Arcade cabs and boards

[Vagla]

So does anyone here have any arcade games? If so, what games and cabinets do you have?

I currently have the following boards:

Black Tiger
Break Thru
Desert Assault (4p)
Final Fight
Last Duel
Logic Pro 2
Mr. Driller
Ninja Gaiden
Super Dodge Ball
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (2p)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (4p)
Tetris (Atari)
Tetris Plus 2

Additionally, Silk Worm, Klax, and Total Carnage (the sequel to Smash T.V.; I prefer it to the original) are currently en route, so I should have them soon, and I also have a Sunset Riders board with some color problems that's on the other side of the country being repaired by a friend. I also expect to buy Stack Columns and Battletoads soon. Note that my Black Tiger board also has some graphical issues (the dragon doesn't show up at all in the intro for some reason, and chip 13 (a graphics chip) is being totally ignored by the game. The data on the chips might be rotting or something. I'll have to try burning new chips for it), but they're not as bad as the Sunset Riders problem. As for arcade cabinets, I run all of these in a Super Dodge Ball cab (it's JAMMA), which is in okay condition. I also got my hands on some side art recently for Rushing Heroes, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Turbo Force, American Speedway, and R-Type 2, which is all pretty cool (especially the R-Type 2 art).

But anyway, I hope I'm not the only arcade gamer here. Does anyone else have any games?

[MottZilla]

Woah, I certainly dig all the cabinets you've got. I wish I had some cabinets but unfortunately I'd have no where to put them, and insufficant funds to maintain a bunch.

I do however own a Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting PCB. I was thinking about tracking down a complete Mortal Kombat board set, as well as the Killer Instinct board and Harddisk. I am a big arcade gamer esspecially on some of the early fighters as you can see. Whenever I get the money and the place for them I hope to make quite a collection of nice arcade cabinets.

[Vagla]

Nonono, those are all boards, not cabs. I only have one cab, and it's a Super Dodge Ball one (which was converted from Missile Command. It only has 2 buttons per player, unfortunately). I plan to get a few more cabinets (4 player, 2 player vertical screen, 6 button (for fighters), Neo Geo MVS), but at the moment it's not absolutely necessary.

It doesn't take that much money to get a good arcade collection going so long as you're not getting a cab for each game (and the game you're getting isn't horribly rare). I tend to spend between 10 and 40 dollars plus shipping for games, so it's really not all that pricey; at worst, it's like buying a new console game.

But yeah, let me know if you start getting more arcade games. It's always a fun topic to discuss. :)

[MottZilla]

Ah I must not have read that right the first time. So do you play all your games in that cabinet or do you have a jamma rig put together? Personally I'd just get a jamma rig built opposed to a cabinet for the size factor. The only downside is not all TVs are very compatable with games that don't sync at 60hz, such as motral kombat and killer instinct. However coincidentally those are both games I'd want to get original cabinets or remade cabinets of. I'd want all the cabinet art and original control panel and such. That or something that looks just as good.

[Vagla]

I play on my Super Dodge Ball cab, though I wouldn't mind making a JAMMA rig (superguns, they're apparently called) for convenience. And yeah, I'd like to at least get one new cab that looks better than my current one. In other news, I might get Smash TV soon, which would be pretty cool. Fun game. :)

[MottZilla]

http://www.massystems.com makes the SuperNova jamma rig with a whopping 200$ price tag as I recall. It's very shiney but too much in my opinion. Jamma rigs can be constructed for alot less if you gut other electronics, like old used cheap system parts. If you know how to do it it's really nice if you can construct a controller adapter to use something like a PSX controller, although there is the drawback of controller configuration unless you build it so you can reroute switches.

I have thought many times about making a jamma rig, but it takes time, money, and alot of effort.

[MottZilla]

http://www.massystems.com makes the SuperNova jamma rig with a whopping 200$ price tag as I recall. It's very shiney but too much in my opinion. Jamma rigs can be constructed for alot less if you gut other electronics, like old used cheap system parts. If you know how to do it it's really nice if you can construct a controller adapter to use something like a PSX controller, although there is the drawback of controller configuration unless you build it so you can reroute switches.

I have thought many times about making a jamma rig, but it takes time, money, and alot of effort.

[Vagla]

$300, it looks like, but it does look pretty nice. Seems like it'd be a pain to play some good games on it like Smash TV and Total Carnage, though, because of the controls, which kinda sucks. I'm currently battling with the controls for Total Carnage (and the sound, but that can be solved by just wiring up a removable potentiometer); my solution is going to be to use a 4PDT to swap controls so that you can only play one player, but that player uses both joysticks. Not the ideal solution, but better than 2 players who can only fire in 2 of 8 directions. ;) I also really need some new joysticks since the current ones are pretty crappy (especially the second player stick). I can't buy the ones I want right now, though, because they're a whopping $70 for a pair. Blah.

