Anyone here collect Arcade Machines or Pinball?

[twistedsymphony]

Originally Posted by imironmann

Its really sad. You almost never see pinball anywhere anymore.

Maybe at a random bar or some mom n pop store.

I guess arcades are pretty much gone except for Dave and Busters or tourist traps.

Here in NH arcades are actually still pretty common. Within an hours drive of me there's FunSpot Pinball Wizards and a host of other smaller arcades.

If you ever go to Las Vegas I highly recommend visiting the Pinball Museum. They've got literally HUNDREDS of pinball machines and they're all very cheap to play it's 95% pinball machines, best arcade I've ever been to

While arcades are less common now they're better now than they ever were because the people that run them are people who care about and love these machines, back in the day when arcades were popular most of the people that owned them only cared about making a buck, which is why machines like my new KI2 cabinet were painted over and re-appropriated for the sake of making more money.

Originally Posted by Gazereths

I really like the Killer Instinct box, you'll have to keep us updated with the restoration, having that KI music blasting from it will be sweet! Do you have a room full of these old skool machines Twisted? Got any pics?

I just have two other machines, one of them isn't working, and the other one (the double dragon converted to UMK3) is sitting in my basement among my game collection (you can see it in any of the pics/videos I've posted of my collection)

Originally Posted by vhal_x

I want to collect arcade cabinets, but unfortunately our current house is tiny and severely lacking in space as it is, without adding those to the collection.

I had two machines in my College Apartment it was a pretty big apartment though. They take up less space than you'd think.

Originally Posted by comaamen86

nice, if i dont have the space nor money to own an arcade machine
if i won the lotto i would build me own arcade just for me, like when cartman got a theme park

They're cheaper than you might think... if you keep your eyes on local listings, also try to contact the owner of local arcades and see if there are any machines in storage they would be willing to part with. If you don't care about it being an original "dedicated" cabinet finding a good upright cabinet with a good monitor is all you need and you can usually get one for 0$-$400... the game boards inside (aka "PCBs") are usually pretty cheap (less than $100) and most games made since the late 80s all use standard connectors so it's mostly plug-and-play.

Big sit down simulator cabinets are going to be more expensive, but if you can find an arcade locally with one in storage they're usually willing to give it up for $400-$1000 depending on the machine.

Originally Posted by kittychloe

Also any idea what to do to fix these twisted?




I think they are missing the monitor sections though

I'm not sure what those machines were but it looks like the monitors used to be those old rear-projection units. You could probably replace them with flat-panel LCDs... if those are the kind of machines where the chair moves around I'd be mostly concerned with that mechanism... the hydraulics on those simulator machines break ALL the frigging time... usually it's a sensor somewhere that goes bad, or in really bad cases the pump. they're not cheap or easy to fix either. The good news is that you can usually still play them even if they don't move, though it's not as fun.

Arcade machines are probably some of the easiest electronics to learn how to fix, that's mostly because they're designed so that the arcade owner (aka the "operator") can make their own repairs. The manuals come with testing and repair instructions. There's lots of online resources for how to fix arcade machines... and parts like buttons and connectors are typically easy to find (monitors are crazy expensive though and so bulky it's almost not worth shipping). Being an arcade collector also means learning how to fix and restore these things... it's extremely rare that you'd find one used that still works, generally they get put into storage because they're broken and the operator decided it wasn't worth fixing... if they DO still work and stop making money then they get painted over and converted into something that will make more money...

if you're not willing to fix then it gets REALLY expensive because you'll be buying a machine that someone else restored.


If you really want to get into it, I would watch local listings like a hawk (do you have Craigslist where you are?) even post a wanted ad.... find a cheap upright with a "JAMMA" connector and a working monitor and start with that, those are the most common and basic machines. they're often referred to as "JAMMA cabs" here's a good primer on what that's all about: http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html

[TMM]

Hi,

My my, how I LOVE arcade machines... there's nothing quite like them is there?

I once bought a friend of mine a machine on eBay as a wedding present, cost me about ?50, and it was an old original arcade machine - I don't know exactly what it was as at the time I wasn't as knowledgable with games, but basically it had a SEGA system built into it, and it had several cartridge slots that you could put games in (the games were missing, but were easily obtainable at the time on eBay). It had 2 arcade stick and button sections for 2 player and was decorated all over with the various SEGA artwork.

I believe his aim was to get it all restored and working but we sort of lost contact over the years. Any ideas as to what it could be? (I am sure I'll recognise a picture of it)

I do have plans, and by plans I mean literal blueprint style plans, to make my own arcade machines out of retro consoles basically. Effectively they'd consist of a wooden frame and support structure, with some fancy artwork all over, a monitor sat behind some protective glass, and arcade sticks plugged directly into a console inside it - the aim would be to make the console easily accessible so you can just stick a game in (perhaps include some storage for games inside it so you can have all your games lined up neatly) and then 1 plug leading out the back to the mains, with lots of ventilation built in to keep the inside cool (not needed so much with 1 console, but the plans then evolved into fitting the machine with a snes, a megadrive, an n64, a dreamcast and all sorts and having control sockets on the front so you can plug in and play with ease!

