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Should I MAME a Tempest Cab?
Nailz:
--- Quote from: Magnet_Eye on March 13, 2003, 08:52:04 am ---thanks for replies so far...
speaking of Tempest..check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3213294777&category=13718
Check his other auctions...this guy seems to have ripped apart a complete Tempest machine and is "parting it out" now. What a bastard!
-----I still haven't made a decision yet for my Tempest Cabinet.
More input please!
--- End quote ---
You're calling this guy a bastard and then you tell us you haven't decided what to do with the cab? :) Huh?
Peter's last comments are right as well. If you can change things on this cab without hurting the original material and be able to put it all back, then cool.
As for the comment that there is no shortage of Tempest cabs..... so what? There are still PacMan cabs out there too, that doesn't mean you should rip them apart. It's really not that hard to build one from the ground up. If my all thumbs self can build one, then I guarantee anyone else in here could do the same. :)
I'll be back, going to go shred my original PacMan cab. ;)
Auntie MAME:
MAME it. From what I understand Tempest monitors are big bucks. It would be cool if you stripped the paint to show the original sideart.
Bill_S:
I would vote don't mame it.
My perspective: A friend of mine has an original space invaders in his garage collecting dust. I've slowly been working on getting it from him. If he ever gives it up, I wouldn't feel right doing anything other than restore it.
RacerX:
I am one of those folks who says MAME it as long as you don't change anything that can not be changed back.
I own what was once a Defender, but it had been converted at least twice before. Once it was a Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and when I rescued it from being thrown away, it was Aurail. The control panel had already been ruined by having several different configurations of buttons and joysticks in it over the years (holes everywhere). The side art had been covered by light blue formica (I assume it is still under there). The monitor was crap. It had no marquee.
I removed the Aurail PCB, which I still have. I made two new control panels for it (swappable). I put a Centipede marquee in it (did not damage the cabinet in doing so). I put a 19 inch VGA monitor in it (just sits on the shelf that was already in the cab). I covered the formica with the ever popular black marble contact paper. Someday I hope to remove the formica and restore the original artwork and put a Defender marquee in it.
The point is, I didn't do anything wrong by MAME-ing this Defender cab.
As long as you do your Tempest cab this way, you are not doing anything wrong either.
Have fun! :D
Larry Smith:
Let me start by saying that I believe in preserving the classics and that tempest is my all time favorite game. And one of the coolest most distintive cabinets too. However you will probably not have much sucess getting someone to trade you a generic cab in decent condition in order to restore it (allthough if if has a few salvageable parts like the monitor glass that they can sell they might be willing). As Dav pointed out the severe shortage of color XY monitors makes your cab an unlikely candidate for a TRUE restoration. Unlike space invaders, or pacman, or defender etc, it will be difficult to get this cab into the hands of someone who will restore it. I would suggest that you mame it. Keep things as close to the original as resonably possible but if you HAVE to make irreversable changes to the cab DO IT. I tried to keep my classic cab as close to original as possible but I couldn't avoid cutting the ab to make things fit (you probably wouldn't notice the changes if you didn't know where to look). RarerX and )p( have the right idea; his 'conversion' is almost a restoration. Mine is similar although it will never be 100% authentic. remember the purpose of preservation is for people to be able to PLAY the classics. It's better to see hacked up mame conversion that WORKS than a classic cab collecting dust because no one has the parts/time/money to fix it.
Ok rant over i'll get off my soapbox. Here is some more practical advice.
If you want a two player cab you will be happier with a standard jamma cab. You can put two sets of controls on there but it will be a tight sqeeze (for the controls and the players). Even if you don't want a two player cab consider using swappable control panels; it gives you more control options and makes the cab look better. You could even have a tempest only panel for a restored look. ;)