Is It Time To Leave This Hobby ??
- Thread starter TheDaddy
- Start date
John Bennett said: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.
If you can get cut down LCD's for dynamic marquees, is it possible to get screens cut to 4:3?
Probably expensive, but I see it as a viable possability.
jonhughes said:
Yeah, you can't beat the atmosphere of an Arcade, especially if you have memories of going to one before the Arcade ressurection we are experiencing thanks to places like Arcade Club.
My Blast City is set to 20p per play, and I set it to 40p per play for the more expensive PCB's I buy. For me, this retains my interest as I have to pay per play. I like the physical aspect of inserting a coin, hearing it drop into the cashbox and hearing the credit noise. Whats nice with this method is that the money accrued in the cashbox goes towards buying a new game, so, as long as the price isn't too high I don't mind buying a game which some people may consider too expensive.
I've seen really nice examples of machines being broken up for parts because the parts were worth more than the cab. Pete the Chop's old very clean Sega Rally 2 was broken up for parts either due to space issues or to make a few extra quid, shame the seller did that but it was his cab at the end of the day.
Would someone who considers themselves a collector have the heart to do something like that? I dunno, but being honest I came close to breaking up a Sega driver as there was too much value in parts but decided against it as I didn't want to kill a working cab. That cab was at Revival the past weekend and it got hammered, I lost out but it made me happy seeing people enjoy playing it which is what this hobby is all about for me.
I think we are now entering a phase where the value of the actual cab is where most of the value is, getting lucky finding cheap parts to put into an empty shell can be an economical way to get a grail cab.
Vamino2020-03-09 12:03:23
John Bennett
Senior Member
Sbdesign said:
I actually had a play with a saw to see how it worked (the screen didn't outright die after I amputated half of it).
You are constrained to lopping off specific sections of the panel (cant trim pixel by pixel, or from all 4 sides).
I meant to enquire. I have a suspicion it's not cheap though. The display controller is also unaware half the screen has gone in the bin. No big deal for PCs, but might need a custom display controller for a retro-fit job (which isn't as impossible as it sounds).
John Bennett2020-03-09 12:02:56
It's a rough life for the players whiles the hoarders wallets grow fatter.
It is a shame so much stuff sits on shelves and gets no love while only being appreciated for it's financial value. I wish I had the foresight 10 years ago to have just bought everything I wanted then. The idea of me ever owning the one cave game I really want is becoming more and more unrealistic, which sucks a bit but hey, its just a game right.
Thank god for M2 and the work they have done on the PS4 and hopefully one day prices begin to decline and the hoarders panic sell
It is a shame so much stuff sits on shelves and gets no love while only being appreciated for it's financial value. I wish I had the foresight 10 years ago to have just bought everything I wanted then. The idea of me ever owning the one cave game I really want is becoming more and more unrealistic, which sucks a bit but hey, its just a game right.
Thank god for M2 and the work they have done on the PS4 and hopefully one day prices begin to decline and the hoarders panic sell
John Bennett
Senior Member
THEVLM said:
Is the emulation inadequate on Cave games? (genuinely asking, I don't particularly play/like them)
I thought they were actively collected by people to play as they seem to be very popular amongst shoot-em-up fans (rather than the sort of game people have in a dusty lock-up for 20 years).
The emulation is OK/perfect varies from title to title but just from my perspective for instance I have over 600 hours played on futari 1.5 so I think at that point I can justify buying the board, but I also dont want to shell out over 600 quid!
I know a few people hoarding cave boards they don't play and some players who own just the boards they love and play the ever living sh*t out of them
THEVLM2020-03-09 12:42:33
I know a few people hoarding cave boards they don't play and some players who own just the boards they love and play the ever living sh*t out of them
THEVLM2020-03-09 12:42:33
John Bennett
Senior Member
THEVLM said:
Wow. Well hopefully you find a copy one day
Is that game on the CAVE PCB system made entirely from off-the-shelf parts?
To be honest mate I am not sure. Luckily you can get some conversions for Ketsui, Dai ou jou and Espgaluda on the pgm so thats also another option. It tides me over at least lol. Their was rumour of a Cave Multi by Darksoft but I don't know if theirs any truth in it at all seeing as though M2 are still releasing ports of the games.
Im finding the same struggle with SF2X atm, trying to source a green board at less than £200 does not appear to be feasible anymore. Mame is nice and all however I find unless I own a game in some physical format I tend to not put the hours into trying to master it.
THEVLM2020-03-09 12:55:48
Im finding the same struggle with SF2X atm, trying to source a green board at less than £200 does not appear to be feasible anymore. Mame is nice and all however I find unless I own a game in some physical format I tend to not put the hours into trying to master it.
