Psychological effects of cabinet cannibalism?

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

It is honestly really easy (might take you... I'd say... 2 hours to figure out from scratch)...

Wow, thanks for the concise info.  I actually might do that now, but strangely enough I would do it more for the no-nag feature than for the hi-scores.  Again, thanks for the quick-and-dirty breakdown.

As it stands, my plans are now as follows:
1. Put up the white board. (Done!)
2. Re-configure Mala on QH: edit QH graphics, layout and gamelist(s) to reflect an even more straight-forward design.
3. (Maybe roll my own MAME.)
4. Continue designing (and building the budget for) the new cocktail cab ... because at this point, folks, I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep QH alive! 
5. Better document the process than I did with QH, including starting a thread and posting Sketchup files, pics during build, etc.

... and hopefully get the actual physical build done before Tekken 6 comes out at the end of October, because I will get nothing done once that happens. 

Ironic, no?    

Anyway, thanks to all for your support and input! I think the white board really put my decision over the top... well, that and the thought of potentially networking the two cabs together... hehehe...

[Namco]

It is honestly really easy (might take you... I'd say... 2 hours to figure out from scratch)...

Tekken 6 comes out at the end of October, because I will get nothing done once that happens.

hmmmm, what is this "Tekken 6" you speak of? 

[drventure]

@Namco

Your description of a young gamer reacting to an arcade cab was great!

If all I'd known growing up was Call of Duty, Gears or War, etc, any of the old games would look like 

It may be that the first (or I guess second) gen arcade games won't have much of a life past this generation.

Or maybe not. It'll be interesting to see.

[ahofle]

Ask everyone what their favorite games are and compile a gamelist. Maybe get a dry erase board and post up some high scores, most people like to try and one up each other.

 "John got 38,550 in pacman? I can beat that....."
you get the idea

Hmm that gives me an idea for a great front end modification.  A scrolling ticker with large letters somewhere on top of the game selection screen listing what the recent high scores are and for which games (along with a customizable taunt: "Are you skilled enough to beat these scores?").  It could poll the mame/hi directory and pull the most recently modified 5-10 files and list who got what (this part would be the most difficult).  I think would make the cabinet more of a social draw at parties and get togethers, like the whiteboard idea except you don't have to manually update it.

[z]

Great idea ahofle, you figured out a way to taunt people with the high scores without having to be in a particular game to see them.  Would love to see it as a funtion box you could drop into a mala layout.