I have always loved video games. They have been my spare times passion for over 15 years. Most of my experience has been with console games, and that is great. However, some of my favorite memories are of playing Galaga. There isn't a stand up Galaga cabinet near by so I could only get my Galaga fix with an emulator. As fun as that is, a keyboard just doesn't cut it.
The dream of owning a Galaga cabinet would fill my mind any time I played the game. Finding one has been a little difficult, and when I do they are too expensive.
Recently I went to an Arcade Machine Auction in Winston Salem with a friend of mine. There were several Galaga cabinets available but they sold for way too much. So I began to toss around the idea of building a MAME cabinet. I would need an inexpensive box to put it in so, I kept my eye out for one.
Towards the end of the day an X-Men vs. Street Fighter was auctioned. for the auction the cabinet was plugged in but it didn't turn on. this was okay with me because I didn't need it to work. Nobody bid on it an I was able to get it for $20. Which is good even for an empty cabinet.
It turns out the cabinet was in perfect working order, nobody thought to flip the switch on. The monitor didn't have any burn-in whatsoever. All the controls worked and the sound quality was awesome. There are a few cosmetic problems, most notably a large chunk of wood missing from the left side. This was easily fixed by some wood filler.
I now had a dilemma. Should I keep my new found deal as an X-Men vs. Street Fighter cabinet or replace it with MAME. I do really like XMvsSF but, I wanted to play Galaga. I decided that I would do both.