What is the best type of candy cab for shooters?

koda · Post by **koda** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:32 am

I'm just curious. I don't own any arcade hardware and I never have. It's something I really want to get into. I can't afford to just up and buy a cab + the guts to go in it, so I'm just gonna start pulling a bit of cash out of each paycheck I get and setting it aside until I have enough to pick everything up.

I'm just curious what the best cabinet is and why? I'm definitely looking for one of the sitdown candies, but I know so little about them. Is it fairly easy to swap boards in and out? I'm worried that I'll have to have the monitor in a vertical orientation and that will prohibit me from playing a whole bunch of games-- or that I'll have the monitor configured regularly and then I won't be able to play the vert stuff. =/ I definitely can't afford two cabinets. =)

Any recommendations? Advice? Suggestions?

Tanks.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:45 am

If you only have room for one cab, and you want to play both vert and hori games, get an Egret2. It's going to be a bit pricer than the standard Astro City; the ease of monitor rotation is well worth the premium if you're going to change it often.

antron · Post by **antron** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:21 pm

Or an Erget I, same functionality but cheaper.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:51 pm

antron wrote:Or an Erget I, same functionality but cheaper.

The lack of internal space is really really annoying in the Egret I.

I'm also not a fan of the screen angle, but that's just a personal thing.

I haven't seen an Egret I on the market in a long time, now that I think about it. I've pondered getting rid of mine and replacing it with an Astro.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:03 pm

I just got an AWSD, its not bad for a shooter cab, but I prefer the PQ of the new astro city.

koda · Post by **koda** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:01 pm

PQ?

How difficult is it to rotate a monitor in the Egret II? When I look at a picture of one, it looks like the frame around the visible area of the monitor is taller than it is long.

Thanks for the tips.

pixelcorps · Post by **pixelcorps** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:33 pm

its easier to turn the plastic frame on the egret I than it is on the egretII

you have to unscrew it, turn it and put it back in..

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:04 pm

pixelcorps wrote:its easier to turn the plastic frame on the egret I than it is on the egretII

you have to unscrew it, turn it and put it back in..

On the Egret I you have to fiddle with the thumbscrews+plate. On the Egret 2 you can just leave all the screws off and it'll still be snug once you close up the entire thing.

This is of course offset by the fact that you have to open the control panel to rotate anything.

I dunno, I spend way less time rotating my Egret II than the Egret I. The design of the Egret I is sorta dumb in that you have to deal with fastening the bezel upside down...

drboom · Post by **drboom** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:31 pm

I highly recommend the Astro City. I have one and it only takes me about five mintues to change the monitor from vertical to horizontal. Egret II's go for about 1K and a good Astro City can be had for half that price.
Get at Matsu or Droid on these forums to get pricing. Matsu is THE MAN when it comes to candy cabs and he's always got a good list of things in stock.
I bought mine from him and highly recommend him. Hella good guy.

koda · Post by **koda** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:34 pm

drboom wrote:I highly recommend the Astro City. I have one and it only takes me about five mintues to change the monitor from vertical to horizontal. Egret II's go for about 1K and a good Astro City can be had for half that price.
Get at Matsu or Droid on these forums to get pricing. Matsu is THE MAN when it comes to candy cabs and he's always got a good list of things in stock.
I bought mine from him and highly recommend him. Hella good guy.

Thank you. I'll definitely look into that!

antron · Post by **antron** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:17 pm

zakk wrote:
pixelcorps wrote:its easier to turn the plastic frame on the egret I than it is on the egretII

you have to unscrew it, turn it and put it back in..
On the Egret I you have to fiddle with the thumbscrews+plate. On the Egret 2 you can just leave all the screws off and it'll still be snug once you close up the entire thing.

This is of course offset by the fact that you have to open the control panel to rotate anything.

I dunno, I spend way less time rotating my Egret II than the Egret I. The design of the Egret I is sorta dumb in that you have to deal with fastening the bezel upside down...

I leave the thumbscrews and bezel off, no problems. I would take an Egret 2 over a 1 as well, but Matsu was selling the 1 for a good price when I was looking (but he is looking for the *best*, so nevermind)

thchardcore · Post by **thchardcore** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 6:49 pm

Konami Windy 29

Triple Lei · Post by **Triple Lei** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:18 pm

Okay, so I have this... friend... who has a New Astro City and he's curious about rotating the monitor. Anyone want to put up a guide? ...or at least, put together a list of things to look out for?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:21 pm

I took lots of pics the last time I rotated my Astro, so I will be putting up a guide shortly, either on my blog or on insomnia.ac

fuko · Post by **fuko** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:37 pm

I just bought an Egret II from Matsu, and I cannot recommend his service or this cabinet enough.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:42 pm

To turn an new astro city monitor, lay the cab on its back, undo the fly screws or bolts, lift by the handles, rotate and let it down again aligning the holes. You should be able to find your way around to get the bezel off, its not rocket science.

