except the pin), and the dead ones are in the gameroom (where I am working on them). It is not overly cramped or game-overloaded. The girls who have been over haven't acted like there was anything weird about it. I do have a bit more in the living room than I want at the moment, but that is because I wanted the gameroom really sparse so I have room to pull those games out from the wall and work on them. --- End quote --- It's not just the size of your apartment or how many rooms you have with games in them. I'm just saying that it makes more sense when people who already have a house/family etc. turn an extra room/basement etc. into a gameroom. You are young and single and living in an apartment, your life hopefully has huge changes ahead. Of course, I guess you could always try to sell, give away, or trash your games if you were in a pinch. You may not think the girls think it is weird but then again you don't know what they say after they leave. :) --- Quote ---I am going to have to make one space concession though. I don't really have the room to have three separate cocktails set up all the time. I am probably going to put one or two of them in the basement and rotate which one/s get set up. If I can bust ass and get that Battlezone up and running this weekend, then I can drag the Sprint 2 down to the basement to sit until parts for it show up. Then (after the following weekend's trade pickup), I will be at 100 percent working for games actually in the apartment (would be 12 total), and I can go ahead and move several of the living room games back into the game room. Selling the Firebird and building a new Mame would still keep that total at 12. (Although fixing the Turbo, Defender, Sprint 2, and Magical Spot would bring that total up to 16, which MIGHT be too many). --- End quote --- Then again, it sounds like you really want to have as many games as possible, valuable/working or not. It's your choice of course, not ours! Regardless of what you think, I *am* the voice of reason when I assure you that most "reasonable" people would think that when a young person without a pot to p!ss in has enough arcade games to fill a tractor trailer, then he probably has his priorities screwed up. Wade |
| paigeoliver:
--- Quote ---Why have a rotating monitor? If you use a 27" or 25" monitor vertically, you can play vertical games very close to their original size. This just seems like the perfect compromise to me, when there is space for a large monitor in an appropriate cab (read: not a classic but one meant for a large monitor and 2+ players) then I just don't see the drawbacks. --- End quote --- The main reason (to me) not to use a 27" monitor is cost. A 27" VGA costs a lot of money, and they are not easily found used in decent condition (I have been looking). And using a standard res with arcadeVGA is unacceptable to me, because the vertical games would display, but they would be "scaled down" to a lower resolution than what they run natively. --- Quote ---Well, hopefully when you find a woman she won't force you to do anything. I'm sure there will be a point when she starts asking why you have so many broken games and so many games that all do the same thing and have a PC in them. --- End quote --- I hope she won't MAKE me do anything either. One assumption I have always worked with is that I would be selling at least a couple of games simply to finance the engagement ring and honeymoon. --- Quote ---An all-in-one mame really makes sense for a lot of reasons. I really don't understand why you would want to keep around a bunch of boxes that essentially do the same thing, if you have an all-in-one that can do it all? I have a versatile upright mame and a cocktail mame, and I can't help but feel the cocktail is redundant when all the same games can be played on the upright. I'm probably going to get rid of the cocktail eventually in favor of a classic cocktail. At least that way, the game is actually holding some value, rather than just sitting there taking up space. --- End quote --- They have different feels, sometimes very different feels. Although (as stated before), I TRY not to end up with completely redundant machines. Doing different control types and monitor orientations helps to come up with a unique game list for each machine. --- Quote ---You say it as if my response isn't the voice of reason... :) Trust me, I'm making very reasonable suggestions. --- End quote --- Actually, I respected your opinion enough that I personally responded, please take no offense. --- Quote ---So they might not be worth fixing. But they would make good cabinets for someone else wanting a Mame, right? So at least, you might be able to get rid of them if you are wanting to clean up or narrow down your collection. --- End quote --- Very true. Over the years I have bought and sold many games, and mostly kept the "gems". I rarely ever part with a gem. It can be difficult. I can sell an imperfect Crystal Castles or Turbo in a minute (despite the fact that I LOVE those games), as I can always find a nicer one. But I have more touble with other games, how can I part with a Do! Run Run that looks like it just came out of the crate, how can I sell the only known surviving example of an Amazing Maze upright, why would I sell the nicest Out