i would like to hear your arcade stories

[pacman]

am just wondering on your arcade history like how you got it where,whom, what place in what condition you found it the cabinet pictures would be awesome how much you paid for it

[DigitalSpace]

FYI, DP has an entire subforum dedicated to arcade cabs and collections:

Arcade Alley (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27)

[GaijinPunch]

Here's one with pictures (http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?type=article&id=1619).

[8bitnintendogames]

My latest is a Hard Drivin sitdown arcade machine for $100, just needed a $10 part to fix the steering, everything else looks and plays great.

I have also picked up a dual screen four player Run and Gun 2 for $50. It needed a new monitor board for one of the monitors and some rewiring, definatly worth it.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[XYXZYZ]

I only have a small apartment, so to get the most out of the floor space I have MAME cabinets and a Neo Geo MVS, all multigame machines.

My first MAME machine was a 6 button Midway cabinet, began life as a dedicated Killer Instinct and some operator converted it to a Street Fighter EX 2. I bought it, repaired the monitor and put a Capcom them on it, as it's primarily used for 6 button Capcom fighters.
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/CCCCCC1.jpg

My second is for vertical games, mostly shooters. It's a 3KOAM Z-back with a 25" vertical monitor, I named it "Danmaku" and made a shmup theme for it.
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku1.jpg

My last one was recently posted here, it was formerly a Centipede, some op converted it to a Street Fighter, then a Mortal Kombat, then Stonic sold it to me and I tuned it into a general purpose MAME machine with a theme called "Warp Zone".
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa56/XYXZYZ/warpzone1.jpg

For your other questions, I got the Neo Geo and Z-back on ebay, the 6 button Midway at an auction, and the Centipede from Stonic's coin-op sale on these forums. I usually put about $1,000.00 into each MAME machine.

I'd really love to have dedicated machines instead of these MAME things, but I"ll have to wait until I get a bigger place. I'm still itching for a Pole Position and maybe a pinball game.