Thinking about buying a new coin-op

[neschampion]

Okay, I sold my Lethal Enforcers machine about 6 months ago because it got so incredibly boring and since then I have been looking to get a new one from a seller relatively close to me. Anyway, yesterday I ran across someone about 20 minutes away selling a bunch of them and had a couple questions.

What is the story with this machine?.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3219252811

I have never seen anything like it and was wondering if it would be a solid buy or not.

Also, if I don't end up getting that one I have actually been pretty hot on the idea of getting Ms. Pac-Man which that seller conveniently also has for sale. So, I was wondering what the going rate was for one of those. The BIN seemed quite high to me but I would have no problem spending $600-800 if that is what the market dictated.

[samuraiX]

It just looks like a typical MAME cab to me. In other words a Computer running emulation to an RGB monitor. Matter of preference if you would actually want one. I would much prefer to have a Tempest or a Tron cab myself.

[stargate]

That machine appears to be just a custom built arcade unit housing a PC with emulator software in it. No biggie. The price is also pretty steep.

[neschampion]

Cool, that is the info I was looking for.

What about the Ms. Pac-Man, what is a decent price for one of those?

[maxlords]

$600-800 is a good price for a Ms. Pac IF it's in REALLY good shape (mint wood, mint marquee, mint side art, nice plastic strips, shopped inside and out, etc). If it's got some wear, I'd say $500-600. I've seen em go over $1000 for a cherry one, but $600-750 is a pretty realistic price for a fetish game like that. My regular Pac-Man sold for over $500 is really rough condition, and my Super-Pac that was pristine went for $450. Ms. Pac Man is the most desirable of the Pac-Man coin-ops aside from Baby Pac-Man which is nearly impossible to get.

[CrazyImpmon]

If you hang around in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting you may get lucky and pick up a free arcade cab (usually stripped) and with a little elbow grease and a spare PC, you can build a MAME setup.

I'm planning to find a cocktail cab (tabletop) and use my current 1.4GHz P4 (when I get a new PC to replace it), and set it up as MAME system with joystiick, rotary knob (for games like Tempest and Tron) and trackball. And yes I'll set it up so it'd require quarters to play >)

[Sniderman]

*Ahem* Before you buy the machine, could you let me know if you are still interested in these Sears Atari carts I've been sitting on top of? You haven't been picking up your PMs for two months. Thanks.

[Darth Vader]

Looks like a nice setup! If I had the chance, I would get that new Galaga / Ms. pac man combo machine that is out there. It is pretty sweet, but I am not spending over 2K on it (at least that was the price the last time I looked for it on ebay)

Danny

[DarkSoul]

I strongly recommend against the purchase of that MAME machine at that price (Unless the reserve was already met at 200, I could see that as a pretty decent deal- though he didn't include the computer specs, which is real important for a MAME cab if you're planning on using NeoGeo games, or some other newer ones). I really recommend my method of buying a JAMMA compatible machine (Street Fighter II) and picking up other JAMMA boards and marquees and just converting it every few months. Total cost for a machine in great condition that can cylcle between (at the moment) 3 games? $225

Neo Geo board? ~75
Neo Geo carts? 20-60
JAMMA boards? Damn near free -> Whatever it's worth to you, the whole range...

But, hey, building your own MAME cab is a good option also.. whatever floats your boat. Or, if you're me, get a J-PAC harness from http://www.ultimarc.com/ and have both a MAME machine and a real working JAMMA cab...

[DarkSoul]

Also, on the subject of that Ms. Pac Man, the other replies seemed to think you could pick 'em up at a pretty reasonable price, but just from my experience with coin-op auctions (not online), they sometimes go for a whole, whole, whole lot, 1.3k+ depending on quality.... but, then, that's more than I think it's worth, so I'm certainly not advocating paying that much for it, just stating that I've seen it happen more than once

[Captain Wrong]

Not to get too nit picky here, but I gotta wonder how legal it is selling a MAME machine with the ROMS. I know there was an arcade unit that came out a few years ago that was emulator based and had licensed game packs from Taito, Capcom, etc. But I don't know if this is it or not. Condisering the game packs were like $100 for 6 or so games, and this guy is claiming 3500+ I'd seriously doubt it.

And I've seen "used" (not battered, but got some miles on them) Ms. Pac Man cabs go for $400-$600 in auction out here in the midwest.

[DarkSoul]

It is true that it is definitely not legal, but it's level of non-enforcement is pretty much total, so, it's rather a personal choice...

[chadtower]

It is true that it is definitely not legal, but it's level of non-enforcement is pretty much total, so, it's rather a personal choice...

Could be, the legal way would be to just sell the hardware and say something like "whatever is on the drive is free as I'm not wiping it"

[tynstar]

Get a Ms Pac-Man it is the best coin op of all time. I just picked one up in great shape for 500. :-D

[toddst]

I say that you should try and build your own MAME cabinet. Getting the parts isn't difficult and now that there is the IPAC(http://www.ultimarc.com/), getting the controls wired to your PC is no problem.

I just picked up a cabinet (a beat up/sprayed over old Sinistar) the other week and within the next few weeks, I'm going to order the missing pieces and put it together.

-Todd