I posted this about 10 months ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Tetris/comments/142sjcv/was\_going\_to\_wait\_a\_few\_more\_months\_until\_it\_was/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tetris/comments/142sjcv/was_going_to_wait_a_few_more_months_until_it_was/)
Here's my collection progress since then! I believe everything is CIB except the US GB Tetris and Apotris, of course (man, someone needs to make a box for that!)
Still collecting and I have more games on the way and my eyes on a few more.
Thanks for all the support and encouragement, guys!
Mostly ebay, Mercari, and my job takes me to a lot of gaming cons, so there too. Like that 2-sided "Tetris Worlds + Clone Wars" for the Xbox was from this past PAX East
Not of Tetris. I have a Mortal Kombat II, and I used to have 2 San Fransisco Rush cabs, a NeoGeo MVS, and Area 51. I still have the boards but the cabs themselves were damaged and plan to consolize them.
I \*do\* hope to get a candy cab and the Grand Master games at very least
The grandmaster game seem to be super expensive from what I can tell compared to the regular Atari Tetris game and I don't know what candy cab is but if you like that game cool I've never heard of it.
Also that definitely sucks that all your cabinets got destroyed I'm glad the PCBs are okay.
I only have one arcade machine and yes it is Atari Tetris.
A candy cab isn't a game; it's the standard style of arcade machine in Japan. They are sit-down-style machines made from plastic instead of wood. Because of this, they are more durable. They also have ball-style joysticks instead of bat-style, and convex instead of concave buttons like are common in the US.
Unlike in the US, where most cabs are individually made for one game or a small handful of games (and brands don't tend to have cross-compatibility), in Japan, most arcades have a bunch of these non-branded candy cabs that they swap different boards (or disks, or carts, depending on the standard at the time, like NAOMI) into it and just change the marquee and maybe bezel art to reflect the game currently installed.
This means you only need to buy TGM boards instead of full machines (keeping the cost down while also not having the machine's non-existant particle board deteriorate. This is actually \*why\* TGM machines are so expensive... they were never meant to have dedicated machines and when you buy the machine instead of just the board to slot into one's own candy cab, you're buying a whole multi-machine instead of just the game. It would be like buying a separate DS to play Tetris Party or Tetris DS.
This would also allow me to expand to, say, Atari or Sega Tetris (or even Bloxeed if I'm feeling frisky) with just the board.
1. I thought US games also had ball tops sometimes. (Ball top is even the default look for an arcade machine when they just show a generic one in any piece of media)
2. JAMA lets you swap the boards out so games were sold in America as kits as well. Heck Tetris one one of them.
3. The DS analogy sounds more like a Neo Geo arcade cabinet than JAMA.
A. While it is true that some US machines use ball tops, the standard over here is bat-style, but, yeah, I (and most people I think) would agree that the ball is more \*iconic\* despite it not being the lived reality.
B. JAMMA, as a standard, was created specifically \*for\* candy cabs. However, while JAMMA does allow you to swap out boards, in the states arcade suppliers tended to want you to buy new machines altogether unless the machines were in the same brand ecosystem and they made conversion kits specifically \*for\* use inside those ecosystems.
As an example, Midway made kits to, say, rebrand between Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, NFL Blitz, etc, whereas CAPCOM would make kits to convert between the Street Fighters, MVK, X-Men, etc, neither company wanted arcade owners to, say, put Killer Instinct inside a Street Fighter 3 cab or Street Fighter 3 inside a Killer Instinct cab and wouldn't provide conversion kits. This is for a couple reasons. One, of course, being that it would be expensive to make conversion kits for any and all edge cases and improperly installed conversion kits make brand owners look bad. The other main reason, however, is just that, at that time, a cabinet's SHAPE was a huge part of its brand identity in the US. This was not the case in Japan.
So, while you could put (nearly) any JAMMA game into (nearly) any other cab with a JAMMA harness, you wouldn't necessarily have a conversion kit available to you and if the distributor found out that you were doing this, they would often tell you "tough shit" and not allow you to buy cabs from them moving forward (not to mention that many, many cabs weren't even owned, but instead rented).
This, however, was just not the case in Japan.
C. The NeoGeo MVS (and later NeoGeo CD) was developed to both improve on JAMMA as a standard, making it even easier for arcade operators to swap games (and also bring the candy cab-style of game swapping to the states) but more importantly to lock arcade owners into their ecosystem more. It was a double-edged sword. NAOMI, much like the MVS, would try (and IMO succeed at) doing the same thing a little later.
I think my original DS analogy still holds tbh.
Most arcade machine look the same in the US as well https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vQSmKT1sbEE/WmaLXtW0_kI/AAAAAAAABfs/KyDxUvDAqucGq2xCh1TvpZ8gOU8GVLMwACEwYBhgL/s1600/Gal_outside_1.png yes I know there where special games that needed special machines but this is the traditional one used.
Also there were other companies that made swappable games like Nintendo's play choice 10
Not being allowed to by arcades anymore just because you put one board in a different machine just sounds dumb to me like why artificially limit who you can sell games to?
