Bob wrote:

I'd like to pick up a genuine old cabinet.. but I'm guessing a lot of them aren't going to be in great nick anymore.

You are best buying a refurbed one unless you can do the work yourself. Its expensive but better do that than end with a really big paperweight. I bought mine refurbed with reconditioned monitor , reflowed PCB, new power supply etc. I did that because asteroids is a vector monitor game. You would be better getting a MAME cabinet if you aren't looking at playing vector games.

davyK wrote:

Bob wrote:

I'd like to pick up a genuine old cabinet.. but I'm guessing a lot of them aren't going to be in great nick anymore.

You are best buying a refurbed one unless you can do the work yourself. Its expensive but better do that than end with a really big paperweight. I bought mine refurbed with reconditioned monitor , reflowed PCB, new power supply etc. I did that because asteroids is a vector monitor game. You would be better getting a MAME cabinet if you aren't looking at playing vector games.

And even then Davy IIRC you had issues at the start getting it to work properly?

LivDiv wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

You can't watch Neighbours on it any more though.

I know. Absolutely gutted.

I watched an episode of Dad's Army on one.

retroking1981 wrote:

Smang wrote:

retroking1981 wrote:

Dragons Lair is indeed shit. Only FMV game worth giving any time is Road Avenger imo.

You clearly have never played ground zero Texas!

I haven't, will check it out.

It's hilariously, wonderfully bad. I played it all the time. (Directed by this guy.)

Has a big difficulty spike halfway through, though, whereas Road Avenger lets you get a bit further each play as your memorisation improves. ON THE ROAD

Road avenger also has the best intro song

Ah, yes…meant to add that it’s almost certainly not as cheap as DIY-ing yourself, but you do (in theory) take out all the hassle and should receive a pretty simple plug-and-play machine.

Was surprised to read they use refurbished PCs though, must keep their costs down even lower.

lastant wrote:

davyK wrote:

You would be better getting a MAME cabinet if you aren't looking at playing vector games.

We’ve been having a little look at the Bitcade offerings as we’re (hopefully!) moving soon and might have the space to make it a bit of a feature in the space - they’re seemingly very customisable (including light guns!) but not sure if having all the games might make them less enjoyable as a result…

https://bitcade.co.uk/products/27-inch-upright-arcade-cabinet

Solid choice. At one point I was considering a JAMMA cab and collecting PCBs but some of those boards weren"t built to last and some are getting really expensive. Having a PC and modern screen are both swappable and its a great compromise. Nothing like a classic for looks but functionally superior.

The only laserdisc game I ever saw that was sort of worth playing. This one even looked half decent to my 17yo cynic back then but it was too expensive to play. '83 - same year as Dragon's Lair.   Was good use of the tech within its limitations.

Aye. It had a sit down cabinet too. Don't think it moved or anything but it looked great in the arcade.

There was a bomber run too - it played a bit differently - more of an overhead view. You selected which mission you wanted at the start.

I got one of those in blue.

Decent for some games, Castlevania springs to mind as it used the D-Pad for camera control.

Awful for others though, could not it on with Goldeneye using it.

Good pad overall though, well worth it as an alternative for certain games.

edit: I got a wired one for the original hardware.

I have a fair few retro bit pads, all finely crafted

davyK wrote:

I have at least 4 original N64 pads. The one I got with the console in '97 still works flawlessly with no slack in the stick -  but I fancied trying this and the price is right.

Same here, always makes me wonder what the hell people do to pads to get in such bad condition.

retroking1981 wrote:

davyK wrote:

I have at least 4 original N64 pads. The one I got with the console in '97 still works flawlessly with no slack in the stick -  but I fancied trying this and the price is right.

Same here, always makes me wonder what the hell people do to pads to get in such bad condition.

Yikes. 25 years.

Xbox Live 1.0 is back, baby.



But no Halo 2... yet.

I guess it's hard to convince the bean counters that "of little value" means "of no value". I do wish more companies would do what Atari did with the Jaguar and just release the specs into the wild once something has been supplanted by the new hotness. But I think it'll remain rare.

I imagine it's a bit of a PR headache being anticipated as well.
If something dodgy is happening it still has their brand and mascots all over it. Legally they would be ok but that doesn't stop a Mumsnet revolt.

I think something similar happened to Club Penguin. Disney closed it, someone hosted the code, kids unwittingly logged on and it was totally unregulated. Full of edgelords, griefers and nonces.
Same as what happened to the Edge forum really, then this badger place appeared full of the worst degenerates.