THEVLM2020-03-09 12:55:48
Don’t think we’ll see a cave multi anytime soon as they are pretty protective of their ip and have been known to enforce it in the past, most run ok on mame but like others have said I have the same problem that I won’t put serious time into games on emulators but if I have the board I will, I had outzone in my Astro for almost a year and learned how to play the game correctly whereas I never bothered much on the emulators.... I’ve had 4 cave boards at one point a few years back and thought I couldn’t justify having 2k sitting on a shelf and there’s always the fear you’ll wake up to a very expensive doorstop some morning so I sold them all off.. didn’t think they would go much higher but now if I did want them back their pretty much unobtainable at current prices, maybe someone will come up with pgm multi and we can have 4 in 1 cart or the likes
There’s so many good games on that system even without the cave titles and the prices of some of them are gone wayyyyyyyyy up in the past year, try find a decently priced martial masters,
Demon front or a svg cart .. even some of the lesser titles have been creeping up in price (probably because the motherboards are so cheap) it was a great little system with some solid side scrollers for little money mozie2020-03-09 14:30:50
Demon front or a svg cart .. even some of the lesser titles have been creeping up in price (probably because the motherboards are so cheap) it was a great little system with some solid side scrollers for little money mozie2020-03-09 14:30:50
When I joined this hobby, I got good deals on some of my cabs. I was advised not to add transport costs to the value of cabs (or something along those lines).
So for instance, If I bought a cab for £200 and it cost £100 to transport, then it's still only worth £200.
Yes, I can understand there may be some exceptions to this rule, such as bringing cabs over from the USA, but will we be seeing £500 chip shop jamma cabs soon once they have changed hands a few times with each delivery charge accumulating and 'I'm just wanting back what it's cost me' ?
ColinD2020-03-09 14:54:02
So for instance, If I bought a cab for £200 and it cost £100 to transport, then it's still only worth £200.
Yes, I can understand there may be some exceptions to this rule, such as bringing cabs over from the USA, but will we be seeing £500 chip shop jamma cabs soon once they have changed hands a few times with each delivery charge accumulating and 'I'm just wanting back what it's cost me' ?
ColinD2020-03-09 14:54:02
thesharkfactor
Active member
ColinD said:
This is how it should be, you don't get back shipping costs. Jeez.. Imagine trying to sell an old car and adding on the fuel you put in it.
I'm here for the games and the community. If either dry up, I guess that's the end of it.
If it continues then game on!
Thankfully mame / fpga solutions are always being worked on, which helps on the game side when actual hardware becomes unobtanium.
As for rare cabs.. meh, personal pain etc.. I reserve that conversation for over a pint
Flinnster2020-03-09 16:27:47
If it continues then game on!
Thankfully mame / fpga solutions are always being worked on, which helps on the game side when actual hardware becomes unobtanium.
As for rare cabs.. meh, personal pain etc.. I reserve that conversation for over a pint
Flinnster2020-03-09 16:27:47
It’s all about the games and the community for me.
Loads of bargains out there if you look hard enough.
There’s some great people in this hobby too which are always willing to help,which makes it the best.
Loads of bargains out there if you look hard enough.
There’s some great people in this hobby too which are always willing to help,which makes it the best.
Meh. Same old same old. Last time I saw any genuine and regular 'bargains' was when the ops were clearing out all their (now classic) games in the 90's. But then again at that time you couldn't get half the spare parts and repro stuff you can now so the odds of fixing a monitor with a dead LOPT or doing all your IC parts shopping from one or two sources was slim.
Bargain boards, etc do still come up if you go to a meet and someone has brought a bootload of stuff for sale. I've recently decided it's similar with old car bits really: having watched online prices lurch upwards I've got off my bottom and made time to go to a few parts sales/car shows where stuff that does come up (adjusting for inflation) is much more like the prices I would expect .
For the PCBs that I have given up hope of ever finding at a price I am happy with (or wish I'd never sold) I have managed to get most of them running on a j-Pac+PI Jamma thingy to my satisfaction.
Bargain boards, etc do still come up if you go to a meet and someone has brought a bootload of stuff for sale. I've recently decided it's similar with old car bits really: having watched online prices lurch upwards I've got off my bottom and made time to go to a few parts sales/car shows where stuff that does come up (adjusting for inflation) is much more like the prices I would expect .
For the PCBs that I have given up hope of ever finding at a price I am happy with (or wish I'd never sold) I have managed to get most of them running on a j-Pac+PI Jamma thingy to my satisfaction.
I just like playing the games, preferably on original hardware soI'm mostly in to multis now days. Really enjoying the CPS2,NEOGEO and F3 boards I have and Im looking forward to the CPS1.
It's a great time to be in the hobby if you like to tinker and aren't too fussy, I'm putting together the Cave set of PGM games at the moment which should be cool. I can see myself picking up the odd PCB here and there but in reality most of the games I would like to own have reached stratospheric prices, still I'm keeping a close eye on Mister and FPGA solutions.
It's a great time to be in the hobby if you like to tinker and aren't too fussy, I'm putting together the Cave set of PGM games at the moment which should be cool. I can see myself picking up the odd PCB here and there but in reality most of the games I would like to own have reached stratospheric prices, still I'm keeping a close eye on Mister and FPGA solutions.