Recent Arcade Repro Trends

Phetishboy

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Anyone else noticing a trend in this area of the hobby? When I first got into arcade machine restorations, it seemed that anything (arts and parts) that had been reproed was available and in your hands a few days after ordering it, and anything that hadn't yet been reproed was quickly put into production if the demand was there. Now I see many repro sites and even the retailers that distribute their products are sold out of many popular items, with no idea when or if they will ever be restocked. Even worse, any new or even any re-issue repro projects seem to take years to get from interest to completion. Is this a sign of this hobby dying or at least drying up? I mean the mass exodus of people getting out and/or selling tons of games was kinda bothering me, but this new trend is bothering me even more as I actually plan on staying in this hobby for a while. I have also been noticing longer shipping times and an overall lack of customer service from a lot more places as well. In addition, why is it that every repro guy seems to have the luck of the elephant man? Car accidents, hospital visits, divorces, email server issues, car troubles, etc, etc, etc. What gives?
 
To the contrary, I notice more products available than ever before in this hobby and smaller scale hobbyists getting involved in bringing some of these products to market. Could the latter be responsible for some of this out of stockage you have noticed? I have personally noticed an uptick in the number of products available as a single run only.
 
To the contrary, I notice more products available than ever before in this hobby and smaller scale hobbyists getting involved in bringing some of these products to market. Could the latter be responsible for some of this out of stockage you have noticed? I have personally noticed an uptick in the number of products available as a single run only.

Well I've noticed a huge upswing in repro promises but not really an upswing in deliveries. Maybe it's just on the stuff I need.
 
I keep hearing about the impending demise of the hobby but don't see a lot of evidence yet. CAX attendance was way up and I have people stopping me on the street and complaining that they missed it this year when they see my CAX shirt.

It's alive and well. People are just on bread and water these days with the economy. With so many folks just squeaking by there isn't much room for hobby's like this. But there's still plenty of interest.

Don't worry your pretty little head.
 
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To the contrary, I notice more products available than ever before in this hobby and smaller scale hobbyists getting involved in bringing some of these products to market. Could the latter be responsible for some of this out of stockage you have noticed? I have personally noticed an uptick in the number of products available as a single run only.


Yeah but I find the single run to be the problem once there gone there gone. I always seem to miss them due to lack of financing at the time. It seems like the stuff that gets the single runs always have the highest demand. Then we get stuck with everyone just selling ms pacman and Pacman CPO's and Centipede CPO's because nothing else is around. I cant wait to get a hold of a Burgertime CPO someone is finally making more. I didn't want to buy one the first time around because I didn't even have a game yet I missed the window by a month.


I also never plan to stop this hobby I will be doing this until the day I die. I just hope I can contribute some product to make myself useful sometime down the road in this hobby.
 
I keep hearing about the impending demise of the hobby but don't see a lot of evidence yet. CAX attendance was way up and I have people stopping me on the street and complaining that they missed it this year when they see my CAX shirt.

It's alive and well. People are just on bread and water these days with the economy. With so many folks just squeaking by there isn't much room for hobby's like this. But there's still plenty of interest.

Don't worry your pretty little head.

You're talking about collecting, I'm talking about restoring.
 
Then there is the "RAM EFFECT"... which IS causing headaches for anyone looking to pre-sell something...
 
You're talking about collecting, I'm talking about restoring.

No, I'm talking about interest in the hobby as a whole. People who restore will always be a small subset of the group who have the time, money, skill, space and inclination to do the work.

If the entire group is larger then the subset will likely be larger as well. But it's expensive to repair. More so than to collect.
 
What I have noticed is that still nobody makes a accurate Galaga CPO. And when I go to order parts they are always 1 or 2 available. When I just got a 4 restrictor plate for my DK it said that, and when I got it, it came with a note saying they they ran out of the repos and they sent me a NOS one instead!
 
I did try to contribute to the repro of arcade parts. So far this is just the beginning for me. I wasn't sure what to expect so I had to just do a one off run so I didn't go bankrupt trying to make this happen.

