Prefabricated Arcade Cabinets

[Myron]

NEWBIE ALERT:


I am wondering, does anyone sell just prefab arcade cabinets, shipped like office furniture (flat, in a box ready to assemble).  If not, would anybody be interested in buying one for their own machine?  I found a local guy selling them for around $300 bucks, don't know what shipping is, but they look nice enough.

He wants me as an investor, not sure if it is worth my money.  Dunno if they would sell at all.  No CPU, no monitor, no coin boxes, just the laminated wood, side art, marquee lights, casters,  and t-molding.

Any thoughts, or is he ripping me off.

Thanks


Myron

[Lilwolf]

Trouble is that the shipping is about...well...$300

Kits would make a lot more sense and be a LOT cheaper to ship.  

Then, kits without the wood, with the plans and paper to measure kinda would be even cheaper.

Some of the other troubles.  Monitor mounts are kinda custom.  Bezels (ie, to sell a kit, you need a nice bezel.  And you need to know what monitor will go in it.  How about the computer.  Putting a case in it or just having an area on the bottom to mount it?

I think its a great idea.  but to many factors would make it so you probably wouldn't make any real cash on it.  

[JustMichael]

$300 is very expensive for an empty wooden box.  I would suggest you look in the yellow pages for local arcade distributors and see if you can buy a gutted cab from them instead.  The problem with such a kit is the shipping. It would be very heavy and so the shipping would be quite high.  Then when you get the kit and put it together, it still doesn't play arcade games. You still have to put hundreds of $$$ more into it.

[Greg Swagler (SpectroPro)]

My new company is doing just that.  Kit-R-Cade.  We are building kits for people to buy and build their own cabinets.  The options we offer are almost endless so it can be very cheap or quite expensive..  we also offer full customizable plans and instructions for each order.  Toll free customer support and help line.  And a new innovative plug and play control panel surface (patent pending on this one.)

Our grand opening will be at the Amiga and Classic gaming convention in Baltimore over Easter weekend.  

So, to answer the question, yeah, there is a company that does it.  Look for our web site to go online officially April 5th after we get back from the convention.  (hint, it may be online unofficially by the 20th of this month)

[Lilwolf]

I'm not sure, but since your reading this board and know that other people have plug/play solutions for their control panel.

(not a rant, but a legal question)

I thought that if you have knowledge of others doing it, you can't patent it.  And that you cant patent anything that is common and know in the field.

Like the guy who tried to trademark (not exactly the same) the name Linux in computers.  Then he tried to say that he never heard of it, but yet he worked on computers for 15 years...

Anyway, good luck on your endever

[Myron]

How much is a Kit-R-Cade?

Sounds good to me.

What are the custom options?

What is shipping like on something like that?

[Mike]

I dont see there being much market for this sort of thing. No one running an arcade is going to want one they'll just buy a jamma cabinet which is much easier. So the only market you have are video game collectors and people building mame machines. Well 99% of video game collectors won't want it because most of them want original cabinets. So that leaves mame machines which is a pretty small market. Then at best you might be able to get 50% of this market, but I doubt you could get even that much. If I spend $300 at an arcade auction I can get a mortal kombat machine in pretty good condition. Then I have the controls, monitor and pcb. And the only way you really have a chance is if you become like a happ and wico reseller and make it cheaper and easier to order from you. Thats just my opinion and I've been wrong before.

[Myron]

I am intrigued.  How cheap would a MAME cabinet have to be for you to buy it?


-Myron

[Gorre]

To be honest I find 300$ very expensive.

I bought two old cabinets with working coin mechanisms and marque lights for 135 $.
(I must admit they were not in perfect condition)

And I could get my hands on restored Jamma cabinets for 320 $ (this would include monitor and controller)

So you're selling 300 $ worth of wood.

[Lilwolf]

I spend $300 on a full running captain america 4 way cab and thought I spend to much.  but mainly because I ripped everything out so it was for a big box.

