What cabs to grab no matter what

jdoz2

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It sounds like I'm going to be able to check out a mass amount of cabs sometime this month (50+) and I that got me thinking. I only am wanting one beat up cab for a custom project, but are there certain cabs to look out for based on value/rarity that you would grab if you saw it?

It sounds like this guy sells to a lot of people that turn the cabs into MAME machines and multicades so Im hoping to snag a project cab or two to restore. I was just hoping to get a little schooling before I go in there so I dont pass up on any rare stuff.
 
Tron, Star Wars, and Warlords (cocktail) are apparently made of solid gold.

Good luck- it is always fun to pick through cabs like that!
 
if your from the 80's and you played the game before and liked it, buy it. If you ask people to make a list of 20 games they like, I would guess 10-12 would be the same(especially if they are close in age). So those games would be easy to sell if you found them.

The games that are worth the most, are stuff you never heard of before:
zektor
aztarac
cosmic chasm
blaster
splat
inferno
warrior
eliminator

you should have heard of these
discs of tron
quantum
reactor
mad planets
major havoc
zoo keeper
tapper
timber
star wars
tempest


I would say, go and take pics/notes. Don't waste the guys time, get what you want and plan to go back and grab the rare stuff. Also look around for monitors and boards. 6100 monitors are worth about $200 a pop. Some pcbs can be worth $1k+.
 
If any collectors have been there before you then all the really good stuff will be gone. Since you say the guy sells to a lot of people, you can be sure that at least one of them knew what was what.

Really the only good finds you can hope for in a picked over warehouse are things that only a small portion of the collecting community is interested in (Exidy titles, black and white stuff).
 
Converted GT 98

anchorman-well-that-escalated-quickly.jpg
 
if your from the 80's and you played the game before and liked it, buy it. If you ask people to make a list of 20 games they like, I would guess 10-12 would be the same(especially if they are close in age). So those games would be easy to sell if you found them.

The games that are worth the most, are stuff you never heard of before:
zektor
aztarac
cosmic chasm
blaster
splat
inferno
warrior
eliminator

you should have heard of these
discs of tron
quantum
reactor
mad planets
major havoc
zoo keeper
tapper
timber
star wars
tempest


I would say, go and take pics/notes. Don't waste the guys time, get what you want and plan to go back and grab the rare stuff. Also look around for monitors and boards. 6100 monitors are worth about $200 a pop. Some pcbs can be worth $1k+.

Born in 89' so I missed the arcade boom by a few years ;). Thanks for the list! Even some of the ones you listed that I should know Im not familiar with.
 
If you want to avoid heartache, frustration and a bad back -- don't listen to a gawd damned thing that has been said so far.

What games should you grab no matter what? The ones you want to play, work on and own. Everything else is just a potential space waster.
 
Yeah, definately. It depends on what your goal is. You keep saying 'cabinets', if that means 'empty cabinets' then none of them are worth anything. An empty Tron cabinet you probably couldnt' get 100 bucks out of.

If they're complete games, unless you get them running you're probably looking at 400 bucks tops, because the only people who will buy a broken game are people who are already able to buy all the broken games on craigslist, or ebay, or whatever.

On top of that, if he's the type that sells 'cabinets' to people to mame and multi, you're kind of suggesting that arcade guys have been crawling all over that place. My guess is you're not going to have anything desirable left, probably a bunch of dynamo conversion cabs.









With ALLLLLLL of that said, find a cabinet you like, or a game you like, and have fun with it. That's what it comes down to. If you get in there and are looking for an extra one to sell and make money on, just pick whatever's working the best, or the most 'famous' name.
 
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike
Dungeon & Dragons: Shadows Over Mysteria
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Strider
Ghouls n' Ghosts
Super Punch-Out!
Nintendo Arm Wrestling
TMNT: Turtles in Time
Juno First
Varkon

If you just find empty cabs that you may want to use for future JAMMA pcbs you acquire, look for good solid ones that have 2 speaker grills instead of one. They're better for games that use stereo sound. If you see any decent priced Taito cabs, get them if they have the control panel, monitor brackets and coin door. But even if they don't, they are still good cabs to restore, as are Nintendo cabs. Cabs that have rotary joysticks, like Ikari Warriors and Heavy Barrel, are nice finds too.
 
If you find a Junior Pac Man in original condition un converted with the board in it and the big gigantic weird looking top marquee, make sure to gently blow on the side of the cabinet to make sure it doesn't disintegrate into sawdust before you agree to buy it.
 
If you want to avoid heartache, frustration and a bad back -- don't listen to a gawd damned thing that has been said so far.

What games should you grab no matter what? The ones you want to play, work on and own. Everything else is just a potential space waster.

Honestly, I havnt played most of these games because arcades werent really huge when I was growing up.

I've never done a full restoration, so I was wanting to get a game so I can get that experience under my belt without losing a ton of money if I try and sell it down the line. Im not expecting to make much if any money, but I dont want to poor a ton of money into a game that has terrible resale value.
 
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