TDIRunner

I'm probably repeating a lot, but I didn't read through the entire thread first.  

I love the PC Engine, but I have no desire to collect for it.  I originally bought a Core Grafx and a Turbo Everdrive which allowed me to play all Hu Card based games.  I eventually upgraded to a PC Engine Duo R with a component mod and an Arcade Card.  Now I can play the same Hu Card games from before, plus all CD based games including the Arcade games.  Since I have the Everdrive and a CD burner, I can play just about anything without having to buy games.  I love playing them, but I don't have enough nostalgia for the system to justify paying the going prices for the games. 

My suggestion would be to do something similar to what I did.  The PC Engine stuff is a lot cheaper and easier to find.  Buy the Japanese hardware and then go with one of the many ways to play ROMs and ISOs, or just play them on the Raspberry Pie.   

2 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

This is messing with my eyeballs. It has the chunky majesty, lighting, and perspective of a floor to ceiling bookcase but it's clearly like 4ft tall. 

I thought the same thing at first.  

As always, Twizer's shelving setup looks fantastic.  

8 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

Every time I hear anyone say anything about something "aging poorly" or "aging well" I roll my eyes. This has become a knee jerk reaction for me. I cannot even relate to this type of thinking, this line of argumentation, etc. Just bait for me to get into an argument about why I disagree with all these "X aged poorly" statements. 

Not today, Satan!

I'm actually the opposite.  I don't have a problem with the "aging poorly" argument.  I may or may not agree with what has aged poorly, but regardless, I certainly understand the mindset.  

24 minutes ago, 98ViperGTS said:

SE isn't exactly "unnecessary" . It's a retail release and is legitimately part of a complete north american NES set. Some people just choose not to because of the price tag, and that's fine too.

Read the OP again.

9 minutes ago, Splain said:

I remember this discussion when the New 3DS came out. If there are games that are exclusive to the new iteration, then it is 100% a new console that is backwards compatible with the previous one. Doesn't matter how big the leap is, tech-wise. Also, with a lot of stuff Nintendo tries to pull, there's a difference between what actually exists, and how it's marketed. If I have a launch-day Switch, and I can't play BOTW2, then BOTW2 is not a Switch game. Doesn't matter if it plays on something called the Switch Pro or the GameRectangle 2000 U, it's a different console that has succeeded the Switch.

So is the New 3DS its own console with a library of approximately a dozen games?

6 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Nah, sure Virtual Pinball is nothing compared to a real table.

But let's not pretend that playing with a controller on a widescreen TV, which requires the camera to follow the ball around the table, is going to be anywhere near as good of an experience as a vertically oriented screen of the same aspect ratio that displays the entire play field at once and has a more authentic "feel" for control input.

Agreed.  While I will admit that I'm not personally interested in the Arcade 1Up pinball machines, I'm still happy to see these exist.  And I would classify them as somewhere in between "virtual" pinball, and a real table.  

3 minutes ago, ErickRPG said:

Yeah I could just keep that TMNT in attract mode just to listen to that intro song.  Such nostalgia.  Would make me feel like I'm back in the arcade again.  Def a great price for that cab.

The TMNT cabs were $299 on Black Friday, but I never go shopping on those days.  Even though they were announced at $399 at launch, I always see them for $350.  Even though it seems like a fair deal, I still don't want to pay that much right now.  

It's funny what can change over night.  On Wednesday, I was in my local Wal-Mart and I always take a quick stroll through the video game section just in case anything is marked down or on sale.  I noticed a hand full of Arcade 1Up machines, but everything was regular price.  I ended up needing to return something, so I was also in the same store Thursday night and they had the same Arcade 1Up machines marked down to $199, and they had a new pallet of them sitting out in the isle.  The $199 sale included the Final Fight cab which was tempting, but I already own two and if I get one more, I'm pretty sure it will be the Turtles Arcade / Turtles in Time cab (which is my all time favorite two arcade games).  

4 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Yeah, they are leveraging the cheap pre-fab "box".

They don't care about the mini-computer that came with it, when they will just be adding their own dedicated MAME machine.

And to clarify one more time, when I say they are just buying the shell of the cabinet, I mean JUST the shell.  They aren't even keeping the original graphics on the outside of the cabinet.  

1 minute ago, Sumez said:

Because it's a modern tiny mini-computer where no individual components can be easily replaced. It's replace the whole thing or bust.

Regarding buttons etc. those can of course be individually replaced. Can you fit standard Sanwa or Seimitsu parts into them btw?

The modding community on Facebook could answer those questions better than I could, but from what I've seen, replacing internals is really no problem.  

Like I said before, most of the modders are replacing EVERYTHING, to the point that they are just buying these for the external shell of the cabinet as crazy as that might sound.

28 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I'd say repairing a real arcade cabinet is always gonna be a lot easier than repairing an arcade1up

I'm curious why you think that is.  You can replace Arcade 1Up parts with real arcade parts, so party availability is the same between the two.  I suppose that real arcade cabinets are might be setup to be serviced more easily, but you still have the advantage with Arcade 1Up cabinets that they are smaller and lighter and easier to manipulate.  

2 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

These are $500 CAD here so I imagine they must be $400 USD there. Are they cheaper somewhere else?

I was talking about modded Arcade 1Up cabs.  This was back when the original round of cabinets were discounted down to between $70 US and $150 US.  The modders were buying those and changing out everything and reselling them for between $400 and $500 all day.  

The normal selling price is usually around $300 US for the regular units and $350 US for the bigger ones with included risers.  Sometimes you see sales, but now that they seem to have figured out the demand, they don't discount them as much.  

Seems like we are getting closer and closer to the "eyephones" from Futurama.  

