Which Candy Cab to buy

[Gingerzilla]

Hello All,
Wanting to buy a Candy Cab here in Tokyo Japan where I live.

Can somebody direct me or give their opinion on which is the best cabinet and where is a good place to buy one here in Japan.
It need not be new. I have been searching Yahoo.jp Auction but no luck.

I don't want to spend crazy money so that kind of cuts out the Vewlix unfortunately so I'm happy to go something older.

Like
Egret 2
Sega Blast City
New Astro City

But I'm having trouble seeing which is the best between them as they are very similar.
I want screen rotation for Shmuping.

Cheers
G

[trap15]

Blast City and New Astro City are considered some of the best cabs around, particularly for STG.

New Astro City does not work with 31kHz; 15 and 24 only.
Blast City works for all 3.
Egret II is also 15 and 24 only, and isn't 100% JAMMA compatible (one of the +5V pins is not connected), but works with the majority of boards out there.

Personally, of those 3, I prefer the aesthetic and the monitor appearance of the New Astro above the rest. I think rancor can probably help you find a source. If not him, certainly someone else here knows of a place.

[moh]

I absolutely love my blast city. I prefer it over the new astro because it supports stereo, and the speakers are at ear level, and sound AMAZING

[emphatic]

If you buy a cab that needs fixing, get a SEGA cab, as the spare parts are still available. I have two quite nice EGRET II's and consider them the best candy cabs (never seen a Blast City in the flesh), but I wouldn't buy a fixer-upper one right now. The most important part of the cab buying is to get one with a good monitor, make sure there's no or very little burn on the CRT tube. You'll see this best with the cabinet turned off.

[chempop]

Definitely agree with Emphatic, parts for SEGA cabs are FAR more common than the alternatives. One example is with Taito Egret II control panels. Sure there are repro one's out there, but even finding a nice single player panel might take months and months of looking, and will end up being easily three times the cost of a SEGA panel.

Blast and Astro City cabs are both great! The deciding factor is going to be whether you need 31k rez, and if so, the Blast City is your answer. Otherwise, an Astro is slightly better for low rez games (and their monitors usually have slightly less issues).

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Well if you're in Japan you should be fine with an Egret II and finding spare parts. Over in the States and EU not so much. The rotate mech of the Egret II comes in pretty hand if you are only going to have one cabinet.

Egret II is also 15 and 24 only, and isn't 100% JAMMA compatible (one of the +5V pins is not connected), but works with the majority of boards out there.

A ground also isn't connected. It is a relatively easy fix if you don't mind splicing your jamma harness or using a jamma extender to link the pins that are missing.

New Astro City is a solid choice if you want to shmup and plan to keep it in one orientation. Easy to find parts for.

Blast City as well. Just avoid the auto sync chassis blast cities if you can. They have a higher failure rate than manual sync ones.

Above all make sure the crt has good convergence, no excessive blooming, and no burn in.

[Gingerzilla]

Thanks for the feed back.
Ok it seems Sega wins for Parts and Taito for Screen Rotation.
Any leads to people who sell machines here in Japan?
Cheers
Ginger