John Stamos Mullet

Long story short - I ran out of time on the long weekend because plans changed and I didnt get to finish what I started - so I'll just leave this here as a preview to my upcoming video of the mod process.

No, it's not the same list. Mostly, yes, but there aren't redundant "faster" or "Japan" versions of games. All you really need is an 8 way stick. 8 way sticks work fine on 4 and 2 way games. I know some arcade purists tell you not to play Pac-Man or Donkey Kong with an 8 way because the arcade had a 4, but honestly, if you've ever played them on MAME using an 8 way game pad, it's the same thing. It's not 100% Arcade accurate, but then neither is the size of the cabinet, or the LCD screen, or running on emulation, or a million other things about these, so there's little reason to be picky about that. 2 way games have no issues with an 8-way. Left is still left, right is still right, and you can't hit both at once. Having extra sticks mounted on these tiny 18" control decks is awkward for adult sized hands/bodies.

So I spent the week tweaking the RPi for MAME. Holy shit this thing is awesome. I have 60 original, vertically oriented classic era games on it, no dupes or alternate versions, all games I actually have played and enjoy. Emulation station on the Pi is super easy to work on, and rotate the Hardware for vertical orientation. Tested every game, configured. Also added a custom boot splash video for the Pi (the same one that plays when the original Arcade 1up boots) and a custom menu that uses the Arcade1up logo, screenshots, marquees, and a text list that looks totally pro. Tomorrow I'll be doing the big teardown, and adding a few buttons to the front panel for coin/player 1. I'm going to leave the original Pac-Man control panel in place, untouched, but use the player 1 & 2 buttons for fire/jump buttons a and b. And then mount a couple on the front angled panel for coin, etc. that way I can keep the original control panel graphics and deck protector stock. also swapping out the stock buttons and stick for better quality EG starts lighted LED colored buttons and stick. I will try to video the work and post it to youboob.

The 60 in 1 uses a really old version of MAME, so a few games are inaccurate timing/color/display-wise. It has bad sound on a number of games. Gyruss is reportedly unplayably bad, and it's one of my favorites. Also - on the 60 in 1 - when you finish/lose a game it dumps you back to the iCade menu, so then you have to go select that game again if you want to play again, instead of just going back to the attract screen like a real arcade game does. also - the menu to my eyes is ugly as sin. Most of it is probably just my personal preferences and not that big of a deal to others, but I like a project, and I like to get it as accurate as reasonably possible.

So I'm going to experiment. I have my my old laptop with Hyperspin/MAME set up, and I just bought a RaspberryPi. I downloaded the Hyperpie image from Arcadepunks, so I will test/compare it with hyperspin/windows 7. Before i I tear down the cab, I'm going to test both and see which gives the best results. I'm hoping the Rpi is decent, because then powering up the system is much easier to configure and I don't have to worry about Windows 7 crashes/startup repair menus to deal with. I bought the monitor appropriate video board and a led-lighted 10 button/stick/usb encoder upgrade kit as well so I don't have to solder or damage the original equipment.

Dungeons and Dragons Warriors on the Eternal Sun for Sega Genesis had some great ones in the final caves just before the end of the game.

Atari 2600 Pac-Man had a great one when you plugged it into your VCS and turned on the console.

Ok, not really a debate, but just looking for anyone's experiences with this stuff. So I'm currently trying to decide which route to go: MAME on a laptop. I have a Lenovo T420 with a busted screen using Win 7 that would perfect, but makes it less easy to configure the power switching. RaspberryPi MAME/Retroarch combo (cheap, easy - limited, and gameplay might be affected by screen tearing/laggy controls) Dedicated JAMMA board like a 60 in 1 etc. I've read/heard some awful things about these especially the ugly menu layouts that you can't change and bad/inaccurate sounds and gameplay - but they are literally plug and play. I'm modding a vertical cab (Galaga or Pac-Man - which ever ends up being easier to mod), so I only care about Vertical games with 4 or 8 way stick controls, as I'm not interested in spinner games and Trackballs are a lot of work to get installed. I'll probably end up picking up a Centipede cab at some point if I really want that.

Yeah - apparently most Walmart's are semi-independently owned/franchises, so they don't have to honor the same price that another local/regional store might have, and it's entirely up to the discretion of the local manager. They also don't price match anywhere but the Walmart.com website, so if another store 3 towns over from you is having a sale on sometime, but your closest one isn't - you're more than likely going to have to take the longer hike to get the better price. Also - I just figured out why mine was $150. They were closing out the old leftover Black Friday/December Pac-Man stock that has the wrong molding/piping. I didn't even realize it until last night, but mine is missing the red edge molding - instead it's just black. So I guess mine was a "Special Edition" LOL. Apparently they made about 800 with black molding before catching the mistake and making the rest with the red.

already ordered. they don't sell those in store, so I had to wait to buy one first.

The first wave ones are $75 (Centipede, Asteroids) but I'm not really interested in those, as the quality was still lacking compared to these. Plus nowhere near me has them in stock. The only brick and mortar stores in my area still carrying them are Walmart's, nobody else is stocking them. I'm not really enthused with getting one shipped to my house, because our usual UPS guy is a lazy asshole, He'll leave it out in the rain uncovered on my front stairs instead of carrying it to my covered side porch. I might pick up a Galaga in a few weeks when they get a bit cheaper and mod that one, so I can keep the Pac-Man stock.

Lol. For $300 they are still over priced. Getting this one for $150 was a good deal. Also helps that there are easy kits to mod them now instead of having to hack shit together.

Gonna set it up and play it as is for a few weeks, then gut it and put a RPi/MAME laptop in it and set it up for all the classic era Vertical games.