Super Auctions
Mesquite, Texas (Dallas)
August 10, 2002

390.54 Kb	395.80 Kb	365.73 Kb	342.95 Kb
265.63 Kb	461.55 Kb	451.16 Kb	547.45 Kb
440.43 Kb	321.34 Kb	349.43 Kb	340.55 Kb
393.48 Kb	350.69 Kb	328.00 Kb	352.61 Kb
327.08 Kb	308.51 Kb	290.88 Kb	298.50 Kb
387.57 Kb	309.85 Kb	370.25 Kb	337.33 Kb
341.42 Kb	272.66 Kb PC Amusements CP	289.02 Kb PC Amusements front art	515.92 Kb
519.81 Kb	396.75 Kb JAMMA adapter	382.89 Kb inside PC Amusements	481.88 Kb Inside PC Amusements
350.92 Kb	406.57 Kb PC Amusements bootleg	580.29 Kb	536.94 Kb
534.72 Kb	567.19 Kb	471.10 Kb	406.22 Kb
354.79 Kb	315.90 Kb	216.04 Kb	171.76 Kb
158.40 Kb	323.37 Kb

I was surprised how much 'stuff' appeared at this auction being that it was only about six weeks since the last auction. For those keeping track, there were many of the same machines that appear here for the second and third time.

Arcadegrafix/PC Amusements showed up with some artwork samples and some of their 'new' cabaret and cocktail games. Unless you have seen these in person or have been to the Orlando auctions, you most likely have no idea what to expect. My opinion follows.

<rant>
First off - the artwork. The word that comes to mind is adequate. If you are an operator and need some artwork in a hurry then this might be a good alternative for you. If you are building your own MAME cabinet and originality isn't what you are looking for, then this might be ok for you as well. If you collect arcade games, you will be sadly disappointed. The PC Amusements/Arcadegrafix artwork is mostly stolen from existing reproductions, scans on the internet and scans directly from the company's own inventory. That being said, colors are (i) not exact and have gradations (dots) not present in the originals; (ii) blurry edges and (iii) are inkjet prints (please note the difference between UV Inks and UV Stable Inks).

The 'new' cabarets. Ugh, where do I start. The bare wood cabinets are not too bad, but for the price they ask you to pay, you receive low quality workmanship on almost every other aspect. The most glaring defect (well, one of them at least) is the player controls. Cheap (and I mean cheap!) joysticks that seem to have been bought in a bulk closeout are used throughout. Joysticks that are too long in some cases and thus have poor pivot points for player control are used. Joystick colors that don't match (although that is seemingly hard to do since every color of the rainbow is used on the cabinet).

Centipede with joysticks. While the Atari boards *have* the inputs for joysticks, there is a reason Atari used a trak ball. If you want to play Centipede, you will not like the joystick. Mounting hardware for the control panels consist of cheap silver bolts. No need for smooth, black bolts that cost pennies more when you can get away with the others!

Donkey Kong / Centipede multigame. Nice idea, but poor execution. Unbelievably garish artwork on these cabinets. The graphic 'artists' need to learn that sometimes less is more. Who would want that in their house?!? The small Midway-like (and I use that term loosely) red buttons that switch between each game (Centipede/DK, Galaga/Ms. Pac) appear to be not only fragile but dangerous if hit with your hand. Pressing Player 1 and Player 2 start buttons simultaneously to cycle through games must be too hard to engineer.

Although I didn't take pictures of all the machines, miss-matched colors on the CPOs (which was painfully evident on the Centipede) and the bezels (which seems to have been cut with a dull exacto-knife) were almost embarrassing. That being said, the overly glossy sideart looked ok. All of the PC Amusements' cabaret cabinets seemed to have been damaged in their trip from Orlando to Dallas. The cabinets seem to have rubbed together - rubbing the full cabinet sideart's clear plastic outer layer. Although tempted, I didn't grab that small bit of plastic laminate and pull off all the artwork. It could have been done rather easily though. As a bit of constructive criticism, I would suggest that *if* they continue to make these machines, paint the sides and make the sideart smaller. Unfortunately, because you print with an inkjet, the lamination must remain, so any way to reduce the surface area where the game might rub against anything else would be a good thing! Oh, and die cut your 'bezel underlays'.

Circuit boards. This was a bit of a surprise - or was it. Seems the Centipede PCBs and Donkey Kong PCBs were authentic (at least in the machines they brought to the auction). The Ms. Pac and Galaga PCBs were bootlegs - connected with dual JAMMA adapter boards made by Lupine Systems (the JAMMA adapter boards did look pretty cool).

In the end these guys are just out to make a buck and in some cases they provide some help (for example) to an ailing operator who needs to put their Simpson's into a laundry matt but lacks a marquee. That's all good and fine, but the lack of effort and workmanship that goes into PC Amusements / Arcadegrafix (or any one of their pseudonyms used on eBay) products should be avoided by anyone looking for a piece of replacement art for their game or by anyone looking for an addition to their gameroom.
</rant>