Just curious - MAME vs. collecting - one or both?

[severdhed]

even if i had room for a dozen cabinets (and the money to acquire them) one of them would have to be a mame cabinet.  even though there are only a few games i play frequently...it is so cool when someone comes over to visit and sees the cabinet for the first time..and then they ask "does it have this game?"  and to see the look of wonder and amazement when in a few seconds, they can play just about any arcade game they can think of.  

[Ginsu Victim]

Yeah, I love blowing their minds like that, too.

[tcleary]

for games you really really really like I think it's cool to seek out the real deal.  I'm a big fan of defender so I found it, and it's a game with unique controls so it's cool to have the correct setup for it.  most games I'm fine playing on MAME though.  If you start collecting games I highly suggest you be careful and only get ones you really like and will actually play, they are expensive and a huge hassle to deal with.  My brother and I have 4 cabinets and just dealing with those takes a lot of time.

[TheBrokentoken]

for games you really really really like I think it's cool to seek out the real deal.  I'm a big fan of defender so I found it, and it's a game with unique controls so it's cool to have the correct setup for it.  most games I'm fine playing on MAME though.  If you start collecting games I highly suggest you be careful and only get ones you really like and will actually play, they are expensive and a huge hassle to deal with.  My brother and I have 4 cabinets and just dealing with those takes a lot of time.

That's pretty sage advice when you think about it.  I've got several that I really do like, but I'm definitely not going to put the MAME cabinet out to pasture or anything... it will always have a place.  I think that having the real cabinets 'around' the MAME cabinet make for a great combination.

[pinballwizard79]

I just wanted to put in my two cents........This will pertain to many folks in here, no hard feelings or disrespect intended.

When people have a mario bros, popeye, donkey kong, donkey kong jr & donkey kong 3 all in a nice neat restored row it kills me since its the same cab, monitor & controls. Same goes for seeing a collection of the mortal Kombat cabs or a line of Neo Geo's......seriously? Even a galaga, pacman, burgertime & etc play in MAME on arcade controls via arcade monitors inside a big arcade cabinet....

How many damn PCB boards to you want to troubleshoot, how many cap kits do you want to do each year....how many control panels do you want to have printed up? Sounds like more work than play to me.

I love MAME because it allows the enthusiast to have space for pinball machines, a pool table, foosball, darts, theater area, bar, bathroom & hell maybe even a stormtrooper.

Some games must be dedicated: paperboy, 720, mechanized attack & etc but everything else is fine.

[Flake]

Yea I kinda agree with PBW79, I just think if you are going to have dedicated machines it would be a better use of funds and space to have games that dont play well in Mame.  Like my earlier example of Operation Wolf.  One dedicated 4-way and a couple buttons will play a ton of the sought after classics.  Two 8-ways with 6 buttons will play a crap load of other games too numerous to count......and play them just fine.  Throw in a trackball and even more games are playable.

But to each their own.  If you just LOOOVVVVEEE DK or Burgertime and want to have a dedicated then more power to you.  For me, I'm all about maximizing versatility/playability/space.  So any dedicated cabinets I get will be for those games not already played well in Mame.

[MaximRecoil]

I just wanted to put in my two cents........This will pertain to many folks in here, no hard feelings or disrespect intended.

When people have a mario bros, popeye, donkey kong, donkey kong jr & donkey kong 3 all in a nice neat restored row it kills me since its the same cab, monitor & controls. Same goes for seeing a collection of the mortal Kombat cabs or a line of Neo Geo's......seriously? Even a galaga, pacman, burgertime & etc play in MAME on arcade controls via arcade monitors inside a big arcade cabinet....

How many damn PCB boards to you want to troubleshoot, how many cap kits do you want to do each year....how many control panels do you want to have printed up? Sounds like more work than play to me.

I love MAME because it allows the enthusiast to have space for pinball machines, a pool table, foosball, darts, theater area, bar, bathroom & hell maybe even a stormtrooper.

Some games must be dedicated: paperboy, 720, mechanized attack & etc but everything else is fine.

This hobby is not all about playing video games; at least it isn't for me, and probably a lot of other people. In fact, playing video games isn't even close to being the most exciting thing in the world to do.

There is the restoration aspect of it; which is something many people enjoy, in and of itself; and not just with arcade machines.

There is the collecting aspect of it. Collecting is also a hobby for some people, in and of itself. Three of the most common forms of collecting involve items that you don't do anything with at all, beyond looking at them (coins, stamps, trading cards). For collecting to be satisfying, you need to have tangible things to collect; like Atari cartridges/boxes/manuals rather than ROMs on a hard drive plus scans of the box and manual. The same thing applies to arcade machines.

Wanting a complete set of items which belong together is a natural progression/extension of collecting; whether it is a complete set of 1955 Topps baseball cards; a complete set of Activision Atari cartridges (even a complete-as-possible set of Atari cartridges would probably be arranged into subgroups by the collector); or; a complete set of Nintendo arcade machines.

Nintendo is a particularly appealing category because all of their cabinets either look alike or bear a strong family resemblance; as opposed to something like Atari where a Star Wars looks nothing like a Centipede, which looks nothing like a Missile Command, etc.