Run I have ever seen? I know eventually I will have to, but for now it is hard. --- Quote ---It's not just the size of your apartment or how many rooms you have with games in them. I'm just saying that it makes more sense when people who already have a house/family etc. turn an extra room/basement etc. into a gameroom. You are young and single and living in an apartment, your life hopefully has huge changes ahead. Of course, I guess you could always try to sell, give away, or trash your games if you were in a pinch. You may not think the girls think it is weird but then again you don't know what they say after they leave. :) --- End quote --- You are right, I DON'T know what the girls say when they leave. :'( --- Quote ---Then again, it sounds like you really want to have as many games as possible, valuable/working or not. It's your choice of course, not ours! Regardless of what you think, I *am* the voice of reason when I assure you that most "reasonable" people would think that when a young person without a pot to p!ss in has enough arcade games to fill a tractor trailer, then he probably has his priorities screwed up. --- End quote --- It isn't that I want to have AS MANY games as possible. I am pretty sure I have owned more in the past (and I have straight out sold at least 20 games, maybe more), it is just that once I get a really nice game, I just don't want to let it go. I don't really make a lot of distinction about what is actually running inside (Mame or original boards), as for right now Mame powered machines are actually more valuable, and one day it is almost all going to be Mame anyway. Now it is VERY true that I don't have a lot of money, and my arcade collection does probably comprise 60 percent or more of my net worth (did some quick calculations based on conservative resale values and figured I have $6600 worth of games, while my car is maybe worth $2500, and I own little else of value). But, with interest rates this low, my games are probably a better investment right now than having money in the bank. But, yes, someday there will come a time of major downsizing, unless I purchase a house as soon as I get married (in which case they would all just go in the basement). Oh, and I am likely Maming that spare cocktail (the empty one) and selling it to another BYOAC member (am in discussions about it now). I should probably (probably soon) just get myself to sell my Time Pilot cocktail, since my other cocktail (the mame one that I am picking up tommorrow) is nicer, and can play Time Pilot anyway. Talks are also currently going on to rid myself of the Firebird as well (except right now the most likely deal would actually end up with me receiving 2 games for it, EEEK!) |
| Wade:
As far as a 27" monitor... I'm sure if you keep feelers out there you'll turn one up inexpensively eventually. I don't know about the arcadevga problem you mention, probably deserves it's own thread. There are other options though (25"-27" arcade with Trident blade card, etc.) And we even know of a place selling new 27" cga's for < $200 now! Every mame display is a compromise of some sort. Well, at least you are thinking about this stuff. It really is a fun hobby and I know where you're coming from, but it's good to try to keep it in perspective. Bottom line, if you are doing what you want to do then that's all that really matters (until you have someone else to consider). These talks about the cocktail Mame stuff has me really thinking I should try to sell my Mame cocktail and get a dedicated cocktail instead, assuming I can get a fair amount for it (never sold a Mame before and don't know how easy or hard it is going to be!). I've been on the fence about it all along but now I'm really thinking this is the way to go. Wade |
| paigeoliver:
--- Quote from: Wade on February 13, 2004, 09:09:20 am ---I don't know about the arcadevga problem you mention, probably deserves it's own thread. --- End quote --- It is not a limitation of the arcadeVGA as much as it is a limitation of the tube. Like for example, if you are watching a TV show, which shows a picture of a television. Whatever that TV inside your TV is showing cannot be running at its true size because a standard horizontal tv signal is a certain amount of lines tall, and it is taking up less lines on your set, and thus it is scaled down. It is the same thing with the vertical games. Their proper resolution makes them fill the entire screen, when they are turned and displayed with the black lines on the side, they MUST be scaled down somewhat. The exact same thing also holds true for using a television for a display, and is actually where I first witnessed the fact that you CAN tell, at least on some games. Games that tend to have big solid pixels and not too many colors tend to display just fine scaled down a bit. Newer games with really good graphics also scale very well. What scales terribly are games with simple, but highly detailed graphics. Stuff like a shot that is one pixel wide (very common), you can't scale down a single pixel, all you can really do is either display it too large, or blend it in with whatever is around it (which I THINK is what is being done with arcade VGA or a TV), which muddies the picture. |
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