[Vagla]

$300, it looks like, but it does look pretty nice. Seems like it'd be a pain to play some good games on it like Smash TV and Total Carnage, though, because of the controls, which kinda sucks. I'm currently battling with the controls for Total Carnage (and the sound, but that can be solved by just wiring up a removable potentiometer); my solution is going to be to use a 4PDT to swap controls so that you can only play one player, but that player uses both joysticks. Not the ideal solution, but better than 2 players who can only fire in 2 of 8 directions. ;) I also really need some new joysticks since the current ones are pretty crappy (especially the second player stick). I can't buy the ones I want right now, though, because they're a whopping $70 for a pair. Blah.

[MottZilla]

Ya, it's "standard" 6 button controller really doesn't work unless you are playing like Capcom games, which use that exact setup. Mortal Kombat and other odd things like NeoGeo use a bit different setups. That is why I think a jamma rig really requires remappable input through connectors of some kind.

I can't afford any jamma stuff right now, other things came first when I had money to spend. If I ever get a jamma rig though, I'd wanna build a ghetto rig, just shamelessly gutting whatever old system parts I can find. =D

[MottZilla]

Ya, it's "standard" 6 button controller really doesn't work unless you are playing like Capcom games, which use that exact setup. Mortal Kombat and other odd things like NeoGeo use a bit different setups. That is why I think a jamma rig really requires remappable input through connectors of some kind.

I can't afford any jamma stuff right now, other things came first when I had money to spend. If I ever get a jamma rig though, I'd wanna build a ghetto rig, just shamelessly gutting whatever old system parts I can find. =D

[DarkDragoonX]

Heh... Black Tiger is an awesome game... wish I had a cabinet of it. An arcade in town is selling a crapload of old arcade cabinets (including Joust and Defender!). If I had a spare thousand dollars, I'd pick one of them up.

[DarkDragoonX]

Heh... Black Tiger is an awesome game... wish I had a cabinet of it. An arcade in town is selling a crapload of old arcade cabinets (including Joust and Defender!). If I had a spare thousand dollars, I'd pick one of them up.

[DsS Game]

Hmmm I could never own a cab or board. Too expensive in my book even though I do play beta games down in Jersey. I tried out Tekken 5 before it came out. Lucky me that I was in time before they took it off.

[DsS Game]

Hmmm I could never own a cab or board. Too expensive in my book even though I do play beta games down in Jersey. I tried out Tekken 5 before it came out. Lucky me that I was in time before they took it off.

[MottZilla]

Arcade Cabinets can be obtained for far less than 1000$ if you know how to shop. Also, unless its one of the ubber large screen cabs or an original authentic game, you're getting screwwed if you pay 1000$. For that much you could build your own very nice cabinet.

[MottZilla]

Arcade Cabinets can be obtained for far less than 1000$ if you know how to shop. Also, unless its one of the ubber large screen cabs or an original authentic game, you're getting screwwed if you pay 1000$. For that much you could build your own very nice cabinet.

[Vagla]

Indeed. My cabinet cost me about $90, which wasn't too bad. I'm sure I could do a bit better if I were shopping around now, since I actually know something about this stuff after having been fiddling with it for almost a year. ;)

I might be able to get my hands on a Total Carnage volume adjuster, so it looks like I won't need to build one. Whoo. Always nice to have the original stuff, heh. Also, I'm considering getting a new Black Tiger board, since I still don't know what's wrong with mine. *shrugs* At least the first half of the game works pretty much fine. A lot of this is going to have to wait, though, since I'm pretty low on cash; I can't play several of my current games properly without some 4PDTs, so that'll probably be the next thing I get. Ninja Gaiden, Total Carnage, and The Last Duel require them to be controlled right with my control setup, and I expect I'll need more in the future, so I'll likely get 10 of them. Catering to all these different games is expensive. -_-

Oh, if you want to get old games and don't care about a dedicated cabinet, you should be able to get a JAMMA cabinet and the game you want for not too much money and then build an adapter. However, dedicated cabs for these games usually don't cost that much; in fact, you probably wouldn't have to spend more than $250, so long as you're willing to pick up the game (shipping these things is a ridiculous $200 or so).

I'm currently thinking of building a mini cabinet sometime that could be put on a table or something. A huge amount of the space inside arcade cabs is unused; all you really need is space for the monitor, speakers, power supplies, and board. Granted, that means that working inside the thing would be more of a pain (I'm totally afraid of going anywhere near the monitor, since it stores up such a large amount of power even when it's not on), but it'd be worth it for the smaller size.

