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