One day I might get around to it but I don't have the space or room in the mean time... I'd quite like to make an xbox 360 arcade machine, or simply a guitar hero arcade machine - output feeding to 3 or 4 monitors in a semi-circle so each band member has their own screen (obviously it would stream the entire game) and the band would be all set up around it!

Regards
TMM

[vhal_x]

Originally Posted by Twistedsymphony

I had two machines in my College Apartment it was a pretty big apartment though. They take up less space than you'd think.

You obviously haven't seen the size of my house xx

[kittychloe]

The console in an arcade box would be quite easy.. Although seems like a waste when roms exist, but with the build your own machine kits available its not hard

The problem over here is the lack of dedicated machines like street fighter ect, that havent been stripped and changed.. Its mostly stock self made cabinets here..

We do have gumtree over here but its not big and rarely has machines.. And at 500 for a broken one in aus i need to save alot

[twistedsymphony]

Originally Posted by TMM

... it was an old original arcade machine - I don't know exactly what it was as at the time I wasn't as knowledgable with games, but basically it had a SEGA system built into it, and it had several cartridge slots that you could put games in (the games were missing, but were easily obtainable at the time on eBay). It had 2 arcade stick and button sections for 2 player and was decorated all over with the various SEGA artwork.

I believe his aim was to get it all restored and working but we sort of lost contact over the years. Any ideas as to what it could be? (I am sure I'll recognise a picture of it)...

those are called "Multicades", they were really popular machines for Movie Theatres and Grocery Stores since you could have one machine with a variety of options. The most common example is the SNK/NeoGeo MVS machine... which was basically a Neo-Geo inside an arcade cabinet with slots for 8 or more games.

I know Sega had a few Multicade machines based on their "System 32" architecture, but I've never seen any generic "Sega" cabinets they were always just 2 or 3 related games together in the same box. (for instance 3 soccer games together, or two racing games together, etc.)

if you want to look around for it check out http://www.arcade-museum.com they've got a list of every machine ever made... (or at least as close to it as you'll ever find)

Originally Posted by TMM

... I do have plans, and by plans I mean literal blueprint style plans, to make my own arcade machines out of retro consoles basically. Effectively they'd consist of a wooden frame and support structure, with some fancy artwork all over, a monitor sat behind some protective glass, and arcade sticks plugged directly into a console inside it - the aim would be to make the console easily accessible so you can just stick a game in (perhaps include some storage for games inside it so you can have all your games lined up neatly) and then 1 plug leading out the back to the mains, with lots of ventilation built in to keep the inside cool (not needed so much with 1 console, but the plans then evolved into fitting the machine with a snes, a megadrive, an n64, a dreamcast and all sorts and having control sockets on the front so you can plug in and play with ease!

One day I might get around to it but I don't have the space or room in the mean time... I'd quite like to make an xbox 360 arcade machine, or simply a guitar hero arcade machine - output feeding to 3 or 4 monitors in a semi-circle so each band member has their own screen (obviously it would stream the entire game) and the band would be all set up around it!...

I agree with kittychloe, don't waste your time and money using old classic consoles, just throw an OLD PC (or if you're cheap a modified Xbox 1) into the cabinet and use emulators... These kinds of cabinets are actually very popular, they're called "MAME Cabinets" MAME stands Multi Arcade Machine Emulation, it's also the name given to arcade machine emulation programs...

An Xbox 1 is powerful enough to emulate pretty much every game from it's previous generation, PC, arcade, SNES, Genesis even PS1 (and to some extent N64). I don't think you'd want newer games in an arcade cabinet anyway since they're too heavily reliant on analog sticks and triggers to be worth trying to play in an arcade cabinet.

[kittychloe]

I would like to do an xbox one using the old xbox idu's i have no problem ripping the games to it once i own them, problems finding the idu's

[imironmann]

Thanks for the heads up on the Pinball Museum. I go to Vegas at least once a year. I'm not sure how this place has evaded me. Guess I spend to much time in poker tournaments and not enough time checking out all the stuff Vegas has.

[JammedFlipper]

I use to have the original mario bros (the one where you jump on crabs, turtles, etc) arcade machine but I sold it and wish I never did. It was completely original but needed a little TLC. I'm hoping to pick up another one day.

I've priced out making a MAME cabinet but all the good cabinets come from the states and shipping is atrocious

[twistedsymphony]

Originally Posted by imironmann

Thanks for the heads up on the Pinball Museum. I go to Vegas at least once a year. I'm not sure how this place has evaded me. Guess I spend to much time in poker tournaments and not enough time checking out all the stuff Vegas has.

It opened in October of 2009.. I know this because I went the day they opened ... it's kind of a hole in the wall a little ways of the strip, right across the street from the Liberachi museum.

[twistedsymphony]

today's progress:

Before:



After:



Sadly while removing the turkey hunter overlay it took some of the paint off of the original KI2 control panel overlay also, as you can see a bunch of holes have been drilled into it. so even without the paint getting removed it wasn't perfect anyway. It's good enough until I find one pop up on eBay or one of the Arcade Collector forums. Thankfully they're usually cheap when they do pop up.

I also went over all the electrical, the monitor WORKS! although it's making this horrible buzzing sound that I'll have to trouble shoot. The power supply sounds horrible so I'll have to pop in a new one (I actually have a few kicking around.)