Believe me – I’d never promote the products of a company I hadn’t used and been happy with, but thankfully Arcade World is one I have, and so can!
Very occasionally the mechanical vending world crosses over with the electronic amusement one – as a result we’ve sometimes filled empty van space with a few chipboard monsters. Like the one below (sorry in advance for appalling photography!)
The cabinet was in reasonable condition but it was clear that years of smokers remorse at being bombed out of Metal Slug early in the first mission had caused them to ‘accidentally’ burn the buttons on more than one occasion.
The coin mech was hopelessly outdated. And it only played one game. Provided you didn’t need to move Joystick 1 left at any time.
Enter stage right; Arcade World. They are not the absolute cheapest – and postage isn’t ‘free’, but the prices are more than fair and to be honest some of the really cheap stuff you see on auction sites and similar is absolutely not of a commercial quality anyway, and definitely not recommended for anyone remotely serious about their gaming – this is especially true of buttons. That said, the cheapest buttons from AW are not bad at all. In fact, the machine above is fitted only with their cheapest own-brand buttons which are upgradable with any standard microswitch for a quality feel.
The joystick (too good to throw away) was re-sprung and re-switched which made it feel like new again. A multi game card replaced the JAMMA type system in place, but without having to change any of the wiring. In short, thanks to quick delivery of the rights parts, at the right time and at a decent price, we patched up and shipped off this machine within a very short period.
This led us to be even more creative sourcing and refurbishing old cabinets until space and time ran out – so whilst at the moment we’re firmly about mechanical vending and haven’t strayed back to this line of enterprise, a personal project has reminded me how much I could recommend AW as a one-stop, no-nonsense supplier.