Collecting Consoles vs. Collecting Arcade Machines

[IntvGene]

Well, I've a couple of arcade machines in my possession for about ten years now, and in the last year or so, I've really begun to make the transition to collecting and restoring arcade machines, and selling off parts of my console collection.

Now, in some circles collecting arcade machines > collecting console machines. Sure, arcades require more work, but they can also be much more satisfying. Also, some people think that consoles are just generally inferior.

What do you think?

[blissfulnoise]

I think that arcades take up more space, harder to acquire, and are less gratifying in the long term. Thus it may not be a question of satisfaction, but of feasibility.

That said, you'll have to pry my Sinistar joystick from my cold, dead, hands.

[98PaceCar]

My true collection started with arcade machines and then drifted into consoles. I don't think that either one is greater than the other, but as far as hard core collecting I think that arcade collectors take the nod. Sure, there are a lot of consoles and games that fetch a good price, but the low end for a collector quality arcade is around $300 or so. Yea, you can get them cheaper, but it's normally a jamma game hacked into a painted over classic. Typically, an arcade machine will require a true restoration, not unlike a classic car. You end up taking the entire machine apart to clean and repair it. There's not a lot to do to clean up or restore a console. You don't end up with an entire garage floor of parts to the same game. For me, a large part of the enjoyment of collecting arcades is this restoration process. Almost more so than enjoying the final result.

I don't think that consoles are inferior to arcades, unless you start comparing specific titles. I can't think of any instances where I prefer a console version to an arcade version. But there are so many games on consoles that would not work as an arcade that I feel I need to have both to fully experience video gaming in it's entirety.

[donkeykong1]

I try to get any arcades that I can get my hands on for cheap. It is true that they take up lots of space but it is also fun to have them and play them. It also gives you the feeling of being in the arcade when you were a young kid. I would also add that it is harder to aquire old arcades than consoles in most cases. One problem though is the restoring process. It can take a long time and a lot of money. I recently gave away a broken Super Monaco arcade to a fellow DP member. It was taking up too much space in my storage and I knew I wsn't gonna have the time and money to fix it soon.

[Sylentwulf]

I just can't do the whole arcade cabinet thing. I have a jamma cab, and my mame cab. I see no point to anything else except a pinball machine, which I would LOVE to have. If I could find a world cup soccer, or jurassic park pin then I would sell my jamma cab for the space easily.

IMO, 100's of games on one console is far more gratifying then 3 arcade cabinets/games.

[omnedon]

Typically, an arcade machine will require a true restoration, not unlike a classic car. You end up taking the entire machine apart to clean and repair it. There's not a lot to do to clean up or restore a console. You don't end up with an entire garage floor of parts to the same game.

Obviously never tried to restore a SEGA CDX, or a TurboDuo.

That said, arcade restoring is indeed more like classic car restoration. However, console restoration can be taken to extremes as well, with AV upgrades, BIOS upgrades and the like. Rarely are console BIOS's socketed either so it's actually a much harder job on a console, than that job is in a cab.

NEO GEO AES collecting has all the goodness of the arcade, with more reliability and less space. However, it is likely the only example where the console version of the game and the arcade version are truly identical.

No arcade collecting for me until I have some serious space. I would love a couple of nice original cabs though.

[Necromutant]

Arcade collecting is for sure more hard core, and more expensive beyond the fact that you pay alot more for the cabs than you would for console games... you have to spend alot more money on the space to store an arcade collection in the long run than you actually spend on the collection in most cases actually. :P

I can't think of any instances where I prefer a console version to an arcade version. But there are so many games on consoles that would not work as an arcade that I feel I need to have both to fully experience video gaming in it's entirety.

I can't think of many... one that I always liked better on the console than the arcade was the original Contra.

[98PaceCar]

Obviously never tried to restore a SEGA CDX, or a TurboDuo.

That said, arcade restoring is indeed more like classic car restoration. However, console restoration can be taken to extremes as well, with AV upgrades, BIOS upgrades and the like. Rarely are console BIOS's socketed either so it's actually a much harder job on a console, than that job is in a cab.

NEO GEO AES collecting has all the goodness of the arcade, with more reliability and less space. However, it is likely the only example where the console version of the game and the arcade version are truly identical.

