Full size arcade games for home

The older games are problematic to keep working. I routinely had to go back and reflow connections and such whenever I moved my classics. Frankly, a lot of those games are well past their age design parameters.

Galaga was re-released by Namco in conjunction with Ms. Pac Man a few years back. Unless you just have to have the original version, the newer version is a better deal in terms of monitor size and reliability.

For many of the classic games, an emulator is the best bet. A good MAME cabinet can feature hundreds of games and only take up the space of one. Google for MAME and you should get some good hits.

Golden Tee and other newer machines, I don't know anything about.
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they're non-trivial to maintain. it's very old technology. boards fry. memory chips fail. controllers break. monitors die.

as a general rule, if you want to build a collection, you need to be pretty handy with a soldering iron to maintain it.

of course there are services that'll do it for you if you want to pay.

ebay is a decent indicator of pricing. as a rule, good-quality units are expensive these days. in part due to scarcity - a lot of arcade owners would cannibalize a game to put a newer, more profitable game into that box - so originals are hard to find.

you CAN get some cool stuff with modern tech and swappable control panels and whatnot so you can play a bunch of (a dozen; or even more) games on one box - which is pretty cool, but it's also not historically accurate - if that's what you're going for.

i'm a Robotron addict. i've managed to avoid buying one for all these years, as i know i'd lose many many hours per day on it.

doody.

 

All so true. The vector games particularly (Star Trek, Star Wars, Space Duel, Asteroids, Battlezone etc) cannot be truly replicated on an emulator, but the monitors are flaky as heck. The Sega ones in particular are prone to bursting into flame. Never leave an old arcade game plugged in and unattended.

The emulators can really work well as long as there's not unique controls to the original game. Spyhunter is a great example of a game that will run on an emulator, but not really feel right. The same can be said for Sinistar -- the original joystick is a 49-way device (!).

Regarding pricing, 10 or 15 years ago there were real bargains out there. Today all the operators know about ebay, and so pricing really does follow that market closely. Try to find a local operator or retailer to buy from so that you can get some post-purchase support for the thing.

I've converted to pinball machines these days, more analog

 

My lived in the 50's and 60s Father started collecting them when hard work and God blessed his business with some good times. What turned into a hobby, became an addicition as there are over 20 in the basement/gameroom downstairs at his home. I am going to be given a few for my new home just to make room for the new ones he wishes for such as pinball versions of Harley-Davidson and Elvis. Stern is the only name in town for new pinball and design guru Steve Ritchie, ( the Gordon Murray of pinball, ) came over from Williams to Stern and pretty much is the name you look for in the silver ball. As for the arcades, we have one company that does a great job service/sales and maintains some high profile clients in the midwest. They're called American Amusements, located in the western burbs of Chicago. Even if they can not help you, Im certain they have the connections to point you in the right direction locally.

Best of luck,

RocketBoy

 

eek! you're a REAL glutton for punishment!



someday i'll buy me a Twilight Zone....

doody.

 

Ritchie for flow, Pat Lawlor for ball control and target shooting, Brian Eddy for sheer fun

 

BUT....can the new version do the "Galaga Trick"?

 

Doesn't that get you some time in the local gray bar motel?

 

Is that the one where you hit 2 ships with one shot in the first level, get killed without firing another shot, and end up having a 200% firing accuracy? I did that once on the emulator

 

As said what you guys want is a MAME. Mulitple Arcade Machine Emulator.

It looks like an 80s arcade machine but has the guts of a basic desk top computer. Allows you to play 100s of games with the same Arcade Cabinet or Cocktail Cabinet.
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Man - how many quarters Scott, Greg, Dana and I put in this thing...
http://www.klov.com/D/Defender.html

 

Yep, this is all you need!

When I have some play money, I want to collect vintage video games, including obscure systems like Intellivision, Atari 5200, 3D0, etc. I just wish I hadn't sold all of my previous systems .

 

http://www.mameworld.net/

They are original ROMS (which sometimes causes copyright problems). Most of the download sites for the ROMS are offline, but there's people on ebay who sell large selections on CD.

The emulator software and front end software is freely available for download. You don't need a full size cabinet, but if you want one you can either build one or buy one ready to go. The control panels are available prebuilt or as kits, and a regular PC is all that's needed at the heart of the system.

If you don't want to spend the time to scratchbuild it, try http://www.dreamauthentics.com/ I don't know anything about them, but their cabinet on ebay seemed like a decent piece. Kinda pricy, but I'm a cheap son-of-a-gun

 

I'd consider letting go of my Atari Jaguar collection for the right price...

 

here is some of mine
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That bring back memories. MANY lost hours down at the Spaceport at the mall.....

 

Woodlands VT & Lightguy has a very impressive collection.

 

No. It's the one where you avoid the last guy on the right until he stops shooting..... then they don't shoot anymore.

 

I just moved this into my basement over the weekend. If you want something bad enough, you'll make it fit!
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NICE!