Dig Dug - save it or flip it?

smalltownguy2

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So I picked up this cab last week at auction. One of those "here's one picture...buy it or not" kind of deals.

370.jpg


It's a Dig Dug. Cab is in OK shape, no water damage. Side art is there, waiting to be revealed under a craptastic roller paint job.

When I picked up the cab, the monitor's neck board was snapped in half. I swapped out the G07 for a spare I had, and she fires right up. Arch Rivals - God what a game this is. I think I had fun playing it for about 17 seconds.

Anyway, the question begs: de-convert or flip it?

From what I see, I'll need several things to get this cab back to Dig Dug:

  1. Marquee
  2. CPO
  3. bezel
  4. Cab wiring
  5. ARII board
  6. Game PCB
  7. CP hardware (cone buttons, joystick, leaf buttons)
The original Atari transformer block assembly is present in the bottom of the cab.


If I try to sell it, I'm afraid I'll be lucky to get $200 for it. I have $100 into it now. I'm not sure it's worth the $100 I'll get to sell it. I think for about $200 or so I could probably collect all the parts I need to de-convert it and I'll have a dedicated Dig Dug cab for for around $300 and some elbow grease.


Thoughts? Save it or sell it?
 
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My heart would say save it because that's what it was originally, but my brain would say flip it because you'll never get your money back. You'll get the personal satisfaction of restoring a Dig Dig, but I see people unable to give those away. Plus chances are is that the person you sell it to will hack it up and make it a 60-1.
 
You could buy a working Dig Dug in an unpainted cab for much less than it would take to 'restore' that one and buy the necessary parts.
 
There are 'other' options for me, I guess.

I do have a spare 60 in 1 board I could throw in there. I could turn off all of the other games except Dig Dug and then all I'd need would be to fix up the artwork. Cost: $75 for the board, and I'd guess about another $100 more for CPO, marquee and bezel. Use the existing wiring.

I've also been toying with DosMAME lately. It wouldn't take much to get a older PC to boot directly to Dig Dug. Cost: free, but would take more work.

Either way, I think I'm going to have to do some control panel work. Those 49-way joysticks are pretty much useless in anything else but games designed for them. I'd have to swap them out.
 
:D

It's cool that you are asking us what to do. If it were me, converting it back to a Mr. Do seems the only right thing to do. The question remains: Do you think you can do it?

Do the do.
 
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Smalltown, I have a Dig Dug CP that's just missing the stick, I'll take a pic and send it to you of you want to go the Dig Dug route
 
Change it back to a Dig Dug, then flip it.

You'd get a helluva lot more from selling it as a Dig Dug than you would as an Arch Rivals. Dig Dugs are pretty common, and you could always get another one down the road.

Arch Rivals, while uncommon, sucks ten ways from Sunday.
 
Brad, IMO you're gonna stick more into it than what you could sell it for if you restore it to a Dig Dug. Unless you plan on keeping it, I'd pass it along as is.
 
Arch Rivals is garbage, no one is ever going to enjoy playing that. Most sports games age very poorly and that one wasn't much fun when it was new. Sell those 49 way joysticks for $40 each the mame guys buy them and I am pretty sure you can use them for sinistar as well (wrong knob though). Sell the arch rivals board for $20. There you made your money back.

Then do whatever you want from there.

My suggestion is to use safest stripper to get the sideart back and then sell it to someone wanting to do a Dig Dug conversion. I have gotten the sideart back off a Millipede and off a bunch of williams cabinets that way and I never had any shortage of offers on the empty cabinets after I did it.
 
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I posted from an about the money perspective because that is the route that the original poster seemed to be concerned about.
 
It's not about the money with this one. I'm not planning on getting rich with it. I DO like Dig Dug, but I don't $500 LIKE Dig Dug. If I put $500 into my arcade, it's going to be to put an AMP in my Star Wars cab.

I need to get an eye on the side art. If I can lift this paint and reveal some nice art, then I'll keep the cab.
 
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