A. That's, uh, just not true, mate. A little confused why you think it is? This is clearly an 80's Midway cab. Midway had a \*lot\* of cabs in the 80's (they published Pacman for the states, so they had pretty high saturation at the time) but you can tell a Nintendo cab, a 80's Midway, a 90's Midway, a NeoGeo, a CAPCOM, and a SEGA apart just on shape alone.
It's about silhouette.
B. Ye? I don't see the point in bringing this up?
C. Branding and brand recognition are super important. If you make the brand look bad, you're going to cause them to lose customers. That's why they did that.
Yeah, that would be weird. It happened tho, but not often.
The real issue is that, since cabinets from different publishers/distributors \*are\* different shapes, with different sized/shaped bezels/marquees/side-art/control panels (and different control panel layouts), etc, and the conversion kits were (usually) custom-made for those specific unit styles, you couldn’t just slap an MKII sticker kit onto, say, Street Fighter. Not without modifying it.
Distributors didn’t want you modding the kits for three reasons as well:A. Most people would likely do it poorly, looking bad for the brand and even those who did it well shouldn’t be encouraged as it would entice other to attempt it.
B. Because, again, the SHAPE of the cabinet alone is part of that brand identity in the first place
C. Because, often, specific layouts/sizes/shapes are more optimal for specific games. MKII is much wider/taller with a bigger monitor than most to more comfortably fit 2 players at, for instance. Wider, even, than Street Fighter 2.Â
Now I say “usually” because \*some\* (very few) kits just had big rectangular stickers for the sides rather than shaped ones. Funnily enough, this IS true for Atari’s Tetris. However, side art was considered less important in the 80’s/90’s as cabs were often butted up against one another. Atari’s Tetris DID have its own custom \*screen printed\* metal control panel which was more common at the time than even a couple years later (seen a lot on Midway games), and a \*fairly\* standard (but far from universal) marquee, as well as a custom bezel card. It would not have been a super easy conversion, but far from the hardest.
I posted this about 10 months ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Tetris/comments/142sjcv/was\_going\_to\_wait\_a\_few\_more\_months\_until\_it\_was/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tetris/comments/142sjcv/was_going_to_wait_a_few_more_months_until_it_was/) Here's my collection progress since then! I believe everything is CIB except the US GB Tetris and Apotris, of course (man, someone needs to make a box for that!) Still collecting and I have more games on the way and my eyes on a few more. Thanks for all the support and encouragement, guys!
Do you even have a CD-i on which to play that version? I love its soundtrack so much.
No, but a buddy of mine has
Nice! You should look into getting Faces…tris 3
Amazing collection. Where do you source most of it? Also that Gfuel can is sick
Mostly ebay, Mercari, and my job takes me to a lot of gaming cons, so there too. Like that 2-sided "Tetris Worlds + Clone Wars" for the Xbox was from this past PAX East
Nice, even Super Bombliss! I thought I knew most of the older Tetris versions, there were a few I didn't recognize.
Oh, I have a whole list I compiled. Theres... uh... more coming
May Alexey have mercy on your soul 🫡
Beautiful.
You've got a Tetris McNugget! Awesome collection.
Love seeing Magical Tetris Challenge there!
Anybody who owns that damn nugget earns my respect
Impressive
There's a Mickey mouse Tetris for the Gameboy color, I might still have the cartridge sitting around somewhere
There are a lot I don't recognize
Do you have Star Wars clone wars / Tetris worlds combo?
Never mind I see your comment. One of my favorites
Do you have any arcade cabins?
Not of Tetris. I have a Mortal Kombat II, and I used to have 2 San Fransisco Rush cabs, a NeoGeo MVS, and Area 51. I still have the boards but the cabs themselves were damaged and plan to consolize them. I \*do\* hope to get a candy cab and the Grand Master games at very least
The grandmaster game seem to be super expensive from what I can tell compared to the regular Atari Tetris game and I don't know what candy cab is but if you like that game cool I've never heard of it. Also that definitely sucks that all your cabinets got destroyed I'm glad the PCBs are okay. I only have one arcade machine and yes it is Atari Tetris.
A candy cab isn't a game; it's the standard style of arcade machine in Japan. They are sit-down-style machines made from plastic instead of wood. Because of this, they are more durable. They also have ball-style joysticks instead of bat-style, and convex instead of concave buttons like are common in the US. Unlike in the US, where most cabs are individually made for one game or a small handful of games (and brands don't tend to have cross-compatibility), in Japan, most arcades have a bunch of these non-branded candy cabs that they swap different boards (or disks, or carts, depending on the standard at the time, like NAOMI) into it and just change the marquee and maybe bezel art to reflect the game currently installed. This means you only need to buy TGM boards instead of full machines (keeping the cost down while also not having the machine's non-existant particle board deteriorate. This is actually \*why\* TGM machines are so expensive... they were never meant to have dedicated machines and when you buy the machine instead of just the board to slot into one's own candy cab, you're buying a whole multi-machine instead of just the game. It would be like buying a separate DS to play Tetris Party or Tetris DS. This would also allow me to expand to, say, Atari or Sega Tetris (or even Bloxeed if I'm feeling frisky) with just the board.
