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Good deal?

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groovy9:


Hypothetically, say you could buy the following item for $350.  Good deal, ok deal, or what's the point?  Assume all included games are legally licensed, regardless of the current state of the universe.

It's a small tabletop arcade.  We're talking no bigger than it needs to be to comfortably house the control panel and monitor.  Here are the specs:

* 15" LCD monitor
* 8-way joystick, 3 buttons + coin/start/escape/etc
* Computer is an old 500Mhz to 1Ghz Intel/AMD with 256MB ram
* Custom front end.  Entirely controlled by joy/buttons.  Shows rotating ingame/title/cab screen shots and year/mfr/etc for highlighted game.  Create your own favorite lists.  Sort by category.  Boots from CD.  OS, Mame, and roms are all on the CD.  Power it on and the front end pops up.
* High scores and custom settings are stored on a USB flash drive.
* No external controls aside from power switch, control panel, and volume knob
* Add a second player by plugging a gamepad into the back (game pad included)
* No-frills cabinet.  Rounded edges rather than T-molding.  Simple paint job, no decals, lacquered control panel rather than laminated.  Fixed control panel.  Rear door access to internals.

So we're talking a complete, power-it-on-and-play tabletop arcade equipped to play older games that had a joystick and 3 buttons or less.  Never mind how the games get on the CD for now. 

If you see something like that for $350, what are you thinking?

grueinthebox:

I'm not in the market for one, and if I was I'd want to see t-molding on it rather than rounded corners (it's cheap and doesn't really add much if any additional construction) but other than that it sounds like a good price.

Dervacumen:

The price is good but Im wondering about the USB key thing.  I don't know if someone is going to want to keep one around just to access their settings.  Maybe a way to keep the configs and high scores on the boot up cd OR the USB key as an option.

groovy9:


The USB key is inside the cabinet and not generally accessible.  You wouldn't even know it's there.  Booting off the CD means that in order to preserve your high scores across reboots, you need some sort of writable storage. 

That's where the USB key comes in. 

AKA Kaytrim:

 :lame: This sounds like a cheep POS. :censored:  I wouldn't want anything like this in my house.  Just remember that you get what you pay for and I think that this is something to stay away. 

Run away, far away


Kaytrim TTFN

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