Blue "Namco" arcade cabs??? should I get them??

Yesterday I was looking in "Mercadolibre" (it's like a local Ebay for us South Americans) for arcade pcb's to use with my supergun when I came across this:

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/...deo-juegos-_JM

The sellers has 3 of these in stock, hes asking $634 for the 3 namco cabs.
http://img1.mlstatic.com/s_MLU_v_O_f_24301300_5130.jpg
http://img1.mlstatic.com/s_MLU_v_O_f_24301300_2591.jpg

there's also 4 white cabs for sell in the same auction, these are named "aero city" wich as far as I know are made by Sega, $180 each, according to the seller some of the cabs have bad wiring and sound problems but all come with games, 2 of the Namco cabs have Tekken Tag tournament pcb's and the other one has a soccer game, the sega cabs come with CPS2 and MVS boards.

Those are Namco Exceleena cabinets, and they are quite difficult to find, and find parts for.

An Aero City for $180? I'd be all over that. I've owned an Aero City, and I absolutely loved it. They are well constructed, easy to work on, and easy to get parts for (as with most Sega cabinets).

The Aero City ships with a 25" Nanao MS8 monitor chassis, which is arguably the best RGB CRT arcade monitor ever produced.

Just to put it in perspective, I sold my Aero City (fully working) locally for $600 within two days.

I guess I'll have to pay a visit to the sellers house then, what details should be taken into account? monitor condition??, cabinet aesthetics? should I buy them even if the monitors are broken? since I don't know if these are easy to fix, but I guess these arcade monitors are almost the same as a CRT TV's but with RGB hookups.

Monitor condition is the most important part of the entire cabinet. If the monitor works and looks good, everything else can be easily and cheaply sorted out.

Check the tube and ensure that monitor phosphor burn is not too severe.

If the monitor does NOT work, you can still source a used working Nanao MS8-25 chassis, but it might take you some time.

Sound issues, PSU issues, control issues, or other aesthetic or wiring issues can be easily resolved. These are simple and easy to work on.

Personally, I would shy away from those Namco Cabinets.

here's a pic of one the Aerocity cabs, it seems it's not in the best shape though..

http://img2.mlstatic.com/s_MLU_v_O_f_25797432_2452.jpg

Wow, that's actually not bad at all. Keep in mind that the Aero City is all steel, so it's easy to paint, and the decals are reproduced and readily available.

It appears to be a nice solid machine! If the monitor works, and for $180, you are literally stealing it.

Did you know that the monitor rotates? Shmups!

If you buy it, I will help you out anyway that I can in sourcing parts and restoring the cabinet.

The Genesis looks AMAZING in RGB on that Nanao monitor!

No. Sega or Capcom cabs only. Seriously everything else is a compromise.

I'll give the seller a phone call to arrange a meeting, I'll keep this updated.

They are very beautiful and exotic cabs. The drink holders are neat too. The guy I bought my astro cities from had one, I was going to buy it but its just too damn huge for my house. It is supposed to be a really easy monitor to rotate. They are usually on the more expensive end, like $1000 range. If I buy another house I want some more space to get that beautiful excelleena off of him!

I don't think the Exceleena will fit through a normal ~28" interior doorway.

I went to seller house and the guy also has one of these, Sega Megalo 50 (50 stands for the 50" screen:))
http://www.highway.net.au/products/i...586_7720_2.jpg

Was the screen any good on this megalo. Almost all old rear projection tvs seems to have serious picture quality issues like huge burn in after years of use.

Avoid it like it has syphilis. Those screens are EXTREMELY fragile and very expensive to service.

One good bump, and you are spending 4 hours re-aligning the R, G, and B color projectors.

Well, I couldn't test all the machines running to see what their problems were so I pick the best of the Aerocitys (the one with the best image quality) and one Namco Excelleena, the seller told me that if he can't sell the other machines he will give me all the other cabs for free if I agree to pay for the shipping (since he's not interested in videogames :lol: and he don't have the time it takes to restore the cabs..)

I don't know yet what games should I pick, almost all of the Aerocity's have MVS boards with Puzzle Bobble pcbs, the Namco's have Tekken Tag and the guy also offered me a model 3 board with what I believe is a Sega soccer game called "Virtua Striker 2", the only "shooter" he has is Metal Slug 3...so I'm open to recomendations, maybe I can take the model 3 board or a System 12 to sell them and buy other stuff of my interest..

So you bought one Aero City and one Exceleena? Everything worked OK on those cabinets?

Man, you really got an incredible deal on those.

As for games, I think it's safe to assume that the MVS carts are going to be bootlegs. The model 3 soccer games are tough sells, at least in this part of the world.

The Aero city doesn't have sticks:daze: but the monitor seems to be in good shape and the cab looks "good", aesthetically wise, I don't care about the controls so I didn't bother to swap parts, all of the other cabs have chinese crap installed (Seiko Asahi or Crown)

buuuut... I also got what it seems to be an Ikari Warriors Control Panel ¿¿¿??? it has 2 japanese sticks with yellow hexagonal "Wheels" I don't know if I should call these..balltop??s, and 4 crappy "non clicking" buttons..(sorry I really Don't know how to better describe it) but judging by the description of the game that the guy gave me, these controls were installed on a Midnight Resistance cab..

The Excellena is working ok, it has some broken buttons and one the speakers seems busted, but overall it looks ok to me.

The controls are easy to sort out. Get some Sanwa or Seimitsu sticks in there! It sounds like you have rotary joysticks installed.

As for the buttons, Japanese arcade machines do not have the (what we consider normal) happ-style buttons that 'click', so it sounds like the correct buttons are installed. You could always install happ buttons.

Here is what a factory Aero City 2L6B panel and joystick/button combo should look like (note, this one is missing the control panel surround).

http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/DSC03025.jpg

Post some photos!

I'll post some pics soon as I get the cabs delivered to my home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chinitosoccer

buuuut... I also got what it seems to be an Ikari Warriors Control Panel ¿¿¿??? it has 2 japanese sticks with yellow hexagonal "Wheels" I don't know if I should call these..balltop??s,

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Those are actually rotary joysticks, they're designed for use with certain SNK games. My Ikari III cab was missing them when I got it, so if you're willing to sell those and ship to the US, I would definitely be interested. :D

I'm trying to track down the Midnight Resistance PCB the seller told me since it is one of my favourite arcade games, otherwise I have no problems into sell the entire Control Panel to you.