docinsano wrote:

Syd Lexia wrote: I want an SF2 arcade machine! Actually, I'd be happy with just about any arcade machine. Build one. Can't you buy the case and materials and build something like a MAME arcade machine? I saw this one arcade machine in some coffee shop that had like 30 games for it, and I'm pretty sure it included every version of SFII. That's what you need.

It costs more to build one than to buy one. You can get a generic JAMMA cabinet for a couple hundred dollars or less. You can get most SFII boards for $25 to $50. If you want MAME you can get an Ultimarc J-Pac for $59 which allows you to plug a PC into the cabinet the same as you would a real arcade boardset.

As far as building one goes, there is a lot of time involved, space needed for building, tools needed, a certain amount of woodworking ability needed, and at least $1,000 in materials if you want to do it right (most people end up spending more than that; building these things from scratch has a few large expensive parts and then the rest will nickel and dime you to death).

King wrote:

Where are you located MaximRecoil? You seem to know alot of putting together an arcade game, and I would love to get one. I would love either a NEO GEO one with a few games, or one of the following... 4 player WWF Wrestlefest Saturday Night Slam Masters Final Fight Sunset Riders Magic Sword 6 Player X-Men Soul Calibur Yeah I know, I can't pick an easy game to find probably, and I fear my choices are the more expensive ones.

I'm in Central Maine.

Some of those games you listed are easier to find and/or cheaper than others. NEO-GEO machines are easy/cheap, as are Final Fight and Magic Sword. The games you mentioned that are more than 2 players are harder, because you can't use any old upright JAMMA cabinet for them (not if you want support for more than 2 players anyway).

Soul Calibur is still fairly new by arcade standards, and as such, may be on the expensive side, but if you had a JAMMA cabinet you would only need the boardset anyway. 6 player X-Men is a behemoth and you'd be lucky to even have a doorway large enough for it to fit through. They are not terribly common either, and I'm not sure what they usually sell for.

You can always build a cabinet if that sort of thing is up your alley, but keep in mind that you're almost guaranteed to spend a lot more than if you bought a used JAMMA cabinet from someone; not to mention the amount of time involved. The main forum to check out if you want to build is BYOAC, and the main forum that deals with original machines is KLOV. Check eBay and Craigslist for machines in your area (PA is a good area to be in BTW), and the best thing you can do is get to know collectors in your area. Between the BYOAC and KLOV forums alone, there are several from PA.

BTW, all of the machines you mentioned are JAMMA or JAMMA+ except for NEO-GEO, which is its own thing, but is pretty close to JAMMA (you just have to hook up an extra wire or two beyond JAMMA). So if you had a two player JAMMA cabinet, you could play the games that are for more players but you would obviously be limited to two players due to the lack of controls.

JAMMA in this context is a wiring standard that was instated in 1986. Nearly all arcade games made since '86 are JAMMA, which means they will all plug into the same wiring harness. Prior to 1986, every game manufacturer used their own proprietary pinouts so to swap in a board from one manufacturer into a cabinet from another manufacturer, you either had to build an adapter or rewire the machine.