Do you MAME or restore?

[bleemus]

I am wondering what most of the people do here.  People using MAME more, or are you restoring those old cabs?

[NIVO]

your forgetting the most obvious here my friend, which is B.Y.O. (build your own). Now of course most BYO's are for mame. Some great instances have been built from scratch original replicas though. Tough to really categorize based upon your options above.

[elvis]

In my eyes MAME shouldn't ever belong in anything dedicated or even semi-dedicated.

There's enough generic cookie-cutter cabinets in every country that dno't matter if they get MAMEed.  Here in Australia it's our LAI (Leasure and Allied Industries) "lowboy" cabs.

Anything even semi-dedicated (say, Neo Geo MVS, etc) shouldn't be mamed.  And if you still can't find a generic cab, there's plenty of people selling generic candy cabs, or you can do like I did and build your own from scratch so that you didn't have to butcher someone else's work.

Anything that doesn't fall into any of the above should always be restored.  No question.

[johnm160]

Well so far I have just done Mame, I do own one dedicated, swimmer, and one conversion rampage world tour.

Space is always a concern but have a new game room now so I hope to restore a couple I have been looking for but have not been able to find close to me.

Donkey kong is pretty high on my list. I would love Tempest but I have decide that I am just going to have to build a replica instead.

[miles2912]

 I have one good solid MAME cab.   Had a Ms.  PacMan but I would still play it on the mame cab if I wanted to play the game.  Sold the Ms. Pac-Man cab and am very happy with just one MAME cab.

Plan it- Build it - Play.

D-

[AMDman13]

Agree! Don't destroy an orginal if it can be salvaged by any means. BYOA!

[Sidgoop]

For me, it depends of the state of the cabinet, and if I really liked the game or not.  My new MAME box was a Mortal Kombat 4 that I found after hurricane Katrina came through town.  It still worked, but needed some work (the monitor was bad, lots of gashes and deep scratches on the cabinet).  Sold all the electronics on ebay to finance the conversion to a MAME box (ArcadeVGA, I-pac, Opti-pac, etc.)  But I have a Hard Drivin' my wife got me for Christmas that's next on the project list for restoration.  It works fine, just needs a makeover.

[SirPeale]

For me if it's empty, Mame away.  Unless it's one of those ultra-rare ones.

If it's a complete dedicated classic game, no way in Hell.

[ArcaMan]

I am slowly restoring two games - Robotron that my neighbor rescued from the trash for me yesterday (yay!) and an Op Wolf that I am trying to save up for a new monitor for before finding out if I have restored it or not

My second Op Wolf (combining two cabs to make one working one) I am considering turning into a MAME shooter cab, but not sure it is worth it vs just building something.  side-art and stuff is pretty shot, but the marquee is in good condition so I'll probably sell that off.

I agree that certain games should be preserved / restored, but I don't go as far to say that they should be brought back all the way with new printed artwork etc. If the side art is trashed to the point where you need to print new stuff then maybe the (wood) game isn't worth restoring for the sake of saving. ... though if you want that game than that certainly is a great option I just don't want a 20 year old game that looks like new. I would rather see the personality and wear it received over the years.

With my robotron though, I am certainly going to replace the red bat tops that someone installed with original red ball tops instead. Anyone know what sticks were in there originally?

James

[SirPeale]

With my robotron though, I am certainly going to replace the red bat tops that someone installed with original red ball tops instead. Anyone know what sticks were in there originally?

Robotron was an awful game.  Awful, awful.  If you live close I'd be happy to take the game off your hands to dispose of it for you.  You know, to be courteous.

And to answer your question: Wico eight way leaf joysticks.  With a 4" shaft.

[ArcadeMaze]

X

[Carsten Carlos]

I startet it all with building a Centipede-cab from scratch. Some day I luckily found an old Asteroids cabaret, so I just had to restaurate this thing! I won't get more restaurations cab though the next years, you know, the WAF and additionaly, I know have the third repair to do on the asteroids-board, and as it is a rare bootleg, I've to find out the faulty parts without much help! 

[Lilwolf]

I'm ALL for MAME'ing any jamma cabinet... Since you can do it 100% non distructive these days.  JUST MAKE SURE YOU CAN PUT IT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL WAY...

but why would you want to mame more then one cabinet?   I could see swapping my hot swappable cabinet out with 5 dedicated control panels all mamed... if I picked them out for best cross controls...

but really... don't most people have 1 mame cab... maybe a cocktail also or other style... then they have a few dedicated for their favorites?

[Wetworks]

I'm ALL for MAME'ing any jamma cabinet... Since you can do it 100% non distructive these days.  JUST MAKE SURE YOU CAN PUT IT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL WAY...

but why would you want to mame more then one cabinet?   I could see swapping my hot swappable cabinet out with 5 dedicated control panels all mamed... if I picked them out for best cross controls...

but really... don't most people have 1 mame cab... maybe a cocktail also or other style... then they have a few dedicated for their favorites?

Totally agree with you there I use an original MKII cab got the original CP tucked away made a frankenpanel that fits ( and plugs ) perfectly.. could change it back to original in minutes..Plug and play J-pac, AVGA..preserves the original plus gives me the added benefit of 5000 games..

Just DONT drill,paint, solder, change wiring and you are laughing...

Elvis is right as well if you are going to modify the cab for your extra's...DONT unless its a generic cab or better still do what he did and build your own. Haven't done it yet myself but it would be the best way to learn how it all works plus keepiing the originals for people who want them original...

[Stingray]

but why would you want to mame more then one cabinet? 

One reason that leaps to mind would be to have one for horizontal games and one for vertical games.

-S

[Carsten Carlos]

Motorized monitor mount!  Just a matter of space, I guess - nothing bad about having two mame cabs.