Who here has their own gig

[rikitheshadow]

I got my machines like a year ago or so, but their fun as hell.

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Got the sign here last christmas to enhance my little gaming zone's feel.

[MentholMoose]

Great setup! The neon SEGA sign is a nice touch.

[MasterFygar]

Nice! That sign is swag, I'll need to pick one up. I have an OMG arcade setup too, I'm working on doing a full restore right now on KLOV:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=235936

[neoKEN]

I got my machines like a year ago or so, but their fun as hell.

That is pretty cool! Incase I wanted to have an arcade in my home, how much did that set you back?

[MasterFygar]

I know that wasn't directed at me but riki hasn't replied yet so I'll see if I can help any. I paid 750 (including shipping) for my VOOM cab (before the economy totally tanked and back when paying acting jobs were abundant in VA), but cabs can be found working for around 350 these days (they're big, so people who just want to get rid of them almost give them away). The 'market' price at auctions and with collectors and whatnot seems to be around 500. That being said, some people DO ACTUALLY GIVE THEM AWAY (one guy in Canada trashed a mint machine because he couldn't find anyone to get it out of his garage and one person sold a twin for 50 bucks mostly working). The best thing is that it's an old enough game now that new old stock art/parts are available so it's possible to get one cheaper in bad shape and actually fix it. A mint specimen will run you less than a 1p candy cab these days

VOOT cabinets on the other hand are an endangered species (nobody on KLOV has a dedicated VOOT machine, nor have I ever seen one before, in an arcade, for sale online, at arcade auctions or otherwise) and will command insane prices for sure. I don't even know how to judge how much one would go for because I've never seen one before for sale but it would be pretty crazy unless you were getting it from some old guy who had no clue how rare it was. If you want a VOOT setup your best bet would be to obtain a PCB for VOOT and install it in a VOOM cab, but the PCB alone will run you around 800 bucks these days (the NAOMI version is cheaper, but not by much).

[MentholMoose]

VOOT Ver.5.66 ROMs have been gradually dropping in price on YJA. At the peak, auctions for one ROM were hitting ¥40,000, but nowadays they go for much less. If someone is actually interesting in putting together a VOOT setup it would be a good idea to watch YJA. For example, recently the following auction ended at ¥35,500 (about $455) and included two ROMs, Naomi boards, and communications boards, not a bad deal at all.
http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/154226220

[rikitheshadow]

Sorry for this delayed response, i forgot to set notifications and junk.....much less work has gotten busy.

I paid $600 for my units, delivered them myself via a 14 foot U-Haul truck with a loading ramp.... Anyway, they were working from the start, the guy also threw in spare control panels for both sides, seat cushions and fans they added themselves with matching colors for extended play. Only thing was missing was I believe a metal bracket that wrapped the back end of the cabinets to hold them together better, and the privacy screen.

I had to do a decent amount of cleaning because no one had opened these dam things before and even bothered trying to dust anything. The DC fan on the metal cage that contained the Model 2 system boards was seized in both cabinets, much less all the dust coating everything increasing the amount of heat production...... Do make sure if you get a hold of some units to make sure and clean the boards thoroughly to prevent any damage to electronic components in the long run. You don't want the brain of these units breaking down, because I only know one place that can fix these things and its not cheap. Buy a spare board set like I did just in case, a lot of them seem to be sold on ebay lately it couldn't hurt to be prepared.

.......oh yeah, VOOT would be nice to have.........

[neoKEN]

$600 is such a great deal for 2 full units.

With some rewiring, could modify them for VOOT 5.66 setup.

[MentholMoose]

MasterFygar, any update on the OMG restoration? In your KLOV thread there was some talk of converting it to VOOT. I have never heard of a conversion kit and I doubt one exists. There wasn't even a conversion kit for Ver.5.2/5.4 cabs to Ver.5.66 (that I know of). There was a kit to convert two Ver.5.66 cabs to VO4, though... IIRC it was $10,000 (at the exchange rate then). I have seen an OMG cab converted to Ver.5.2/5.4 (it was at SHGL in Stanton), though I think that was just a custom conversion and not using a kit.