6 minutes ago, A_Feisty_Pickle said:

Love it! Not sure how I feel about full addressing being required though, especially when they can change somewhat often. What's the opinion on just having city, state required and other fields optional? 

How often are you stores changing locations?  Are they selling out of motor homes?  I know it can happen, but I would think it should be pretty rare.  Last year, we actually had a GameStop and a Slackers trade locations (not exact locations, but they traded between the different malls they were located in).  But again, that's the only example of a game store moving in our area in the past several years that I can think of .

On 1/7/2020 at 12:19 AM, MuNKeY said:

 

Finally beat Link's Awakening took a rather long break when I made it half way and played Luigi's Mansion 3 till I beat it then took and even longer hiatus and finally returned 3 days ago and finished it out, pretty awesome game in the end and my first time beating it as I never did on GB.  

I just now saw your post.  That's funny that we both beat the game at nearly the same time.  

I'm like 95% sure I have an extra copy of Pinball Fantasies for the Jaguar, and I think it's sealed.  Not sure if you are interested in a sealed copy, but either way I'll double check tonight at home.

2 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

(there seems to be quite the mod-scene for these devices, but cost-wise, a full refit ends up costing the same or more as a full sized cabinet unless you get the Arcade 1-up devices on clearance)

The thing that has surprised me the most is that the modding community has had no problems with refitting the Arcade 1Up cabinets (new ROMs, controls, and external graphics) and reselling them for sometimes $400 or $500.  When people start to spend that kind of money, I figured they would prefer to start looking at real arcade cabinets.  However, many people enjoy the idea of a smaller cabinet that they can pickup and move by themselves whenever they want.  The size ended up being a much bigger deal than I ever imagined.  

3 hours ago, Wandering Tellurian said:

And I think Fahrenheit  for the 32X had two discs - maybe some of the other 32Xs did - not sure since I never had that add on.

I think nearly all of the 32X CD games had multiple discs, but Fahrenheit was the only 32X CD game that came in a jewel case (also the only one that included both the Sega CD and Sega 32X CD game together in the same case).

I finished the Link's Awakening remake last night.  Great game.  I really enjoyed it.  I'm only missing one seashell and 9 chamber stones.   Other than that, I have all of the heart containers, and any other items you can collect including the last Bow Wow figure that you can't get until after you complete the game.  Not sure if I will go after those last few items since the chamber stones can be a little tedious.  I kind of want to move onto a different game anyway.  

21 minutes ago, BouncekDeLemos said:

Ah, sweet! Thank you for the info, it's quite difficult to track this down.

I finally found one with a picture on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ground-Zero-Texas-Complete-Sega-CD-CIB-Original-Game/153431005061?epid=6852&hash=item23b9335785:g:EvkAAOSwxoJcm~g5

Looks like it fits over the other disc, with notches to hold it in place. Not sure if they connect via the holes, but still neat.

Now I wonder if anyone's ever even thought of making repros of them. Probably due to only 3 games needing it, plus there's not much of a demand, there probably won't be any. Heck, to this day, there's still no Sega Master System card repro cases, so I won't hold my breath. lol

The Saturn games with multiple discs used those as well such as D.  So there are certainly more than 3 games, but like you said, not enough demand to be worth making reproductions.  

I personally don't have any issues with the layout.  I currently own the Rampage and Centipede cabs.  I don't have either of them on risers yet because my two sons are 3 and 5 and they are the perfect height for the cabs without risers.  They both love to play and my 5 year old son is actually pretty good at Centipede.  Once they get bigger, I will assemble the risers I have put away down in the basement and lift them up to normal height.  

1 minute ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

The only time I saw one of these was at a FYE in the mall and it was a SF II cabinet and I think it was something like $300+, but that store is overpriced in general. I guess I need to look around tomorrow if I pass Wal-Mart. I've got two in the area and one is a Super Wal-Mart so maybe I will have better luck there.

Many Wal-Marts keep them in the back because they don't really fit on the shelves very well and they don't always have a spot for a pallet.  So it certainly doesn't hurt to ask.  

Also, for some reason, they don't always update the prices.  The cabinet I bought for $70 was priced at $299 in the store.  I only knew about the discount simply because I asked them to double check and it rang up at the register for $70.  That's why I always say that you should ask if you aren't seeing what you are looking for.  

5 minutes ago, ErickRPG said:

I remember when street fighter was on sale for $250 WITH riser.  Supposedly you can hack that one and use it as a mame machine.

Some one get my hopes up.  Do you think the community will eventually show us how to rig the arcade1up pinball to use it as a visual pinball machine?  That is my hope!!

The modding community for the Arcade 1Up cabinets is HUGE.  There are a few Facebook groups and I've been pretty amazed by what some of these people have done.  Any of the cabinets that have been released so far can be modded to do just about anything, so I have no reason to believe that the new ones won't be the same way.  

7 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I guess I will have to check into it. The electronics section is pretty sparse, so I don't know if they have these, but it's worth a look. I wanted one of those Namco Pac-Man/Galaga anniversary machines a few years back but the shipping alone was a fortune.

Wal-Mart seems to be the biggest distributor of these, and I think they learned a good lesson after the first Christmas season when they were stuck with a large supply of unsold cabinets.  Now they seem to stock them in much smaller numbers.  It seems like they tend to stock them just short of demand.  It's a smart move on their part, but that means that sometimes it can be hard to find the model you are looking for.  It seems like the days of snatching one for under $100 is behind us now.  

3 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

There's a Wal-Mart about 20 minutes from me. How heavy are they? I'm guessing you would need a pickup truck to bring it back. I can't see them fitting in a car trunk. 

They should fit into the trunk of any midsize car no problem, and probably some compact cars as well if the rear seat can fold down.  They are not too heavy.  I loaded mine myself, but some people may need help with it simply because it's somewhat bulky.