PQ = picture quality. I don't like the 31khz monitor as much as the dedicated 15khz monitors. You can get used to it, but its still a blur compared to the sharpness of an astro.

Ka0tiK · Post by **Ka0tiK** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:23 pm

I'm in the same boat as with you, koda. I've been saving tons to buy my first candy cab, but I'm not sure which one to get. I've been able to deduce that Egret 2/3 and the AWSD are the most popular for shmups and mame.

Does anybody have one in particular they prefer?

Gwyrgyn Blood · Post by **Gwyrgyn Blood** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:46 pm

I'm looking to buy a cab in the not too distant future as well. One thing I'm wondering about is what kind of input/output jacks cabs tend to have... in other words, if you wanted to record from the machine to a VCR, or input from a PS2, can you do stuff like that.

As far as resolution goes, can anyone tell me (or point me to a place that lists) what resolutions can be done with 15k/24k/31k/38k/etc displays?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:45 pm

Cab's are not consumer products. They do not have A/V input and output connectors. Read up on JAMMA and JVS for the specification of how they are hardwired to the monitor, speakers, and controls.

As for the resolutions question, arcade cabs do not use multisync PC monitors, they are usually fixed frequency, in one of the following three modes:
15khz = low or "standard" resolution = 320x240 (or there abouts)
24khz = medium resolution = 640x400 (or there abouts)
31khz = high resolution = vga = 640x480

There are "tri-sync" arcade monitors which are capable of switching to all three of these resolutions either on the fly, or via jumper connector on the pcb.

Gwyrgyn Blood · Post by **Gwyrgyn Blood** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:44 pm

Well aware how JAMMA works and all that, I was more wondering how some arcade owners have setup their machines to record output (for tournaments or whatever).

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:56 pm

What most people do wire up a jamma edge connector and fingerboard to go in front of the PCB, which taps RGBS (and sound) and sends it to an s-video encoding board like the jrok.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:18 pm

Some of us are crazy and have RGB capture cards and 8x4 RGBHV matrix switchers.

But we aren't really typical.

Also, I believe there was a cab with a built in s-video out. I can't remember who made it; I do remember it was hori only and it also had an LED status display (or maybe a mini LCD screen up top).

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:19 am

zakk wrote:Some of us are crazy and have RGB capture cards and 8x4 RGBHV matrix switchers.

But we aren't really typical.

Also, I believe there was a cab with a built in s-video out. I can't remember who made it; I do remember it was hori only and it also had an LED status display (or maybe a mini LCD screen up top).

SNKs hyper neogeo cab.. and yeah its a small LCD on top.

Gwyrgyn Blood · Post by **Gwyrgyn Blood** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:33 am

Dave_K. wrote:What most people do wire up a jamma edge connector and fingerboard to go in front of the PCB, which taps RGBS (and sound) and sends it to an s-video encoding board like the jrok.

Yeah that seems pretty much like what I expected, wouldn't be too hard to do.

Still haven't decided on which cab specifically to buy yet... still tossing up between AstroCity (cheap, ideal low-res cab) or Atomis (more versatile monitor).

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:32 am

no one has an OK BABY cab??

Moteuchi_Yota · Post by **Moteuchi_Yota** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:26 pm

I must to switch the sticks with two Sanwa, but it's a good cab, for me!

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:35 pm

very nice. Think sanwa parts will fit in there?

Moteuchi_Yota · Post by **Moteuchi_Yota** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:26 pm

With a little lot of work... yeah!

I will receive the cab in two days, but i have all the pieces for the switch... the only problem is that the sticks are soldered, but with a little cut & paste, it will ok, i hope!

Moteuchi_Yota · Post by **Moteuchi_Yota** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:37 pm

It's the Ok Baby working with Raiden Fighters... the screen is manufactured in italy, and it works at 15-24 khz; onestly i think that the 15-31 is better, because it has a vga input (for a rapid connection with Dc, via vga box and joypad hack), but for now i'm happy!

I've bought the Ok Baby, btw, for the price: 350 euros is a very good price, for a candy, and in italy is very difficult to find an Egret II/Astro City for a decent price (1000 euros, if you are lucky)!

Next year i will buy, probably, a backup monitor with vga input and autoswitch for the frequency: Under Defeat and Shikigami no Shiro II on a candy > Good Sex!

Bigsasquatch · Post by **Bigsasquatch** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:38 pm

Go for Egret 2 ......

+ Great Nanao monitor
+ Tate mech makes rotation easier
+ Easy Cp removal so you can get through some small houses / stairwells
+ looks cool

You may opt for AWSD as its Tri Res, so you get Ikaruga / Under defeat / Shikigami etc....but be warned , they DO NOT like Cave's PGM hardware and you get a sync / rolling issue.......

Cheers

BIG S