"Arcade Game Finder" Websites?

American Tanker

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And NO, I'm not talking about purchasing these machines to have at home...

So I have to ask: Does anyone know of any good sites that list where various arcade game machines can be found? Specifically, I'd like to see if there's any way in hell I could track down machines of either H2Overdrive(a Hydro Thunder successor by the people that originally worked for Midway) or, if any still exist in North America, F-Zero AX.

Of course, I'd likely also use such a website to look for other arcade games in my area. After Burner, Daytona USA, Ridge Racer, Sega Rally, Hang-On, OutRun, any number of other arcade racers or scrolling shooters, etc. etc.

Hell, maybe we can even share such sites around and help each other locate arcade machines we want to play. Anyone know anything here?
 

NiGHTSJOD

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Would be a fairly niche community I'd imagine. Perhaps Sega 16 forums or even the gamefaqs website would be a decent start. H2Overdrive should be easy enough to find seeing as it's by Raw Thrills (one of the few active players in the Arcade for western markets). Pretty much every decent sized game center, cinema or Dave & Busters-type place should have them. The trickier finds would be for older stuff. Daytona and other Sega racers are common enough but outside of those, light gun games, DDR and maybe some Street Fighter/Tekken variants, the search ramps up the difficulty big time.
 

Kyrian007

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I'd imagine its not databased anywhere. I'm lucky enough to live in a city where recently a retro arcade just opened. Interestingly enough they do have After Burner, Ridge Racer, and OutRun. But knowing its backstory... finding a place like this is going to be rare. It actually took 2 hobbyists who restore game cabinets (a very expensive hobby) just renting some warehouse space to store the 50 or so machines they haven't sold yet or were loathe to part with and then deciding to decorate the place and open it to the public when the city revitalized the area into the existing nearby entertainment district. Its actually doing ok for now, but they have dumped so much time and money into the project there's no way they will ever make back everything they invested in it. Its basically open just to make some money and lower the cost of their hobby.

I've heard of places like this here and there in the U.S... Honestly these days just check Facebook. Most don't have the money to advertise and just try and get the word out on social media.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Maybe not what you're looking for but you can emulate most if not all arcade cabinets if you like.
 

Marik2

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Arnoxthe1 said:
Maybe not what you're looking for but you can emulate most if not all arcade cabinets if you like.
Really? I would like to emulate a couple of arcade cabinets that I never got to finish.
 

American Tanker

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Damn, I thought I'd never get responses to this.
NiGHTSJOD said:
Would be a fairly niche community I'd imagine. Perhaps Sega 16 forums or even the gamefaqs website would be a decent start. H2Overdrive should be easy enough to find seeing as it's by Raw Thrills (one of the few active players in the Arcade for western markets). Pretty much every decent sized game center, cinema or Dave & Busters-type place should have them. The trickier finds would be for older stuff. Daytona and other Sega racers are common enough but outside of those, light gun games, DDR and maybe some Street Fighter/Tekken variants, the search ramps up the difficulty big time.
Thanks for the advice, I'll look into them.
Kyrian007 said:
I'd imagine its not databased anywhere. I'm lucky enough to live in a city where recently a retro arcade just opened. Interestingly enough they do have After Burner, Ridge Racer, and OutRun. But knowing its backstory... finding a place like this is going to be rare. It actually took 2 hobbyists who restore game cabinets (a very expensive hobby) just renting some warehouse space to store the 50 or so machines they haven't sold yet or were loathe to part with and then deciding to decorate the place and open it to the public when the city revitalized the area into the existing nearby entertainment district. Its actually doing ok for now, but they have dumped so much time and money into the project there's no way they will ever make back everything they invested in it. Its basically open just to make some money and lower the cost of their hobby.

I've heard of places like this here and there in the U.S... Honestly these days just check Facebook. Most don't have the money to advertise and just try and get the word out on social media.
Ugh, FarceBook. Do I have to? If there's no other choice...

And don't get me started on Tw@tter, either.
Arnoxthe1 said:
Maybe not what you're looking for but you can emulate most if not all arcade cabinets if you like.
Yeah, maybe that's what I should look into. Just worried about making the games work with a wired 360 controller. I know about the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, or "MAME", and I wonder how difficult it would be to set up on my PC. Hopefully, I can get it set up and start playing some of those arcade games I want.[hr]And while I'm here, I suppose I might as well clarify the styles of games I'm after. I'm mostly interested in the racing games, hence the mentions of Daytona USA, OutRun, Hang-On, Ridge Racer, etc. etc. I'm also interested in scrolling shooters and additionally want to try After Burner.

