Is this a decent deal?

[slicer_d]

Alright I have a chance to buy this robocop cab below for 200 bucks.  I could maybe talk the guy down to 180 but not lower than that and I told him I would let him know by tommrow.  He says the cab is in good shape and just needs t-molding and some scrubbing.  The game works just fine and the monitor is decent but could use  a cap kit to look new again (thinks its a 25").  I figure I could sell the game, controls, marque and maybe power supply and jamma harness on ebay for 30-40 bucks.  It would end up costing me about 30-40 bucks for the cap kit and t-molding anyway so I figured I would be right back at 180-200 at that point for a cab ready to be mamed.  So any thoughts on that would be cool.

Also could anybody tell me what size monitor is in the cab?  He said he thought it was a 25" but hadnt measured it I was under the immpresion that there were really only two common sizes 19" and 25" but I might be wrong.  Also I think its a taito cab has anybody mamed one of these if so how much cp room will I have on it?

[slicer_d]

just another pic

[slicer_d]

and just one more to give a full view

[orntar]

sounds good to me if it is easily salvageable. my built from scratch cab cost me $235, just for materials (no mon, computer, etc.)

[Sephroth57]

thats funny, i just picked up a robocop cabinet saturday. its the dedicated one though the one youre looking at was converted from a generica data east it looks like. I got mine for 50$ with no monitor, or boards or anything. just cabinet with the controls/coin mechs/marquee. ask him if you could take it without the boards for less cause youre obviously not gonna use them. thats a decent deal though since youre getting a monitor but then you need a arcade VGA card to interface so youre really not saving much in the long run VS a PC monitor. but if its hard to find machines around you its not like youre getting ripped off

[SirPeale]

Yours looks like a Taito cabinet.

[slicer_d]

Yeah from looking at klov its most definitally a taito cab.  I dont think he will keep the boards though he deals in all kinds of newer arcade stuff but this is a friends cab so I dont think he would want to keep the boards.  But I could try selling them here or on ebay.  I'm thinking if I can talk him down to 180 and it does have a 25" monitor in it I'm going to buy it.  Its pretty hard to find decent cabs around here most are older pacman and other early 80's stuff that I dont want.

Any other opinions and or comments are welcome.

[mahuti]

I think anything less than 200 is OK to buy. Otherwise go to an auction, get some junkers there at the end of the day.

[APFelon]

I would wager that that is only a 19 inch monitor. You didn't see many 25 inch monitors back in the day that cabinet was manufactured, and I don't think that this is an exception. If you really need to know, ask the guy to measure from corner to corner of the monitor.

APf

[AlexC]

Hehe,looks like mine, I just painted it this weekend.
Oh yeah BTW, if its like mine it only holds up to a 21inch monitor.

[slicer_d]

It does look kind of like yours Alex but its diffeent the arc around the monitor part is different as well as the cp area.  I only know this becuase I have been looking at taito cabs all day!

I just dont know what to do now I was all ready to buy if it was a 25" but I dont think it is now. I just dont know if a 19-21 inch is worth it to me at this point.  The guy is like a 10min drive from my house though so I'm tempted.  Oh well I have the rest of the night to think about it so more suggestions would be cool.

[APFelon]

It wouldn't be hard to clean it up and sell it for a profit. Sell it as movie memorabilia to a Robocop fan, or just Ebay it.

APf

[slicer_d]

WOOT!!    It actually has a 25" monitor in it!  I have no idea how they fitted a 25 incher in there but it must be tight.  I think I'm going to buy it then hopefully I can talk him down to 180 that would save me a couple of bucks which I need becuase my car was broken into the other night and I need a new window  

[paigeoliver]

You can actually shoehorn a 25" display into most classic cabinets, it will just BARELY fit between the sides. Dedicated Neo Geo 4-slot cabinets have 25" displays, and they are the same size as most classics. Also, some classics were available with an optional 25" display from the factory (Galaxian for instance).

I would jump all over that one. $200 is always a good price for a working game. My best friend has a dedicated Robocop and I believe he paid $180 (plus auction fees, which puts it a bit over $200). But his only has the 19" display, and the sideart is totally missing. So yours seems like a good deal to me.

That is a perfect example of a good cabinet to Mame. It is a conversion already, it has a nice large display, and the price is decent. One request though. leave the artwork intact. It appears to have a nice marquee, bezel, and sideart. No reason to fix what isn't broken. Sure the marquee and bezel can just come off, but that sideart dies once it is removed.

