What are the best ways to find old arcade games and pinball machines?
If you restore, try getting in good with a local arcade owner and asking about his distributor. It’s a crapshoot whether those guys will give you time or not, but if you’re gonna spend a few hundred bucks or more minimal, they’ve likely got a number of machines that don’t quite work right, or boards without cabinets, cabinets without boards, or even loose parts. Personal advice, you can’t go wrong with obtaining an SNK cabinet, especially in good condition. You can get 1, 2, or 4 game slots in them for easy swapping without opening the system up, and the hardware has aged very gracefully. They’re also common enough that you can get one in decent condition, possibly with a common game board or two, for only $250-300. You also might do well with perusing MAME sites. While MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) itself is dubious in legality, most enthusiasts are very interested in the actual hardware itself and could advise you on where to go for very specific items. Also, look around fo