I plan to stay in the hobby for a long time, and if demand pops up again for PCB's I will run them. It's just hard to sit on a lot of them because of the cost.

I know my small repro isn't what your referring to, just adding my input from the little guy repro.
 
I like looking into reproing items, but it seems most of the time it's cost prohibitive. I'm sure a lot of the people that repro items lose money or break even when all is said and done.
 
I've noticed a lot of advancement on the vector side as of late. The work vector labs is doing as well as what some of the others are doing should prove to keep a lot more vectors alive. As for repro artwork and the like, I always figured phoenix had that market pretty much covered not counting what mikes arcade, this old game, arcade shop, and the like already had covered. Arcade cup has the monitors/flybacks covered for any monitor repairs we can't handle. Which just leaves the rest of us trying to figure out how to do a tube swap so we can get that minty fresh look out of monitors. But of all things remember this. As long as Bob Roberts is alive and kicking, we will have thriving hobby. So all you guys down in Florida remember to run him up some of that fountain of youth water you bastards been hoarding up. Forget "Keep Hope Alive". We'd better, "Keep Bob Alive" :)
 
Anyone else noticing a trend in this area of the hobby? When I first got into arcade machine restorations, it seemed that anything (arts and parts) that had been reproed was available and in your hands a few days after ordering it, and anything that hadn't yet been reproed was quickly put into production if the demand was there. Now I see many repro sites and even the retailers that distribute their products are sold out of many popular items, with no idea when or if they will ever be restocked. Even worse, any new or even any re-issue repro projects seem to take years to get from interest to completion. Is this a sign of this hobby dying or at least drying up? I mean the mass exodus of people getting out and/or selling tons of games was kinda bothering me, but this new trend is bothering me even more as I actually plan on staying in this hobby for a while. I have also been noticing longer shipping times and an overall lack of customer service from a lot more places as well. In addition, why is it that every repro guy seems to have the luck of the elephant man? Car accidents, hospital visits, divorces, email server issues, car troubles, etc, etc, etc. What gives?


This is the state of everything nowdays. I work with submarines for my day job. Fifteen years ago, when I first started, everything was plentiful and if you needed a part you could have it overnighted to you. Now, due to a change in management of corporate assets called "lean" inventories are no longer being kept and the manufacturers are instead building products as they get ordered. Most of the repro guys have backgrounds in a field that relates to the creation of the reproduction and they can't help but be indoctrinated into the prevaling mindset.


Just yesterday I was given a quote for piping products that had a 5 week delivery estimate. I placed this exact same order three years ago and received everything next day. Of course, last time I was planning for a job 18 months out and this time the job was emergent...
 
This is the state of everything nowdays. I work with submarines for my day job. Fifteen years ago, when I first started, everything was plentiful and if you needed a part you could have it overnighted to you. Now, due to a change in management of corporate assets called "lean" inventories are no longer being kept and the manufacturers are instead building products as they get ordered. Most of the repro guys have backgrounds in a field that relates to the creation of the reproduction and they can't help but be indoctrinated into the prevaling mindset.


Just yesterday I was given a quote for piping products that had a 5 week delivery estimate. I placed this exact same order three years ago and received everything next day. Of course, last time I was planning for a job 18 months out and this time the job was emergent...

Someone gets it. I'm glad it was you.
 
People are just on bread and water these days with the economy. With so many folks just squeaking by there isn't much room for hobby's like this. But there's still plenty of interest.

Don't worry your pretty little head.

Not to mention, short on time! I find that every time I put a block of "me" time aside to work on games or play them, I get thwarted by work; either my job or shit to do around the house. I'm surprised I was even able to do as much work as I could on my Track and Field.
 
A small story from one tiny guy in Smoggy LA.

Cosmic Chasm. I have some orginal NOS art work. Not a complete set.
How do you get this this out to the public.

There are many establish business that I could deal with.

Do you deal with a Business? Yes, they may produce better quaility but If there is little or no profit or demand after the frist run you will end up with Yes we had this but it's out of stock.
 
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