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Restoring vs. Maming a cabinet - The complete rule book
csa3d:
All,
Seeing how there's a ton of debate over on my thread, and everyone is fired up with opinions of when Maming is ethical, I've taken the liberty to create a thread so that anyone who feels like campaigning a political debate has the proper thread to do so in. Seems that even though I've been following this forum for a few years now, that there's still a bunch of unspoken rules that apparently everyone should know and live by.
So to open this debate, I'll start posing the following questions:
1. Should anyone ever purchase an authentic arcade cabinet if they do not plan to completely restore the machine to it's original, historical beginning?
2. At what point during a restoration, is it moral to deviate from the restore?
3. What level of restoration counts as a complete restore, vs. a project modification, vs. a complete and utter disaster?
4. Is a restore not a restore if the internals of a classic cab are not running on 100% authentic hardware? Mutli-boards? Using a non-standard CGA monitor? Multi-panels?
5. Is a restore still a restore if side art is reprinted onto vinyl, or does a restorer need to fill vinyl scratches and airbrush in the missing art? Should artwork even be touched up, or should it feel "antique" in nature?
6. Coin Door restores, does the restorer need to invest the money and effort into finding someone to completely powder coat and re-chrome, or is it O.K. to take these matters into your own hands?
7. What cabs are OK to Mame (with skill or without skill)? Which cabs are "off hands"?
To this point, I feel as though I have been a constructive part of this community, and have offered some opinions and help when I can. As I get closer and closer to completing my project, I feel like there is more and more hate growing, when I feel nothing wrong with what I began. Hopefully, a new reader can pounce upon this thread filled with all sorts of veteran experise, and can have the complete guide to read up on before enduring never ending flame wars in their project threads.
Let your true colors show.. and let's as a community, write the complete ethics guide in this thread. At least these rule would be pubic, out in the open, and easily accessable by new forum members.
FrizzleFried:
Dedicated cabinets of working (or damn near working) classic era arcade games are not to be destroyed by MAMEing them. Pretty simple.
Gutted cabinets, generic cabinets (Dynamo), or home built cabinets are perfectly fine. MAME is about preservation not destruction. To take a working (or almost working) classic era arcade game in a dedicated cabinet and destroy it by MAMEing it is a douchey thing to do and runs counter to what this entire community is about.
Do you need to restore all classic arcade cabinets? Not necessarily...some find charm in a well-worn dedicated arcade cabinet.
Are there exceptions to the rule? Surely... but not many.
Anyone who would take a working Galaxian (albeit with a monitor on the fritz) and destroy it by MAMEing it runs counter to the ideals of the vast majority of the folks here and I find it ironic that the same folks who berated the guy from another forum who did so to a Dig Dug (badly) are the same folks on their knees giving you praise for doing the same thing to your Galaxian (but with skill).
:angry:
DaveMMR:
I'm offering this without delving too deeply in the referenced project thread...
In this day and age, I can't see any necessity to gutting a perfectly fine classic, dedicated cab. I've seen numerous threads where the builder says "it's my cab", "it's the only one I was able to get", "it's too expensive to restore", "no one else wants it", etc. While they are all perfectly acceptable rationales, there is this hint that the maimer who utters these words is not trying hard enough (or just making excuses).
Here's the thing: there are collectors all over the place willing to take a machine in need of a little TLC off your hand, and they're no further than a couple of clicks away. Likewise, anyone can find a generic, gutted cab for cheap (maybe even free) with a little effort. The internet makes this all so much simpler (Craigslist, eBay, etc.). Trust me, someone wants it.
I find it hard to accept that turning a good condition Galaxian, Centipede, Donkey Kong, etc. into a MAME machine is ever a last resort.
csa3d:
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on February 03, 2008, 04:12:13 pm ---To take a working (or almost working) classic era arcade game in a dedicated cabinet and destroy it by MAMEing it is a douchey thing to do and runs counter to what this entire community is about.
--- End quote ---
I guess I didn't read the mission statement on the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum, that said I was doing something wrong. I saw a non-working machine (it didn't boot up, hummed like crazy, and had a black screen) and BUILT MY OWN (arcade controls) working version from this, hereby taking something broken and breathing new life into it. Is every classic hotrod car Chip Foose makes a disaster as well?
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on February 03, 2008, 04:12:13 pm ---Are there exceptions to the rule? Surely... but not many.
--- End quote ---
This uncertainty and grey area is exactly what this thread is here for. Please list be more specific so that others know the rules better.
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on February 03, 2008, 04:12:13 pm ---Anyone who would take a working Galaxian (albeit with a monitor on the fritz) and destroy it by MAMEing it runs counter to the ideals of the vast majority of the folks here
--- End quote ---
Last time I'll bring this up:
1. It was probably close to being "complete", but did not work, nor never worked upon purchase. I wouldn't not have mamed it if I saw it was working at time of purchase. Give me SOME credit.
2. It had substantial damage to the side art, coin door, water damage, and all sorts of cosmetic holes which I restored. It was a project cab upon time of purchase.
3. It did not even have original control panel, and came bearing a "romstar" control panel. Again, incomplete.
4. Anyone person who honestly had FULL intension of restoring this cab back to it's original demeanor, would have had to go through the same work I did to patch, paint, and improve the overall appearances.
5. All original hardware and glasses I'm not using are being sold and parted out to folks who are in the restoration line.
[/quote]
Keep 'em coming.. we'll all get drunk and hug later.
-csa
FrizzleFried:
--- Quote from: csa3d on February 03, 2008, 04:27:24 pm ---I guess I didn't read the mission statement on the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum, that said I was doing something wrong. I saw a non-working machine (it didn't boot up, hummed like crazy, and had a black screen) and BUILT MY OWN (arcade controls) working version from this, hereby taking something broken and breathing new life into it. Is every classic hotrod car Chip Foose makes a disaster as well?
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---Please do be mindful that we don't destroy what we're trying to re-create. Many classic arcade machines are rare and worth a heck of a lot more intact than altered. Ideal candidates for this type of project are machines that have already been abused by previous owners - artwork destroyed, poorly converted, etc... If you have a classic cabinet in good shape, you can probably sell it to a collector and get a trashed but usable cabinet in the bargain.
--- End quote ---
That is posted right in the "CABINETS" link from the front page. Plus being a smart ass isn't going to make any points.
You didn't breath new life in to your Galaxian. You killed a worthwhile and fully restoreable Galaxian to create a MAME cabinet. You didn't breath NEW LIFE in to it...you yanked whatever life that it had before out of it and replaced it with something that is much much "less" than what was there before.