Restore or MAME? Crown Golf, Scramble cocktail

[Arcadiac]

I know that this is largely a matter of personal choice, but I have little idea of the demand for these two machines, so I respectfully am asking for advice.  MAME 'em or sell 'em to someone who will restore them?  What would be the approximate vaules for these cabs as-is?  Is there a resource for determining Ardace value/rarity?  If leaving suggestions for selling/restorers, please give me some leads if possible.  I'm in Louisville, KY.  thanks in advance for your kind help!
ARCADIAC!

First a Crown Golf machine, needs board and other misc. parts but mostly appears near complete:

[Arcadiac]

Inside

[Arcadiac]

Unusual CP!

[Arcadiac]

Sideart

[Arcadiac]

And the Scramble cocktail.  Needs monitor, board, glass and underlay.
Appears to be in good condition otherwise:

[Arcadiac]

And inside:

[MonitorGuru]

Upright: I don't think Crown Golf was shipped in an "original" cabinet, it was likely a conversion from some classic game. (I could be wrong..does anyone know?)    Either way, there isn't enough there to "convert" it back to anything that has value.  

My vote: Upright: MAME IT.


Cocktail: Stern cocktails were very close to Midway cocktails, and Midways are the most liked design. Also Stern games were well liked by a few groups of people.  Scramble was supersceeded by Super Cobra, both virtually identical games.  You could put either in it.  You're problem is only going to be comming up with artwork for under the glass.  A glass top should run about $45 for a radius corner cut, frosted (sanded) roll-over edge, tempered at your local glass shop.  Boards for scramble/super cobra are only around $10 untested (usually work) to $25 for tested/working.  You have the controls it looks like, so it may be worth restoring.  However resale value may be kinda low, but not as low as your upright, unless you do the bad thing and put in a pirate ms pac/galaga board, slap on some inkjet side art and try to pawn it off on unknowing new home wannabe owners for $900 on ebay.

My vote: Cocktail: RESTORE it if it makes economic or sentimental sense (i.e. you like the game) otherwise mame it and sell off the control panels on ebay and make a profit, and redo them in wood.

[paigeoliver]

Bring the cocktail back to life as Scramble. That is a good game, and there are a lot of other good games that will plug into it.

Crowns Golf, something is telling me that it is in a rare laserdisc cabinet. I don't know WHY I think this, but I think it is.

UPDATE - A little research pulls up Cliff Hanger, which is what I was thinking of and appears to have a cabinet identical in shape.

[paigeoliver]

Goal to Goal even had that chrome t-molding.

Although BOTH cabinets appear to have have a different flavor of coin door.

Does your cabinet have an area inside that might have held a laserdisc player.

[Arcadiac]

Paigeoliver---Can't tell if its a converted laser disc machine, what you see in the pics is all I can see here at home.  I don't wanna MAME what may be a rare/classic game tho'.  Any idea how to identify cabs themselves?  Still looking for some type of guide to scarcity/rarity/values.  Any other ideas?  Anyone else wanna check in on this thread?  Thanks, ARCADIAC!      

[rchadd]

restore scramble - how far can you invade the scramble system?

[RayB]

Any idea how to identify cabs themselves?  Still looking for some type of guide to scarcity/rarity/values.

IDing a cab I think is an art from just see so many in person and then learning the subtle variations. For me, it's having grown up in arcades that has given me the ability. (I make it sound like I have super powers). I use KLOV alot to examine and compare photos.

[paigeoliver]

That Crown's Golf is not a laserdisc cabinet, (posted it on another board, and it isn't one), and NO ONE, not one single person on earth seems to have any interest in Crown's Golf (seen Crown's Golf stuff on ebay multiple times and it won't sell at any price).

It IS in some sort of Stern cabinet though.