Bought first arcade game, might make it a MAME cab if easy enough...

[DefaultGen]

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[boatofcar]

A local Pizza place has a Ms. Pacman machine and a 4-slot Neo Geo machine that aren't ever turned on, but I wouldn't know how to approach the owner seriously, I guess i'll try.

See if there's a sticker on the machines for the local arcade machine retailer (usually called something like "blah blah Amusement Co, or something like that.) If you don't see a sticker, chances are they belong to the establishment. Either way, you can gather some leads by talking to whoever the manager there is about how to get in contact with the owner, or if the games are leased from a local supplier, the name of that place.

[blissfulnoise]

Craigslist is the answer. There are about 5 - 10 cabs a week that show up in the Denver area. I'd imagine New York would see three times as many.

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[madman77]

It depends on the condition. You'll want to check the monitor for sure, most games that are in pizza shops/arcades/etc will have severe screen burn, as they are on nearly all day running the exact same game. I wouldn't worry much about the joystick and buttons as you can easily replace those, even with very little electronics knowledge. It also depends on what you want to get out of it. If you don't care if the cabinet is dinged up, you can get a better deal. You'll also want to consider button layout and what sort of games you want to play. An MVS cab will have the typical Neo Geo 4 button layout and 8 way stick. Do you want to play fighters that require 6 buttons? You might want to look for a panel with that sort of layout, or be prepared to modify your existing panel.

I'd second the Craigslist recommendation, there's always a lot of activity here in the Chicago area. Look around for a couple weeks and you'll get a good idea of what's out there and what you want. EBay has some great deals occasionally, you'll probably get quite a few in your neck of the woods on there too.

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[Flack]

I would say the vast majority of JAMMA games use two buttons. The good news is, with a drill, a 1 1/8" drill bit and about a buck's worth of parts (a button and some wire), you can easily add a third button should you need one.

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[boatofcar]

Looks great

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[nate1749]

This is a great site
http://www.namcoarcade.com/game-sales.asp

I'd recommend Tekken Tag, great game that can be had for $150-$400. It was only available in conversion so the cab will most likely be of another game since most of them don't update the art.

For that price range I wouldn't recommend anything Pinball related, if it was a few hundred more yes, but at $500 I would say stick to a cabinet.

Also, why not buy a junk cabinet and change it to a mame machine? And most dorms are like starter apartments now (although plenty of prison like dorms still exist), one that would allow plenty of space for an arcade cab. If you had a mame cabinet you'll have something fun for your female vistors to do (pacman and what not), which as a freshman you'll need as much help as you can get =)

Nate

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[Borman]

You can. Buy an adapter thing.

[La4s]

All you need is one of these: http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html

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[La4s]

THe Jpac should be everything you need. You will run you video card, keyboard, and mouse to the Jpac, which will then convert the image and controls through the jamma connector to your monitor and joystick/buttons. What will end up happening is that the buttons in mame will be mapped to specific keys which the jpac then relates to the inputs on the control panel.

[DefaultGen]

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[La4s]

That sounds great. So I don't need that $90 video card that converts whatever to 15hz?

No, you would still need a vid card that outputs 15k. The jpac just allows for an easy connection interface from pc to jamma. The right hardware is still required.

[DefaultGen]

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[La4s]

The ArcadeVGA is he most common vid card. If I remember correctly it is just an older ATI card with different drivers.