Newbie looking for advice for first cab (from Spain!)

General_Norris

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Newbie looking for advice for first cab (from Spain!)

Hi, I'm General_Norris very nice to meet you all!

I have been a long-time lurker but given space and money constraints I had never considered getting into the hobby. But when I discovered I had a good amount of money in small coins I started to think, why the hell not, arcade games are actually pretty cheap!

Setting aside negotiations with family to put an obviously not fitting machine in my room, all looks very viable except for the fact that I live near Madrid, Spain.

As far as I know, Europe doesn't have as many classic machines around as the US and even tough there was no shortage of Pac Man and Galaga around here they probably seem more rare as the number of enthusiasts with original cabs is pretty low, tough it may be just be a perception issue.

I want to ask, now that I'm preparing myself to get a cab, possibly Berzerk or OutRun tough I'm open to other titles, I really wonder what should I do to prepare myself since I'm kind of lost here =p. Where can I check for prices or start reading about common repairs? Is it feasible to ship an entire cabinet from other country and is recreating a cabinet a good idea? I really want to learn and see if I this hobby can be for me :)


Thanks in advance and sorry if this isn't the correct place to post this, I haven't found an introduction thread.
 
Newbie looking for advice for first cab (from Spain!)

Berzerk is very hard too find and keep working . I would'nt call arcade games Cheap .

If you get a game that needs restoring you can be spending 100's too restore it back too factory shape.

Are arcade games really common over there? From my understanding Pinball is the thing over there.
 
Berzerk is very hard too find and keep working .
Oh, that's a shame. I thought it would be easier to get than, say, Robotron or Joust.

I would'nt call arcade games Cheap .If you get a game that needs restoring you can be spending 100's too restore it back too factory shape.
Oh, I know! It isn't cheap on relative terms compared to other games but for what it is, it's pretty cheap. I'm just kind of surprised they can be collected, I know many gamers which have enough budget to make room for one or more.

Are arcade games really common over there? From my understanding Pinball is the thing over there.
Well, probably more than here by a long stretch. I have never seen anything older than a House of the Dead in my whole life and nothing pops up in ebay while there's always someone selling something of the most popular games on the American ebay.

Funny, I don't think pinballs are popular in Spain, I used to go very often to the arcades and I never saw anyone using them.
 
jakobud.com and build your favorite ;)
I actually consider it! I'm not sold on the historical accurancy, tough, even tough its just wood. Do you think it's viable for a newbie to buy PCBs and monitors and put them all together in place?

Tough some arcades have their share of plastic. OutRun does for sure!

I wonder out of those titles, how hard would be to keep a hold of them and keeping them running for a newbie?

Berzerk (Frenzy is fine too but given it's a conversion, it's probably much more rare)
OutRun (Turbo OutRun uses a daughterboard so same as the above)
Joust
Robotron
Defender

There's also other cool stuff like Sinistar or Tempest which are rare or hard to mantain so I'm not including them.
 
If you like Joust, Robotron and Defender then I suggest building your own cabinet using the plans linked below. Several places sell special gameboards that include Joust, Robotron, Defender, Stargate, Bubbles and a few others games all together. Set that gameboard up in your machine and you will be ready to go.

Otherwise you are going to be limited to whatever shows up local to you, which may never be what you are looking for, and for the most part probably won't even be the same versions that you have seen pictures of on the internet.
 
If you like Joust, Robotron and Defender then I suggest building your own cabinet using the plans linked below. Several places sell special gameboards that include Joust, Robotron, Defender, Stargate, Bubbles and a few others games all together. Set that gameboard up in your machine and you will be ready to go.
I guess you are talking about a multi-Williams, right? The truth is that I don't think I want one, I'm looking for original hardware. If I'm spending so much money on these machines I can't help but want it. I would rather run a MAME machine if I can't get it.

There are no plans for Joust or Robotron upright versions, do they use the same cabs as other games?

Otherwise you are going to be limited to whatever shows up local to you, which may never be what you are looking for, and for the most part probably won't even be the same versions that you have seen pictures of on the internet.
Do you think it's viable for me to wait until the boards appear on ebay and then put them in a self-made cabinet?
 
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