Then of course there is the sense of nostalgia, and anyone with a halfway decent memory remembers most everything about the arcade machine, not just the gameplay; and tend to be nostalgic for all aspects of the machine.

So if you're just in this hobby to play games, then build a MAME machine with forty-eleven thousand ROMs and you're done. For others there is a lot more to it than playing games, and only original dedicated machines can scratch the itch.

[pinballwizard79]

Yeah I am def one of the people who just are in it for the games, gameroom & booze.

I dont understand stamp collectors either, I use email 

[TheShanMan]

Well stated, Maxim!

[TheBrokentoken]

Well stated, Maxim!

I will totally agree.  It's as much about the collecting/hunting/restoration process as it is about the game themselves.  I truly enjoy everything around the hobby and I think that getting "past" MAME and onto the dedicated cabs has increased my enjoyment by a huge degree. 

I'll (hopefully) always have a MAME cabinet for all the reasons specified herein, as you can't beat the form factor vs. utility function of it.

I'm definitely one of the "nintendo" guys referenced by PBW79.  Although I can see the validity of that argument, there is something about the Ninty cabinets that give unique persona and style (and feel) based on the game/artwork/CPO/etc.  I love all of the ones I have and am glad that I'm building such a row.... it looks so cool when they are all sitting next to each other.  It's one of the first things I look for when I see pictures of other peoples' game rooms..... can't help it... I just love Nintendo stuff.

[isucamper]

A MAME cabinet is great for figuring out which games you like enough to hunt down the original versions of.

[shardian]

Well stated, Maxim!

I will totally agree.  It's as much about the collecting/hunting/restoration process as it is about the game themselves.  I truly enjoy everything around the hobby and I think that getting "past" MAME and onto the dedicated cabs has increased my enjoyment by a huge degree. 

I'll (hopefully) always have a MAME cabinet for all the reasons specified herein, as you can't beat the form factor vs. utility function of it.

Agreed again.

I recently repaired a broken game pcb, and completely rebuilt the monitor chassis. Words cannot express how gratifying it was to see the fruits of my labor come to life. MAME cannot replicate that IMO.

I essentially took a piece of trash and made it new again. That is an aspect of this hobby I truly love.

Once you've made one MAME cabinet, you've made them all. Every real arcade machine is a new adventure.

[drventure]

Once you've made one MAME cabinet, you've made them all. Every real arcade machine is a new adventure.

I don't know about that. There are some +very+ interesting and creative cabs going on around here. There's a lot more standard/quick builds, but still, I think there's a LOT of creativity that can go into a mame cab build.

But I know exactly what you mean by taking something that was essentially trash and bringing it back from the dead. That is a really good feeling!

 

[TheShanMan]

True, but OTOH I would guess that the number of hellcades far outnumbers the number of truly creative, well-done examples.

[pinballwizard79]

Building a MAME cab is serious business & its takes decades.....just ask "pixelhugger" & his Mission Control 

[mj147]

Well personally I have 2 Mame cabinets and feel like I need a third    One is a mini and has snes and nes games while my full size is set up as a 2 player fighter style. My third is planed with a dedicated 4 way and vertically mounted monitor.

I recently acquired a Karate Champ in  need alot of work both cosmetically and structurally, but will enjoy the restoration aspect of it. KC has always been a favorite of mine but turning my Mame cab into a frankenpanel for it was not an option.

I love the shape and grafx of some of the older cabinets that a "standard" Mame cab just cant reproduce.

Currently looking for a nintendo and Neogeo cab in my area,   then maybe ill stop ................



mj147

 

[ryantheleach]

Mame for me, the only arcade games ive ever played are "remnants" or Jamma cabs,

the only original machine that I've properly played that I'm guaranteed is an original and not a conversion is a space invaders cocktail that dad had left over from when he had a pizza bar + arcade. he sold the rest but kept that!

so there is no "nostalgia" factor in it for me, plus the space/cost makes it fairly well impossible for me to even consider it.

[DJ_Izumi]

My problem is I prefer the 90's era of big and complicated machines over what you guys are playing.  Which sure, you can get the games running some emulators, you're stuck with subpar controls often because they demand more than a joystick and some buttons.

Hey, Alpine Racer works fine in MAME, but without an actual Alpine Racer cab or one HELL of a replica it will not even come CLOSE to be being the same as the arcade.

For light guns which I'm a fan of, I stick to console ports cause... It's just a MILLION times easier to get an authentic experience and easily going light guns on the console than it is with MAME.  ...Though I'm seriously considdering building some Time Crisis 2/3 duck pedals.  Apparently in TC 2 and 3, EVERY button on a connected DualShock acts as a duck button.  It'd be easy enough to wire up.

[bradx]

for me, mame cured the itch to get a bunch of video game cabs.  i had a centipede cocktail that was almost working in good condition and i traded it for an early 80s atari upright to mame just so i would have at least one working cab. 

mame is good for some 4 way and most 8 way joystick games.  i have it set up with 2 joysticks each with 6 buttons.  it has the original speakers and working coin door.

now what i want is a vertical cab to mame with a 4 way/8 way switchable joystick, a pac cab with multi pac installed, and a bunch of EMs and pins.