Now things I would spend some cash on (assuming that I could spend my own money and didn't have to argue with my wife about it)

A cocktail table.  Harder to find.  One that had a neat design (like two players at ends for vertical games, and a control panel off the side with 2 controls for horizontal games.  But I think cocktail tables are a lot more complicated then a standup.

Maybe a cool (forget the real name for it) pedistal cabinet that plugs into a real TV.  But only if I owned a Large screen TV or projecter style.  But this would be a cool one if you sold everyting.  A box with a computer with TV out, on top is the controls.   This would just have more mass appeal since you don't need a monitor.

[OSCAR]

Lilwolf - Since you asked, and Greg will probably not be able to answer you because of lawyer-client confidentiality....

Although I am not a patent lawyer in any sense, I have had much experience dealing with patents at my real job as a project engineer with a leading automotive supplier company.  Ironically, I have been tied up in patent meetings for the last 2 weeks for some of my group's recent designs, so I have patents on the brain lately.

The low-down on Patent Pending:  This means a Provisional has been filed.  Even this is a considerable investment, typically around $10,000 but varies on a case-by-case basis.  A Provisional legally protects a design from being duplicated before the patent legitimacy has been approved.

Many things can prevent a patent from being valid, but the most common I have run into are:
1.  "Prior art" (which you mentioned)
2.  "Obviousness" - meaning that if anyone "skilled in the art" would have obviously come up with the same design, it is not patentable.

Although both of these would be investigated by a patent lawyer prior to the patent filing, lawyers and the patent office are not always successful in locating Prior Art.  If a patent is granted, then it is up to the owner of the Prior Art to defend their design to invalidate the patent.  Defending prior art can easily cost $100,000 and I have seen cases where it exceeds $1,000,000.  This would most likely be beyond the financial capabilities of many of the individuals/companies involved in this particular market of arcade controls and MAME cabinets.

Again, I am not an attorney, just the effing engineer that gets caught half-sleeping through meetings for endless hours, so I apologize if some of this is not totally accurate.  


--OSCAR

[Greg Swagler]

Thanks for the info, however, I can say, we have done the research and there is nothing like what we are doing...at least not much like it..and that is what counts..  

Also, you can pretty much patent anything that has not been patented before, as long as it isn't something that is a normal aspect of what you are doing..  In other words, if one person does something, and someone else patents it, 1)  the first person would almost never be able to afford the legal battle, 2)  I have sat in on patent hearings, and I have heard people told "....you had the chance, and you didn't take it...  so you blew it..."

Having been on that end of a patent hearing, I learned my lesson the hard way.

But, I do not think what we are doing in this matter is being done by others, and if it is, then it will be discovered by the people that we pay to find out.    I don't wish to screw anyone as I have been in the past.

Just trying to do something very cool and that we have found a market for and again, I don't want to get screwed.

[Greg Swagler]

The pricing is based on the options, so no way I could tell you a price before an order is done..  This is because of the almost unlimited options.

Option examples:

- Finished or unfinished wood
- controls in kit form or full control panel already built and wired
- empty cabinet or complete with computer system
- interchangeable control panels
- Unlimited control panel configurations
 (ie.  1 JS, 2 JS's, Trackball, spinner, #buttons, steering wheel(s), etc..)
- finishing supplies included or not
- full height cabinet
- table top
- cocktail
- 3/4 height
- and the list goes on and on...

All this will be on the web site as soon as we get it all finished up.

Oh, and as for the market..  In the city of Cincinnati, Ohio alone, in my previous job where I was in customers homes, I had 11 customers who had built or were building their own MAME machines.  Thus, the idea of having a pre-cut KIT.

[OSCAR]

Greg,

The intent of my post was not to either defend nor discount your patent claim.  I apologize if it came  across that way.  I was merely trying to help explain some the legalese involved with patents as it can be confusing.  I, myself, have been involved with many patents, and I am aware of the headaches and hurdles involved.

