I'm about to buy an arcade Supergun.. Or videogaming: the final frontier

[Shuri]

I'm about to buy a supergun; the setup is pretty neat, it will comes with two well made arcade sticks, the unit will be well enclosed; overall it looks to be quite  an excellent product; the whole thing will set me back around 400$.. Yeah it's a bit expensive, but it wont be some awkward piece of crap with wires everywhere. Also; i know i could get a real cab for that price, but those things are huge and they take too much space.



I can already emulate those on my hacked xbox with MameOX, I already own an rael arcade stick, and while it works for most of the games; the sound always feels a bit off; and you can forget about games made after 1998. So who here has crossed the final frontier to gaming geekdom?

[pancakesandsex]

Tell me more of this supergun, i have never heard of it.  What games does it support?

[Ichirou]

I used to have the Saturn version of Radiant Silvergun, but I sold it for $75 many years ago.  I regret it.

[drohne]

i was on the point of buying a cab or a supergun several years ago, but i didn't want to get into the expense and clutter. it still kills me that i can't play cave's new games, but that shit is expensive, and a modded xbox mostly does it for me

[Sho Nuff]

I bought DC's old Raijin supergun, it was badass. I since have given the supergun to my dad in the USA (hee!) and got an astro city

[Smooth Groove]

How do you install the games on these superguns? 

[drohne]

you can see it in that picture shuri posted -- there's a standard connector that you plug into the arcade board

[bork]

I did the Supergun thing once, but quickly got out of it.  Takes up too much space, and the exposed boards seem easy to damage (although this never happened).  Back in summer 1999, a friend of mine with wealthy parents (and lots of money for him to throw around) decided that he wanted to own Aliens Vs. Predator at home.  So he decided to buy a Supergun and the AvP CPS2 board.  He couldn't find that right away, but instead happened upon a CPS3 with Street Fighter III 2nd Impact.  Now, this was before the announcement that SF3 was coming to the Dreamcast.  We didn't expect to see a home version since 3rd Strike was coming to arcades and figured that would be ported much later on down the line (Zero 3 had just hit the DC, after all).

So I went in half with him and we got the CPS3.  It was very delicate-looking and there was also the worry over whether or not the board would suicide.  We got it and loved it; I played the shit out of the game every day.  We even found the AvP board and also got a Neo-Geo MVS.  My friend went off to school out of state and I got all the boards at my house.  But I was only home on the weekends and didn't get to play the Supergun much, plus it's size and delicate boards made it a real pain to haul to friends' houses for more people to play.  Then SF3 W Impact got announced for the DC and sold the Supergun and everything off ASAP, giving my friend half the cash (got back pretty much what we paid for everything, amazingly enough) to cover his share.  And as the years have gone by, I just don't see the point anymore.  Emulation is perfect on 99% of the 2D arcade games.  It's only some obscure 3D titles that never got home ports that you might want to hunt down.  Look at that screenshot in the OP.  Why spend all that cash to play the arcade version of Soul Calibur?  Yeah the emulation of it sucks, but the DC version is superior in every way.  Not to mention Soul Calibur IV is coming out.

Shuri, what games are you interested in?  You really should look up the prices first, or just see if they're emulated on PC instead.  PC MAME is faster and better than XBox MAME OA.

i was on the point of buying a cab or a supergun several years ago, but i didn't want to get into the expense and clutter. it still kills me that i can't play cave's new games, but that shit is expensive, and a modded xbox mostly does it for me

Yeah, new board prices are pretty much insane.  You have to wait a few years for prices to fall before they become affordable, and by that point there's usually home ports or emulation.  And then you have the expensive or rental-only boards that you're just not going to get, like VF5 and Tekken 6.  I just don't see the point of going after new stuff, although there is something cool and nostalgic about having an arcade cab with some good older games or a MAME cab.

I used to be all about the originals, even spending all that cash on the newest Neo-Geo games.  But even I had to stop when titles like SvC Chaos showed up playable on modded Xboxes BEFORE the cart even shipped, not to mention the benefits of emulation like being able to play the game at a higher resolution, filtering, etc.  I still have a Neo AES back home with my favorites like SS2, RB2, and KOF '98, but it's far easier for me to just load up my modded PSP with the entire Neo-Geo library and play these games perfectly emulated anywhere.  And I show my support for these companies by buying their new products and compilations.

[Smooth Groove]

you can see it in that picture shuri posted -- there's a standard connector that you plug into the arcade board

Sounds too troublesome once you own more than a few games.  Also, I'll rather pay for digital ROMS than a bunch of boards that could break.   

[bork]

you can see it in that picture shuri posted -- there's a standard connector that you plug into the arcade board

Sounds too troublesome once you own more than a few games.  Also, I'll rather pay for digital ROMS than a bunch of boards that could break.   

There really is nothing like having the real thing.  It's just that emulation has gotten to the point that combined with the right set-up, proper controls, and even an arcade cab, there's virtually no difference.  If I had the space, I'd love to have an arcade cab or two with some classics though.

[Smooth Groove]

I'll love to have a real arcade joystick that works with all the systems. Is there anything like that in Japan?  For some reason, the joysticsk in America have always been average at best. 

[brawndolicious]

I saw a $2,000 arcade cabinet for SF3 at costco the other day.  I got owned by the 6 year old playing at it because he was shouting at me to stop hitting him so he can practice his combos.  I played one game and left.  owned.

[jiji]

I did the Supergun thing once, but quickly got out of it.  Takes up too much space, and the exposed boards seem easy to damage (although this never happened). 

This was my experience, too.  Years ago, I bought a JAMMA harness off a friend and made it into a proper supergun, with a case and switches and joystick ports and whatnot. I owned Sky Shark and Raiden Fighters. Sky Shark is a fucking gigantic board that gives off a lot of heat. I didn't have much room for it, and it felt like it was going to fall apart at any time.  It made me appreciate the ease of loading up a 100k ROM in MAME.  RF cost me somewhere in the area of $100, and eventually I sold it when I needed the money (I was still in school and working part-time then).  The whole chain of hardware, from the harness to the power supply to the RGB monitor I had it hooked up to, felt so dodgy that I haven't felt like messing with it since.  It always had this problem with interference in the display that I assume was due to poor grounding on my part somewhere.

I'm still tempted to get a 1-slot Neo MVS sometime, just to play Metal Slug games in perfect form.  And I'd still like to get a Japanese cabinet, like a Neo Candy or Egret or something, when I've got the room for it. 

[Shuri]

damnit guys. Now I dont think I want one 

[bork]

damnit guys. Now I dont think I want one 

It's not worth it anymore.  10 years ago, definitely.  Nothing could top having the arcade at home.  Now emulation is pretty much perfect and home systems get near-perfect or perfect ports with more content.  Gone are the days when the home versions were missing frames, features, or had scaled down graphics and audio.

Kind of hard to believe how "shitty" the SF2 SNES port was when you look back at it, isn't it?

[bork]

I'll love to have a real arcade joystick that works with all the systems. Is there anything like that in Japan?  For some reason, the joysticsk in America have always been average at best. 

You can get custom made sticks using genuine arcade parts from the INTERNETS.  The best sticks are all made-to-order AFAIK.  No need to look to Japan.