Is there demand for retro games onsite?

[rchadd]

In the UK you never see any retro arcade games anymore...

I am wondering if there would be demand for placing retro tabletop machines on sites such as clubs and pubs on 50:50 split type arrangement?

Would retro games make money?

Is there a demand? I think there might be but depends on the establishment...

Which games would be best money makers?

Galaxians
Galaga
Pacman
Frogger
Space Invaders...

any others?

Clearly only genuine game pcbs would be used (not Mame!)

[paigeoliver]

Not really much any demand, and they don't make much money. Ms. Pac (Speedup only) and Galaga (speedup only) are the only classics that ever get any real coin dropped into them, and it aint much.

[JoyMonkey]

I was at a bar in Boston over the weekend (actually it was Kings Bowling) and they have a showcase-style machine with a 36" vertical monitor running what looked like a homebrew front-end and Frogger, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, MsPac-Man (with speedup hack), 1942, BurgerTime, Galaga, Dig Dug and Rally-X.
The thing had a messed up 8-way joystick that sprung back too hard, so when you moved it forward and then centered it, it would always hit down- this made Frogger a complete pain in the arse and Donkey Kong was impossible.
One nice thing was that when you selected a game in the frontend (after inserting coins), the screen faded straight to the games title screen very smoothly. The atract mode fades in and out of each games attract mode- as if the games are constantly running behind the frontend.

There were people constantly playing it. I can't see Namco allowing people to put it's roms in a machine alongside Nintendo and Capcom games though, so I'm sure it's completely illegal.

[ChadTower]

I used to live within walking distance of that place yet don't remember it.  Wonder how long it has been there.

[rchadd]

wow i wonder how that FE works?

Is it possible to take a snapshot of a running windows process (eg. mame running pacman) and save it to disk? Then restore the process from disk bypassing the rom startup procedure and jump straight to the games attract mode?

how does it pass the coin count to it?

[rchadd]

I can't see Namco allowing people to put it's roms in a machine alongside Nintendo and Capcom games though, so I'm sure it's completely illegal.

But is there anyone actually policing such use of mame and illegal roms in a commercial environment? (apart from Ultracade!!!)

[JoyMonkey]

Uh oh, I can see this thread opening one of these:

[rchadd]

just to clarify that i have no plans to use mame in a commercial environment!

before anyone starts jumping to conclusions...

[Crazy Cooter]

You could probably make more with gumball machines around here.  In the last year, I've seen 1 (one) game on location.  (not counting at bars)

[Hoagie_one]

there is a galaga \ mspac reunion machine at the local movie theatre....no one ever plays it, except me

[rchadd]

I was at a bar in Boston over the weekend (actually it was Kings Bowling) and they have a showcase-style machine with a 36" vertical monitor running what looked like a homebrew front-end and Frogger, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, MsPac-Man (with speedup hack), 1942, BurgerTime, Galaga, Dig Dug and Rally-X.
The thing had a messed up 8-way joystick that sprung back too hard, so when you moved it forward and then centered it, it would always hit down- this made Frogger a complete pain in the arse and Donkey Kong was impossible.
One nice thing was that when you selected a game in the frontend (after inserting coins), the screen faded straight to the games title screen very smoothly. The atract mode fades in and out of each games attract mode- as if the games are constantly running behind the frontend.

There were people constantly playing it. I can't see Namco allowing people to put it's roms in a machine alongside Nintendo and Capcom games though, so I'm sure it's completely illegal.

hey the FE sounds like something like this (see screenshots on page 3). Is it?

http://www.jsclassics.net/jsclassicsmultiplay.pdf

It even states it is based on MAME!

i am wondering how it handles passing the coins count into the game?

[paigeoliver]

I was at a bar in Boston over the weekend (actually it was Kings Bowling) and they have a showcase-style machine with a 36" vertical monitor running what looked like a homebrew front-end and Frogger, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, MsPac-Man (with speedup hack), 1942, BurgerTime, Galaga, Dig Dug and Rally-X.
The thing had a messed up 8-way joystick that sprung back too hard, so when you moved it forward and then centered it, it would always hit down- this made Frogger a complete pain in the arse and Donkey Kong was impossible.
One nice thing was that when you selected a game in the frontend (after inserting coins), the screen faded straight to the games title screen very smoothly. The atract mode fades in and out of each games attract mode- as if the games are constantly running behind the frontend.

There were people constantly playing it. I can't see Namco allowing people to put it's roms in a machine alongside Nintendo and Capcom games though, so I'm sure it's completely illegal.

hey the FE sounds like something like this (see screenshots on page 3). Is it?

http://www.jsclassics.net/jsclassicsmultiplay.pdf

It even states it is based on MAME!

i am wondering how it handles passing the coins count into the game?

It is almost certainly just a 9 in 1 board, and not a Mame cabinet. Every game listed is available on the X-In-1 Jamma boards. I see those on location fairly frequently, still never seen a Mame cabinet on location.

[JoyMonkey]

hey the FE sounds like something like this (see screenshots on page 3). Is it?

http://www.jsclassics.net/jsclassicsmultiplay.pdf

It even states it is based on MAME!

i am wondering how it handles passing the coins count into the game?

It is almost certainly just a 9 in 1 board, and not a Mame cabinet. Every game listed is available on the X-In-1 Jamma boards. I see those on location fairly frequently, still never seen a Mame cabinet on location.

It's not that frontend anyway.
It could be a 9 in 1 board alright. You put coins in at the frontend and it passes them through to the game you select (kind of like an AdvMame script). As soon as it's game-over and you put in your name (hiscores weren't saved) it fades back to the front-end. Could all be done with some creative scripting, but I doubt it.
The control panel had the company logo on it, I know I've seen it before; it's an American football player with the company name below it (can't remember what the comapny was, I was on a drinking mission).

[rchadd]

hey i just won this on ebay its wired for jamma

where can i get one of those 9 in 1 jamma boards?

what games do they have on it?

[JoyMonkey]

I don't have any experience with these multi-boards, but I known that ArcadeShop.com sells some kind of multi-pcb here:
http://arcadeshop.com/multi-pcb/multi-pcb.htm

There's probably someone closer to you that sells them, but you'd probably get a good deal by taking advantage of the cheap dollar (thank you very much GWB   ).

[rchadd]

hey that looks great but pity there are not bombjack, scramble, galaxian, galaga or pacmans for it

is it running an emulator?

are they the real games?

i am bit confused i thought moon patrol was for horizontal monitor