What is cheaper? Actual arcade guts or PC/mame guts.

[blueoakleyz]

If i were to ever make a Ms. Pacman arcade upright, and try to make it as authentic (on the outside) as possible, would it be cheaper to use a PC with mame or find the actual arcade guts/powersupply etc?

If I used a mame system could I make it work functionally exactly like the arcade? I don't see why this would be bad.

If so, what is the cheapest system I could get that would be for SOLELY playing say Galaga or Ms. Pacman.
Also I assume those two games used a 19" monitor right? If I were to use a TV how do I connect a TV to a PC?

[LeedsFan]

A PC solely for the use of Ms Pac-Man and Galaga would not need to be very powerful. A paltry 100 MHz system would be enough for those. You should be able to pick up something like that for next to nothing.

[paigeoliver]

If all you want is Ms. Pac-Man than you will be better off going with arcade guts. A brand new JAMMA Ms. Pac board is only $95, and a JAMMA cabinet can be had for $100 at any auction.

[Gunstar Hero]

I dunno man. You can get a PC to run Ms. Pac Man pretty damn cheap. I was given a P3 550mhz laptop just cause it would sell for SO little it wouldn't have been worth the trouble, and PC monitors are a bit easier to track down cheap or free than arcade monitors.

[paigeoliver]

Depends on what size display you want.

A 21" computer monitor is difficult to find under $100 used. While that same $100 buys you a complete working jamma cabinet with 19" monitor. You may have to do some hunting for the JAMMA cabinet, but they can be found pretty easily. Note that 21" computer monitor and 19" arcade monitor have tubes that are within a half inch of each other in size.

Now if it is a cabinet that takes a 13" monitor than the PC is the better choice as 14" PC monitors can be had for $10.