Midway 12 in 1
I picked up a Midway 12 in 1 on Facebook Marketplace, recently.
What in the hell was I thinking?
Apparently, not “Impulse control.”
Well… in my defense, awhile back I picked up one of those retail Konami Vertical multis awhile back. These cabinets have super-bad reputations for being flimsy and.. bad. The thing is, the Vertical Konami variant has a pretty bitchin’ little cabaret-sized VGA monitor that supports a surprising range of resolutions and frequencies. Mine, pictured here in my upstairs closet, has an Pi-MAME config and is great for discovering and re-discovering classic vertical games.
So, I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool to have the horizontal cousin to this thing?”
(Maybe I was drinking?)
You know how like Picasso had a Blue Period?
Spoiler alert, maybe January 2019 was my Arson Period.
Well, KLOV is pretty clear on the Horizontal version of the cabinet but I didn’t listen. I figured - haters gonna hate, right?
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=409055
Well, the haters.. were right in this case. In my opinion..
The Problem:
The machine wasn’t really maintainable and of course it is cheaply made compared to commercial arcade cabinets. The colors were washed out on the monitor (cough: TV) and there are OSD menus you can use to tweak the appearance. The issue is adjustments and the IR Receiver are on the front of the monitor behind the plastic surround. As I started trying to get the monitor out of the cabinet to make adjustments, I was greeted with the fact that the numb-nuts that built the game, glued support blocks over top of screws. Screws… that need to turn… to get the monitor out..
So, I sat back and thought to myself…
”Self? “
”Yo!”
”Are you going to keep this cabinet?”
”Nope.”
”Self, you have $200 in it. If you sell it on Facebook for $150, you are already loosing money. “
”Right…”
”To feel good about selling it.. you really are going to obsess over fixing the display issue, right?”
”Yeah, that’s kinda how I roll.”
”And… how many evenings are you going to sink into that?”
”A couple, at least, from all appearances.”
”And… when you do sell it, what are the chances the buyer is high maintenance about the sell?”
”Chances are pretty good they are going to come out and talk me down to $100 and hassle me for support.”
”Would you .. PAY, $100 to get your weekend back?”
”Hell yes, I would!”
Decision Made.
The Solution:
Firepit. Meet P.O.S. P.O.S, meet Firepit.
Aftermath
Typically, not a wasteful person. I did pull the doors, parts of the side art, the game board, overlay and controls, anything I deemed as “potential wall-hanger” and plastics and metals. If you read this and need parts for your cabinet, reach out to me via Private Message and they are yours.
I noticed the cabinet sides reminded me alot of an over-sized bartop kit. I could see a far-away project of using them to create a MAME system or something. The monitor (ahem: TV) I pulled and may end up using with my Atari 2600 or as a tube-swap candidate for a cabaret down the road.
Ultimately, though - this was a gigantic waste of time and $200 down the toilet. That’s really, my takeaway. The next time I feel the impulse to pop on something cheap on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, I'm going to think about this cabinet and my experience versus the value of my time and think long and hard on the question:
Just because it is cheap and convenient, should you really still buy it?
Probably not.
now.. off to go make S’mores…