Considering buying an arcade, but I know nothing...

[the7k]

Alright, I've just found a guy selling arcade machines, and he has a Darkstalkers cab. Might not mean much to anyone else, but I love Darkstalkers. Plus, it kinda holds a nostalgic place for me, in that I used to play on this very game a long time ago. This is also the first time I've ever seen anyone selling a Darkstalkers cab.

Anyway, the guy is asking $500 for it. The only art it has is on the control panel - the marquee is just generic text, no bezel art, and the sides are blank. So, my questions are:

1) Is $500 a decent price, all factors considered? Are Darkstalkers cabs more common than I think they are?

2) Is there anything I should look for or ask about that wouldn't be obvious? This would be my first cab, and as such, I'm very noob at this.

3) While I have no problem making marquee and side-panel art myself, any tips on it would be great.

4) How hard would it be to trade the game out for another CPS-2 game, such as Night Warriors or Vampire Savior?

[Weekend_Warrior]

Why not just build a MAME cab?

[itsmattxp]

Buy a cyberlead or sega astro city from ken. If you're in Utah you can pick it up locally if not you can ship it. I think its like 700 - 800 total for a candy cabinet shipped but in the end it is worth it. Then just get a darkstalkers PCB. bam there you go.

[fastbilly1]

$500 is alittle on the highend but like you said, Darkstalker cabs are uncommon on the market. If you can afford it, Id go for it.

I would ask about the history: namely how many hours are on the monitor

[MrPopo]

As for switching out, very easy. Since CPS is JAMMA you're good to go. It's only slightly more difficult than changing the games on a Neo Geo MVS.

[jfe2]

If I had the space, I would drop $500 on a Darkstalkers cabinet in a heartbeat.

[the7k]

$500 is alittle on the highend but like you said, Darkstalker cabs are uncommon on the market. If you can afford it, Id go for it.

I would ask about the history: namely how many hours are on the monitor

What is a good price on one, would you say? I might see if I can possibly talk him down a bit, if you think he's over-charging. Any money saved would be good, especially if I have to rent a truck or something.

Is there a setting that would actually tell how much the monitor has been used, or is this just something he should be aware of?

[elvis]

1) Is $500 a decent price, all factors considered? Are Darkstalkers cabs more common than I think they are?

Darkstalkers was well into the generic JAMMA cab era. You're not getting a "Darkstalkers cab", but rather a generic JAMMA cab with a Darkstalkers CPS2 kit and artwork.

Is it worth $500? That depends on the quality of the tube, chassis and cabinet. If it's all in working order with a 26" or bigger monitor, then I'd say yes.

2) Is there anything I should look for or ask about that wouldn't be obvious? This would be my first cab, and as such, I'm very noob at this.

Again, I'd ask about internals. Is it the original monitor chassis, or has it been replaced? What fixes have been done (i.e.: any cap-kits or other electronic work)? Likewise, how old is the power supply?

3) While I have no problem making marquee and side-panel art myself, any tips on it would be great.

I always recommend people get good tracing software and convert scans to vector artwork if they want to blow it up. That'll give you far better quality at large sizes, but it's not trivial.

4) How hard would it be to trade the game out for another CPS-2 game, such as Night Warriors or Vampire Savior?

CPS2 systems are almost console-like. There's two parts: a top game board, and a bottom system board. As long as both are from the same region, you can buy game boards and just plug them straight in. They all use the same control input and video scan rate, so there's bugger-all effort you need to put into changing things in the cabinet when switching out games.

Why not just build a MAME cab?

Because believe it or not, some people enjoy collecting original hardware. Amazing concept, I know.

[BigTinz]

1) Is $500 a decent price, all factors considered? Are Darkstalkers cabs more common than I think they are?

2) Is there anything I should look for or ask about that wouldn't be obvious? This would be my first cab, and as such, I'm very noob at this.

3) While I have no problem making marquee and side-panel art myself, any tips on it would be great.

4) How hard would it be to trade the game out for another CPS-2 game, such as Night Warriors or Vampire Savior?

1) No, depending on your area. Darkstalkers is the cheapest CPS2 game period. The machines are not incredibly common in the wild...but all a Darkstalkers machine is, is a Capcom Dynamo with DS side art/panel/marquee. Since the cab only has the panel...it's no better than a generic Dynamo machines($150-300 depending on condition). Point this out in a nice way.

2) Carefully inspect the monitor, are there dark patches or jail bars on the monitor? Ask him if the monitor has ever been "Re-capped" or repaired. Open up the control panel(the operator should know how to do this..if not reach under the panel via the coin door. Inspect the wiring on the underside AND make sure all the controls work. Make sure you're getting good audio from the machine.

3) Don't make either, get them printed professionally online unless you can do a very high quality print yourself...there's no substitute.

4) Extremely easy. CPS2 games come in two parts, the A board and the B board. The A board will stay in the machine and you will swap the B boards(Which has the actual game on it.) As long as you are using game from the same region you'll never need a new A board(however different region A boards are rarely over $50). Not only can you put in any Darkstalkers game...you can also play: Xmen vs Street Fighter, Super Street Fighter 2, Xmen: COTA and a ton more....as well as ANY cps2 game that is not a fighter. All CPS2 games are horizontally orientated so the sky is the limit if your wallet is deep.


If you can share some decent quality pics of the item with us...it may help. I'd say w/o looking at it that it's worth between $375-480



Just my opinion, STAY AWAY from mame machines. They're really lame.



EDIT: I think we've said almost the exact same thing!

[the7k]

Yeah, here's his web-site.

http://www.lyonsarcade.com/games/Darkstalkers.html

The main reason I'm considering this is because the seller is in a decently close proximity to me. If it really is that common, though, I may just wait on it. While I would really like it, at least I won't feel like it's something I won't ever see again.

I might instead just focus on securing a Vampire Savior board.