Main > Main Forum

Build your own ultracade

Pages: << < (2/5) > >>

Jakobud:

Someone hack the front end out of it already! ;)

Thenasty:

1. if we can add our own ROMS into this thing, then 1K is
    really worth it.
2. If you like to be an operator, then your in the clear about
    copyright stuff.
3. How much are those smash packs CD-ROM.

So it really depends how we look at it. For the average MAMER, it might be expensive and they are stuck with the games and they have to purchase the additional packs for more games.

For the operator, if he purchased the additional packs, I wonder how many months/years before he gets back the money. Gotta have to charge $1.00 each game, heh! for 1942/asteroid/didgug etcc..for a $1.00, hehe you won't see me playing. For .25 then I might shove in a couple or three, just for fun.

Wade:

I think that's a reasonable price considering it is all legal and could be on a route, unlike 99% of the Mame cabs out there.

Wade

Sasquatch!:

I wonder what exactly kind of video connection/interface it has.  It says "Works with all types of cabinets and monitors, horizontal or vertical, CGA, EGA or VGA" and that it comes with a "VGA pass thru cable", but I wonder what the specs are.

This isn't a bad deal for what it is at all.

Howard_Casto:

The setup has about 300 bucks (retail) of hardware included.  So you are paying 700 bucks for those very few games that it comes with.  It should be noted that ALL of these games pcbs can be purchased for 20 bucks or less at this point on ebay.  And that is on a bad day, I've seen some go for as little as 5 bucks.  15 games at 20 bucks each, that's a mere 300 bucks.  So you are paying 400 bucks just for the ability to play all of these games in one cab and have the opportunity to make money off of them.

Bottom line....

Is it work it for arcade vendors?  

Depends.... if they are short in space then absolutely yes,  otherwise definately not.  They generally have dozens of generic cabs sitting around and to convert them to these 100% jamma compatable pcbs would cost them next to nothing.  Also 15 games in one mean they can only earn 2 quarters when they could potentially earn 30 (only two people can play at once as opposed to 30).  Now there is a balance there, as some games are more popular than others but you get the idea.  However if it's a very profitable arcade, they can offer a quarter gobbling treat for what is peanuts to them (the cost of one extra machine.)

Is it worth it for private collectors?

Heck no! What are you on crack?  You aren't going to be making any money off of this thing and you basically just paid 700 bucks just so you don't have to open up the front of your cab and swap out a pcb.  Even if you want to swap out easily there are cheaper "pcb swappers" out there that let you swap a pcb at the touch of a button.  Now they don't hold 15 games, but I've seen them hold as many as 10 and you can usualy get them for a couple hundred bucks.  Also note that approx 75% of those games have been released on cdrom for the pc or by other means in which you can play them on your pc legally.  Yes they aren't the true arcade versions, but you can get the cds for as little as 5 bucks these days.  


Also some of you mentioned more games... there are add-on packs available, but they run at he whopping price of 500 bucks a pack, with each pack containing 15 games or less.  So my theory holds true, you are paying several hundred bucks just for the privelage of being able to make money off of them.  

And for you dirty pirates out there the ultrcade os is encrypted along with the roms so it would be extremely difficult, if even possible, to put illegal roms on the system.


Just trying to put things in perspective.  


Unless you have an insainely large amount of cash to waste or you are a distributor with a thousand bucks extra this quarter steer clear of ultracade kits.  Trust me, the fancy wheel interface has, and will be duplicated in current windows fe's and it's not worth 1000 bucks.  




Pages: << < (2/5) > >>

Go to full version