What cabinet to choose?

[Necro]

Barely got the wife to allow one cabinet in the house and now in kind of a weird situation.  I have to pick one of these two:

- APB $275 (working, no side art, nostalgia value).
- Omega Race $100 (not working, complete, limited nostalgia value, looks cool as hell)

I'm going to be MAMEing whatever I get, but keeping the conversion reversible (swapable panels). 

The Omega Race looks to be either insanely hard to convert due to the mirror issue, or easy (pop the monitor in front of the glass).  It has a very small CP and I'm not complete sure how I can retain the coolness of the art and make an effective MAME CP.  (I'm fine with swapables).  I really like the way this cab looks though.

APB, not sure how hard the MAMEing would be.  I already have a spinner, so the spinner wheel isn't a huge addon.  Have USB pedals as well, so that's not a huge impact.  Also, nto sure how high the CP is for a conversion.  I remember playing this at the roller rink as a kid, however, and it has more nostalgia value over the Omega race.  Big thing on this is also that the guy I was going to purchase it from basically went with someone else while I was asking questions about it and trying to haggle a bit, and that buyer ditched out of the sale.

Future plans include a dedicated vertical MAME cab in a vertical oriented 'classic' cab and possibly one of the Showroom cabs if I can get one.  Neither of these will occur for a few years (basically until I move into a new house).

Would appreciate any input.  As of now, I'm going with the Omega Race due to price and how cool I think the cab looks (I love that it's lit up in multiple places).  Really wondering if I can somehow use the mirror system for normal gameplay though if the lights behind the mirror are off.


Thanks for everyones help/thoughts!

[Q*Bert_OP]

Neither. Wait until something like a Dynamo cab shows up...

[leapinlew]

Neither. Wait until something like a Dynamo cab shows up...

I agree in this case. Neither of those cabs is a great Mame candidate.

[Necro]

I should add in I'm not all that keen on taking a cab and making a giant panel for it.  Definitely more interested in a MAME configuration that looks similar to the original CAB. 

And just so I'm clear, what's a dynamo cab?

Also, there's a NBA Jam 25" available ($100), but I was leaning towards a 'classic' cabinet that I could keep looking like the older game...

[leapinlew]

Also, there's a NBA Jam 25" available ($100), but I was leaning towards a 'classic' cabinet that I could keep looking like the older game...

In my opinion, nothing screams classic cab more than a well done Donkey Kong, Galaga or Pacman machine. Fortunately, they made a ton of those cabinets. You might be able to find one.

[Malenko]

that NBA Jam is prolly a Dynamo. NBA Jam is prolly the best bet for a MAME cab; depending on the cab....got pix?

[Necro]

In my opinion, nothing screams classic cab more than a well done Donkey Kong, Galaga or Pacman machine. Fortunately, they made a ton of those cabinets. You might be able to find one.

I completely agree with you...unfortunately every one I've seen is rebuilt and lot's o' money.  

However...I just saw these two:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=16487.0;all and http://web.archive.org/web/20051030122516/http://wotlmud.home.comcast.net/mame.html

And that is almost exactly what I would be doing (combination of the two...not definitively 6 buttons).  Possibly with switchable panels for a mouse/spinner.

And no pix of the NBA Jam cab yet....hopefully I will shortly.