Arcade cab advice

[JT.]

I'm considering getting an arcade cab of some sort - can anyone give a few tips. I like the look of the Candy Cab sort of style (e.g. the one Jonathan posted about on here some time ago).

When you get a cab like that, I assume you just buy different games separately, but looking on ebay they seem very expensive (not too bad if you only have one or two games I guess, but not so good if you want loads). Is that the only way to get the games, actually buying the PCB's, or is there a cheaper way, with changeable cartridges or even copies of games (not sure how that would work even)?

 

[idchappy]

Sign up to one of the arcade forums for the best advice on cabs mate (UKVAC/Jamma+/Arcade Otaku).
Ideally your wanting a cab that runs Jamma boards as they can easily be swapped for other games

 

[Wiredworm]

The copies of games method would involve using something like the MAME emulator inside a cab-mounted PC, but there's something of a legal minefield as technically you shouldn't be running a ROM that you don't actually own a physically copy of.

I have used MAME in the past and the array of games it can emulate is impressive. Throw in a proper arcade contro, system (joystick, track ball etc.) and you've got a great platform for home arcade gaming. The purists would argue its a more diluted experience than going the JAMMA route as you're still running an emulator.

A lot will come down to budget, space and how much you want convenience.

 

[Friz]

MAME is OK, I have a cab running that at the minute and you can ALMOST forget its emulated at times. It depends what games you want aswell, if you hell bent on shooters for example and only CAVE game will do then your going to need deep pockets, if its classics like pacman etc your after, then there are multi game carts you can buy, also you can get various multigame PCBs but some to be honest are no better or worse than MAME. if you like NeoGeo stuff then you could get an MVS 1 slot board for 60ish pounds and a multicart for that for about 50 and you have over 100 games, or you could simply buy single games for the MVS which go for around 10 -20 pounds unless they are mega rare.

Also you could go down the Coinops route for xbox, never used it but that's supposed to be pretty good.

Also if you get a candy cab, you will be JAMMA wired so some of the older PCBs will need adapters etc.

 

[KidQuaalude]

I have a vertical JAMMA cab running CoinOps on original xbox (XBOX -> JAMMA adapter works well and cost me about £35 on ebay) and I much prefer it to a PC Mame setup, much less dicking about with configuration and it boots in a few seconds.

 

[DrPinball]

I recently made my own bartop 2 player machine...


It's running Win XP with Hyperspin Front End and Mame. The PC inside is about 10 years old and works just fine. If you need any more info PM me.

 

[nibsy]

I'm another one running coin ops on x box in a cab I love it and it caters for most of my gaming needs.

 

[JT.]

Resurrecting my old thread So I'm having a bit of an off period with pins, and have just sold my last one. I am thinking again about getting a mame Candy Cab again, to fill the pin space hole, but having made quite a significant loss on pinballs this year, I don't want to buy something expensive that's worth half it's value in 6 months. Does anyone on here know what's a fair price for a mame Candy Cab? There is one on ukvac at the moment - it looks to have a few knocks and scrapes, and is advertised at £900. Is that a fair price? Here's the link:
http://www.ukvac.com/forum/astro-city-mameready-pc_topic342592.html

 

[mission65]

Chubsta is a top bloke and i have seen both the cabs he has up for sale, I also own a couple of Astro cabs.
I love them but am into candy cabs, Astros are very desirable and dont normaly hang around long, but i would look to pay between 4 and 700 depending on the monitor (burn geometry etc , and cab condition)
dont know about the computer he has with it ?
Hope that helps,
also i would be buying the other cab he has for sale as i believe it has a tri synk, monitor in it, can then play all ages of games from the 80/s to 2000, atomis waves are also a very nice cab

 

[JT.]

Chubsta is a top bloke and i have seen both the cabs he has up for sale, I also own a couple of Astro cabs.
I love them but am into candy cabs, Astros are very desirable and dont normaly hang around long, but i would look to pay between 4 and 700 depending on the monitor (burn geometry etc , and cab condition)
dont know about the computer he has with it ?
Hope that helps,
also i would be buying the other cab he has for sale as i believe it has a tri synk, monitor in it, can then play all ages of games from the 80/s to 2000, atomis waves are also a very nice cab

Cheers @mission65 that is helpful. It says the tri-sync has been replaced for another type of monitor. I'm not sure if that is good or bad?

Another couple of questions: The screen on the atomis wave is vertical - can you move them round to different orientations, depending on the game? Also, is it possible to change the console so that you can have two sets of controls - my kids would probably like that?

 

[mission65]

Ahhh if monitor is 15k then its the same as in the astro,
you can rotate the screens, but it involves physicaly taking the monitor out and moving it (thats why i have 2 cabs 1 set to vert and 1 horizontal)
if you are using mame the 1 cab in horizontal will play both game types but screen size is obviously cropped.
you can get lots of control panels with different stick and button configs, and they are easy to interchange

 

[JT.]

Thnx again @mission65 . I'll see if he'll taker an offer on the Astro in hoziontal already then, as that has the two player panel already .

 

[JT.]

Well both of his have gone, so I posted a wanted ad. Are there any other vid forums I could place wanted ad's on?

 

[mission65]

there are 3 I use

UKVAC
JAMMA+
ARCADE OTAKU

 

[Davey D]

Jap Candy style cabs are very nice, but go for a lot more than a wood style cabinet. If you are unsure how far you want to get into the arcade cabs, then you can pick up Generic wood cabinets with no games in them from between £150 - £250. As long as you pick up a cabinet at the right price if you come to sell it you should be able to get your money back.

There are several options for the games. Though as a general rule of thumb a game tends to come as 1 type only eg:

Jamma board. These are PCB with the game, processor, ram, audio amp etc all built into a board, or stack of boards that attaches to a Jamma style finger board

Cartridge system. Some have a jamma board that connects to your cabs loom, and then you plug a game cartridge in to it like you would an older games console. eg Neo-Geo, PGM

There are some like the Sega CPS/ CPS2 system that again have a Jamma mainboard, and then the game is another large PCB that connects into the top of it

Then there are the later systems like Sega Naomi that can either take cartridges, or GD rom drives. The very latest stuff uses uses custom PC's, and a load of bespoke wiring, but generally these are all in later bespoke, or japanese cabs.

If you want to play vertical oriented games, then your monitor will have to be in the vertical rotated position, so a lot of people have at least 2 cabs. 1 for horizontal games, and 1 for vertical games.

The most common type is Jamma, so if you get a cab wired for that you should be fine. Even if it isnt ( like some of the Candy cabs) you can stll get conversion cables to make it jamma accept jamma boards


There are a few arcade forums worth having a look at, Always withgames, and cabinets coming up for sale:

www.jammaplus.co.uk
www.arcadeotaku.com
http://www.ukvac.com