Is It Time To Leave This Hobby ??

[Mykill]

I would say trading would be the way to lower prices on the forum instead of selling to fund your new purchase .
also u wouldn't get taxed as no money changes hands no extra fees ,when you send over seas it would b a gift.
Not much trading though

 

[thermal_treasure]

I use instagram as much as the next person but it's like pouring fuel on the fire that is desirability. I don't think it's a coincidence that prices have skyrocketed over the past ten years as instagram use has expanded. People post new gets and collections all the time, raising the profile of rare and obscure stuff thus raising prices.

I've been using a gkd350h handheld this week, between that and FPGA mister with a good quality control panel, I feel like I'm pretty much set for life. Never understood the 20 cab 'grail' mentality. Will always have utmost respect for people who fix CRTs and keep old hardware going though, those people are the true heroes of the hobby

 

[andyman]

If all the under 30's had stuck to collecting their Pokemon cards and not insisting how robotron or outrun is their grail ?? this hobby may have remained affordable . A big part of this for me is the nostalgia ... I was there ... I fail to understand the logic of anyone being into this hobby that had never set foot in an arcade in their life . Its all a bit cringey .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wIvY4881TY4

That guy does my head in...he is so dismissive and rude when talking to people...he hears what he wants to and ignores the rest...cuts people off mid sentence...

 

[thesharkfactor]

I have tried to bail out a few times now but something keeps drawing me back in. I'm well and truly done with collecting (well, almost

). I'm certainly done with buying pcbs (yeah, I know I got another one a few weeks ago from bensonrad).

I'm happy just to play my last cab once a week to blast through Golden Axe and a try to get past the 1st level of Q*bert..maybe a bit of SCi for 5 mins.. and I come in here to read threads like this every day - that sums up the hobby for me today.

 

[RygarR]

If you’re hobby is collecting stuff it’s not as cheap as it was.

If your hobby is playing stuff and talking about it with like minded people, it’s probably not been as good since the 80s.

10 years ago there wasn’t a place you could go to play these games. Now you’ve got:

Neon Knights (my place)
Arcade Club
Retro Arcade Warrington
Retro Replay
NQ64 (few emulators but some original stuff)

And lots of other boys and girls putting it out there. And trust me, it’s really hard work for not a huge pay off doing it. So don’t fear that the little independent ones are hoarding all your stuff and making Scrooge McDuck’ian style vaults of cash. We’re working our back sides off for the love of the subject. I’m still working my full time job.

It might drive some prices up, but some people may have never been able to afford to get Outrun, T&F, Donkey Kong, DK Jr, Pacman, Space Invaders etc in one room. Now you can pay a tenner and do the lot.

If you love classic arcade machines, barring the 80s, these are the halcyon days and we should embrace it as it might not be around for long & these machines will eventually all die!

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this, but I would MUCH rather that guys like yourself buy this stuff to put back into active service, than some 'collector' who hides it away in a storage unit never to be seen or touched again...

 

[robotech]

It is annoying that i cant justify buying the few pcbs or cabs that i would want to own now the prices have got silly

But the crazy prices are just the cabs and pcbs you get to see
Every one is fighting over the scraps
people have lockups full of cabs that they have horded from raids that sit in the dark unplayed
Have you also ever wondered where all the good cabs from the raids go like the two dlx space harriers from the manchester raid ?

i have enjoyed restoring the few dedicated cabs that i managed to get my hands on at decent prices through the forum a few years back but even then prices were only cheap if you bought broken stuff
The cabs i restored were all sold at cost price to arcade club and live there now for people to enjoy
As i found that once i had restored them i kind of lost interest

You have got to think are people collecting because they want to play the game or for the chase just to put another pcb on the shelf to sit in storage for the next 30 years

So is it time to be leave the hobbie ?? cabs pcbs and restorations
For me Yes i dont have the time or the stupid amounts of money people want for decent dedicated project cabs now

But its not all about collecting cabs and pcbs there are still some really nice people To meet in the community,chatting about games and arcades years ago,playing games at events,meeting new people, having a laugh,forgetting about work,
Ill take that over owning any of the cabs

robotech2020-03-08 23:24:28

 

[John Bennett]

‘Out there’ thought, but maybe retro arcades are best served by emulation, rather than burning through the last of the old boards.
Easier said than done of course, especially for bespoke cabs.

The CRT obsolescence is another matter.John Bennett2020-03-08 23:14:50

 

[BarrySlisk]

One positive thing about the sky high prices. People don't throw as much stuff out and look better after it. But even NOW people write stuff like "Get this monitor this weekend or it goes to the skip". Apparently prices of CRT's are still too low when people act like this.
Some idiot wrote not too long ago (it might be bs though) that he does not like Outrun minis so in the past he destroyed several of them.

 

[BarrySlisk]

‘Out there’ thought, but maybe retro arcades are best served by emulation, rather than burning through the last of the old boards.
Easier said than done of course, especially for bespoke cabs.

The CRT obsolescence is another matter.

SO true. I hate arcades for this reason. We can't have tubes burning 12 hours a day anymore. THEY ARENT PRODUCED ANYMORE FOR f**kS SAKE!!!

It's like using a Testorossa for stock car racing!

 

[robotech]

Crts are another topic for ebay greed and retro tax

 

[John Bennett]

I’m all for retro arcades (I wish there were some near me), I just think they’re best off avoiding the overpriced old PCB game - leave it to the madmen

. Ultimately they’ll have to move away from it anyway, some stuff IS just rare, it’s not hoarded away.
A good reason to be in the hobby, to try to help

I wish large 4:3 LCDs were available.

