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Restoring vs. Maming a cabinet - The complete rule book
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: jlfreund on February 06, 2008, 08:36:58 pm ---My 2c - the lifetime of a cabinet is 10-20yrs. It may seem relevant to discuss the preservation of these dying cabinets now, when most of them are at end of life but still barely salvageable.
But in the long term, this community is really going to be about preservation of the code. The software is the thing that needs to survive forever. We only need the cabinets and the hardware to survive just long enough to get the software emulation to 100%.
Once that is done, no one will care in 50 years from now what happened to the original cabinets between the years 1980 - 2020.
Jason
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Interesting prophecy. I doubt highly that you are correct though, or even close to being correct. Emulation has been close enough to 100% that no one can tell the difference, on many games, for years. Yet, there is still obviously quite a market for original hardware.
There will always be people who want the real thing.
DaveMMR:
Just a thought, eschewing any "ethics". Wouldn't it make more financial sense to make a attempt to sell a dedicated classic that's in decent shape to a collector and try to get another cab in disrepair for cheap? You really can't sell "MAME Machines" legally. (Although you can sell an empty cabinet with a computer thrown in sans software, I'd imagine)
saint:
--- Quote from: brandon on February 06, 2008, 08:18:54 pm ---Its going to be an appendix in later revisions of his book :D
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Actually, it's appendix B of the current book :)
--- Quote ---Preserving Versus MAME’ing the Past
It seems like such a good idea at first thought. Building a home arcade cabinet is a lot of fun, but it can be a good bit of work. Why not take an already existing arcade cabinet, strip out all the stuff you don’t need, and turn it into your home arcade cabinet? It can be really cheap -- throw away cabinets go for a dollar at arcade auctions, nice cabinet shells with artwork and monitors can go for $100 to $150. It’s easy -- instead of building from scratch you simply have to clean it up and you’re ready to go. What’s not to like? What’s the big fuss about?
Most likely you picked up this book due to happy memories of time spent in an arcade, feeding quarters into some machine that you were determined to beat or get a high score on. Maybe you missed the heyday of the arcades and would like to get a glimpse of it now. Either way, to put it in a nutshell, most of us are trying to recreate a part of the past that we can visit whenever we wish. That seems harmless enough, what’s the great debate about then? The issue is this:
Please don't destroy that past as you attempt to recreate it!
Classic arcade cabinets -- Tron, StarWars, Galaxian, etc. are a dying breed. They suffer from the ravages of time and conversion to other games. Some will sit in a leaky warehouse until the elements turn it into kindling. Other beautiful classic arcade cabinets will get converted into some mindless fighting game (with apologies to fighting game fans) when the original stops making money. The problem is that classic arcade cabinets represent a finite resource. The arcades of yesterday are just that -- a thing of the past. Barring a scattering of reproduction projects, these classic cabinets cannot be replaced. As if these problems were not bad enough for classic arcade cabinet fans and collectors, suddenly home arcade cabinets (often referred to as MAME cabinets for the emulator most often used on them) started popping up. No one begrudges someone building a personal cabinet from scratch. However, every time a classic arcade cabinet is converted to a home arcade machine, somewhere someone cringes now there’s one fewer cabinet available to collectors.
To an arcade collector, modifying a classic arcade cabinet is akin to chopping down old growth redwood forests. The person doing so may have the legal right to their actions, but they are doing a disservice to humanity. Granted, the degree of the problem is certainly different. Hacking apart an old Robotron cabinet won’t cause environmental problems or displace animals (except, perhaps, a family of mice). It will mean, however, that there’s one less Robotron cabinet in the world. That same cabinet could be some collector’s “holy grail” -- the one item they’re looking for to complete their collection. Even if the cabinet is in bad shape, someone probably has the parts and desire to rebuild it and restore it, if only they had the cabinet.
On the other hand, there are a bunch of not-so-classic cabinets, generic cabinets, and the aforementioned already-been-mutilated (converted) cabinets out there. Those are much better candidates for conversion to a home arcade cabinet than a nice classic cabinet. Yes, they usually mean more work for you than a cabinet that’s in nice condition. That’s a small price to pay for entering the classic arcade community. You don’t have to destroy a classic arcade cabinet to get the convenience of using an already constructed cabinet for your project.
If you must use a classic arcade cabinet for your home machine (which is, after all, totally within your rights as owner of the cabinet), please consider a few limitations. Use a PC2JAMMA conversion, so that the original woodwork and artwork are kept intact. Restore what needs TLC instead of slapping black paint on it and putting up a customized logo. If you’re going to remove parts, sell or give them away instead of junking them. That way, the classic cabinet still exists, and its parts can go to help another classic machine live again.
There’s room for both home arcade cabinet builders and classic arcade collectors along the road to arcade nirvana. Many arcade cabinet builders end up becoming collectors as well. MAME led me to discover using real arcade controls, which in turn led me to my current collection of seven real arcade cabinets, two pinball machines, and an air hockey table! Many arcade collectors also end up adding an emulation (MAME) cabinet to their collection as well. A little consideration for both camps goes a long way. Enjoy your new hobby, and thank you for considering the impact of your choices on the arcade collecting community!
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The material in this post is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission
Edit - couldn't stand posting only part of it. That's the entire appendix B. It's only 1 or so pages so I don't think anyone will mind my posting it. (I wrote it but don't own the copyright, the publisher does)
fixedpigs:
to quote arcademaze...
--- Quote from: ArcadeMaze on January 23, 2007, 10:56:16 pm ---A MAME Machine is a gateway drug to the hard stuff--the real deal.
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http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62439.msg620074#msg620074
FrizzleFried:
--- Quote from: fixedpigs on February 06, 2008, 10:28:24 pm ---to quote arcademaze...
--- Quote from: ArcadeMaze on January 23, 2007, 10:56:16 pm ---A MAME Machine is a gateway drug to the hard stuff--the real deal.
--- End quote ---
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62439.msg620074#msg620074
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It was for me....damned MAME...