Quote:
Originally Posted by Treehouse_Ryan
Damn. Can you network the Rushes, or are they like those side-by-side racing ones? What do you do with three of them?
Awesome score.
I finally found some machines at a local antique shop, but the guy wants $300 for a busted Mario unit from 86 and $1500 for a Donkey Kong Jr. from 1982 that's in crazy good condition and apparently only has 1500 plays.... Still holding out for someone more interested in just getting rid of them.
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Yeah the Rushes are all individual units and they network together using Ethernet cable... with 2 of them you can get away with a crossover cable but if you have more than 2 of them you have to use a network switch. Which is actually pretty uncommon for that era. Most "networked" arcades from Japanese manufacturers (like Sega and Namco) use Fiber Optic cables (just like the Toslink connection on your stereo) Each machine would have an input and an output and you'd daisy-chain them all together. It's really only US manufacturers that use Ethernet.
The "Twin units" aren't as common but even those, despite the fact that the halves are bolted together are still essentially separate machines electronically. Really the only thing these share is a coinbox and power input (so there is only 1 switch and 1 plug). It takes very little effort to get them to run individually.
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As for the pricing you found on those old Nintendo cabs... if that Donkey Kong Jr really was a privately owned machine with only 1500 plays then it's definitely worth the $1500 asking price. old Nintendo cab in show-room condition are easily worth $1000 and machines that managed to escape public use are usually worth much much more.
$300 for that Mario Bros is about right too.
The best deals are usually on local arcade collector forums, there's at least one in every major metropolitan area, a good place to start is
http://forums.arcade-museum.com (if you sign up there let me know and I can vouch for you). After that just keep tabs on craigslist and eBay...
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The key to finding cheap machines is to be diligent and be ready to pick the machines up as soon as they're listed. People who are selling cheap machines are selling them cheap not because they want the money but because they want the SPACE... so they're inclined to let them go to the first person who shows up with a truck, even if they low-balled the already low asking price. Every one of my machines was bought from someone who wanted to "get rid of them" to clear up space. These Rush machines I bought were sold by a pinball collector who wanted to make space for more pinballs. I jumped on the deal and offered to take them along with the MK2 he was selling at a lower price overall, he took the deal because it meant he would only have to deal with 1 sale, 1 pickup and it would free up his space all at once. there was a line of people willing to scoop these machines up if I didn't show up with the truck as quickly as I did. I've missed many MANY good deal by simply being too busy to pickup a machine within a day of the listing.
Anyone who doesn't care about the space and is looking for money is going to ask a lot more for their machines and they're likely going to sit on them until the right buyer comes along.