 

[ZedEx48K]

So, how about this, we start a new section here for arcade machine measurements etc, make a nice database so we can replicate without the increasing costs associated with the hobby, the recent Paperboy self build being a good example.

Then we* just need to figure out a Fresnel lens type adaptor/overlay to give lcds some curvature etc

*In this case we means someone cleverer than me

 

[lix]

CRT obsolescence does worry me, especially if I were to operate a bunch of machines in an arcade. However I figure that game and monitor boards are likely to die while sat being unused, so may as well have them running for the current generation to enjoy like we used to. I'm up for keeping my hobby in arcades going for the foreseeable future, even if I have to spend a sh*t-ton more cash (within reason).

Maybe we should have some kind of voluntary tax on large hoarders and arcades, where we all pay into a fund to buy the very last CRT manufacturing plant when it's about to close, and we can tool up and train people to make the tubes we need. I'm pretty sure they're still making them somewhere as there are listings for shipping containers of new CRT TVs on alibaba for asian and african markets. I've got probably over 100 CRTs of all shapes and sizes (except for 19" and 25" darn) so I'm probably the first to fall foul and have to tax myself.

I've at least been doing some research on making a monitor chassis from scratch, pulling apart dead flybacks and calculating voltages per windings.

 

[Robbiedog]

So, how about this, we start a new section here for arcade machine measurements etc, make a nice database so we can replicate without the increasing costs associated with the hobby, the recent Paperboy self build being a good example.

This is 100% what I intend to do, I want a machine of each controller type then I'll be happy (2 player, 4 player, trackball, spinners, light guns, etc). Money aside I don't have the skills to keep og hardware going, so I guess the prices don't bother me.

Serious question to all the purist's, if someone built a 100% repro cabinet, but used FPGA or alternative would you ever consider that to be a serious cabinet or would you always think of it as a "mame cab"?

 

[jengineer]

But even NOW people write stuff like "Get this monitor this weekend or it goes to the skip".

it gets people off there arse to come and collect though, I've lost count of the amount of times I've held big parts for people who have paid 20 or 30 quid for something through paypal and then they leave it months because they'll "pop in and collect when I'm up your way sometime this year"

I would love free masses of dry barn storage, I wouldn't skip anything ever and would just have racking upon racking of parts, mmmmmm lovely jubbly

jengineer2020-03-09 09:53:16

 

[John Bennett]

I remember seeing a closed CRT plant in Europe (the last one?) and wishing there could've been some group fund to keep it going. Monumental amount of work though and I can't imagine present regulations like inefficient lead-filled X-ray boxes

I need to have a play with an ultra short-throw projector - a 29" 4:3 display inside the volume of an existing CRT chassis is the golden target.

Serious question to all the purist's, if someone built a 100% repro cabinet, but used FPGA or alternative would you ever consider that to be a serious cabinet or would you always think of it as a "mame cab"?

Maybe I'm not a purist, but it wouldn't matter to me - it would stand alone as a work of art (like that Star Wars cockpit being made on here).

I think the further people go to clone the past, the more fascinating it gets - I can't stand how Arcade-1up's ignore the plastic bezel details, screen angles, scanlines etc - it could be so much better.

I'd hedge a bet most of the income to Retro arcades comes from general punters who wouldn't be bothered if they were running an emulation in a JAMMA cab. But I'd still feel more comfortable with them experincing something authentic looking, rather than a jerky Pandora multigame on freeplay, with a widescreen telly and a neon cab.

 

[jonhughes]

Serious question to all the purist's, if someone built a 100% repro cabinet, but used FPGA or alternative would you ever consider that to be a serious cabinet or would you always think of it as a "mame cab"?

I was firmly refraining from putting anything in this post because it's the same old same old (I bought my first original Ghouls n Ghosts PCB for £68, sold it and now they're £680 - everything is relative).

On your question though it shouldn't matter to a gamer, for me I play the games - if it plays as close to 100% to the original I don't give a toss. Some people need original boards for copyright purposes which I get others want the real deal (that's their bag and price to pay, even if it drags all the rest of us with it).

I'm very grateful we have emulation, very grateful indeed (apologies to the companies and I'd be happy to pay a fee on that). I only buy things that aren't emulated or correctly emulated - but that will be moved off the table soon enough.

I have three Blast City cabinets at home and although I can play whatever I want on them, there's something missing. There's just no atmosphere at home and it doesn't feel the same, so I just get myself down to the nearest retro arcade have my fill and that does the trick for me, until I need my next fix. I can't fully recreate the 80's or 90's at home - I have to go into an arcade.

jonhughes2020-03-09 10:35:56

 

[wetwants]

I've quickly skimmed the thread. WOW, a very divided community.

 

[wetwants]

I wouldn't say I'm an avid collector, and I haven't been in the game for that long. But I do like buying the occasional board. SO therefore, I do appreciate that there are a few genuine people (based on comms) that I feel I would be paying the correct price.

 

[patloz]

I wouldn't say I'm an avid collector, and I haven't been in the game for that long. But I do like buying the occasional board. SO therefore, I do appreciate that there are a few genuine people (based on comms) that I feel I would be paying the correct price.

This is the bit I don't get, "the correct price", and I am not having a pop at you personally.

Its just the thought process that when a group of people decide a price point ( normally based on historic data which is useless in todays marketplace ) then that's what its worth, irrelevant how many get sold for more money and anyone who buys one at the true market value is paying too much, is too rich, is an idiot and is ruining the hobby etc.

As I said previously everything has a market value however much the people who cant or wont justify the price moan about it and the sooner everyone just accepts prices rise with market forces the more will get offered in the for sale forum.