No arcade collecting for me until I have some serious space. I would love a couple of nice original cabs though.

Good point. I've seen a CDX taken apart. I'll NEVER do that to myself!! I have utmost respect for anybody that will attempt to even open one of those!!

I guess I tend to think of the skillsets required to do arcades vs consoles when I talk about restoration. Not to say that it doesn't take a large amount of skill to restore/mod a console (because it does, more skill than I have), but in the arcade world you end up doing woodwork, bondo work, paint, applying decals, electronics work, monitor work, and others. It's always seemed to be a lot more extreme to me. Probably just a difference in perception.

I did forget about the AES. It's as good as arcade because it IS arcade. Certainly much more convenient, but as a child of the arcade age I want a real machine sitting in front of me that I can kick when I lose!! I wish I could say that the AES is more reliable than the arcade, but sadly my AES only displays in B&W while my single slot just keeps on working.

You don't need a lot of space to collect arcades. I started in an 800 sq foot apartment. Had 4 uprights, a pin, and a cocktail. Course, you had to step over them to get anywhere in the apartment!! I guess it just takes a certain amount of not caring about how a place looks!!

[CYRiX]

We all know that games start as an arcade machine then go to the console, so basically the same should go for collecting. And to even put this to a better point, there are the usual exceptions.

[goatdan]

I guess I tend to think of the skillsets required to do arcades vs consoles when I talk about restoration. Not to say that it doesn't take a large amount of skill to restore/mod a console (because it does, more skill than I have), but in the arcade world you end up doing woodwork, bondo work, paint, applying decals, electronics work, monitor work, and others. It's always seemed to be a lot more extreme to me. Probably just a difference in perception.

Truthfully, from having restored both consoles and arcade cabs (and pinballs), consoles and arcades are relatively equal in the amount of skill that you need to tinker with. Arcade games were and are designed so that 16-year-old kids can open them up and figure out how to fix most of the things in them. Consoles aren't designed with anyone ever opening them in mind, so they tend to be more difficult to work with because of that.

The flip side is that the size of an arcade cabinet means that you are going to spend a LOT of time working on it to get it just right. I probably spent 30 hours restoring my Ms. Pac-Man cabinet to exactly how I wanted it. I've never spent more than a few hours with a console.

Pins are a whole different story. Although designed like arcade machines where they are supposed to be easy to fix, the sheer amount of stuff in each one means that finding and fixing something can take a long, long time. I have EASILY spent over 120 hours working on my Space Station restoration that is still only probably 4/5ths of the way done.

I'm not saying any one collection is better than another. Arcade and pinball collectors definitely seem to be a different breed though -- collecting these machines takes a lot of space and money. With the amount of money that some of my friends spend on a single pinball machine, I could practically have a complete collection of Dreamcast games. And the amount of space -- one of my friends in town owned over 40 pins last time I visited him -- these take up can be extreme. And it isn't just pinball, either.

Personally, I think that console collecting is the way to go if you want a vast selection of games to play, but arcade / pinball collecting is the way to go if you want a slimmer selection of games to play, but a set of games that is easier to bust out during a party at your place. They both have their advantages and disadvantages... and that is why I am trying to collect some of each

[Pantechnicon]

I look at the cabs I own (1 Pac-Man, 1 Lunar Lander and a MAME) primarily as a complement to my main collecting focus, which is consoles. I'd like to think that my collection, to a large degree, is representative of one of gaming's earliest epochs; approximately 1980-1984, wherein consoles and arcades were considered more or less indistinguishable in a cultural sense. In other words, if you played home consoles in the early 80's, chances are you enjoyed going to the arcade as well and didn't really see it as an either/or situation. The cabinets I own, classics as they are, are an attempt to convey that sentiment in an historical context.

I cannot and will not say that I think one kind of collecting is better than the other. More power to all.

[Captain Wrong]

I've stopped buying consoles and anything else I buy is going to be a cab or PCB. I'd rather have one game I play the hell out of than dozens that sit on the shelf. Plus, there's something undeniable cool about having a full sized arcade machine. Sure, you can play an emulated version of Missile Command on damn near anything with a screen, but people still love to come over to my place and play the real deal because it is just that much cooler.

