MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Are these real dedicated cabinets?

> But for real, I wonder how much a cabinet like this one would go for on the market?

*shrug* hard to say. There's no real precedent for a NORK arcade cabinet turning up on eBay or similar, so it's probably worth whatever the market is willing to pay. That said, see following comments for more on that:

> (If someone, somehow, was able to smuggle it out of that country. If it's one of the
> few arcade machines that country has, it may be looked upon as a crime by their
> government, falling under the law "acts hostile to the country." I bet there would be
> a few arcade collectors that would like to get their hands on an ultra rare cabinet
> like this one.

Except that looking at the periscope mechanism and kick panel art on the submarine game as well as the sideart on the cowboy game, they look to be re-marqueed Japanese, American, or European cabinets. In fact, IIRC, the same site that has those photos also has photos of candy cabs that have received the same treatment.

Thinking about it, it's not totally dissimilar to the ex-East German subway trains and knockoff Mecedes-Benzes in use there.

Back to how it relates to the value of a NORK cabinet coming up for sale anywhere else in the world, though... Personally, I wouldn't pay very much for one, given that they look to be butchered games in poor-to-moderate (at best) shape. Sure, they'd have significance for being ex-DPRK, but so is Vinalon, and Vinalon is awful.

The ex-Soviet games are interesting because they adapted the (more-or-less) ZX Spectrum out to arcade usage, Poly-Play is notable for being indigenously East German, and Cuba cranks out good cigars. But there's just not much coming out of the DPRK that's worth much beyond being a curiosity, which is what these games are.

Hell, I could probably have a couple of Korean-speaking friends help me fake a marquee, stick it on a beat-to-crap cabinet with a semi-functional game in it, and have a 'genuine' North Korean relic on eBay inside of half of an afternoon.

Edited by casm (09/23/14 07:12 AM)