Main > Everything Else
Preserve the Classics OR It's Just Particle Board
Smittydc:
What about a part restoration/conversion?
I took a space invaders deluxe cab that had the electronics and monitor gutted, the buttons broken, and all the art had been scraped off the glass bezel. It was about to be broken down and tossed.
I found a replacement bezel, fixed the coin door, built a mame control panel the exact same size as the original (with more controls, of course) and gave it a lot of love and care.
I'd like to think differently, but the truth is I never would have gone through anywhere near the same amount of trouble to restore it just to space invaders. Hats off to people who have the room and time for multiple cabinets and authentic restorations, but I'm still very proud of my "save".
Pipercub:
I would not consider converting anything but a classic, with two conditions. First I would not break down a working one, and second I take great care in restoring it to a very original exterior because that cabnet to me is a piece of art and was perfect the way it was. The only exception is the neccesary control panel modifications. I would also not bother with building one, I have yet to see a homebuilt that doesn't look like a homebuilt. The more modern games are OK but don't have any appeal to me, I only like the classics. Therefore, I would never go cutting up a Tempest or hot soak off the marqee paint so I could slide in some inkjeted MAME logo.
For example my two machines:
Asteroids Delux. When I bought it the side art was in good shape but everything else was in rough shape and all electronics (plus monitor) other than the main board were shot. I sold the main board to a fellow repairing his Asteroids delux. Now my Asteroids Delux looks like it rolled off the assembly line other than the addition of two joystick/button sets. So it is a classic cabnet that sports all the classics MAME has to offer.
Q*Bert. This one had been converted to a POW game when I got it. Now it looks like a factory fresh Q*Bert, new side art, new CPO, new front pannel art, everything freshly painted, new T molding, a NOS marqee, and lots of extras like locks, levelers and power switch etc. This thing looks like it was just uncrated in 82'. It also has a MAME box in it and the full compliment of games.
paigeoliver:
One other suggestion. If you are presented with a DEDICATED cabinet that still has a nice overlay with a fully functional control panel. Then just use that, or pull it and get one that was already converted.
There is a really good reason for that. They only have repro overlays available for about 50 games or so. But there have been 4000+ games made in the history of arcade gaming. The more oddball the game, the more likely that you would be drilling up a control panel that someone else wants (even conversion panels).
(For example), see if you can find reproduction City Connection control panel overlays? Then see if you can find an NOS one. Then see if you can find ANY City Connection control panel, in ANY condition. Don't bother looking, I looked for 2 years, and never found one. I finally sold my boardset to someone else (BTW, City Connection is one of the rarest games around, try and find one anywhere).
You don't have to have EVERY possible control on one panel. Almost any game will have a control panel that is cabably of playing a whole lot of games correctly.
Even a Space Invaders panel can play around 50-100 games.
The only real exception that I can think of is maybe a Q*Bert panel, which plays like 4 games (The 3 versions of Q*Bert, and there was something else that used that same 45 degree stick as well).
Personally I have found that I enjoy my cabinet more with less games visible on the menu anyway (80 percent of mame is crap anyway). I keep 100 games on my main menu, and from time to time I take off games that aren't getting played, and rotate in new ones.
RayB:
Hey looky here! From 2003!!
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: paigeoliver on April 11, 2003, 08:12:08 am ---Actually. Besides generic JAMMA cabinets (most of which were actually once classics themselves). the BEST cabinets to MAME are vector games. Asteroids, Star Wars, and even TEMPEST!
--- End quote ---
I'm going to print this out and send it to paige's probation officer. This has to be a probation violation.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version