| Main > Main Forum |
| Will 80's arcade pcb's be obsolete soon / mame more popular ? |
| (1/3) > >> |
| rlemmon:
Hi guys. So I'm Thinking about how the PCBs from 80's games are now in there 20's with some being up to 28 years old. I wander how long we have until it gets to the point that they will no longer be repairable. What will this mean for arcade game collectors ? will everyone be running original cabs with a pc and mame to play there game. Or maybe some will forget about dedicated cabs and go mame or multi cabs. What are your thoughts on this ? 8) |
| Daviea:
This is a great question. I've actually contemplated this very same thought on more than one occasion. My first time 'round was back in the mid 90's when most of the classic were already well beyond their 10th birthday. Anyhow, I have an opinion on the subject, both as a collector of these games and a manufacturer of reproduction parts as well. Being a collector, maybe not as "hardcore" as some, I still have an incredible home arcade filled with so many games it would make your head spin. What matters to me the most is that each of these are dedicated machines that will faithfully run the game for which it was designed....oh, and they have to LOOK and FUNCTION perfectly!! Sure, I think MAME is really cool and totally has a place -- particularly for people who may not have as much space as I do or the will power to maintain 100+ games. LOL But the point is that because I (and many others) are thrilled to own these machines, there will be drive to maintain them no matter what. Of course, this all hinges on the idea that people will still want to collect these down the road. My thought on that: people collect anything they can get their hands on! Always been that way, probably always will be that way. On the flip side, as a manufacturer of reproduction parts (which stems from the fact that I'm a collector), I am able to look at any part of a game (controls, cabinet, circuit board) and make a faithful "copy" of said item. There are a bunch of people out there dedicated to reproducing the parts to keep these machines running. Old circuit boards are not really a concern... yet. Most are easily repaired, probably even 30 or 40 years down the road from now. Heck, maybe even longer. The trouble spot will be in obtaining the correct components necessary to repair or reproduce the boards, but that may not be a real issue for quite some time. So far, there are only a very few components which are completely MIA now that were plentiful back in the 80's. That said, some ingenious people out there have figured out ways around this real problem. I think these games will be collected, restored, maintained and operated (even if only in our homes) for at least another 3 or 4 generations. By that time, our plasma power systems will be incompatible with 120V arcade games. LOL I really do enjoy this topic, btw. David Adams RAM Controls |
| rlemmon:
"Most are easily repaired even 30 or 40 years down the road. Heck, maybe even longer. The trouble spot will be in obtaining the correct components necessary to repair or reproduce the boards, but that may not be a real issue for quite some time" That's good to here. I really hate the thought of these games becoming compost. |
| Zobeid:
The machines will be kept alive as long as there is sufficient interest in them. MAME and other emulators help support that interest. There will be people who start by building a control panel, then a MAME cabinet, then move on to restoring original arcade games. So in that sense I think emulation helps more than it hurts. |
| Turnarcades:
As with any hobby/interest, bonafide collectors will always exist, and maintain their collection. Most retro collections find a way round high deterioration as they are not subject to the use and abuse they would be when they first came out and were deemed expendable. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |