Thanks to all for the kind words, good old memories and excellent memory (loegan43). I have a bunch more pics to post from past dealings, however I also have a handful of my new setup which is more modest but it packs quite a punch. I had to simplify due to 2 main reasons; I no longer have the lakehouse on the countryside, I live in a smaller place but I'm also closer to the city, so it's a give and take I suposse and the second reason, I honestly felt like it was time to slow down. I had more than a dozen cabs at home all at once and as much fun as it is to light em all up and play all the games I had come to the conclusion that all those cabs were only used to the fullest 3 or 4 times out of the year. Most of my friends enjoy the cabs but only a quater of them know what they're playing with, I mean, all that work for what? So they can sit there so I can keep up with them whenever I had some free time? It just hit me, it was time to let go. At first I was going to sell everything under the sun, and it started that way but not everything got sold and some stuff I just wasn't ready to part with, at any rate I did cut the herd down some what. At this moment I have 5 cabs at home, 3 29" candies that play all hardware other than Neo and 2 Neo 19" cabs (Goldie & Mini Hoodie) that do the rest, they're mostly there for complementing the Neo wall but they do see some play. In storage I have a couple other things plus a bunch of other hobbies stuff that I should be selling. THere's just so much stuff I have to go through. A word to the wise; LESS IS MORE.
I still want to streamline things a bit more, my goal is to end up with one woody and one candy, it's a hard choice. I've been getting ready and getting different CPs for my NAC and my EIIs juyst so I can make a good decisiona nd end up with something that can do it all with ease of flexibility. NAC is my favorite candy bar none, however the roatating mech on the EIIs is a big deal for me, always love that feature, I mean I can rotate the NAC no prob, but when you're down to one cab it could get a bit tedious. As far as a woody, well I'm torn between the Big Red rev. 1 and the Goldie, both cabs are great and hold lost of sentimental value for me. The Goldie 'cause it was my first and the BIg Red 'cause it was a long project that I pieced together with lots of patience and dedication. I've always wanted a Dynamo instead 'cause they can rotate but I might just get me a cocktail cab some day anyway and that'll take care of that problem.
What kind of sticks and buttons did you end up enjoying the most in all that time?
That's a real good question. Happs IL is my favorite American style manufacturer, they're no more, IL and HApps have parted ways, Happs Suzo isn't horrible but you can still get IL. My favorite line of sticks was the Supers. Competitions sticks are OK but I much preffer the freedom of the Super, I don't need corner guidance on my sticks, I'm OK with optical and cornerless sticks. As far as buttons go, it really depends on the button layout. For example, a CPS2 setup would benefit from a convex competition button 'cause your fingers don't have to be on center to be at the ready. Concave buttons work great on older school setups like Galaga and other games that use a small number of buttons 'cause once your fingers are placed they won't need to travel from there, in other words your fingers will always be on center given that the layout is decent of course.
As far as Japanese style parts I'm gonna have to go with Sanwa. Seimitsu is allright but the buttons have more resistence and you can feel the switch plastic parts quite easily and the sticks have a deadzone that is too bothersome for me. I don't follow that whole "throw" debacle on the seimitsu sticks (LS32 for example), I'm too much of a "go with the best design" (JLF) but then again to each their own. I feel that Sanwa parts are engineered better. The Sanwa JLWs are surprisingly great but not better than the JLFs IMO.
So IL Happs or Sanwa? Well you can't just choose one, it's like asking a girl which shoes she likes best you know. Some games are better played with one thing over the other but there's also the "inner challenge" which compells you to excell with whatever comes your way, so I can't just pick one, I just figured I'd try them all and with time find my favorites, I'm sure what I loike might not be the best for everyone, the truth is' it's always a matter of prefference but that only applies if you have the knowledge to realize what the differences are. Hope that helps.
Thanks again you guys for the kind comments. We're all together in this and I'm just glad we get to share with each other some highs and lows of the hobby. When I get some time, hopefully real soon, I'll make another post with more pics.
Big Thanks to Shawn for pushing this forum section and making it official.