Posted by saint on September 12, 1999 at 14:04:35:
In Reply to: Re: Arcade Cabinet Mutilation posted by Tom61 on September 12, 1999 at 13:01:31:
This has always been a weight on my conscience, that
by putting up my FAQ, I might contribute to the loss
of an non-replacable classic. One thing I have on my
todo list is to encourage "good behavior" (for lack
of a better term) in this hobby.
I currently own three Nintendo VS cabinets, that
I picked up originally with an eye as to tinkering
with them. However, when I looked at them and
their condition, I couldn't justify modifying them -
so now I have three working Nintendo VS cabinets :)
I also own a horribly mutilated Defender cabinet.
A prior owner painted it pure black, destroyed the
control panel converting it to a baseball game (there's
a beautiful Defender CPO under the baseball CPO...
with holes drilled in the wrong places!), the monitor
was destroyed (snapped neck), and all but one of the
PCBs was missing. Basically, it's a collection of
wood in good shape.
I am going to attempt to strip off the black paint
and see if intact Defender artwork lies underneath -
if so, I'll get it to someone who wants to restore
it. If not, and I fear not, then it'll probably
become my converted arcade cabinet.
At least one person on this site sent me a PCB from
a cabinet he worked on, so that the PCB wouldn't end
up in PCB heaven. One day I'll make sure it finds a
good home, whether that's in a restoration of my own,
or in some other collector's hands.
I'd like to post your message & would like to attribute
the source. Please email me at saint@null.net
with the source of this :)
--- saint : I haven't heard this happen for awhile, since most people have figured out that they could sale them and recoup some of the cost of the cab. Now eariler, PCBs were removed and discarded, because they thought the boards weren't worth anything. : : The Mutilator will reconfigure the control panel. : This should happen alot less, now that multiple control panels in fashion. : : The Mutilator will throw away an original monitor bezel. : Arrg! : : The Mutilator thinks little of damaging a marquee trying to remove it. : Ak! : : The Mutilator will slice off the control panel overlay. : Arrg! : : The Mutilator will forever hide the original artwork with a can of spray paint. : I've seen this happen on conversions, so it is not just mamers doing this : : I beg those of you who want to build your own MAME machine to do what I did. PLEASE find a machine that no longer works. PLEASE find a machine that was a mediocre conversion with no original artwork. PLEASE find a cabinet that is in poor shape. If you must use a good cabinet, carefully remove the items listed above. There are dozens of collectors that will buy them from you on rec.games.video.arcade.collecting. And you can always find a sucker who will overpay for them on ebay (or Dave's boards, if they even know what a PCB is). : : Sure, it takes a little more time to use a less-than-desirable cabinet. And it might take $25-50 more to complete your project. But consider the consequences. Leave the unpolished gems to the pros. I know my place in the universe. I can only hope everyone else does." : Nice, but who wrote it, and who are you?
:
: : The Mutilator will rip working PCB's out of the cabinet.