Original vs US-Original

[shanki91]

Hi fellow collectors and enthusiasts,

When I was shutting down my arcade here in Switzerland and trying to sell my machines I often had trouble selling my nice European/Italian Sega and Taito Games because they were deemed "non-orginal". Even when I showed them the Big Taito Logo that said "Licensed to XXXX" they didn't care. They were all "collectors" who only collected real US-cabs.

WHat's your stance on this?

I don't think European or Italian/French versions of our games should get that hate, that's what WE HAD back in the day. We didn't have many US games.. at least here in mainland Europe.

You know what I mean?

 

[Alpha1]

I think it depends on the aesthetics.

I like to collect Atari Ireland machines over the USA ones for example. I think some of the early Atari France stuff is also very cool.

I'm only familiar with the Italian Model Racing versions of some of the early Taito games, but my preference for Taito is the Japanese cabinets not USA.

I think European arcade collecting was behind both the USA and UK for many years in the late 90s and early 2000s, so this might go some way to explain it.

 

[shanki91]

It's just interesting to preserve these things... Just take the PlayChoice 10 for example.. Italy, Spain, France and the UK all had their own special versions.. In Germany it was licensed to adp gauselmann (I think) and they made a version based on their "TV Ideal" Unicab.. ugly as all hell, but still interesting...

 

[Bods]

From my experience of owning some EU vs US cabs I find the US ones cheaper with some questionable artwork

Cabinet wise, often US cabs inside are just the chipboard finished and don't have black vinyl finish on inside like UK/EU cabs
some have Light bulbs for marquees over Strip lights ie Kung Fu Master

Worst I find is typical in US Taito machines, Chase HQ, SCI, Top Speed, Continental Circus etc driving games, they don't have the original Japanese Steering Mechanism that Japan or Electrocoin built cabs got and other EU built cabs, they have really cheap mechs which aren't adjustable for steering degrees between Top speed and Chase HQ

I can understand why Americans would want US cabs over others as much as I'd sooner have say a UK upright Outrun over USA one, or Japan built Sega

Only US cabs I have are ones we didn't get so it's US or nothing. It's same with cars like Honda, US got really rubbish low powered engines in CRX and Civics compared to JDM and EU ones, didn't get electric roofs etc so they often get a bum deal

Also what I found in the US Double Dragon cab, they used off cuts of Op Wolf and other cab bits for supports inside the cab

 

[ZeroSum]

Couldn't give a fuck about Yank Shit.

The Cabs you had we're fine if not better.

 

[_Matt_]

Yeah I find the euro uk/Spain/Italy etc cabs more interesting personally.

 

[shanki91]

the cool thing about the US is that they had much more dedicated cabinets as us, we often had universal cabs