EPROMs only keep memory 20 years!

[James Sweet]

That's kind of silly. I collect the Mame emulator and have over 6800
games I can play, and it is the exact same game(s).

I would never pay money for something so old, and so riffled with ripe
for failure electrolytics.

There's a huge community of collectors, it's not an obscure hobby, and
it's because of our efforts that MAME exists in the first place. Most of
the time I get one, I go through it and replace most of the
electrolytics. Full kits for all the common monitors are available for
less than $10, the power supplies are linear and tend to be nice to the
capacitors. Out of 14 games in my current collection, I have to fix
something about once every 2 years, they're pretty dependable, they were
built to take a beating. I have MAME too and have for years, but it's
not nearly the same. The cabinets and artwork are as important to me as
the games themselves, the total experience is something that can't be
emulated. If you have never played Asteroids for example on a real
vector monitor, you have never played it.

I suppose it's all something that those who are too young, or too old to
have experienced the golden age would never understand.

 

[Mycelium]

The cabinets and artwork are as important to me as
the games themselves, the total experience is something that can't be
emulated. If you have never played Asteroids for example on a real
vector monitor, you have never played it.

When was the last time you looked at Mame?

It is a lot better than it was the last time you saw it, if that is
what you say.

All the artwork and cabinetry is with most of the games now. There is
about a 64GB archive and that is without the CHDs, which are now being
made and used for the old laser games. And the vide rendering of all
types is spot on,including the vector games.

And yes, I used to open brand new Asteroids uprights fresh from the
container ship, so I have seen and played it 'on a real vector monitor'.