Wasting my money.

[Vt102]

OK so my luck has changed a little in relations to the money spending.

Last night I was visiting this used game store that I found (TONS OF SNES, N64 and NES games). Anyways.. I was chatting with one of the guys that works there called Matt, and I comented that I was planing in the distant future to aquire an arcade cabinet..

Lucky me, Matt tells me that they have a Street Fighter II cabinet in the back of the store that works perfectelly with the exeption of needing a new monitor. So I get all down cuz right now I'm kinda short in $$$$$, but I asked anyways "how much U want for it?" I was shocked when he said "Just take it"...

So now I got a free arcade cabinet in very good shape (exept for the monitor) and wondering if I should just fix it, or M.A.M.E. it.

[Ragnarok2103]

wow, thats sweet. cant beat a free arcade machine.

[KaiserWAVE]

Damn, that's pretty awesome. Congrats!
I'd say M.A.M.E. it, depending on what kind of arcade games you like try WinKawaks. It plays Neo Geo as well as Capcoms CPS1 and CPS2 games. That means a boat-load of fighting games, side scrolling fighters and shmups.

I guess M.A.M.E can also play Neo Geo and CPS games by now in addition to all the classic arcade games but I never tried it.

[shenske]

OK so my luck has changed a little in relations to the money spending.

Last night I was visiting this used game store that I found (TONS OF SNES, N64 and NES games). Anyways.. I was chatting with one of the guys that works there called Matt, and I comented that I was planing in the distant future to aquire an arcade cabinet..

Lucky me, Matt tells me that they have a Street Fighter II cabinet in the back of the store that works perfectelly with the exeption of needing a new monitor. So I get all down cuz right now I'm kinda short in $$$$$, but I asked anyways "how much U want for it?" I was shocked when he said "Just take it"...

So now I got a free arcade cabinet in very good shape (exept for the monitor) and wondering if I should just fix it, or M.A.M.E. it.

M.A.M.E. it for sure!
my brother has a 4-player mame cabinet that connects to his 72" 1080p Plasma HDTV.
(his a little different than a standard arcade mame cabinet, but it would be really cool to have a "classic feel" arcade cabinet)

If you M.A.M.E. it keep the original detiling and artwork from street fighter II.  
if you are really adventurous you could mod the SFII board and make it a stand alone plug and play system.  (benheck.com could help you)

[Zabii]

Atari 2600
Intellivision II
NES (2)
SNES
N64
Dreamcast
PS2
Gamecube
Xbox
Wii
Xbox 360
PS3

Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy Advance (Original, SP, Micro)
DS (Phat, Lite)
PSP
Gamegear

[TheValeman]

Being an arcade machine owner myself I would probably go down the following steps ...

IF all the SFII artwork is in good condition & you like it .... keep it.
 
If it is in poor condition or you dont like it consider replacing it with new side art etc. Places like www.mamemarquees.com have a good reputation for producing quality replacement artwork at reasonable prices. Or you can look for NOS [new old stock] but expect to pay more for it as a general rule.
If you do decide to replace it then have a look at whether a different games artwork is more appealing as I find the artwork of the old shool arcade games like Q-Bert, Donkey Kong etc is imho much, much nicer than the Street Fighter type art .... but that's just my opinion.

Here's where things get contentious ..... MAME it. My only reasonings here are ....

1. Arcade pcb's are old & getting older by the year. EPROM rot is slowly killing boards off [not an issue if you have an EPROM burner and the know how] and latert SF2 games etc die if the lithium battery conks out.
2. The money spent on one arcade board could get you a whole PC for a MAME setup. And it is more reliable to boot
3. Buying arcade boards off EBAY etc is fraught with peril. If they say "tested perfect" dont believe them until you see it running yourself.
4. You need a new monitor anyway .... and 15 khz tube monitors are crap as if you mess with one it can bite back ..... lethally I might add .... and the issues with degaussing,picture shift over time etc are downright anoying. You can get 19" LCD monitors that accept 15khtz off HAPP etc and are open frame so they slot into a cabinet no problems and wont kill you if you make a mistake.

Lastly .... all those 48-in-1 and 1066-in-1 arcade games are running MAME anyway under cover of a custom frontend. But they lock you into proprietary hardware which is under powered, cant be upgraded, and the frontends are in some cases UGLY!!!
Additionally, all the 48-in-1's etc sounds totally crap for games like Gyruss, Scramble etc. Honestly .... MAME kicks their asses from a sound & accuracy point of view.

If you were the proud owner of a mint condition, original Moon Patrol or Scramble cabinet I might have a rethink .... but SF cabinets are dime a dozen out there ......

Anyway .... just my thoughts for what its worth ....

[Vt102]

Being an arcade machine owner myself I would probably go down the following steps ...