[APFelon]

Sweet! Sometimes I don't mind being wrong. Congrats on the great find, 25" monitor and all.

APf

[slicer_d]

I should have taken your wager to APFelon  

Yeah it will have to stay robocop for a while becuase with the spending of 200 bucks I will need to wait a while before I could get a new computer unless all I wanted to play was pacman I think I have a couple laying around that could handle that    But unless the sides and art are in bad condition which I dont think they are I think I will keep all that art and maybe even the boardset so it can be converted back later.  I also found a site where a guy took the same type of taito can and made a nice 4 player with spinner, t-ball, 4-way, and dual rotaries!

http://www.mameworld.net/massive/Cabinet/Zeldamame/Zelda.htm

Theres the link if anybody cares I dont know if he actually changed any part of the cab or I'm planning on emailing him to find out.

[Wade]

WOOT!!    It actually has a 25" monitor in it!  I have no idea how they fitted a 25 incher in there but it must be tight.  I think I'm going to buy it then hopefully I can talk him down to 180 that would save me a couple of bucks which I need becuase my car was broken into the other night and I need a new window  

Did you personally measure it, because I don't believe it!  Those old Taito cabs came with 19" monitors and the picture of your cabinet looks like it is proportioned correctly.  In the picture there is plenty of bezel around the monitor, perhaps 3" or more.  There is no way that is a 25" monitor.

Wade

[Techoverload]

I would have to agree.......would be nice to be wrong....but that cant be a 25" not with that much bezel around it.  A 25" should just barely fit and leave virtually no room for a bezel especially on the right and left side.

[eightbit]

My opinion its worth $200 even with a 19" monitor and I would quess 19" from the pictures. If its a 25" stop reading this and drive there to get it.

Don't convert it to 4 player. The side players won't have a good view because of the angle of the screen and the sides and it will be crowded. How many 4p games are you ever going to play anyway? It looks really good the way it is, why put a franken panel on it?

If your in a good video game market restore it and sell it complete. I don't know where you are but I could get $500 pretty easy around here for it in decent condition. Its not worth anything as a collectable but a clean working game can still fetch a good price. Especially if your able to deliver it. Many others here will say you can't sell it for that much becuase they wouldn't consider buying it but you wouldn't be selling to the kind of people that hang out here normally.

[Howard_Casto]

Agreed.  This would be a nice cabinet for CLASSIC games.  That machine has the smallest of control panels, it wouldn't even take a sf2 layout.  Also look how far back the monitor is angled... this is because you are supposed to stand as clsoe to center as possible.  Even a slighlty larger 2 player control panel wouldn't work as you'd be staring at wood.(btw this is why the larger the control panel the lesser the monitor angle in the arcades)  

Like what they've all said already.. it's totally worthless as a collectable.  Its in such bad shape that it couldn't even be restored to a taito cab.  So if your buying it, go by what you think the monitor is worth as it's absolutely worthless as a conversion or restoration project.

 With that being said, it could make a fine mame cab if you cleaned up the control panel, stripped it of the hacked up artwork, removed the god awful white t-molding and kept a modest button layout with just a few buttons.  

[slicer_d]

I'm going over wendsday night to look at it and assuming it truly is a 25" buy it.  I hope I get to prove all you guys wrong becuase I really want this cab witha 25".   I made it clear to the guy that the main reason I wanted it was for the big monitor in it otherwise I would just get a junker and put a 19" computer monitor in it.  He seemed confident that it is a 25" so I'm assuming he wasnt lying to me.  If you look at the bezel artwork you can see that its sagging which means that there is no acutal plastic bezel on the cab so I'm figureing that the paper bezel is acutally covering up part of the viewable monitor.  

He said the cab is in pretty good shape over all no water damage but then again I'm in AZ so we dont get much water and it has been it a arcade room for the last few years so it wasnt abused to bad.  The t-molding being ugly white a falling off needs to be replaced but other than that its good.

I know it would be most likely impossible to convert back to a original taito but thats not what I want any way.  I know it would be silly to make a 4 player not only do I not have the room but I dont have the cash.  I will most likely make removable panels one with a SF2 setup and another with a spinner and t-ball.  I think a SF2 would totally work with a new custom setup you would just have to make the cp at less of an angle to get the edges over the sides of the arcade cab and maybe make it stick out another 2-3 inches.  I'm a pretty tall guy so I would have a higher viewing angle of the screen so I think it would work out ok.  Also the screen being at a low angle would make it great for track ball games like GT which I really really want to do.