Project: Aesthetically Pleasing Arcade

[DannyH]

Yeah..Its taken me months to convince the mrs that an arcade machine for our apartments living room is a good idea. As soon as she said yes i went and bought the following

Control: X-Arcade Dual Controller
Monitor: 19inch Compaq MV90 $30 AUD (ebay)
PC: PIII 500Mhz, 500MB ram, 40GB HD, 16MB TNT 2 (Free from works junk piles)

I am now on the look out for the next piece of the puzzle. A small arcde machine. I may end up coming up with plans myself but am going to be either designing it around an LAI low-boy or the urban arcade machine at httP;//www.blacklight.com.au/urban

If anyone has any stripped or junk Lowboys in the greater Sydney Australia area I would be very interested.

Cheers
Danny

[Bones]

Wow! Another western Sydney boy. Welcome aboard!

Lowboys..... I have been out to Kingswood (Penrith way) a couple of times and visited this place http://www.kfe.com.au .

He has a lot of junk and both times I was there I am positive I seen a lowboy style cab. He is a crusty old bastard but might be worth a visit. (I don't think you would get much sense/service out of him over the phone and he confessed to not answering his emails to me one day.....)

Good luck!

[DannyH]

sounds good. Its a fair drive (I live in the north of Sydney) but will definately be worth the drive if i can pick myself up a lowboy. A friend picked one up for $60 which is cheaper than I can get the wood for

Now have to convince my GF that a drive to Penrith is a good idea for a day out on sunday

[DannyH]

Just gave him a call and he doesnt have any left at the moment. Said he guts them then puts them straight on ebay let him know I was on the lookout for a lowboy if one becomes available

[Bones]

Ohhh... North Sydney. I thought you said greater Sydney which is obviously in the west. 

Good excuse to go to Penrith Leagues. 

[DannyH]

lol true....unfortunately my Girlfriends grandparents live out at Penrith so I am afraid a drive out there would coincide with a visit......torture!

oh well I will keep looking and if worst comes to worst I will employ the skills of my brother in law (a carpenter) to put one together for me

[DannyH]

found a cab but its in brisbane. need to find out freight cost now

[Bones]

I can sense a roadtrip approaching....

[DannyH]

The guy said he would ship it for $99 so thats $160 for cab with controls, Glass, 2 coin mechs, Power and wiring.

Kind of close tobeing worth it but when I get it I need to strip the power, controls and wire and then stripit back, refit my controls, monitor and paint it.

Kind ofmore keen if it were around the $200 mark all up including shipping rather than $260.

I guess the only bonus would be icould re-sell some of the parts and maybe re-sell the 2 coin mechs tomake up some money.

arggghhhh.

Off to see my brother in alw to see how he would go making it this weekend

[paigeoliver]

Coin mechs aren't worth anything, so don't count on them bringing you in any money.

Also, how would one make an x-arcade bolted onto ANYTHING look "Aesthetically Pleasing"? I have seen around 100 of those setups, and never once have I seen one that looked good.

[DannyH]

Also, how would one make an x-arcade bolted onto ANYTHING look "Aesthetically Pleasing"? I have seen around 100 of those setups, and never once have I seen one that looked good.

The scale model I made comes out perfectly.

I am making a lip that comes out from the current control panel bottom and making some cuts in the side. This will then let the x-arcade sit flush with the bottom of the mnitor and stick out only as far as it needs to. The will be removing the bottom of the x-arcade and screwing it to the lip with the existing holes.

The Front of the Cab will be stripped back and painted a low gloss Black to match the x-arcade

The sides of the cabinet will be a rich -medium blue with blue t-moulding and a "Mame" marquee.

I will also put a solid black overlay onto the x-arcade.

Essentially it is going to look somewhat like http://www.blacklight.com.au/urban but with a marquee

[DannyH]

oh and if i can make $10 each from the coin mechs I will be happy as it should bring the price down a bit. For every part I can sell the more it reduces the price. I will also be offloading a few Hard drives and other stuff I have laying around

[paigeoliver]

oh and if i can make $10 each from the coin mechs I will be happy as it should bring the price down a bit. For every part I can sell the more it reduces the price. I will also be offloading a few Hard drives and other stuff I have laying around

Brand new mechs are only like $4. Really they are worthless, used they are worth like $1 each.

