Buying a working arcade machine just to butcher?

[Daniel]

Just wondering what the general feeling is about buying a complete, working arcade machine just to turn into a MAME cabinet.  Just looking at the prices of a monitor, a cabinet, and the controls, it might be cheaper to buy something complete, rather than pieces from non-working machines.  What do other people think?

Daniel

[Agent Davis]

The general consensus (general, though not everyone will agree) is that it is okay to Mame already-converted cabinets, plain jamma cabinets, and cabs that generally are not considered classics.  Also, if you make your modifications so that they are potentially reversible, it's better.

Remember though, most the fun of this hobby is building this stuff to customize for yourself.  It's fun to just buy an empty shelled out cabinet and install a monitor and your custom controls, along with prettying it up just the way you want.  But of course, you have to factor in cost.

[Lilwolf]

default jamma cabs are good
SF cabs and ones that there are a MILLION of them out there

I went with a Captain America one hoping to donate the board to the mame team.  (and it was already converted from something else).

If I could do it again, I would build one from scratch.  Why?  MUCH cheaper for me (since I had it shipped), and It would be new, mine, and I could say I built it 100%

Some great plans out there also

[Trenchbroom]

If the cabinet is local (where you can get your hands on it), see if the cabinet information actually matches the game that is in the cabinet now.  If it has been converted to a new game from something else then I say it's fair game.  Typically, most people want 2 player 6-button fighting glory for their mame cabinet and the really old and collectible games usually are not in demand for this purpose (fortunately).  The cabinet designs were often too cramped for adequate side-by-side play, vertical monitors are disliked, etc.

If you like fighting games and a more upright gaming stance than you shouldn't have any problem.  If you are a videogame "elder" who needs to bend over the machine and have his face illuminated by the light of the monitor to experience the full rush of nostalgia then you already probably recognize that games of that era are pretty precious, increasingly rare and shouldn't be destroyed.

[dev]

I bought a beat up hyper sports painted black, and am painting it to the original colours and doing the controls in a colour motif to try to match the machine. I think it will be sweet having mame in my favorite games original cabinet. I'm not sure if the games worth much (I got it for next to nothing), but it will mean as much to me converted this way and I don't plan on ever selling it.  

[AlmtyBob]

I too have a Captain America cab that was converted.  Mine was converted into a neogeo.  I personally would never do any damage to the cabinet I'm building in.  I don't believe in doing any permanent re-wiring inside the cab, adding extra buttons to a dedicated (not converted) game, adding kb trays, or any type of insane rotatable monitor setup.  <GRIPE>I might get flamed for this, but IMHO, I -hate- seeing more that one control setup on one layout.  For example, I've seen cabs that have 2 8 ways with 6 buttons each, 1 4 way with 2 buttons, a trackball with 2 buttons, and a spinner.  If you have enough skill to do a MAME conversion, then you have enough skill to buy some molex connectors and a saw and make swappable layouts. </GRIPE>

Using a j-pac, a powered computer subwoofer (NOT the speakers), a new Happs power supply (so I can plug in the sub and computer on the inside), some molex connectors, and quick disconnects I've managed to -convert- my cabinet to a MAME cab, not actually MAME my cab.  I can take out the PC and replace it with a JAMMA board in about 5 - 10 minutes and no one would ever have any idea a pc had been there.  So in other words, feel free to buy a classic game and convert it (as long as it's JAMMA, though jamma and classic are kinda mutually exclusive) as long as you don't plan on drilling holes or super gluing cupholders on the side.