WHY DON'T THEY STILL MAKE PCBs

[TopCat]

i'M SURE THIS HAS BEEN ANSWERED BEFORE BUT AS A NEWBIE CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY THE ORIGINAL LICENCE HOLDERS OF SAY GALAXIAN OR PHOENIX DON'T STILL SELL THE PCBs I AM SURE THERE MUST ME THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WILLING TO BUY THEM ESPECIALLY IF THEY WERE JAMMA

AND SURELY THEY WOULD BE WAY CHEAPER AND EASIER TO MAKE WITH TODAYS TECHNOLOGY

I AM MAINLY TALKING ABOUT EARLY 80s STUFF

[Edgedamage]

I think the reason is out of a thousand folks only 10 would really care for new boards. But if the companys saw a profit they would make them. So the answer is no the companys won't do remakes.

[SirPeale]

Maybe you could retype that, and NOT SHOUT AT EVERYONE.

They may make some PCBs in the future.  Galaxian was never as popular as its predecessor, Galaga.  If there's ever a resurgence for Galaxian, perhaps they will.

[GamingGreg]

Why don't they make anymore 8088 PCs? or pulse dial telephones? or 300 baud modems? or Beta VCRs? or 69 Chevy's?

It all comes down to money.  If there's not enough demand, to cover the cost of production, then they're not going to do it as they would loose money to do so.  (There may be demand for 69 Chevy's, but is there enough demand to cover the millions it would cost to produce a limited number of cars?)

[NoOne=NBA=]

I think Chevrolet would sell ALOT more 'Vettes if they'd release vintage bodies on the newer chassis.

As far as this discussion goes though, I don't understand why the game companies haven't produced a cartridge system in a generic type cabinet (similar to the Multi-Williams) to re-release all their old games.
I'm guessing, with the downsizing of arcades, and the upsizing of the arcade machines, a single unit in the corner set for 10 different games would be a good move for most arcade owners.

I know I personally don't spend anything at most of the game rooms I've seen lately because I don't play "riding" games.
Every now and then I'll dump a couple quarters into a hunting game, but it's almost impossible to find a REAL game anymore to spend some money on.

[pointdablame]

Did you know there is less than 1/8" between the "A" key and the "CAPS LOCK" key on a keyboard.  

[Tiger-Heli]

Why don't they make anymore 8088 PCs? or pulse dial telephones? or 300 baud modems? or Beta VCRs? or 69 Chevy's?

It all comes down to money.  If there's not enough demand, to cover the cost of production, then they're not going to do it as they would loose money to do so.  (There may be demand for 69 Chevy's, but is there enough demand to cover the millions it would cost to produce a limited number of cars?)

Yep, basically what Gaming Greg said.  You have two factors at work:

1) The game companies would much rather sell an operator a brand new $3000 (or $15,000) arcade game replacement, than a $200 replacement board.

2) The game companies won't sell a new $200 or $150 PCB (maybe more with startup costs for a limited run) replacement board when most operators can buy a working board from another operator parting out a machine with a bad monitor for around $50 to $100.

It's not much different from other industries - Five years ago, you could buy a 10G HD, now you probably won't find NEW drives smaller than 60 G.  The 10G drives aren't produced b/c you couldn't sell new 10G drives for less than the secondary market sells them for, and they would rather sell the newer product line.

UPDATE - However, this is where copyright law comes into play, b/c even though NAMCO is not selling Pac-Man boards themselves anymore, they could definitely prevent you from burning a pacman ROM image onto a new replacement board and selling that to operators.

[paigeoliver]

Also a few other factors at work.

The MAJORITY of the arcade companies, are dead, dying, sold off to non-arcade companies, or have moved completely into other areas.

Atari GONE
Williams, Midway, Bally, Sente - GAMBLING ONLY
Gottlieb - GONE
Namco - ALIVE, but evil.
Sega - BARELY ALIVE (Big problem with Sega is that they have consistently been a company of decent titles that weren't big hits. Only title they ever had that would even be a candidate for another run would be Frogger).
Taito - Retreated to Japan.
Cinematronics - GONE
Nintendo - Doesn't do arcades anymore.