Since you have a Provisional, your counsel is obviously confident that your claim(s) has/have merit, or else it wouldn't have been pursued that far.  I must say that I was a bit shocked to see your post about a Patent Pending, though.  Our legal team strongly advises against even mentioning an unapproved patent without counsel present.  However, my experience is limited to the highly competitive automotive market, and our legal department may be more conservative than most.

I wish you the best of luck, and I can't wait to see your product!  Sounds like you really have something!


--OSCAR

[SpectroPro]

heh, thanks!!!!  I think everyone will like it.  A nice alternative if you simply wish to build your own cabinet, but don't want the headaches that I found when I wanted to build my first one..  

The posting was under yours but wasn't actually a reply to your posting..  I didn't realize when I posted it that it didn't make some note of which reply I was replying to.  My mistake...  I actually found yours to be pretty dead on.

Greg (aka- SpectroPro)

[Myron]

Hmmm.  What is the benefit over a Hanaho ARCADE PC then?  If they get all the parts from you?  Hanaho will do all the custom work as well-- as far as I can tell. I know they will install spinners and other unadvertised options and do custom control panels/controls. Plus the whole thing is fully built.  You can also get it without Computer or Monitor.


-Myron

[Croaker]

It's not necessarily better than a Hanaho cab. But it is an alternative. Competition lowers prices. That's never a bad thing.

[jelloslug]

I offer cocktail kits for $100 + shipping.  I've has a few nibbles but no one has actually steped up to buy one yet.

[NF]

My understanding is that HanaHo is making a prefab arcade cabinet based off their Arcade PC line of cabinets.  I have pre ordered one and from my understanding they will be announcing it soon.  From what I have read about their quality of what they have done and the fact that they have been around for years.  I think this is the way to go if your looking for a prefab arcade cabinet.

NF

[ArcadEd]

LilWolf: "Maybe a cool (forget the real name for it) pedistal cabinet that plugs into a real TV.  But only if I owned a Large screen TV or projecter style.  But this would be a cool one if you sold everyting.  A box with a computer with TV out, on top is the controls.   This would just have more mass appeal since you don't need a monitor. "

Hey bud, what I am chopped liver  , LOL

www.arcadeinabox.com

[Lilwolf]

LilWolf: "Maybe a cool (forget the real name for it) pedistal cabinet that plugs into a real TV.

[RandyT]

I am wondering, does anyone sell just prefab arcade cabinets, shipped like office furniture (flat, in a box ready to assemble).

[Lilwolf]

hehe... I love the sub-topics in any thread.

I was bringing up the patent issue mainly since about 1/3 of the cabinets being build do this had have openly talked about it.  It just seemed like something you couldn't patent once it was common knowledge and commonly implemented.  (not saying that a specificly smart implementation shouldn't/couldn't be patented.  but there is a pretty good chance that you got the idea here from others who already did it.  

But patents are only useful if others try to implement it.  And thats where I kinda have a trouble with it.  I could see it causing troubles with others building cabinets for others on the board even though you aren't doing it anymore.  

I'm a strong believer in open ideas, and closed implementations.  Especially in a fun scene like emulation.  

[lightspeed]

I obtained a used Dynamo cabinet - great cab.  Anyone ever try to call a distributor to see what they cost?

Basically, Dynamo makes generic cabs that can be adapted to just about any game.  They only sell to wholesalers, though

[StephenH]

Well, HanaHo Games (www.hanaho.com) does sell pre-built MAME cabs, complete with monitor, PC, Cabinet, Joystick Control Panel, and Speakers and Power Supply.

FYI, Hanaho games makes many of the real arcade cabinets for Sega, Capcom, and many other leading Game Manufacturers.   They also build cabs for many casino machines for companies like Circus Circus as well.

[SpectroPro]

hehe... I love the sub-topics in any thread.

I was bringing up the patent issue mainly since about 1/3 of the cabinets being build do this had have openly talked about it.