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| Opti-Gun Adaptor - Says Works With Mame! |
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| AndyWarne:
To build a viable business, the business either needs to sell a mass-market product at low margin or a niche-market low-volume product at a high margin. There is no escaping the fact that any Mame-related product is low-volume. A product of this nature is furthermore a niche-in-a-niche market product as relatively few people actually want to run arcade guns on a PC. Pretty much the entire potential customer base are members of this forum and so reading here might give a false impression that the whole world wants one. You might be wondering why, having made these statements, Ultimarc continues to exist as even the I-PAC is a niche product selling at a low margin. Its not an easy ride, especially as we have competition who are even more price-focused than we are. (dry your eyes now hehe). If I were to go on Dragons Den and present the I-PAC as a business, Peter Jones would just laugh when I state the margin and projected sales. But fortunately thats only part of the story. Keeping overheads down to the bare minimum and also being involved in consultancy and design for other companies makes things viable. This product is aimed squarely at the coin-op market and I fully understand the developers reasons for doing this and the pricing. Many arcade cabs these days use PC architecture, usually using specially-designed motherboards which are geared to this purpose (and are expensive). Many of them also use Mame which is a whole other issue... There is another reason why I will not be developing a light-gun interface. One word: Patent. Andy |
| wbassett:
Sometimes it is amazing we have available what we do. Andy the I-PAC is exactly what I was thinking and referring to. I definitely can see both sides. If the I-PAC, KeyWiz, and even XArcade's interface all can be made and sold for around $50 or so and make a profit (albiet probably a small one) all I'm saying is the price of this board could be lower. As far as being intended for the commercial market, it probably isn't a bad price in that respect. You are right about how on forums we tend to have a very narrow view of the overall market and it seems like there is a lot of people interested in arcades, but as you said most are probably on this site! MSRP doesn't mean that's what it will sell for. I'd think that ultimately this will sell for around what the UGCI boards on Happcontrols sell for, maybe just a touch higher. It sure would be nice though to see a consumer version board that hits the magic sub $100 price! Like TPB said though, I won't hold my breath on that. |
| erictrumpet:
So whats the bottom line on this thing: if it works perfectly, but costs $200 plus the cost of buying real coin-op guns, well then dont we finally have the lightgun solution we have all been hoping for? Why is this not the news of the century? Who cares if it is expensive, who here is less than a G into their cabs? Most people spend 2-3k when you add it all up. So, what's the deal? Does this interface work? If so, I want one, period! Eric. |
| wbassett:
Still waiting to hear from Les at Happcontrols. Last word I got was they were doing their preliminary testing. If I don't hear back by the end of the week I'll drop him a line to see how things are going. As far as what price do people have in their cab? Can't speak for everyone, but mine is around $800 I agree that if people are willing to spend several hundred on a real Star Wars yoke, then even if this is $200 and then another $150 for two guns, for some that's not unreasonable. I do think though that with the economy in a slump and the cost of gas, not to mention what heating oil is going to cost this winter, many people will opt not to spend money on things like this. I know my belt is tightening and I make a decent salary. |
| erictrumpet:
Yeah. Truth is, my current project is a conversion and it is going MUCH less expensively than I had expected. So not all cabs cost thousands... but anyway, if gun games are you bag, $350 outlay for real arcade controls that work sounds pretty "reasonable" to me. All things being relative of course! Thanks for keeping us posted when you hear more about this near gear. Eric. |
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