Whats a good price for a Candy Cab ?

ScumBum

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Whats a good price for a Candy Cab ? Are they hard to find in the SF Bay Area ?
 
I've paid $250 for one, and I've paid $400 for one. Granted, mine aren't super nice (well, the Neo25 is, but it was a fluke price at $250) but you get the idea.
 
Yeah that Japanese arcade in San Francisco is pretty cool.

Candy cabs range in price from $250 and can go up to $1500 depending on make, model, original parts, and most importantly condition.
Some have a rotate mechanism that let you rotate the monitor from horizontal to vertical without having to lift out the monitor.
There are some cabinets that have monitors that are standard resolution and some that are auto Tri-sync and can do VGA/31KHZ also. The Tri-syncs don't do standard resolution as well as the dedicated standard resolution monitors. Side by side you can see a difference... Some people will argue otherwise...but it's true.

I am a huge fan of the Egret 29, Egret 2, and Egret 3 candy cabs.

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For a decent condition cabinet, I'd say anything under $500 is good.

Under $500 is going to get you a clone candy cab made in Korea or China, or you might luck out and get an Astro City in bad shape for that price. It all depends on the availability of cabinets in your area or if you are willing to ship. You won't find any Egret2 cabinet or Blast City for that price range in the Bay Area. The cheapest I have ever seen an Egret 2 was $950 and the most expensive was $1500. It was all about condition and if they had the original parts like the control panel etc.

I have owned over 15 candy cabs, many different kinds, and there is a big difference between how they are made. Some are made mostly of ABS plastic and can crack easily and yellow in color and some are all metal or mostly metal. Some are just designed better for easier maintenance, easier to move around, access to control panel and harness, room for PCBs, etc....
 
Under $500 is going to get you a clone candy cab made in Korea or China, or you might luck out and get an Astro City in bad shape for that price. It all depends on the availability of cabinets in your area or if you are willing to ship. You won't find any Egret2 cabinet or Blast City for that price range in the Bay Area. The cheapest I have ever seen an Egret 2 was $950 and the most expensive was $1500. It was all about condition and if they had the original parts like the control panel etc.

I have owned over 15 candy cabs, many different kinds, and there is a big difference between how they are made. Some are made mostly of ABS plastic and can crack easily and yellow in color and some are all metal or mostly metal. Some are just designed better for easier maintenance, easier to move around, access to control panel and harness, room for PCBs, etc....

I don't want a medium res monitor . Just a standard 25"

What model should I be on the look out for ?
 
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Wouldn't you want a tri-resolution monitor? I would. If you are putting a naomi in it, you would want a monitor that can support vga. The naomi looks a million times better in vga than standard res.
 
Yup, I swapped my Namco Excellena to a Tri Sync and plugged the VGA right into the NAOMI board...

it looks amazing even though there is now Bezel gap...

IMG_20120430_155543.jpg
 
Yeah for Naomi or xbox 360 games you want a VGA monitor or Tri-Sync monitor. But almost every good PCB is standard resolution. Candy cabs are like candy, one piece isn't enough. lol
If you want a VGA cab I would look at getting a Namco Noir or if you have lots of money to throw around a Vewlix! Drool....



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I am of the opinion that the Egret 2 is one of the best designs because of the ease of changing the monitor orientation. I don't know how easy it would be to put a tri sync in the rotating monitor bracket though.
 
Yeah for Naomi or xbox 360 games you want a VGA monitor or Tri-Sync monitor. But almost every good PCB is standard resolution. Candy cabs are like candy, one piece isn't enough. lol
If you want a VGA cab I would look at getting a Namco Noir or if you have lots of money to throw around a Vewlix! Drool....

28027201.jpg

Those are good for HD games, not so much for VGA 4:3 games.
 
I just picked up a Namco Exceleena 2 for $200. 29" monitor looks new and the game board that was in it is easily worth the $200. The bezel was cracked up, but repairable.

Not as nice as an Egret but I'm not complaining at that price. This was in socal.
 
I just picked up a Namco Exceleena 2 for $200. This was in socal.

WOW! Those are nice and for $200 you got a great deal on it too. Socal is the best place to find candy cabs. If you bring it up to the Bay Area I will give you at least $400 for it depending on condition.. :) That has a built-in rotate mechanism I am pretty sure?
 
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Yeah I got my excellena with a stack of CPS2 boards for 700. Today those boards are work more than $700. I got the trisync for free.
 
Most of the better candy cabs are 27" standard resolution.
You can look on Arcade Otaku wiki for a list of different candy cab specs and see which one jumps out at you the most.

http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/List_of_Candy_Cabinets

Here is another very good spec list on different candy cabs.
http://slawdog.net/hc/index.asp?page=Cabinet+List

Here is a good beginners guide to Candy Cab page.
http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Beginners_Guide_To_Candy_Cabs

Wow , thanks for all the info .
 
I concur. I've have (2) Egret2's + (1) Astro2. In addition to the monitor rotation mech, a friend added yoke flipping switches so all games can be played, no matter the orientation. When I encounter games upside down, flipping the switches inverts the image so all is good :D

Tom


I am of the opinion that the Egret 2 is one of the best designs because of the ease of changing the monitor orientation. I don't know how easy it would be to put a tri sync in the rotating monitor bracket though.
 
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