[ClubNinja]

For me, console collecting wound up just being a warm-up period until I had the physical space to collect arcade games and pinballs. While I still have more consoles and console games than your average person, my console collection just continues to shrink as I drift further and further from it.

I've done extensive console mods in the past, and agree with the above in that they're very time consuming and require loads of skill, but I never found them as satisfying as working on a pin. This was touched on above with video arcade games, but with pinball machines, you've got a thousand little parts to worry about, both mechanically and electrically. There's cleaning and testing and replacing and polishing and waxing and on and on and on. In my personal experience, pinball collectors are the hardest core, moreso than arcade or console folks. I see it in myself sometimes as I force a friend to hault their game of pinball so I can pop off the lockbar, slide down the glass, and remove a piece of dust from inside the playfield. It happens.

I love consoles and have many fond memories of them. I still own, support, and play many of them. Ultimately, though, I don't think I'll ever consider myself a console collector like I did years ago. I'm arcade/pinball all the way.

[98PaceCar]

I look at the cabs I own (1 Pac-Man, 1 Lunar Lander and a MAME) primarily as a complement to my main collecting focus, which is consoles. I'd like to think that my collection, to a large degree, is representative of one of gaming's earliest epochs; approximately 1980-1984, wherein consoles and arcades were considered more or less indistinguishable in a cultural sense. In other words, if you played home consoles in the early 80's, chances are you enjoyed going to the arcade as well and didn't really see it as an either/or situation. The cabinets I own, classics as they are, are an attempt to convey that sentiment in an historical context.

I cannot and will not say that I think one kind of collecting is better than the other. More power to all.

I think you just hit one of the core points here. The people who were first involved in gaming in the early 80's are going to have a vastly different view than the people that came into gaming after the crash. I think that most people collect for emotional reasons (I don't think anybody would argue that collecting either arcades or consoles is logical).

My collection, while it spans all video gaming, is centered around the classic arcade/Atari 2600 era. That's what gives me the most pleasure, so that's what I go for. Like yourself, I'm not going to restrict my collection to one side or the other nor will I fault anybody that does. To truly reflect the history of gaming and more specifically, my personal history in gaming, I need both and don't think either is better than the other.

[XYXZYZ]

Man, I couldn't do pin collecting. I like a little pinball, but not enough to justify all the trouble it is to own them.

Arcade machines, I love them but I don't have any yet. All I have on my must-have list is an MVS, and a Street Fighter 2 CE cab.

[Flack]

When I started collecting arcade games, there was no MAME. Many of the first games I got either had crappy or no console ports. There are only three reasons I can think of to own arcade games. 1, you enjoy the true arcade experience. 2, you enjoy the classics and wish to preserve/restore them. 3, you like the "wow" factor when other people see them. I have bought games for all three reasons before.

If you want to know the downside to collecting arcade games I could list a thousand of them, not the least of which is that they're entirely impractical, take up tons of space, are difficult to move, expensive to ship, and depending on the condition, may require lots of restoration/upkeep/repairs.

I often ask myself why I do it and consider selling my games a lot but then I go to auctions and get excited when I see a cheap one and buy it so I don't really have a good answer, haha. All I can tell you is that it's time consuming if you really get into it, but a lot of fun.

[Austin]

I wish I had the space to collect arcade machines. I've got an old Midway pinball machine that's in storage at my parent's place, but that's as far as my machine collecting has gone.

[syd]

Collecting arcade machines is like collecting cars to me: they're just too large to have a practical collection. The only arcade machine I plan on having is a MAME cabinet, and that's down the road when I get enough money/time to make one. I think I'll stick with collecting consoles for now, unless I start making enough money to buy a big enough house.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Arcades to have a cool feel to them when they're in your possession. I just sold off the last of 3 of my arcades recently and it feels a little empty without them. However, I'd much rather collect consoles than arcades. I thinks its all a matter of what you played when you were growing up. If you were one of those guys who spent his entire allowance at an arcade over a NES game, then your probably destined to be an arcade collector.

[Flack]

Unfortunately, some of us split our allowance between both.