Whats the first arcade machine or game you ever got?

Geekman1222

Kula's Candy
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So I imagine alot of us have a cab / super gun / or AES. Or not thats cool too :)

But for those of us that had gotten our first taste in the arcade hobby what was it and what got you started any interesting stories?



For me I used to venture out to this retro game store / cafe to buy things up and browse (out of business now) and he had a Hyper Neo 64, I had heard of candy cabs and i finally got to play one, fell in love instantly. He sold it for 450$ and at the time I could neither barely afford it or store it, living at home junior year of high school.

After that for years I kept seeing countless cabs online just pass me by until finally I got my hands on a New Astro City from a guy in Kentucky. For years I always wanted a candy cab I loved them to death the hardware the form factor etc.

My first taste of Jamma though was technically a 60 in 1 board and a DIY bartop cab. Which I later managed to shove a Naomi in. I was always disappointed in my Bartop it wasn't ever what i really wanted and as a result never got much play time. When I finally got a seller willing to sell me his cab, me and my father ( we didn't do much together at the time) rented an SUV and drove 6 hours there and back, this was also my first road trip believe it or not :keke:. It was pretty great. The guy was getting out of the hobby though and it had to go sadly but now it has a new loving home! Now im on the hunt again! (I knew this would happen.. it was like destiny or something :loco: :keke:)

What about you guys, I would love to here some of the stories from some long time members who seem to have had the upper hand a few years or more before I could even dream of affording this stuff for fun. :):glee:

Edit Btw the guy got the cab from a group buy in Lexington and it had a Windy Gaming sticker on the back. I messaged mr. Windy him self on facebook and its likely one of his. I think he is a user around here too lol ;P
 
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Gentle Ben

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I used to freakin LOVE the first Killer Instinct arcade. The SNES translation was crap in comparison, so many moons ago I bought the mobo/HDD and kept it in a box, waiting for the day when I would find a KI cab (or hell, any cab that would hold it).
After several years I gave up and put it on Craigslist. Met one of my best friends that way, cause he wanted the KI cab just as much as I did. Ironically, he installed it in an original SFII cab and loaned me the cab for like 6 months!
Around that time, I had another friend whose girlfriend was moving out of her grandfather's old property. He had asked for my help in clearing out the garage, and guess what I found in there? A KI cab.
I bought it and through various deals, ended up with that original board/HDD inside the cab (the one in it was fried).
That was my first cab, and at the height of my collection I had 14 cabs total.
Then the depression hit, I lost my job, and was forced to sell the whole collection.
But that first cab, man that was like a wet dream for teenage me.
 

GutsDozer

Robot Master., Master Tasuke, Eat Your, Heart Out
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My buddy and I had a Phoenix Machine when we were kids and we kept it at my buddies house. We played it for hours. Wed had it for years and played it until it died. My buddies dad threw it out eventually when we were teenagers. I still have fond memories of that rad machine and still got some mad Phoenix skills.
 

cdamm

Trust the French?
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an nba hangtime that i got as an ebay special about 10 years ago. still have it.
 

bubba966

Cinema Ninja!,
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Picked up a Gauntlet II cab like... 18 or so years ago for $50 basically. Still have it.

Next up after that was an Omega CMVS a little over 4 years ago. Then a Windy SG that I accidentally bought. And so on after that...
 

coreykun667

Galford's Armourer
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My Big Red in January 2014, a Z-back with Tekken 3 in late summer of 2016, a Die Hard cab in the summer of this year, and hopefully a little something tomorrow. :drool:
 

c0nn0r

If I could have, My time back, I'd keep it in ma'
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2012: Started with a CMVS and a 161-in-1 cart on a small CRT.
2012: Bought some real MVS carts to fill out the rest of the games that were not on the multi-cart.
2014: Bought a SONY PVM-2030 and the RGB SCART adapters.
2014: Bought a JP Final Fight PCB from G-Front in Tokyo. Saw my first candy cabinet in Akhibara.
2014: Bought MAK-Strike SCART Supergun.
2014: Bought SEGA HSS-1030 Dual Stick Pro.
2014: Bought SEGA Saturn 2 MVS controller adapter from LemonyV.
2015: Bought Shinobi PCB
2016: Bought Robocop PCB
2016: Bought a JAMMACon to convert any RGB system to JAMMA (SEGA Saturn in a NAC is quite nice for non-emulated arcade conversions)
2016: Bought a SEGA New Astro City candy cabinet.
 
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fake

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I bought a terrible JoJo's Special supergun for way too much money from a lapsed member on here, and got a 1-slot and Blazing Star to go with it. I quickly replaced the JoJo's Special with a custom JNX. My first dedicated PCB was Esp.Ra.De.

an nba hangtime that i got as an ebay special about 10 years ago. still have it.

:lolz: With the GJ tape, right?
 

Morden

Somewhere in Europe.,
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My VERY first piece of arcade hardware was a Vastar PCB with a vertical, wall mounted cab. That was in the earlier '90s, and it was a freebie. In the later '90s, I started buying boards. First one was Hammerin' Harry. Still have it, still works. Love it to death. Thunder Hoop and Captain Commando were also among the early purchases.
 

