Cost Comparsion

[shippy1973]

Hey all...

I want to really either purchase an already built arcade machine (in particular the Excalibur from dreamauthentics) or build one myself. Honestly, my carpentery and patience skills are low and I don't know that I would ever finish. So....I guess I would like to know if the Excalibur is currently a well priced, reasonable solution to get my arcade gaming started. If not, what could I expect to pay myself for the same type of machine. I don't want to get ripped off but I also do have a limited budget so "best bang for the buck" certainly applies here. And if anyone is in or near Colorado Springs and wants to get one off their hands, let me know.   Thanks for any help everyone!!

[DrewKaree]

Dude, it seems as if you aren't confident in your ability to complete a cab.  If that's the case, only YOU can decide whether or not 3 G's is too much for a cabinet.

There are people who have built cabs just like that one for far less, and others who have prolly spent close to that much (but with far more bells/whistles than that one).  

I think a large percentage of folks would say that cab is priced kinda high, but if YOU think it's a good deal and will help you obtain a completed working cab in a reasonable amount of time, who cares what anyone else thinks?

You could go to an auction and purchase a similar game for at LEAST a grand less, but you'll need a day off, transportation, and setting it up.  What's all THAT worth to you?

I think it's an overpriced beast, but I've got mad skillz wit da powa toolz.  (or so I like to tell myself  )

[TOK]

If you're willing to treat it as a learning experience, I think you'll do OK. As far as patience, you can always walk away from it. It's not like you're working on your car or water heater. You can let it sit for a week if need be to clear your head. I'm far from an expert carpenter, but I used the work on my cab as a learning experience. I used a cabinet I bought and only made the control panel. I'm now designing my second panel, and my third project is going to be a totally scratch built bartop. My skills and confidence are better, and that's a cool thing.

The manufactured cabs are nice, but I think they're wickedly overpriced. Before I went that route, I'd look in the buy/sell section here. That could cut 80% of the workload out for you, and save you a couple grand to boot.

[monkeybomb]

It seems like used homemade cabs are the best deal.  I see people lose money all the time selling those.  You could consider one of the kits too.

[RayB]

Go for a kit or buy a used arcade cab for under $100.

[LeedsFan]

I started my project about a month ago, and I was in the exact same situation as you. I even looked at the same machine (Excalibur from DreamAuthentics.com).

I looked a quite a few ready built machines, and I thought that this one was the best deal. It looked like everything I wanted.... a two player, upright cab with trackball, spinner, all new parts under guarantee etc.etc.

But I live in the UK and this was gonna cost me around

[dmish82]

To give you a good starting point, I have never done any real woodworking before and I bought the Project Arcade book and joined this forum and everything has turned out great for me and my arcade is almost done. I started this project the first week of September and generally only worked on it during the weekends and I am putting the finishing touches on the project right now. My point is that I have never messed with woodworking very much and I was able to complete this project in a very reasonable time frame, very reasonable cost, and it was a very rewarding experience for me. Cost-Wise, i would estimate that I spent about $1000(all those little trips to the hardware store really add up don't they?)  to have my cabinet the way I wanted it. There is a great sense of accomplishment from building it yourself. Not only that, but I know the ins and outs of the cabinet now, so if there is anything that ever needs to be fixed or adjusted, I know exactly how to do it b/c I built it. Doing it yourself also allows you to customize the cab the way YOU want it. I think that wiring the control panel yourself would also be a great experience for you, b/c eventually down the road if you have the cab for a while, I'm sure you'll probably run into a wiring problem and will want to know how to fix it. If you wired it up yourself, you already know what wires you ran where and how. If you ever run into a problem, the guys on this forum are very knowledeable and are always happy to answer a question (as you can probably see already). All in all, I'd say if you have a couple of months worth of weekends to spend and a little bit of patience, I would DEFINITELY build your own cabinet.  Good luck.

P.S. Let me know if you need any more specific info on prices and time frames (i.e. an itemized cost chart)