[Vagla]

Indeed. My cabinet cost me about $90, which wasn't too bad. I'm sure I could do a bit better if I were shopping around now, since I actually know something about this stuff after having been fiddling with it for almost a year. ;)

I might be able to get my hands on a Total Carnage volume adjuster, so it looks like I won't need to build one. Whoo. Always nice to have the original stuff, heh. Also, I'm considering getting a new Black Tiger board, since I still don't know what's wrong with mine. *shrugs* At least the first half of the game works pretty much fine. A lot of this is going to have to wait, though, since I'm pretty low on cash; I can't play several of my current games properly without some 4PDTs, so that'll probably be the next thing I get. Ninja Gaiden, Total Carnage, and The Last Duel require them to be controlled right with my control setup, and I expect I'll need more in the future, so I'll likely get 10 of them. Catering to all these different games is expensive. -_-

Oh, if you want to get old games and don't care about a dedicated cabinet, you should be able to get a JAMMA cabinet and the game you want for not too much money and then build an adapter. However, dedicated cabs for these games usually don't cost that much; in fact, you probably wouldn't have to spend more than $250, so long as you're willing to pick up the game (shipping these things is a ridiculous $200 or so).

I'm currently thinking of building a mini cabinet sometime that could be put on a table or something. A huge amount of the space inside arcade cabs is unused; all you really need is space for the monitor, speakers, power supplies, and board. Granted, that means that working inside the thing would be more of a pain (I'm totally afraid of going anywhere near the monitor, since it stores up such a large amount of power even when it's not on), but it'd be worth it for the smaller size.

[DsS Game]

For tekken 5 it isnt recommended to build your own cabinet simply because namco designed there cabinet to dispense and use there tekken data cards. I dunno thats just my opinion though. I dunno if you can implement the card reader. I know definitely you could implement your own PS2 ports.

[DsS Game]

For tekken 5 it isnt recommended to build your own cabinet simply because namco designed there cabinet to dispense and use there tekken data cards. I dunno thats just my opinion though. I dunno if you can implement the card reader. I know definitely you could implement your own PS2 ports.

[MottZilla]

DsSGame, the cards are not an issue at all. For one they are not required for the game to operate. Next you could install them anywhere in the cab or leave them loose in or out of the cab.

Vagla, like I'd said before, I'd have no where to put a cabinet myself, that is why jamma rigs are so great, because you use far less space and can employ objects that are there anyway, i.e. your TV. I might not have mentioned, but some TVs will sync to and disable some odd refresh rate games, like Mortal Kombat. I have heard sometimes the odd resolutions might throw things off a bit, but oh well.

All this talk is making me want to build one again.

[MottZilla]

DsSGame, the cards are not an issue at all. For one they are not required for the game to operate. Next you could install them anywhere in the cab or leave them loose in or out of the cab.

Vagla, like I'd said before, I'd have no where to put a cabinet myself, that is why jamma rigs are so great, because you use far less space and can employ objects that are there anyway, i.e. your TV. I might not have mentioned, but some TVs will sync to and disable some odd refresh rate games, like Mortal Kombat. I have heard sometimes the odd resolutions might throw things off a bit, but oh well.

All this talk is making me want to build one again.

[Vagla]

Do it. Doooooo iiiiiit... ;)

The only problem with playing the game on your TV is that it's not the same arcade experience as an actual cabinet is. That's why I prefer owning the arcade version of a game as opposed to the console version; I like that arcade feel. While it would be nice to have an arcade setup for my TV, and I do intend to get one eventually, it's still second place to a real cabinet, so even with the space issue it's still worth it. But of course, without the available space, using a TV and such works fine. I doubt they're that expensive to make, either, so cool. :)

[Vagla]

Do it. Doooooo iiiiiit... ;)

The only problem with playing the game on your TV is that it's not the same arcade experience as an actual cabinet is. That's why I prefer owning the arcade version of a game as opposed to the console version; I like that arcade feel. While it would be nice to have an arcade setup for my TV, and I do intend to get one eventually, it's still second place to a real cabinet, so even with the space issue it's still worth it. But of course, without the available space, using a TV and such works fine. I doubt they're that expensive to make, either, so cool. :)

[g4conman]

I built my cab from scrach and it only cost me $70.00 all you have to do is get the wood build the cab put a tv inside and put in one of those $20 tv arcade things at wall mart. cheap and fun. :D

[g4conman]

I built my cab from scrach and it only cost me $70.00 all you have to do is get the wood build the cab put a tv inside and put in one of those $20 tv arcade things at wall mart. cheap and fun. :D

[MottZilla]

That is just a cheap subtitute for the REAL thing. Those tv arcade things are half decent, but not nearly as good as the original board in a quality cabinet.

For 70$ you probably could have built a decent JAMMA rig.

[Samson007]

I unfortunately have none on both accounts.

1900th post though. :)