VOOT cabinets on the other hand are an endangered species (nobody on KLOV has a dedicated VOOT machine, nor have I ever seen one before, in an arcade, for sale online, at arcade auctions or otherwise) and will command insane prices for sure.

The only VOOT cab I've seen for sale in the US was the 5.66 cab Arcade Infinity had for a while. IIRC the asking price was $2,500, though this was back in 2002 when the game was still newish. AI got rid of it long before they went out of business but I never found out what happened to it.

I'm sure there was a thread about this on VO dot net, but that site died and the database lost so it is hard to confirm the details. From what I remember, and based on my old blog, the cab showed up on eBay for $2,500. I'd guess it was late 2001 or early 2002. The seller was probably Arcade Infinity since they did sell other stuff on eBay at that time, though it might have just been some random person. I had no job/money/space so buying it was not an option. Anyway, nobody bid on it, and around March or April 2002 it showed up at Arcade Infinity! I got to play it a few times and we had some meet-ups, but by that time the Socal VOOT scene was mostly dead. The machine fell into disrepair and by 2004 it was gone.

[MasterFygar]

MasterFygar, any update on the OMG restoration? In your KLOV thread there was some talk of converting it to VOOT. I have never heard of a conversion kit and I doubt one exists. There wasn't even a conversion kit for Ver.5.2/5.4 cabs to Ver.5.66 (that I know of). There was a kit to convert two Ver.5.66 cabs to VO4, though... IIRC it was $10,000 (at the exchange rate then). I have seen an OMG cab converted to Ver.5.2/5.4 (it was at SHGL in Stanton), though I think that was just a custom conversion and not using a kit.

VOOT cabinets on the other hand are an endangered species (nobody on KLOV has a dedicated VOOT machine, nor have I ever seen one before, in an arcade, for sale online, at arcade auctions or otherwise) and will command insane prices for sure.

The only VOOT cab I've seen for sale in the US was the 5.66 cab Arcade Infinity had for a while. IIRC the asking price was $2,500, though this was back in 2002 when the game was still newish. AI got rid of it long before they went out of business but I never found out what happened to it.

I'm sure there was a thread about this on VO dot net, but that site died and the database lost so it is hard to confirm the details. From what I remember, and based on my old blog, the cab showed up on eBay for $2,500. I'd guess it was late 2001 or early 2002. The seller was probably Arcade Infinity since they did sell other stuff on eBay at that time, though it might have just been some random person. I had no job/money/space so buying it was not an option. Anyway, nobody bid on it, and around March or April 2002 it showed up at Arcade Infinity! I got to play it a few times and we had some meet-ups, but by that time the Socal VOOT scene was mostly dead. The machine fell into disrepair and by 2004 it was gone.

Yeah, the 'experts' debunked the kit idea. There was no official way to upgrade the game, the conversions out there were custom hackjobs that, from what I've heard, didn't work very well since the joystick for OMG cabinets isn't the same model as VOOT cabinets and isn't optimized for the faster and more complex gameplay. The restoration is going well, I located a BUNCH of new old stock parts and decals, the hard part is where I'm stuck right now... sanding down steel-enforced putty to make the plastics look normal when I spraypaint them, which is pretty much like... taking sandpaper to steel I'm totally working on it though, some updates coming soon. Oddly enough, of all the rare and weird games I know of collectors having, I've never bumped into anyone on KLOV who has a VOOT cab, and no original ones are registered in the VAPS database. Pretty sad really.

[MentholMoose]

Thanks for the update! It definitely requires a lot of dedication.

Oddly enough, of all the rare and weird games I know of collectors having, I've never bumped into anyone on KLOV who has a VOOT cab, and no original ones are registered in the VAPS database. Pretty sad really.

I dunno, it doesn't seem very surprising to me. The high cost (you'd pretty much have to ship a cab from Japan) and space required for the cabinet are very discouraging given the limited usefulness (almost nobody to play with, single player sucks, difficult/expensive to maintain). It seems like target audience would be quite limited.