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Noooo HN, don't get me started again : ) I've got a vintage arcade cab at home, with its old CRT, since a few years now: originally it wasn't a JAMMA cab then

Noooo HN, don't get me started again : ) I've got a vintage arcade cab at home, with its old CRT, since a few years now: originally it wasn't a JAMMA cab then someone modified it to be JAMMA because at some point JAMMA "won" in the arcade world. Everything is still working, including the money slots (they're still using old 20 "Francs", belgian coins that is and I still have 4 of these coins). But I wired a button to the pin that adds money: easier/faster. I put one my PCB in "free play" mode too (using dip switches on the PCB itself). I've got a few original PCBs and some bootlegs, all vintage. But mostly I'm hooking a Raspberry with a Pi2JAMMA adapter and then I've got thousands of games working (most are crap, some are little gems). When it's all JAMMA it's convenient: I can just swap PCBs or the Raspberry Pi and turn the machine on and everything just works. On a semi-related sidenote many criticize old arcade game saying they were "exploitative because you had to put coins" but, honestly, I find that complete bullshit. If you played these games a bit, you could get good at it and finish the game on one credit, playing for 30 minutes or even 45 minutes on one coin. I can guarantee you: many modern games are much exploitative than these old arcade games. Be it in-game ads or in-game buying or all the A/B testing to make sure its addictive etc. Another benefit of these old arcade games: they're simpler, which kids do love. My six years old daughter loves our arcade machine and often asks me: "Dad please, can we turn the arcade on?". I don't have to worry about her getting ads or disturbing videos or being spied upon. Then of course playing Robotron 2084 with two joysticks, as it is meant to be played (no buttons used in that game) is great. The fast-paced action, incredible responsiveness and original controls (one joystick to move in eight directions, the other joystick to fire in eight directions) makes for timeless fun. I don't play games on PCs / console since a very long time. But once in a while I turn on the good old arcade and play a bit... It's a great thing to have at home. Wife loves it: it's in the living room. It has presence too. Visitors typically loves it, even if they're not into videogames at all. It also doubles as a very convenient laptop stand!

flatiron 5y ago
Are you running the latest version of mame on your pi? I’ve always used amd64 on my arcade cab so I can not run 20 year old mame builds.
- TacticalCoder 5y ago
  I should know better (I've got lots of RPis I installed myself) but in this case I really don't know: a friend of mine just dd'ed his working setup on to a memory card.
Nbox9 5y ago
> If you played these games a bit, you could get good at it and finish the game on one credit, playing for 30 minutes or even 45 minutes on one coin. This varies a bit depending on the game, but it’s safe to say that the average play on an average arcade game is much less than 30 minutes per credit. For example, one game of Dance Dance Revolution typically consists of three 90 second songs with the option of earning a fourth bonus song as a reward for skill. Factoring in sixty seconds for menus between songs a player will play between 7-10 minutes a credit. This number is much closer to what the average game targets. You’ll see similar numbers in pinball and racing games.
- dfxm12 5y ago
  For the aforementioned robotron and games of that era, you're mostly limited by your skill. You won't get a game over until you die. Look up a record breaking score run. It'll last hours. Of course, you can't get that good until you sink a ton of credits into the game... It was mostly in the 90s when they figured out they should probably limit game length per credit, like a restaurant trying to turn over a table as many times as possible. Stuff like NBA Jam and Street Fighter II set the stage for that even before DDR.

flatiron 5y ago

Are you running the latest version of mame on your pi? I’ve always used amd64 on my arcade cab so I can not run 20 year old mame builds.

TacticalCoder 5y ago
I should know better (I've got lots of RPis I installed myself) but in this case I really don't know: a friend of mine just dd'ed his working setup on to a memory card.

Nbox9 5y ago

> If you played these games a bit, you could get good at it and finish the game on one credit, playing for 30 minutes or even 45 minutes on one coin. This varies a bit depending on the game, but it’s safe to say that the average play on an average arcade game is much less than 30 minutes per credit. For example, one game of Dance Dance Revolution typically consists of three 90 second songs with the option of earning a fourth bonus song as a reward for skill. Factoring in sixty seconds for menus between songs a player will play between 7-10 minutes a credit. This number is much closer to what the average game targets. You’ll see similar numbers in pinball and racing games.

dfxm12 5y ago
For the aforementioned robotron and games of that era, you're mostly limited by your skill. You won't get a game over until you die. Look up a record breaking score run. It'll last hours. Of course, you can't get that good until you sink a ton of credits into the game... It was mostly in the 90s when they figured out they should probably limit game length per credit, like a restaurant trying to turn over a table as many times as possible. Stuff like NBA Jam and Street Fighter II set the stage for that even before DDR.