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Has anyone delt with Shaffer Distribution before? I'm trying to contact them to see the cost of a new machine, if they have Zero, and how much shipping would be for the machine shipped to Louisville. So far, I've had no luck If you know anything I don't about them, that'd be great. Is there anyplace else to get it from (besides coinopexpress and channelbeat, they're both overseas )

If Shaffer is still being sketchy, I would highly suggest contacting Andamiro USA about finding another ditributor in the area or one that's as close as possible where you can get a Zero dedicab. Another route is to contact Arturo on Pumphaven, but I'd highly suggest AM USA first.

I've heard some odd things about Shaffer before, but I wouldn't think they'd be this inept for someone that's wanting to spend several thousand dollars on a brand new machine for them.

Shaffer's primary business doesn't seem to be traditional video arcade distribution, despite them being the sole distributor for Andamiro in the area. Apparently, they spend most of their time putting video card game machines in bars. They also appear to be more interested the the (probably more lucrative) revenue sharing area, rather than outright selling new machines.

There are two distributors in Chicago who may be willing to help you out, and possibly get you a better price. Betson is actually one, and I cannot for the life of me remember the other one. I'm wanting to say American Amusement, but I can't remember for sure, and their website appears to be down for the moment (and they don't allow google to cache it apparently...). I dealt with them entirely over the phone. Tad Mauro is the person to talk to at Betson.

Another option would be to go to ASI and talk to Andamiro directly or possibly call up Satinder Bhutani at AM directly. They seem to be very helpful with this kind of thing, which I guess makes sense given that they want to sell their products.

shaffers does not sell games unless operators buy out of their contract. they make most their money through the golden tea circuit.

Thank you all for the input. I just don't see why Shaffer wouldn't want to sell it to me. I'm paying CASH. Oh well, I talked to the manager at Renaissance Fun Park (an arcade in Louisville). He said that he'd call up Shaffer the next time I'm at the Park on a weekday (they're his main distributor for that arcade and possibly some of his others). Maybe, I'll be buying through him. He had a GX machine for sale. But 1) he already sold it and 2) I was hoping for a Zero dedicab so I wouldn't have to upgrade the whole machine from an MK5 to an MK6 (the machine for sale was an Exceed GX).

sam wrote:shaffers does not sell games unless operators buy out of their contract. they make most their money through the golden tea circuit.

Shaffer most definately DOES sell games outright for cash. Brian and I were discussing just such a deal with them at one point. However, their focus seems to be on revenue sharing and locking people into contracts. I'm sure that makes more money.

According to Andamiro, Zero *will* run on a MK5. I've heard conflicting reports of how well it runs, but the official line I got from an Andamiro distributor was that it would run. Also, many newer Exceed 2 machines will have an MK6 already, so that would not be an issue. Besides, it's just a PC. You could easily build yourself an MK6 for a whole lot less than they sell them for :)

It's not so much that I NEED to upgrade to MK6 status as it is I WANT to. If I'm already dishing out several thousands of dollars, might as well get the best I can.

MonMotha wrote:You could easily build yourself an MK6 for a whole lot less than they sell them for

Hmm... If I knew how the pads hooked up to the PC, I'd probably do that (just because I could). I've been wanting to upgrade for a while now anyway. I'm guessing the pads are just USB/USB equivalent. The FrankenMK would be an Athlon64 3000+ with a Radeon 9600XT.

You'd need one of their IO boards, but I'm pretty sure the IO board is the same in both MK5 and MK6, so upgrading on your own would not be a problem. The IO board is USB based, but the stages themselves don't come equipped with USB connectors of their own. They have a CPLD based board in each half (much like DDR) that muxes everything onto another harness that hooks up to the IO board on the side of the system unit.

Your replacement unit would have the be very similar to theirs. Amongst a few other things, it ABSOLUTELY MUST have an nVidia FX5000 series (or better, presumably) video card. ATI cards will not work. You'd also have to find a half-height card to make it fit in the box. The easiest thing to do would probably be to match their unit exactly. The board is a GigaByte board (I can get you the model # if you need it) with a P4 based Celeron.

Chances are that any machine you buy with Exceed 2 that wasn't upgraded from Exceed will probably have an MK6. Both machines I've seen running x2 have had the MK6 already.

The price I was quoted by Shaffer last June was $6,500 plus shipping and tax. This was for Exceed 2, but I would guess that Zero is probably comparable. The shipping estimate was $400. You might be able to skip the tax since you'd be an out-of-state purchaser. Although if Shaffer has any presence in KY, you'd likely be out of luck in that regard. the sales contact at Shaffer is Tim Dwyer.

Shaffer will definitely sell to you, but they definitely seem more setup to deal with businesses than individuals. Although I imagine that's probably not uncommon in this industry given that most of their customers aren't going to be individuals.

As you know, I didn't end up buying a machine from Shaffer since I found an excellent deal on eBay, but I have ordered parts from Shaffer. Though I had to explain to their parts manager twice that they were the Andamiro distributor. The other people I spoke to over there seemed better informed though. Whatever...

Anymore questions? Just ask.

Could you get me the model # on the Gigabyte board? If I can find some used parts, I may try this route. Since it's just a PC and I can't let that 34" plasma be just for PIU, I'd love to try something like putting a Windows HDD in there and run a game like UT2k4. I'd find a way to swap out drives easily before I do that though.

It's not a plasma. It's a giant CRT, and Windows may have some trouble talking to it. XP doesn't like to go below 800x600 without coaxing, but the monitor (at least the older GX models, not sure about the new "OMG THAT'S FREAKING HUGE" flat CRTs) absolutely requires 640x480@60Hz (it is progressive, though). Hardly a high-res monitor by computer standards.

It would probably be easiest to just sit another computer next to the cabinet rather than use their system unit. Swapping hard drives on the thing is far from a trivial exercise mechanically, and the way their pump images are set up, they won't cooperate at all with Windows on the same HDD (then again, Windows doesn't like to cooperate with anything, so that's not surprising). Their machine isn't particularly powerful as far as running FPSs goes, either. It has a paltry 256MB of RAM, a 1.6GHz (IIRC) Celeron, and an FX5200 (which, while decent, is far from fast). It isn't really built for running the memory hog that is Windows.

Go ahead and figure out what kind of board you'll be getting. If it's a new machine, it should come with an MK6 and you won't need to bother with anything. Only old Exceed and very early Exceed 2 machines should have MK5s in them it seems. I can't easily just go look up the model number on the motherboard as that requires taking apart the system unit, which is at the Ho-house, and requires a decent bit of time to do. Besides, and MK5 will run Zero anyway, and why spend money on something you don't need when the next version of Pump may require something new anyway?

From what I understand, the MK6 is upgradable (at least in memory). Also, it's kind of a present to myself for going through hell, quite literally. The woman who hit my car is paying for it, not me

I got an email from Brady Distributing today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for your inquiry regarding our arcade equipment. Below are the prices for the items you selected:

Pump It Up $7299
Zero kit $1099

We are out of the GX with the Exceed software. I believe the next batch of Pump it ups already have the Zero software installed.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Thank You,

Paul Burk
Brady Distributing

Unless that's including shipping and taxes, they seem to have marked it up quite a bit.

I thought the same thing. I emailed them back and asked about the shipping.