[Bones]

The arcade business here is very different.

A search on ebay Australia for

[DannyH]

Sure is a good price.

Any you are right about the coin mechs and doors. I found the same one as the 2 on this machine for $40 per Mech, a whole thing with cash box could actually make up the price.

I am borking abit at the $160 price tag for the cab as it is essenitally a gutted machine i want and I will be getting one I need to gut.

Amusement worx are having an auction in adelaide this week and I have asked for a catalogue if they have something I will send a friend in or try to bid by phone and get myself one from them for a lot cheaper and pay the fees.

All this has inspired me to make a new site though

[paigeoliver]

When you guys say "mech" are you refering to the little plastic (or metal) rectangle inside the coin door that either takes or rejects the coin, or are you referring to the whole coin door?

It is the little rectangle inside the coin door that is called the mech, and unless something is completely different about the industry in Au, I would still have to say they are worthless. Mostly you don't even see them for sale because no one ever needs them, and anyone who has anything to do with the industry or collecting has more than they know what to do with (every machine comes with two of them, they never fail, and every parted machine spits out two of them).

[DannyH]

a quick look on ebay shows that they often go on average for between $10 and $100 usually around the $30 mark.

The thing with the Aussie market is that there isnt an abundance of machines. Thats why prices are higher

[paigeoliver]

When you say "Mech" are you talking about THIS.



Or THIS.



The first one is a coin mech, they are a small part of a coin door. The large or small number of machines in the country is unrelated to the value of coin mechs, the very nature of them insures that they will always greatly outnumber the number of machines in circulation.

Lot of 4 of them, unsold for $10 AUD.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=6190136826&rd=1

Or are you talking about the vending machine style coin acceptors that some cocktails have on them?

[DannyH]

I must say I dont quite get your reason for pursuing a dead argument.

I am talking about the Mech the top one. However I will be selling a metallic face with it, which is the older style one. I have been monitoring ebay and seen them going for anywhere up to $40 over the last few weeks.

Eitherway, if i can only make $10 its $10 I save.

Get the drift. any $$$ I make off of selling the parts I dont need is a bonus, whether I get $1 or $100

[paigeoliver]

Ok, you are talking about a complete coin acceptor unit, which is something else entirely.

The reason I kept up with this was that hearing someone expecting to get any sort of money for just the "coin mech" which is JUST the square thing in the top picture, was just rediculous to me. But apparently the terminology for what a "coin mech" is in Australia is completely different from the rest of the world, in the rest of the world it is just the rectangle thing.

Gonna leave a big hole in the machine where it was, or was it on the control panel?

[DannyH]

I am making a new front for it. to make the x-arcade fit in better. Its essentially going to be a sheet of ply painted black and running fromt he x-arcade to the kick board.

The biggest challenge is making this thing pleasing to the eye and the mrs

[paigeoliver]

I am making a new front for it. to make the x-arcade fit in better. Its essentially going to be a sheet of ply painted black and running fromt he x-arcade to the kick board.

The biggest challenge is making this thing pleasing to the eye and the mrs

Well, sounds like a neat project, be sure and go to the "older mame versions" in the mame.net download area and download mame version .55, that is the one that will run the most games full speed on the computer you mentioned in your first post.

[DannyH]

thanks for the tip. I have the latest version running with gameex but may move back to that one.

cheers

[paigeoliver]

thanks for the tip. I have the latest version running with gameex but may move back to that one.

cheers

Heavens yes, latest version is too slow for that old hardware, version .55 should run everything full speed with MAYBE 1 or 2 exceptions. Current version will have tons of games in it that would have run full speed on .55 on your hardware, but won't even be close with the current version.

[steptoe]

hey guys,

Bathurst here, just thought id say g,day. I just finished my first cab 4 player, got most od the stuff from USA, cheaper then here including shipping, id prefer from here but when you are buying 4 joystick and 60 buttons it makes a big difference, anyway have fun and good luck.

Steptoe