New to the arcade forum.

[Gamingking]

Well i'm not new to DP but don't ever come to the Arcade forum, My question is, I'm moving out soon and want to purchase a arcade machine with alot of beat'em up games on it, Is there a certain arcade machine that I can buy with numerous titles already on it or how do you go about it?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Two important things you want to consider:

Buttons. I recommend looking up a lot of the games you want over at www.klov.com, to find out how many buttons they use. You'll want to pick out a style of cabinet that has the maximum amount of buttons you need.

JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html). Get a cab that has a JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html) harness in it. Most cabs from the mid 80's on are JAMMA compatible. Klov will tell you which ones are in the game details.



Well there's a few routes you can go:

1. MAME - you'll need an extra PC and a JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html) arcade cabinet. There are adapters available that will let you use an arcade monitor with the PC. Or you always have the option of using a flat panel or VGA monitor too.

2. A JAMMA cabinet and Arcade games. You can buy a cabinet like a street fighter with a lot of buttons. Then you can switch out other JAMMA boards almost as easily as a Nintendo game. The boards are sometimes big, so storage could be an issue with some people.

3. A Multi board. If you have a JAMMA cabinet, again a street fighter for example, you can purchase an all-in-one style board that houses quite a few games (hundreds). This is probably the easiest method. These boards can range anywhere from $150-$500 as there are a lot of style out there.

P.S.

www.byoac.com is an excellent site that caters to people who want customize arcade cabinets. They also have a forum section where members discuss their work.

I only mention Street Fighter because they're easy to find, cheap, and have plenty of buttons.

Never decide to hack up a dedicated classic game from the 80's to make a multigame set-up. Collectors will become mad at you. A basic definition of classic games can be found here (http://www.arcade-museum.com/TOP100.php). It's may be acceptable if the cabinet is already hacked to hell on the inside, or you can undo all your work easily.

[Gamingking]

Two important things you want to consider:

Buttons. I recommend looking up a lot of the games you want over at www.klov.com, to find out how many buttons they use. You'll want to pick out a style of cabinet that has the maximum amount of buttons you need.

JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html). Get a cab that has a JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html) harness in it. Most cabs from the mid 80's on are JAMMA compatible. Klov will tell you which ones are in the game details.



Well there's a few routes you can go:

1. MAME - you'll need an extra PC and a JAMMA (http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html) arcade cabinet. There are adapters available that will let you use an arcade monitor with the PC. Or you always have the option of using a flat panel or VGA monitor too.

2. A JAMMA cabinet and Arcade games. You can buy a cabinet like a street fighter with a lot of buttons. Then you can switch out other JAMMA boards almost as easily as a Nintendo game. The boards are sometimes big, so storage could be an issue with some people.

3. A Multi board. If you have a JAMMA cabinet, again a street fighter for example, you can purchase an all-in-one style board that houses quite a few games (hundreds). This is probably the easiest method. These boards can range anywhere from $150-$500 as there are a lot of style out there.

P.S.

www.byoac.com is an excellent site that caters to people who want customize arcade cabinets. They also have a forum section where members discuss their work.

I only mention Street Fighter because they're easy to find, cheap, and have plenty of buttons.

Never decide to hack up a dedicated classic game from the 80's to make a multigame set-up. Collectors will become mad at you. A basic definition of classic games can be found here (http://www.arcade-museum.com/TOP100.php). It's may be acceptable if the cabinet is already hacked to hell on the inside, or you can undo all your work easily.

Thanks for the quick reply, One more question, Do they already sell a arcade machine with multiple beat'em up games on it? Or do I have to build my own?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Thanks for the quick reply, One more question, Do they already sell a arcade machine with multiple beat'em up games on it? Or do I have to build my own?

You can buy them pre-made, but you'll pay in upwards of a thousand bucks for them (and sometimes a lot more). Most of the time people do one of the things I detailed above and resell them at a profit of several hundred dollars. Maybe I confused you a bit above by all the information, but you really don't have to "build" a machine from scratch.

The easiest thing to do is:

Find a used and working JAMMA cab with a lot of buttons on Craigslist. Buy a bootleg multiboard, and plug it into the cab. It's not really any more complicated than changing out RAM on a computer. Take the old one out of the JAMMA socket and put in the new one. You'll have saved yourself several hundred or a thousand dollars.

[jb143]

Another option is a Neo Geo MVS cabinet. The games are on a cartridge making them easy to swap out, and you can have up 6 games at a time on 1 cabinet selectable from a menu.

As far a pre built cabinet with mainly beat-em-ups...doesn't Capcom license it's games out to multicab builders? You could probally find one of those. Otherwise Mame is probally your best option.

[Gamingking]

Thanks for the replys, I think I found a guy on craiglist.

[Ed Oscuro]

Simply put, you have two "legit" options:

1.) Get a JAMMA cabinet and buy unique arcade boards to put into it. Every time you swap games you need to open the cabinet and take out the old board to put the new one in. Make sure your cabinet has enough buttons for the games you want to play (probably six in your case) so you don't end up needing to add the buttons and wiring later. You ought to be able to play any game with less than six buttons easily.

2.) Get a dedicated SNK MVS cabinet. It's cartridge-based so it's easier to deal with, but the selection of games is unique compared to other arcade games. They don't take up all that much space, though.

There are some odd details - some other systems use cartridges but the motherboard plugs right into a JAMMA setup so they're considered JAMMA. Some SNK systems are JAMMA as well but it's probably best not to worry about that.

I've also heard that the MVS six-slot boards tend to have issues, but the four-slot and other boards should be fine.