BlackaneseNiNjA

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Marvel Super Heroes.

As good as a majority of the sega saturn ports of capcom cps2 fighting games were, the Marvel Super Heroes port was still not as perfect as I would have hoped (long before it was ported to ps3 as a digital download title). It is one of my favorite fighters from capcom so I jumped at the chance to own an original big blue cab complete with side-art etc.
 

Ip Man

BBLLOOOO__HHAARRDDDDDD!!!!,
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Marvel Super Heroes.

As good as a majority of the sega saturn ports of capcom cps2 fighting games were, the Marvel Super Heroes port was still not as perfect as I would have hoped (long before it was ported to ps3 as a digital download title). It is one of my favorite fighters from capcom so I jumped at the chance to own an original big blue cab complete with side-art etc.

hey bn. i always thought the saturn port was great, but then again, i'm terrible at noticing differences between ports.

what was wrong with it?
 

NERDtendo

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I worked at the Mall in Fort Collins, CO when I was in college. The arcade in the mall was selling a few games so I bought a Heavy Barrel. That was in 2006. In 2005, I had bought a 1977 Star Explorer pinball game, but it was a home use only toy so I never counted that as officially getting into arcade stuff.
 

BlackaneseNiNjA

The Fatal Fury Disciple
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hey bn. i always thought the saturn port was great, but then again, i'm terrible at noticing differences between ports.

what was wrong with it?

In short, though the us saturn version includes an option called "3M Ram Mode" the game still runs much slower and is off from its arcade counterpart regardless of whether this option is enabled or not.



3M Ram Mode disabled = Game runs at a decent speed but drops many frames and still lags when fighting characters such as Juggernaut
3M Ram Mode enabled = Game animation is smoother, but the game speed is drastically reduced and almost feels like the matches are taking place under water even with "Turbo" selected prior to a match.

Sadly, though leagues better than the ps1 counterparts, X-Men: CotA and Marvel Super Heroes did not get to see the same advantages of the later capcom 4M Ram cart titles on this system. Reportedly, the japanese version does run much better than the us counterpart if the official 1MB cart is utilized, but nothing beats the cps2 original. The backgrounds and animation for X-Men:CotA and MSH are extremely ambitious for capcom in this era and the attention to detail is on full display when smoothly running at full speed via the arcade board. The console versions just don't do this game justice imho. The ps3 digital download is fantastic, but unfortunately, is no longer available for download for those who missed out.
 
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radiantsvgun

They call him Mr. Windy
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First cab was an Astro City that came from a group order here. Sold it and got the Egret 2 from bibs order. I still miss that Astro City.
 

BanishingFlatsAC

formerly DZ
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First machine I purchased was a Super High Impact Football that I converted to a Neo Geo with the help of ElectricGrave. It had a mv1fz and a hyper 64 installed in it.
 

Geekman1222

Kula's Candy
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These are all so great I hope to have accumulate more things slowly over the years its always so fun and memorable searching this stuff out and giving it a loving home!
 

acblunden2

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My first cab was Pit Fighter in a Dynamo HS-1 cabinet for $250. The CP was some horrible 2-player deal with 2 sets of 3-buttons for each player arranged in triangular fashion. I HyperSpin'ed up that cab and got rid of it. Still have the Pit Fighter board though. That is my go to test PCB =).

That was 2.5 years ago. Since then, arcade goods have skyrocketed! Now I have over 20 cabs. That cab remains one of my most expensive purchases ever.
 

Ip Man

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i had no idea. i have the saturn port and play the game on mame and think the game looks great on the saturn. but then again i thought the ps1 port also looked good :lolz:.
 

NeoField

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When I was in school, My Dad and I bought a Tapper Cocktail machine from a Florida arcade auction for $400, those were good times!
 

Sypth

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My original machine was a converted cab into a Neo Geo. It wasn't until I sanded the sides down when I realized I just ruined what could of been a nice dig dug cabinet. Shit happens, had my fun with it, learned a lot, and gave it to one of my buddies.
 

loegan43

I've served my time in the Dark Army., Have you?,
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First cab was a Neo 29. Been through quite a few since then. Down to a pair of E2s in the game room now.
 

xamot13

The Ultimate 11
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First home console was an Atari 2600.
First and only arcade cab was my Big Red back in '03
 

BlackaneseNiNjA

The Fatal Fury Disciple
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i had no idea. i have the saturn port and play the game on mame and think the game looks great on the saturn. but then again i thought the ps1 port also looked good :lolz:.

It's all good :lolz: It's a great game either way. I just always wished they would have revisited the X-Men:CotA and MSH ports and rereleased both of them with imporved 4M support in some kind of Marvel themed double pack or something. Oh well lol
 

ratson

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My first cab was a Gauntlet 4 player.
 

Kid Panda

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It's all good :lolz: It's a great game either way. I just always wished they would have revisited the X-Men:CotA and MSH ports and rereleased both of them with imporved 4M support in some kind of Marvel themed double pack or something. Oh well lol

At least MSH supported the 1 meg cart.
 
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