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Restoring vs. Maming a cabinet - The complete rule book

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brandon:


--- Quote from: ChadTower on February 04, 2008, 03:18:23 pm ---
--- Quote from: TOK on February 04, 2008, 09:54:29 am ---2 Certain cabs are typically considered holy and shouldn't be MAME'd. few quick examples of this are Star Wars, Tron, Tempest, Dragons Lair and Major Havoc (Ironically, three of the games on this list are usually gutted because the monitors suck and cost a lot to repair).

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...and Dragon's Lair is usually gutted because the laserdisc player is a total ---smurfette---.

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right.. and rather than hunt down unreliable and expensive hardware (not to mention the disc) I seen no problem with somebody running Daphne inside of it as long as they're nondestructive and it can be undone.   You could either have a 100% mint machine that plays one game that you keep covered with a sheet and wont let your friends touch it.. or you could have a machine that runs several games that you... still wont let your friends touch :)

I guess its like classic cars.. do you want something you haul to car shows in an enclosed trailer or do you want something you aren't afraid to drive from coast to coast?  paint chips add character right? :D Cars (and video games) were meant to be enjoyed. It's the enjoyment that needs to be preserved first and formost.

ChadTower:


On a true classic, I don't see a problem with using MAME to make it appear original if the original hardware is missing or really dead.  I wouldn't go changing the CP or anything to expand it to additional games, though.  If it was a Galaxian, I would use MAME to make it a Galaxian again, and I may add a couple more simple two way one fire button games without changing the art at all.  Nothing really more than that, though.

bigh4th:

I think you guys need to step back and re-examine this whole ordeal.

Reguardless of if the galaxian (which is a terrible game, IMHO) boards in his cabinet were working, they were housed inside of an almost 30 year-old plywood box that was beat to hell.

Had he decided to fix (or replace) the monitor, it would still need major cosmetic work to be restored, and even then it wouldn't be like new, unless they used bondo or wood filler at the factory.

He then would have had to find a CP and order a replacement overlay to replace the exsisting replacement.

And after that, the artwork on the cabinet was trashed so bad that it would need to be replaced.

So what it all boils down to is the only things being original are the PCBs hanging off of 30 year old plywood and possibly the wires hooked to them.

So is the nostalgia for the plywood, the cabinets shape, or what?  The only way that cabinet could have been restored is to use original NOS artwork and parts....which even if they do exsist and are usable, are more rare than hens teeth. 

We're not talking about a Tron cabinet, we're talking about a beat to hell Galaxian, which wasn't a popular game to begin with.  It also isn't rare.

Lastly, A lot of you seem to be under the impression than anyone can pick up a phone book or get on craigslist and just find a worthless generic cabinet to mame.....This isn't the case.  In the last year in a 100 mile radius of my location, there have been maybe 3 generic cabinets in the area that weren't selling for an insane price.  A sente, double dragon, and cobal.  all three sold for 75 or less on ebay.  Guess who got them?  An amusement opperator who used e-snipe and then fitted them with poker machine internals.

Aside from those cabinets, the others you see are TMNT, MS. Pac, SFII, and the like all asking $700 or more.

So finding a generic cabinet is not a simple task in many parts of the country.

-Harry

ChadTower:


--- Quote from: bigh4th on February 04, 2008, 04:25:06 pm --- In the last year in a 100 mile radius of my location, there have been maybe 3 generic cabinets in the area that weren't selling for an insane price. 

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That just means you haven't found your way into the local collectors' circuit yet.  It takes some time.  Once you do generic cabinets really are a phone call or two away at any given time.  I used to say the same things you're saying.

CheffoJeffo:


--- Quote from: bigh4th on February 04, 2008, 04:25:06 pm ---So finding a generic cabinet is not a simple task in many parts of the country.

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There are a lot more cabs out there than people think (I can think of a couple of folks posting in this thread who used to lament the troubles with finding cabs and, not that long later, are having to get rid of some to make room ... myself included). It may take a while, but it can be done.

EDIT: Chad got there first ...

And, FWIW, Galaxian is popular among collectors for a numbers of reasons, not the smallest of which is that it was the first RGB game (a rather important event in vid history).

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