But when it comes to fighting games and beat-em-ups, I honestly couldn't care less.
 

1L19

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Emulators are pretty easy to setup. You have a primary program and then you have the ROMS which are the actual games. Check this out:

https://lifehacker.com/5835259/how-to-turn-your-computer-into-a-retro-game-arcade

This is a fun article:

https://toddmoore.com/arcade/

As a side note for those pinball folks like me this is a fun app:

https://pinballmap.com/
 

NiGHTSJOD

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If you just straight up want to play arcade games, MAME is the way to go. There are other specific emulators too depending on the board the original game used. Nebula for Sega Model 2 (Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter II etc...), supermodeler for Model 3 (SCUD Race, Daytona USA 2, Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Fighter 3 etc...), Dolpic for Triforce (F-Zero AX, Mario Kart GP etc...)

Do keep in mind many have been ported rather well to a variety of consoles (most Cave shmups are on PS2 or 360), Sega Saturn/Dreamcast feature a nice bevvy of ports too. Even F-Zero AX is hidden away on the Gamecube F-Zero GX disc - available to play via pricey and specific versions of Action Replay/GameShark (or emulator of course).

Unless you want to play something that could only be done with specialist controllers you dont have (eg: Dance mats, Guns, Maracas), emulators and console ports are infinitely easier options than seeking out arcades which might have them.
 

American Tanker

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NiGHTSJOD said:
If you just straight up want to play arcade games, MAME is the way to go. There are other specific emulators too depending on the board the original game used. Nebula for Sega Model 2 (Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter II etc...), supermodeler for Model 3 (SCUD Race, Daytona USA 2, Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Fighter 3 etc...), Dolpic for Triforce (F-Zero AX, Mario Kart GP etc...)

Do keep in mind many have been ported rather well to a variety of consoles (most Cave shmups are on PS2 or 360), Sega Saturn/Dreamcast feature a nice bevvy of ports too. Even F-Zero AX is hidden away on the Gamecube F-Zero GX disc - available to play via pricey and specific versions of Action Replay/GameShark (or emulator of course).

Unless you want to play something that could only be done with specialist controllers you don't have (eg: Dance mats, Guns, Maracas), emulators and console ports are infinitely easier options than seeking out arcades which might have them.
Seeing as all of the ones I'm after are either racers or shmups, I guess I'm best off with emulation.[hr]EDIT: Okay, looks like I'm definitely downloading MAME in my near future: This same channel's got not only multiple Ridge Racer games running in MAME, but also a few I'd never heard of before like Cyber Cycles and Dirt Dash and Aqua Jet.
 

1L19

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NiGHTSJOD said:
Unless you want to play something that could only be done with specialist controllers you dont have (eg: Dance mats, Guns, Maracas), emulators and console ports are infinitely easier options than seeking out arcades which might have them.
100 bonus points for Maracas.
 

Frezzato

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Try poking around here as well:

Formerly the Killer List of Videogames [https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=18613].
 

Jeteye

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Emuparadise has a lot of roms available for almost everything:

https://www.emuparadise.me/roms-isos-games.php

Their catalog is broken up by machine so you may want to start there. They also have links to the necessary emulators and instruction on how to set them up.
 

American Tanker

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Jeteye said:
Emuparadise has a lot of roms available for almost everything:

https://www.emuparadise.me/roms-isos-games.php

Their catalog is broken up by machine so you may want to start there. They also have links to the necessary emulators and instruction on how to set them up.
Yeah, they're the website I used to get into emulation. I've only ever used PPSSPP, but EmuParadise is where I downloaded my handful of ISOs for it.
 

Marik2

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Arnoxthe1 said:
Marik2 said:
Really? I would like to emulate a couple of arcade cabinets that I never got to finish.
Which ones specifically?
The Lost World, Ocean Hunter, House of the Dead series, Time Crises series, and a couple of star wars arcade games.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Marik2 said:
The Lost World, Ocean Hunter, House of the Dead series, Time Crises series, and a couple of star wars arcade games.
Yeah, as said above, it looks like MAME is your best option.
 

American Tanker

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Frezzato said:
Try poking around here as well:

Formerly the Killer List of Videogames [https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=18613].
Unfortunately, while the site offers eBay listings for the cabinet, it DOESN'T offer location listings. Looks like I'm pretty SOL on finding H2Overdrive...
 

American Tanker

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Gauche said:
Ah, finally, thanks. That site's perfect.

Damn. Only two H2Overdrive machines in my state, and they're both over in the Atlanta area. I live in Augusta, on the South Carolina border, just for the record.