[Stingray]

Namco - ALIVE, but evil.

LOL.  

-S

[steve_pss]

Point,
At the risk of creating a flame war I think I need to take umbridge with your assertions. Assuming all of us are using the same keyboard paints to broad a cross section of our demographic. Your lucky the mods let you post such a pointless reply.

[SirPeale]

Point,
At the risk of creating a flame war I think I need to take umbridge with your assertions. Assuming all of us are using the same keyboard paints to broad a cross section of our demographic. Your lucky the mods let you post such a pointless reply.

Why not?  I posted something similar.

[microwrx]

If nobody is making new boards then where are the PCB's for the plethora of new Pacman/Galaga and Space Invaders machines coming from?  I went to the casino in Sydney recently and downstairs was a small game alcove between a bar and a convenience store which had a few skill testers and a couple of shooters but in the corner was a 2 player pedestal cab with a 38" monitor and one of those 3in1 PCB's installed.  I wasn't impressed with having to pay $2 for a game but couldn't pass up the opportunity to play Galaga on a 38" arcade monitor.

[Tiger-Heli]

)

If nobody is making new boards then where are the PCB's for the plethora of new Pacman/Galaga and Space Invaders machines coming from?  I went to the casino in Sydney recently and downstairs was a small game alcove between a bar and a convenience store which had a few skill testers and a couple of shooters but in the corner was a 2 player pedestal cab with a 38" monitor and one of those 3in1 PCB's installed.  I wasn't impressed with having to pay $2 for a game but couldn't pass up the opportunity to play Galaga on a 38" arcade monitor.

They ARE making new boards (and sometimes new boards with old games on them  )  The question was why aren't they still making replacement boards for old games.

[paigeoliver]

Ok, about those "new" boards. All those 3 in one, 6 in one, 9, in one, and 12 in one boards are all bootlegs. Specifically they are slightly modified PC motherboards with JAMMA edge connectors on them. They all run MAME.

There are a FEW legit new classic boards, but they all only come in cabinets. The Centipede/Millipede/Missile Command/Bolwing one, the Ms. Pac/Galaga one, and the Qix/Space Invaders one.

It is very simple why they don't make replacement boards (beyond the obvious fact that the companies, and or distribution, support, and production facilities are gone for most of the copyright holders).

There is simply no REAL demand for any of it.

Bootleg Ms. Pac boards have been in production FOREVER, simply because there IS a demand for those. No demand for anything else, so no boards are made.

The setup cost simply to produce a run of boards is really high. I am sure some of the electronic genius's around here could implement (for example) Crystal Castles on a single board the size of an I-Pac with only a few chips on it. The problem is the fact that that their market would be MAYBE 100 people. Most classic games had production runs well under 5000, and realistically, there are a lot of games out there with dead boards, but there are not that many copies of each individual game with dead boards.

But, THERE could be a solution, it sort of already exists.

PC based JAMMA boards have beem coming out of Asia pretty steadily now for a while. Problem is that they are all set up as lamo 3 in one, etc deal with the worlds most common games on them.

Those boards are computers. Those boards can run anything. What I would LOVE to see is one of our (legitimate), boys making those things minus the game. Have them ship with two rom sockets on them, one for the OS (romdos probably), and emulator (Dmame). That one should be populated. Then leave an empty ROM socket that comprises the Mame "roms" folder, and let the buyer acquire his own rom. That would be a universal replacement JAMMA board that could be used for even the rarest boards.

[fredster]

I've bought several of those boards.  They work great and replace dead boards.  I have been putting them in dead pac cabs.  It brings them back to life big time.

You can can get custom setups now. You can choose from a lot of the classics. look at the williams multi-game, that's a nice machine.

They are making new machines in Murfreesburo Tn .  I see them in auctions in the area here all the time.  You can order some of them with all the necessary artwork.

I have a souce for them in the states, but I've been trying to find out where they come from.  

I think they come from Korea, there is some korean markings on them, but web search is all I have.  Anybody know the ORIGINAL source of these new boards?