Since cabs take so much space and it takes so much effort to clean and repair electronics from 30 years ago I don't think it would make much sense to get cabs for games that don't have an amazing replay value. Sure, Marble Madness is great but very short and sooner or later I would get bored of it. This also means light gun games are out, which is a shame.
The first two games I would get are not a surprise:
- Robotron
One of my favourite games of all time. I would kill to have a working cab.
- Pump it Up Cabinet
Actually pretty cheap for what it is and just getting it to conventions and doing tournaments can get some of that money back. I think more players should get together and buy their own machines because given the amount of money players spend on the game the investment would be recovered in a couple of months.
There's also an old version of the game that can be easily hacked to get more songs, so you don't even have to buy the latest version of the game to have fun.
Other games would not be a priority in comparison:
- Berzerk is amazing and the focus is very different to Robotron but I would rather get something far different at first.
- OutRun 2SP is a short game but man, do I love it. I really hope that since it's common one day someone dumps the board or whatever. OutRun and Turbo OutRun would also be cool and use the same hardware but alas, too expensive for what they would give me.
- Tetris TGM3 is very expensive but the first game isn't and being JAMMA it should be easy to make it work. A must for me.
There are other games I would love to have but those are the holy grails for me, what are yours?