Arcade Buyer's Guide?

[system01]

Is there an Arcade Buyer's Guide?  Kinda like "The Wizard" for comics?

My buddy found a sit-down enclosure version of Pole Position.  Ive never seen these, and have no idea of value.

It would be nice if there was a Kelly Blue Book for this stuff, instead of just looking on ebay for what they're going for.

[CheffoJeffo]

There have been some attempts at price guides, but they are misleading at best as the pricing can be affected by so many factors, not the least of which is geography.

If you look at eBay, you are going to skew high on your prices, even if you only look at completed items.

As for a Pole Position cockpit, the big question is "Does it work ?". Pole Position boards are somewhat notorious for their ability to be a total PITA to keep running. The few people that I know with working boardsets keep a ton of spares as a result.

The fact that it is a cockpit may knock the price down a bit as it doesn't come apart nicely and BasementFittage(TM) can be a problem.

I've been offered, and turned down, a couple of non-working PP cockpits (never been offered one that is working), so the big question is "Does it work ?". If yes, it is easier to give a price. If not, then you need to take a look at the likely causes before you can gauge price.

[system01]

Nope, turns out it doesnt work.  He doesnt know whats wrong with it either; He's not an arcade kinda guy.

Turns out his company bought it new way back for an employee break room.  After a while the novelty wore off and it was "stored".  My friend found it a little while ago, took it apart, and got the go-ahead to take it home.  He doesnt know whats wrong, and I havent done any troubleshooting with him or anything.  I havent seen it either being on the other side of the US.  He says its in real good shape though, in and out.

How much would this go for as-is (assuming is the PCB), and how much in working order?  Is it worth it to fix it up?

Thx Cheffo

[CheffoJeffo]

Working Pole Position boards are tough to find.

Dick Donlan wrote an article on Pole Position in the October 2005 issue of GameRoom Magazine. Among the problems he discusses are the plethora of custom chips, interconnect board (connects the CPU and video boards), and flaky power. He does mention that the self-tests are very good.

Part of me says "yes" worth it to fix up, particularly if the cab is in good shape, but if it were me I would probably drop a PC in it and run MAME for Pole Position, Pole Position II and other 360 goodness.

I did come across a price list and it looks reasonable, although prices have been dropping lately.

http://www.arcade-classics.com/price_guide.html

[system01]

Thx for the info, Ill pass it on.

[SavannahLion]

Dick Donlan wrote an article on Pole Position in the October 2005 issue of GameRoom Magazine. Among the problems he discusses are the plethora of custom chips, interconnect board (connects the CPU and video boards), and flaky power. He does mention that the self-tests are very good.

Someone around here, I forget who, built this sort of composite multi-board to replace various failed boards on Midway(?) cabinets(?)to fill missing functionality. Has any sort of attempt ever been made with PP and the custom chips? You figure since MAME did a lot of work on the functionality of the custom chips, someone else might have done the work to port that functionality into a replacement board say... with an FPG for instance.

[Blanka]

Or hack this one to get PP working 

[Ummon]

Dick Donlan wrote an article on Pole Position in the October 2005 issue of GameRoom Magazine. Among the problems he discusses are the plethora of custom chips, interconnect board (connects the CPU and video boards), and flaky power. He does mention that the self-tests are very good.

Someone around here, I forget who, built this sort of composite multi-board to replace various failed boards on Midway(?) cabinets(?)to fill missing functionality. Has any sort of attempt ever been made with PP and the custom chips? You figure since MAME did a lot of work on the functionality of the custom chips, someone else might have done the work to port that functionality into a replacement board say... with an FPG for instance.

Yeah, JROK. Just recently.

[CheffoJeffo]

jrok did it (and did a bloody brilliant job) with the 5-board (and 6-board if you count the Sinistar cockpit) Williams games.

Other FPGA work can be found here:

http://www.fpgaarcade.com/games.htm

[SavannahLion]

jrok did it (and did a bloody brilliant job) with the 5-board (and 6-board if you count the Sinistar cockpit) Williams games.

Other FPGA work can be found here:

http://www.fpgaarcade.com/games.htm

Yep, that's the one.

Thanks for the fpgaarcade.com link. Someone around here was showing me some stuff about FPGA's and that was one link I misplaced.