I have a (close to being) restored Upright TRON game.  I have the TRON boards, but recently saw that TRON was also available on a MAME format.  Not sure if this is true, since I have never heard of a TRON on a MAME before, but a website I saw said it was??????  If this is true, I thought I could just sell the TRON boards and make a MAME for the cab... after all it's for my kids to play on.

Anyway,  I would like to hire someone you build me a MAME system with a TRON game in it, to place in my TRON upright cabinet.

Anyone interested?  What kind of price would I be looking at? thanks.

here is prof its out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjK0koSjbAI

Tron has been available through Mame for a long time, but the problem is accuracy of the controls.  I may be remembering this incorrectly but I believe Tron used some kind of a special restrictor that made it both a cool eight way trigger stick but still allows 4 way type accuracy for the bike stage.  So if you want to run it accurately, you'll need a dedicated trigger stick setup with a restrictor set up in the same way as the original game.

That's not to say that tron wouldn't be fun with an alternate control method, just ensuring you understand there is a difference between a dedicated Tron cab and Tron running in Mame.

Oh and if you do go ahead, make sure you don't speak of your conversion on arcadecontrols.com. They will go nuts if they hear you're converting an existing Tron cabinet into a mame (unless you do so where it can be reversed back into a Tron, then they'd sing your praise ).  Whatever you decide, good luck with the project.

It's none of my business, but it would seem a real shame to take
a complete working Tron and make it into a MAME.

It also depends on what you want...

If you only want to play Tron, why bother with MAME ?
(...and like Loafer said, many emulated games just don't play exactly the same as the originals )

If you want to play other games in MAME,  a TRON cabinet might not be the easiest cab to convert
(...lots of CP hacks ).

If it were me, I'd keep the Tron in its original form, and build a MAME game in another cab.
If space or money is tight, and you really want a MAME, you should be able to easily trade
a fully working TRON for a fully-working MAME.

...but that's just me !  

Cheers,
Steph

I seem to recall another post of someone with a Tron cab awhile back - and they had nothing but headaches with it.  And surprisingly enough, some of the senior members recommended converting it to a MAME that played only Tron.

If the guy wants to play Tron in something that looks like a dedicated Tron with few hassles....sounds like a good option to me.

A twenty seven year old Tron could only be a continuous investment, while a PC with MAME and Tron would be a quick swap if you ever had get it up and running after any type of failure.

Guess it depends on if you "need" an original, or just want the damned thing to play when you turn it on.

Eastside

My opinion? If it works, leave it as-is. But once the boards decide to go wonky, sell them off for parts, get a cheap computer and convert your Tron to a MAME dedicated to Tron and maybe Discs of Tron (with the necessary mods of course, if you can find a push-pull spinner).

I have the same dilemna with my very nice Crystal Castles cocktail. Boards are fried and REALLY tough to fix (same as Pole Position format... ouch). I am converting it to MAME but leaving all the exterior as-is. All I will do is put in games that work with the present controls and configuration.

I know it sucks to say to convert it... but value-wise, a nice working Tron has a good value, but a dead one is worth nothing. Best to convert it then... not before.