I have an old (2007) Arcade cabinet which was sold under the name of Rick's Classic Arcade. They system consisted of an Arcade Cabinet, a good quality monitor, and a cheap PC. On the hard drive for the PC were ROM's for about 10,000 games. The PC was running Windows 98. The PC is on its last legs, and already had crashed requiring a re-install of Windows 98. Needless to say, the arcade games did not function as well because the "tuning" was lost. Now the PC is almost dead and I need help transferring the ROMs to another machine. The system did use a good quality video card - ArcadeVGA card. I want to build a new machine and transfer the ROMs onto it. But I am not sure how that is all supposed to work. I know the original system used MAME.
I am willing to pay someone by the hour to work with me to spec out a new machine, help get it up and running, and transfer the ROM's over to the machine.
Greetings fellow Arcade/MAME enthusiast! I am an avid arcade/emulator/video game/pinball nut and have plenty of experience working with machines of various configurations and what you have is about one of the easiest jobs out there. All you need is a new PC with plenty of HDD space, a proper VGA card and a few extra bits & pieces (I can send details separately). I would be more than happy to help you spec out, prep and even build a machine for you. I have a few test cabinets & monitors to work with here in my workshop. I would be willing to build the machine, transfer the ROMs from your old HDD and install what you need to get going. Give me a budget and general parameters for the machine you'd like to build. There are tons of options available, even some pretty exotic pre-configured options if you're willing to go that route (e.g. 4 TB HDD loaded with pretty much every system and ROM known to exist).
Bottom line: I can and will transfer your ROMs from an old HDD to a new HDD (I have all of the equipment handy to accomplish this task) and help you spec out a new machine. All you would need to do is pull the C: drive and send it to me, which will accomplish your goals.
Feel free to reach out to me with a budget and goals if you want to go beyond 10K ROMs and add additional systems into the fray. I am flexible and this is a passion of mine. I will not accept anything less than a fully operational product that meets your expectations.
Hi, Matt S Rinc here, and can help you. I had similar "machine" in the past but home made and sold it.
Basically you just need a PC with running a MAME - that is software simulator for ROMs of arcade games. Graphical card you have is help with slightly better display, mostly for less "flickering" of the objects on screen.
Now - it would be fine to provide a link (URL) to exact card you have to get its specifications. The rest is relatively easy but unfortunately I cannot visit you physically (am from Slovenia). Still I can guide you in selecting the proper (low cost) computer, connecting the old disk and transferring files to new computer.
That's all what you really need. I will wait for your reply and as much additional information you can provide for your existing arcade cabinet.
Best Regards,
Matt
Ignore the price on the bid. Hire an expert from this site if you want and i can work with them or I will help you with this project on my own because it appeals to me. All i want is a letter to put on my CV and a good bottle of red if your happy. My passion is old tech, retro games and all things related. I'm what you call a jack of all trades. Let me know if you want a touch screen table or a cabinet. I have friends who own proper arcade cabinets and Mame based machines so I can advise you to what you need and not over spec. I'm offering this because its a passion rather than a job. You can relate to this as you are wanting to restore a retro game machine. I believe your project is from love rather than profit. Cheers Pete.