IF all the SFII artwork is in good condition & you like it .... keep it.
 
If it is in poor condition or you dont like it consider replacing it with new side art etc. Places like www.mamemarquees.com have a good reputation for producing quality replacement artwork at reasonable prices. Or you can look for NOS [new old stock] but expect to pay more for it as a general rule.
If you do decide to replace it then have a look at whether a different games artwork is more appealing as I find the artwork of the old shool arcade games like Q-Bert, Donkey Kong etc is imho much, much nicer than the Street Fighter type art .... but that's just my opinion.

Here's where things get contentious ..... MAME it. My only reasonings here are ....

1. Arcade pcb's are old & getting older by the year. EPROM rot is slowly killing boards off [not an issue if you have an EPROM burner and the know how] and latert SF2 games etc die if the lithium battery conks out.
2. The money spent on one arcade board could get you a whole PC for a MAME setup. And it is more reliable to boot
3. Buying arcade boards off EBAY etc is fraught with peril. If they say "tested perfect" dont believe them until you see it running yourself.
4. You need a new monitor anyway .... and 15 khz tube monitors are crap as if you mess with one it can bite back ..... lethally I might add .... and the issues with degaussing,picture shift over time etc are downright anoying. You can get 19" LCD monitors that accept 15khtz off HAPP etc and are open frame so they slot into a cabinet no problems and wont kill you if you make a mistake.

Lastly .... all those 48-in-1 and 1066-in-1 arcade games are running MAME anyway under cover of a custom frontend. But they lock you into proprietary hardware which is under powered, cant be upgraded, and the frontends are in some cases UGLY!!!
Additionally, all the 48-in-1's etc sounds totally crap for games like Gyruss, Scramble etc. Honestly .... MAME kicks their asses from a sound & accuracy point of view.

If you were the proud owner of a mint condition, original Moon Patrol or Scramble cabinet I might have a rethink .... but SF cabinets are dime a dozen out there ......

Anyway .... just my thoughts for what its worth ....

Well turns out that Im gona have to MAME it by force.. The previous owner desided to keep the board. Still the cabinet is in very good shape, but the side art was painted over.

So. Im gona strip it, sand it, re-wire it, and get some kickass side art.

I'll be a MAME machine, but im not gona go all out with trackballs and extra buttons. I'll only load games on it that will work with the standard 8-direction joystick and use no more than 6 buttons.

I'm gona start working on it this weekend and i'll post picks as the work progreses.

BTW Im using a Dell 3000 - 2.8GHz P4 - 1GB ram - 80GB HD computer on it.

[TheValeman]

Good stuff. More work than you realise probably .... but still ..... cool fun when it all comes together.

There's plenty of Street Fighter side art available if thats what you like .... but seriously .... there's way better classic side art available. I'm into the older games so Galaxians or Galaga sideart takes my fancy. I can get Galaga sideat/kickplate artwork off EBAY for $75 which is a reasonable price. Just add a marquee and it's nice looking cabinet. 

I have a NOS Moon Patrol & Top Gunner marquee in storage and I recreated an original Top Gunner control panel overlay from a damaged overlay & Moon Patrol side art which I have submitted to Mamemarquee's. But he's very slow at present due to moving premises and having to get back orders out the door.

If your budget stretches to it ...have a look at Happ's website at the open frame LCD monitors. Just bolt them in....much easier than mucking around with a standard monitor.....

[Vt102]

Good stuff. More work than you realise probably .... but still ..... cool fun when it all comes together.

There's plenty of Street Fighter side art available if thats what you like .... but seriously .... there's way better classic side art available. I'm into the older games so Galaxians or Galaga sideart takes my fancy. I can get Galaga sideat/kickplate artwork off EBAY for $75 which is a reasonable price. Just add a marquee and it's nice looking cabinet. 

I have a NOS Moon Patrol & Top Gunner marquee in storage and I recreated an original Top Gunner control panel overlay from a damaged overlay & Moon Patrol side art which I have submitted to Mamemarquee's. But he's very slow at present due to moving premises and having to get back orders out the door.

If your budget stretches to it ...have a look at Happ's website at the open frame LCD monitors. Just bolt them in....much easier than mucking around with a standard monitor.....

Well the cabinet is for a 17" monitor by default, but I was thinking of a 19" LCD instead which I'm pretty sure i'll fit.

[TheValeman]

Have a look at

http://www.happcontrols.com/monitors/49260310.htm

Monitors do both 15khtz and SVGA/VGA etc so you could wire the cabinets up for both MAME & JAMMA if you so desired. As long as the refresh rate is 8ms or less I think they are perfect for someone wanting to set up a cabinet. ANd they have 17" models as well if space is tight because the cabinet is a cabaret style cabinet.