Goonies / PlayChoice 10 cabinet. How much?

[tophatne1]

I just got a call from a guy answering an add I put on Craigslist. He left a little info on my machine, but from what he said and the way he said it I don't think he knows to much about what he has. All he said is that it was a working Goonies arcade game. I know this game only came out for the PlayChoice 10 cabinet so I'm thinking that's what he has.

If it is a Playchoice 10 and it's in good overall condition what would some of you suggest I offer him?

I wasn't really looking for this cab but it would be cool for all the 8-bit NES games I could load it up with.

I also want a Punch-Out. Maybe I could do a conversion since it's a similar cabinet with the dual monitors. Could I just switch out the wire harnesses and boards and convert it to Punch-Out that easily? I'm new so this would be my first attempt at any type of conversion.

Anyway, what would be a good offer for this guy?

[DarkBubble]

Actually, if the guy's claiming that it's strictly a Goonies standalone, then it's Vs. The Goonies and not a Playchoice 10.  It'll only have one monitor, so you won't be converting it into a Punch-Out!!.

I'd jump all over a Vs. The Goonies, and not just because I loved that game.  My wife grew up in Asia, so she had access to it on the NES.  I got her playing it on an emulator, later buying the Famicom cartridge, and I couldn't believe how much I sucked at that game.  She can beat the living crap out of that one.  And you should see her play Legend of Kage.   She grew up playing it with cheats, but she can play through all four seasons (i.e. she rescues Princess Kiri four times in a row) without them.

Here's the lowdown on Vs. The Goonies:

http://klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10374

[tophatne1]

Thanks for all the info!

I talked with the guy and it is the single monitor vs. The Goonies cabinet. He's going to send me a few pictures and  I might go look at it tomorrow. He said he wanted "a couple hundred bucks" for it though which I don't think I'm prepared to spend. The link you gave me said that a lot of the vs cabs were converted from DK. Maybe I can convert it into a DK series cabinet.

Do you know what size monitor it would have? KLOV said it was RGB but it didn't list the standard size.

[Crowquill]

According to the FLYER for the game, it was available in dedicated (which would be in a grey Vs Unisystem cab I'm guessing) ,Vs Pak form (to convert existing Vs games) or for the Vs Unikit which converted older games or Pac cabinets.

Probably the best pic of a Unisystem cab is on THIS FLYER

I'm not sure what the value is, but you could easily convert it to other Vs. games. Super Mario Bros is easily the most popular of those. If you're going to be hunting up the hardware anyway, it shouldn't be hard to convert it to a 1-screen Playchoice. I'm pretty sure they were in the exact same cabinets as the Unisystem, but in black.

[Disturbed013]

There you go!  See the craigslist thing works.  People have them, just sometimes you gotta jar their memory a little bit to let go of the machine they haven't used in years.

As far as price, on that machine, I couldn't really tell you.  Check to see that it works if he claims it does.  If he said he wanted a "couple hundred", I'd use the technique that a few people in here told me about:  Go see him with like 150 to 175 cash in your pocket.  Look at the machine, decide if you want it.  If you do, show him the cash (the amount YOU are willing to spend) and if he says no, leave your phone number and walk away.  Most people will say yes, they set their price higher than what they would accept anyway, everyone does.  For many, ca$h talks.  If they say they want more, let them know you really want the machine, you love it, you are a collector and will care for/refurb it nicely, but that is all you can afford to spend.  Odds are if they don't take your offer right away, they will call you in the next day or two.  If they don't, don't sweat it, there will be more machines.  You will be more satisified in not spending more than you were willing to and coming home with cash still in your pocket than you would by overspending and coming home with the machine which you paid more than you wanted to.

D13

[Crowquill]

Stuff like this sells for less than $100 at live auction all the time.

It's expensive and not really worth it to convert them to anything else.

Agreed. IF he lives near a place where auctions are held. Many people in many parts of the country have more limited access to cabs.

Besides--a cabinet's only as good as the plans you have for it and Goonies isn't the most common Vs game.

Within New York (state) I'd think tophatne1 should be able to find a basic Nintendo cab pretty easily and cheaper. Coincidentally, as I was looking at tophatne1's profile I was listening to Schenectady is mentioned in it's lyrics.

[tophatne1]

Wow. I'll have to listen to that song now. There is only one Schenectady in the world so they have to be talking about this place!

Not many people have heard about Schenectady. GE is here which is where they did the first ever newscast on TV, and we also gave the world the Unibomber. That's about it.

And cabs of any kind are hard to come by around here. That guy never emailed me those pictures. The more I think about it the less I want an 8-bit Nintendo game cabinet when I only have room for maybe 3 cabs in the house anyway. I thin those spots are going to be reserved for Ms Pacman, Centipede, and the Robotron cabinet i'm going to bring back to life.

In upstae NY news... I just found a guy on the KLOV board who is planning on opening an Arcade Museum 20 minutes away form here in Amsterdam,NY. That was very surprising.

[Green Giant]

we also gave the world the Unibomber.

I knew that place sounded familiar.  Do you get alot of return to sender's in the mail?   

[shardian]

even in great shape, I wouldn't give more than $150 for that machine.
Odds are, you'll get there and it is a piece of crap, yet the guy will barely be short of getting on his knees and worshipping it. Oh and, he'll probably say "it worked yesterday...probably a bad fuse."