Why buy a board when you can mame??

[Ex_Mosquito]

Not necessarily the case. When I used to rinse GroovyMame I had in mind what game I wanted to play beforehand and then played it until I 1cc'd it. Personally my habits were no different from when I had loads of PCBs.

Its like going to the pub on a Friday night with £200 in your pocket, you've just gotta know when to stop, get food, and have an early night..

I can understand wanting to collect console games (Japanese 8/16-bit especially) but pcbs are just so ugly and fail like a mother-crusher

[stellarola]

my vision of it :

Boards :

switch on --> play ---> loose ---> retry --> enjoy to get better and finally 1cc the game.

Mame:
Switch on --> wait ----> (try to) select a game ---> play ---> loose ----> (try to) select another game ---> loose ---> (try to) select another game ---> switch off.

It's easy to justify spending copious amounts of cash on PCBs with that flowchart. The emulation is 99.9% true to form experience with a *proper* MAME setup. Results may vary if you don't know how to set it up correctly.

I've used both (PCB original and GroovyMAME *proper*). It's so spot on, it hurts the brain...but not the wallet. At this point the developers aren't making or losing money on these games since this hobby is so damn niche. All the money is just going from collector to collector...or worse case, flippers. Why mess with flippers when you can just load the game up and have a good time?

I could gush about how much I love MAME/GroovyMAME, but you really have to see for yourself. Maybe I'll do a video on this subject...

[grendelrt]

I am in the "why not both" camp. Just finished a hyperspin setup (groovy Mame for mame) that has been blowing my mind on how good it feels. I will still keep all my neo, cps2, and Naomi setups though. I know they are 100% accurate and love that original hardware. I went with hyperspin for space reasons and console emulation (thunder force, gates of Thunder, etc on my cabinet!).

[cRacKh0rN]

Yes, similar to you.

I have STV and Gnet boards, along with my favourite Cave titles and Donkey Kong.
STV games don't run well on my PC so they are keepers (for now).
I am slowly selling the other stuff I own for two reasons: 1 they are nigh on the identical on Groovy and 2, they take up to much space

[pubjoe]

This is by no means a pro-pcb argument. Just an example of stupid psychology, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one.

I like to coin up. Playing on freeplay is a bit like playing pool without the satisfying clunking and rolling of a pub table mech.

When I have a real board connected, inserting a coin feels like a perfectly natural and reasonable thing to do. With Mame, it feels stupid. In fact I'm not sure I've ever bothered coining Mame.

[cools]

And the inevitable having to lift and drop the table when a ball gets stuck.

[pubjoe]

All part of the fun.

[ArcadeSTG]

I have a cutting edge setup for emulation installed in a cab (which include ultra fast boot up and accuracy) and a lot of days I consider to get rid of it and install the real thing.

So far I have failed to achieve an emulation free game room because emulation is a great library of games, but this emulation free game room is one of my goals.

After all, installing a game in a cab is part of the arcade spirit, and emulations miss this step.

[TadCool]

If you really love a game, go and get the board. The 'real thing' will always be better for one reason or another; accuracy, feeling, whatever. Personally, I use mame a lot for testing waters, but I never take it too serious as, for me, in the end it always feels different than the real board - here enters subjectivity, so...

...but, I think it's kinda pointless to choose between the real thing and emulation. I like to get the best of both worlds. When you have a non-gamer crowd to entertain, a mame setup does wonders as you can jump from one game to another in seconds and you have something to offer to everyone.

Now, for me alone or with gamer buds, real boards and nothing else. Pretty much the same deal with game consoles.

When you're fan, it's hard to settle with anything else if not original stuff - and I'm not talking just about games, this goes for comics, music, anything.

So, to summarize, I'm pretty sure I must have a problem.

[STK]

After all, installing a game in a cab is part of the arcade spirit, and emulations miss this step.

Exactly!