another legal MAME-like machine company starts up

[stonic]

http://www.awecades.com/

The 'about us' page is good for a laugh. Yep, this is another Vendel project.

"Due to his high standards for perfection and staying true to the classics"

LOL Obviously this doesn't apply to Legacy Engineering and all the mistakes with the Flashback and Flashback 2... :roll:

As for his latest venture,

He's offering stripped-down machines for outrageous prices, with either "over 80 games" (http://www.awecades.com/machines.htm) or 70 (http://www.awecades.com/faq.htm), depending on what page you look at. Pretty much like Ultracade (http://www.bmigaming.com/ultracadefaq.htm) (does it come with 86 or 89?). Note that Catch 22 and Combat are different versions of the same game. And just like Ultracade and others like them, he plans on offering more games via game 'paks' (which apparently may require changing out your harddrive??). There's also zero specs about the PC...

The cabinets were clearly designed after the standard Bally/Midway cab (used by Pac-Man, Galaxian, etc.) except w/o a coin door. Considering how flimsy the kiosk cabinets he's previously designed are, it would never hold up in actual location use (which is probably why there's no coin door, and why he's using LCD screens).

Controls are 2 joysticks w/ 4 buttons each. If you want a trakball, you have to buy another control panel with one on it (for what he's charging it should be included, esp. since it comes with several trakball games...). No optional spinner or driving wheel. It does however include a lightgun (the only notable difference between this machine and others like it). He's touting the custom interface pcb as an example of "awesome engineering" but Ultimarc (http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html) designed one years ago, which looks the same (and likely works the same, if not better). So basically he wasted time + money reinventing that wheel as well. Maybe he should have spent a little more time designing the control panel, b/c some of the games included require more than for buttons (d'oh!). Buh-buy fighting games...

The best part? The "awesome" $1,800 price tag! LOL
My advice- steer clear of this overpriced thing.

[stonic]

Specs are up on the website: link (http://www.awecades.com/specs-601.htm)

Time to 'turn this mutha out' ;)

Motherboard
Here is a socket 775 (newer platform as opposed to the old Socket 478) via chipset board with Unichrome video:link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138263)

Here is the older 478 style: link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138262)

A 2 GHhz Celeron is less than $50 bucks

So, with the memory and hard drive he doesn't have more than $150-175 of computer parts. AFAIK they don't even make 4gb hard drives anymore so he probably got them as a closeout special from some warehouse, or off Ebay, or mabye even out of old computers.

Audio is standard onboard type.
Maybe it's me, but I don't even see any speaker vents on this thing, which could explain needing a 250watt sound system LOL

Cabinet
He claims the cabinets are built with commercial grade 3/4" black MDF, but given the dimensions and the 21" CRT monitor, it's hard to believe this thing only weighs 200lbs. Typical upright machines weight about 300lbs (I've shipped out enough of them over the years to know). So either this wood is unusually light, or something's not right with these specs...

Software
He's running MAME for the Exidy games and 2 other emulator programs for the rest (off the shelf stuff by Digital Eclipse - Atari and Midway collections - link (http://www.digitaleclipse.com/live/main/main.html)).
His "custom Embedded Arcade OS" is a freeware program: link (http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/frontend.html)
Given how weak the hardware is and what's running on it, using an 8-yr-old OS like Win98 is pretty much a given.

Control panel
Right off the bat, the angle of the cp is not good. I'm already getting Centuri pangs in my wrists just from the picture. The controls are weak - 2 joysticks/8 buttons and a light gun (no pics or info on that). A good trakball or spinner would be another $80, which normally require their own interface board - Ultimarc's is $40 (same price as their Interface board) and can handle up to 2 trackballs and 2 spinners: link (http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac1.html). Given how many trakball games are included, and for the price you're paying, it should have been included, along with a few more buttons. And why are the buttons for the player 2 stick on the left side?

Considering he's probably getting most of the stuff at a good price, it's not surprising he can offer free shipping. :roll:

$1,800 for 80+ games. Any way you slice it, you're not getting anywhere near your money's worth.

[stonic]

AFAIK they don't even make 4gb hard drives anymore so he probably got them as a closeout special from some warehouse, or off Ebay, or mabye even out of old computers.


Looks like he upgraded to 10 gig hard drives... used.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160031024696

Nothing but the best for your money :)

[XYXZYZ]

WHY IN THE BLOODY FUCK DO YOU PUT THE P2 JOYSTICK ON THE WRONG SIDE?!!! That's encouraging anti-social behavior, nobody will want to play Street Fighter with you now!

http://www.awecades.com/images/awecade-605c-large.gif

Whenever I encounter something like that, I have to cross my arms to play. And I've only had to play a joystick on the right setup once.

[stonic]

Ooo look, if you draw a line right down the center of the trakball, the control panel is a mirror image of itself!!! Isn't that neat-o??? He should have the text on the right side in reverse to complete the effect!!!

The only possible (legit) reason might be for left-handed players, but (as a l-h friend of mine once told me) they've learned to use right-handed controls over the years, and trying to use the opposite now isn't natural, anymore than it is for right-handed people to write with their left hand.

The real reason is prolly b/c the so-called engineer who designed it is anything but.

[Hovoc]

why are you busting on this guy and his stuff? im not trying to be a jerk, i just dont get it, thats all

[stonic]

:? Charging nearly $2k for a poorly-designed $500 machine that has outdated and used hardware isn't reason enough??

EDIT: For the longest time, the website said there was a hold on placing new orders as new models were being worked on for release in summer of 2008. Summer came and went, and along with it the website. Guess sales weren't so 'awesome'...

[Hovoc]

:? Charging nearly $2k for a poorly-designed $500 machine that has outdated and used hardware isn't reason enough??


who cares if hes making the money? if the stats of the machine are listed on the site, and some idiot buys it, why are you gonna blame the seller?

[XYXZYZ]

who cares if hes making the money? if the stats of the machine are listed on the site, and some idiot buys it, why are you gonna blame the seller?

I see what you're saying, but I think we're all assuming that people like us are his target audience. (classic gamers who have some interest in buying a cabinet) So, we're looking at what he's offering us and criticizing the hell out of it. I mean, surely you see where we're coming from.

[XYXZYZ]

You know, I always wanted to get a cabinet kit. I was turned off of buying a "real" cabinet by shipping, worrying about interfacing my Xbox or whatever to arcade hardware, and I liked the idea easily building up a cabinet with the cam locks, etc. and using a TV instead of a monitor. (I knew what to do with a TV)

But all the cabinet kits I saw were horribly overpriced and didn't look like real cabinets. A funky shape, a retarted looking control panel that looks like someone spilled a bag of Skittles all over an airplane wing, none of them looked like anything I'd ever seen in an arcade. And looking at this here product... I mean, if I were going to sell something like this, I'd go to this forum, the KLOV forum, etc. just some kind of community with arcade gamers, and ask what everybody thinks of it during the design phase. (Then again, I don't know if he didn't)

I saw a Quasicade go for $1,500.00 at the arcade auction I went to, so there's obviously some demand for them.

By the way, I've gotten over all that stuff I mentioned and I'm into real hardware now, the hell with those kits. :D

[Hovoc]

i do see your point, but if hes able to sell them for that price, more power to him, i wish i was able to build osmething for 500 bones and sell it with a 300% mark up