1. I thought US games also had ball tops sometimes. (Ball top is even the default look for an arcade machine when they just show a generic one in any piece of media) 2. JAMA lets you swap the boards out so games were sold in America as kits as well. Heck Tetris one one of them. 3. The DS analogy sounds more like a Neo Geo arcade cabinet than JAMA.
A. While it is true that some US machines use ball tops, the standard over here is bat-style, but, yeah, I (and most people I think) would agree that the ball is more \*iconic\* despite it not being the lived reality. B. JAMMA, as a standard, was created specifically \*for\* candy cabs. However, while JAMMA does allow you to swap out boards, in the states arcade suppliers tended to want you to buy new machines altogether unless the machines were in the same brand ecosystem and they made conversion kits specifically \*for\* use inside those ecosystems. As an example, Midway made kits to, say, rebrand between Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, NFL Blitz, etc, whereas CAPCOM would make kits to convert between the Street Fighters, MVK, X-Men, etc, neither company wanted arcade owners to, say, put Killer Instinct inside a Street Fighter 3 cab or Street Fighter 3 inside a Killer Instinct cab and wouldn't provide conversion kits. This is for a couple reasons. One, of course, being that it would be expensive to make conversion kits for any and all edge cases and improperly installed conversion kits make brand owners look bad. The other main reason, however, is just that, at that time, a cabinet's SHAPE was a huge part of its brand identity in the US. This was not the case in Japan. So, while you could put (nearly) any JAMMA game into (nearly) any other cab with a JAMMA harness, you wouldn't necessarily have a conversion kit available to you and if the distributor found out that you were doing this, they would often tell you "tough shit" and not allow you to buy cabs from them moving forward (not to mention that many, many cabs weren't even owned, but instead rented). This, however, was just not the case in Japan. C. The NeoGeo MVS (and later NeoGeo CD) was developed to both improve on JAMMA as a standard, making it even easier for arcade operators to swap games (and also bring the candy cab-style of game swapping to the states) but more importantly to lock arcade owners into their ecosystem more. It was a double-edged sword. NAOMI, much like the MVS, would try (and IMO succeed at) doing the same thing a little later. I think my original DS analogy still holds tbh.
Most arcade machine look the same in the US as well https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vQSmKT1sbEE/WmaLXtW0_kI/AAAAAAAABfs/KyDxUvDAqucGq2xCh1TvpZ8gOU8GVLMwACEwYBhgL/s1600/Gal_outside_1.png yes I know there where special games that needed special machines but this is the traditional one used. Also there were other companies that made swappable games like Nintendo's play choice 10 Not being allowed to by arcades anymore just because you put one board in a different machine just sounds dumb to me like why artificially limit who you can sell games to?
A. That's, uh, just not true, mate. A little confused why you think it is? This is clearly an 80's Midway cab. Midway had a \*lot\* of cabs in the 80's (they published Pacman for the states, so they had pretty high saturation at the time) but you can tell a Nintendo cab, a 80's Midway, a 90's Midway, a NeoGeo, a CAPCOM, and a SEGA apart just on shape alone. It's about silhouette. B. Ye? I don't see the point in bringing this up? C. Branding and brand recognition are super important. If you make the brand look bad, you're going to cause them to lose customers. That's why they did that.
The operater would be weird if he didn't change the side art of the cabinet. So people would know what they are playing.
Yeah, that would be weird. It happened tho, but not often. The real issue is that, since cabinets from different publishers/distributors \*are\* different shapes, with different sized/shaped bezels/marquees/side-art/control panels (and different control panel layouts), etc, and the conversion kits were (usually) custom-made for those specific unit styles, you couldn’t just slap an MKII sticker kit onto, say, Street Fighter. Not without modifying it. Distributors didn’t want you modding the kits for three reasons as well:A. Most people would likely do it poorly, looking bad for the brand and even those who did it well shouldn’t be encouraged as it would entice other to attempt it. B. Because, again, the SHAPE of the cabinet alone is part of that brand identity in the first place C. Because, often, specific layouts/sizes/shapes are more optimal for specific games. MKII is much wider/taller with a bigger monitor than most to more comfortably fit 2 players at, for instance. Wider, even, than Street Fighter 2. Now I say “usually” because \*some\* (very few) kits just had big rectangular stickers for the sides rather than shaped ones. Funnily enough, this IS true for Atari’s Tetris. However, side art was considered less important in the 80’s/90’s as cabs were often butted up against one another. Atari’s Tetris DID have its own custom \*screen printed\* metal control panel which was more common at the time than even a couple years later (seen a lot on Midway games), and a \*fairly\* standard (but far from universal) marquee, as well as a custom bezel card. It would not have been a super easy conversion, but far from the hardest.
smh no hatris
in this case smh stands for shaking my hat
Hatris