Home Arcades - MAME or real?

[SegaAges]

I completely agree. A few weeks ago we had a big get-together at the house, and my current project was in the barn/garage. I had the multiboard version of 1943 and the original PCB. The machine got quite a bit of play, and 1943 was a popular choice for the party goers. Quite a few times we put the original board back in the machine, because it played better and had better sound than the emulated multi-board version. If space wasn't an issue, then I wouldn't have a multi-board.





The more I learn about this hobby, the more I'm beginning to understand this is just something you have to live with. As someone who owns and plays console games more than arcade machines, I'm used to having my games work right 95% of the time. So it's kind of hard for me to get over the fact, that machines do break, and some may never work 100%. Unless you are an experienced repair tech or have the money to pay someone to fix your machines when they act up, it's something you need to get used too.

Reading this thread will hopefully make it a little easier to accept the reliability differences between arcade games and console games.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=111817

Yes, you are definitely correct.

They go out. Problems happen. I will say though, having an actual machine and having it break, you learn so much from it.

Before my monitor started giving me problems, I knew nothing about multimeters, soldering, cold solder joints, schematics, any of it.

I am still no expert, but I will suggest getting a real one because if a problem comes up, yes it will suck, but learning how to fix it yourself, you will learn alot. I am no expert, I am a self proclaimed newbie with arcades, but I have learned enough already to make me doing it myself all worth it.

My personal suggestion would be to do what I did, get a cheap cab for 100-300, get it jamma compatible, and get some jamma boards. If you get a problem, learn how to do it. Sure I am asking dudes here on DP for every single step in the process, but I am fine with that (and from their help, they seem to be fine with it as well).

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Yes, you are definitely correct.

They go out. Problems happen. I will say though, having an actual machine and having it break, you learn so much from it.

Before my monitor started giving me problems, I knew nothing about multimeters, soldering, cold solder joints, schematics, any of it.

Me too, I've only been in it since May and I've already learned a lot. In fact before getting a machine I had never soldered or used a multimeter either.

I still suck at troubleshooting. I don't have a lot of spare parts handy so I don't have the luxury of swapping out major parts to try and track down what's causing a certain problem. That and I still don't fully understand the various modes of a multimeter or how to test certain components. I've read some on it, but there's a lot to take in.

I have to remember, "Baby Steps."

[phreak97]

I'm a purist, I think that unless a cabinet was built without a game in mind (there are lots of generic cabinets here in australia, I have two) then it should have it's original game in it for life.

a dedicab should stay a dedicab, or else youre ruining a part of arcade history.

Tell me you have less room than I do, I dare you



That room is 8'8"x10'6", I just measured it.

[Moon Jump]

If you got the room, go real. If you don't MAME it up. But just don't ruin a perfectly good machine. I've seen way too many horrible jobs done on machines that could have been fixed but they just throw a cheap PC screen and top it off with an ugly X-Arcade Tank Stick and think it's the greatest thing.

[phreak97]

If you got the room, go real. If you don't MAME it up. But just don't ruin a perfectly good machine. I've seen way too many horrible jobs done on machines that could have been fixed but they just throw a cheap PC screen and top it off with an ugly X-Arcade Tank Stick and think it's the greatest thing.

it's true, most mame cabs come out horrible. but it is perfectly possible to build a mame cabinet which you could put in public with a game running and have nobody realise it isnt real.

dont do a frankenstein cabinet, choose one type of game (shooting, trackball, joystick, whatever) and make it only for that control scheme. a control panel with 349534958345 buttons and crap hanging off it is never a pretty thing.

my playchoice cabinet I built up myself out of a ratty generic cab with most of its guts stripped out. Theres no reason why I couldnt have put a however many in 1 or a mame box in that cab and have it look the same.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's also possible to add a MAME board that uses a JAMMA interface so you can swap in regular JAMMA boards as needed.

[cyberfluxor]

Find a nice JAMMA machine that isn't dedicated and collect some boards for swapping. Also a Neo-Geo MVS is a good choice especially if you enjoy fighters!

My opinion is MAME is nice, but for the PC at a desk. I don't care for it in a cabinet, but that's me. I've seen it done real well and it's cool but just not what I'd be interested at doing. Original boards and parts in a machine is a wonderful thing to have. Multiboards are a meeting in the middle.

[phreak97]

Find a nice JAMMA machine that isn't dedicated and collect some boards for swapping. Also a Neo-Geo MVS is a good choice especially if you enjoy fighters!

My opinion is MAME is nice, but for the PC at a desk. I don't care for it in a cabinet, but that's me. I've seen it done real well and it's cool but just not what I'd be interested at doing. Original boards and parts in a machine is a wonderful thing to have. Multiboards are a meeting in the middle.

Couldnt have said it better

[Raedon]

Cool. I've only seen two MAME machines and one was a tabletop and both were made only for classics.

I need to get my game room looking classic, stack all my games up, throw my consoles onto shelves then see how much room I've got left. I've got plenty of room if I keep my Computer room and game room separate. Could always throw a cabby in the utility room. Someone designed it with enough room for 2 sets of washers and dryers.