Moon Patrol (I'll never see it again).

[paigeoliver]

93 in 1 vertical 4-way cabinet. Only horizontal game on it is Moon Patrol (which I stretched to vertical). Only did that because Moon Patrol was the only marquee I had that fit the cabinet.

Total build time 5 hours, half of which was spent trying to get ANY vertical frontend to function. I finally got vertiwah to work.

I'll never see it again, it is going to Superauctions tommorrow.

[Chris]

You should put a vertical jukebox on it just because you can...

[paigeoliver]

I am not going to have enough time. I had to come up to the library to check something, so I figured I would post a picture of it. I still need to finish up a couple things (bolt the computer down, secure the innards etc), and I need to do them FAST cause Becky's birthday party is tonight.

[Chris]

Did you build this one just to auction?  And is that a Golden Tee "grass" CP overlay?

[paigeoliver]

Yes, I built it just for the auction. Yes that is a Golden Tee overlay (I had part of one left, it was enough to cover the panel).

Their were 5 Mame cabinets at that Auction. Mine was the only one that wasn't a buyback, mine went for $550, the other sellers all bought theirs back. I also sold my Stunt Cycle for a paltry $120 (it was the LAST working game sold), and my Magical Touch for $125.

[TOK]

Damn! I would have upped the bidding on that Stunt Cycle.
Its the first coin-op I ever played, so even though it's simple I love it.

[Wade]

Why not use Game Launcher, I thought I read that you've used it quite a bit before.  I use it in a vertical cocktail.

Wish I could turn that kind of cash for my games.  I have put HOURS and HOURS into my Mame cocktail and built it very well, and I never got any takers at $500.  Maybe it'd do better at an auction, but I have never tried it.  I guess I wouldn't have put so much effort into it if my intentions were just to auction it though.  I have never tried to slap something together quickly, I always try to build something nice because if I keep it, I want it to be nice, and if I sell it, I don't want someone to think I'm a jackleg.   I'm not saying I'm not above throwing something together for an auction , I just haven't tried that yet.

Wade

[paigeoliver]

I DO usually use gamelauncher. I couldn't get it to work this time, and with no internet at home (and me having to go to the library with floppy disks), well I saw vertiwah fit on a floppy, I crossed my fingers and downloaded it. It mostly worked, the pictures didn't work, and one time in 10 it would lose focus coming out of the game and then NOT WORK, and the screenshots didn't work. But that beat gamelauncher which COULDN'T GENERATE THE GAMELIST, and even when I skipped all that and set it up manually it would drop instantly back to the menu. I even tried Mamewah, but at first the images wouldn't show up (until I copied some mystery files), but I couldn't get rid of the horizotal gamelist, it still showed up even if I unchecked it in the layout program).

Note to ALL frontend developers. Could you PLEASE at least TRY your frontends out on fresh win 98 and fresh WinXP installs? A huge percentage of frontends out there won't work correctly out of the box on a fresh install, and most people using your frontend for a cabinet are going to have a fresh install.

Also, I noticed an undocumented "feature" in vertiwah. It will conviently override your freaking mame settings and run all the vertical games HORIZONTALLY unless you install it in the mame directory itself.

I am still on the lookout for a frontend that actually works 100 percent, all the time, on a fresh OS install, that is NOT dependent on any specific mame version. As far as I know there STILL isn't a frontend that you can simply tell the location of the rom folder and the mame.exe file and it just WORKS. Nope, not after 7 years of frontends. Mamewah is darn close though, if it actually worked on a fresh windows 98 install then it would be golden.

[Wade]

Couldn't you copy GL from one of your other Mame machines?  I know what you mean though, I had problems setting up GL initially in the past, mostly because it is real picky about the config file (something like the slashes or the paths had to be "just right" and it wasn't the way paths are usually entered).

Since learning this lesson, I just copy the same tree from one PC to the next because I always use DOS GL and Mame.  Every time I have done that I have had no problem with setup whatsoever.  GL also builds new game lists fine, sees the snaps, etc.

I know what you mean about the stuff not setting up correctly.  But the problem is these pieces of software are written as a hobby, and they just don't go the extra mile that they would if they were writing a commercial piece of software, where user satisfaction is priority #1.  Can't blame them, I guess.

Wade

[LeedsFan]

I know what you mean about the stuff not setting up correctly.

[quarterback]

If it were a commercial project you'd probably get an update or two but the support would eventually stop so that the company could move onto it's next money spinning project. PC games are a perfect example..... you get patches coming out for a while but the support soon stops.

I dissagree about PC games being a perfect example.  In fact, PC games are the exact opposite.  They start off at a relatively expensive price point and then plummet (along with any support).  Why?  Because they're disposable.  Nobody expects you to be playing "Leisure Suit Larry 1" after 1988.  Heck, that's why you can download Grand Theft Auto and GTA2 for FREE from Rockstar games.   Why?  Because they're done with them.  They don't expect people to buy them anymore.

This is totally different from a piece of software that the company expects to continue to sell.  Unless the software is completely AWESOME already, the company HAS to keep up with with things if they want to continue selling the software.   Games, on the other hand, don't need continued support because the company has no plans on selling them for very long at all.

[solfood]

ahem...I just played Leisure Suit Larry AND Police Quest I.  Good stuff.

Paige, why do you have a house full of arcade games and computers but NO internet?

[Stormy151]

Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest...*SIGH*

I miss the old Sierra games.  Good times....

[quarterback]

Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest...*SIGH*

I miss the old Sierra games.

[Daniel270]

Talking about older PC games...

I JUST won and recieved a copy of a Strategy game I owned before called "Dark Legions" off of Ebay....  (got stupid and GAVE my old copy to my cousin)...

Great game... build an army with so many credits and go against a computer army of similar strength and power....vaguely like chess, but with monsters 

[SirPeale]

Paige, why do you have a house full of arcade games and computers but NO internet?

Last I knew, the hotel he worked @ had broadband, and he used it there.

[unclet]

I am still crying that the Stunt Cycle went for only $120 ...... I wish I was at the auction......

[paigeoliver]

I am still crying that the Stunt Cycle went for only $120 ...... I wish I was at the auction......

The problem was that it was the last working game sold. ONE GUY waited around all day (a first time buyer) to buy it and he beat out a reseller in the bidding.  I probably could have upped it an increment myself, but I got slightly more than my "bring it back home" prices on my other two games, so I just let the Stunt Cycle go so I wouldn't have to take anything back home.

Yes, I live in a house full (less full these days) of games and computers and have no internet. It just isn't worth the cost to me, not with me having free broadband at work. I don't have a home phone, or cable, and getting internet would require me to get one of those items, which would make it pretty pricey.