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Yeah, obscure was the wrong word... 'alternative' would have been better.

Is there anything that's worth playing on the Supervision or Gamate? I always assumed their libraries were a bunch of poorly written clones of popular games?

I have one and I really like it.  (better than the Gizmondo )

The official games library is ok, but I was surprised how many great games were available for PalmOS. Early touch screen gaming with lots of predecessors to the best iPod genres. Unique touch screen puzzle games, RTS, and others.

If you're exploring obscure handhelds I'd start with the NGPC or N-Gage, but the Zodiac is worth a cheap buy too.

I have three cabs in my garage, a countertop Neo Geo knockoff in my bedroom (), and a supergun.

Everything was pretty cheap, but they definitely take some on-going maintenance and take up a lot of space... not just space for the cabs but I've ended up with dozens of arcade PCBs over the last few years. There are so many great games that either never had home versions or had sub-par home ports. Also MAME is never 100% accurate and, to me, if you're going to make the effort to play in a real cab you should be playing an original PCB instead of semi-accurate emulation.

My cabs are:
- 25" Capcom Dynamo... currently marqueed as X-Men vs SF. It's horizontal JAMMA with a 2P, 6 button control panel so I can use it with most horizontal PCBs.
- 19" Guerrilla War... wired for vertical JAMMA with either a 2P rotary stick control panel or a standard stick 2P 2 button control panel. I can swap the control panel in about 10 minutes.
- 13" Neo Geo countertop... Mostly for the kids and currently running a 20-in-1 multi-Taito PCB. (Bubble Bobble!)
- Millipede... non-working. Gradually buying/replacing parts as I can afford it.
 

Some collectors like having dedicated original cabs for arcade classics but I'm happy sticking a JAMMA converter on my non-JAMMA PCBs. I'd rather have versatile cabs that cover each genre.

Eventually I'd like to add a light gun cab, 25" vertical JAMMA cab (keep Guerrilla War as a dedicated rotary), hi-res cab for my Naomi/Atomiswave, and a 2P linked sit-down racer. Then my garcade would be complete... until I find some cheap pinball machines.

No emulators for me. They never play 100% accurate, the controller/display don't match the original platform, and the obsessive rom hoarding crowd are a disgrace.

I'll use MAME occasionally to sample an expensive PCB before buying but for consoles I stick with the real thing.

Mostly Atari for me. I started with an 800 and 410 tape drive, and my brother got an 800XL when those were released. I bought a C128 later too, but always used the Atari more.

Also, I'm in the USA, so most of these choices were rare or unknown here. A friend of mine loved his ZX81 though... until he saw my 800. Were Apple IIs popular in the UK?

I really like P.O.D. on the Gizmondo: POD: Point Of Destruction on Gizmondo

It's a trippy descendant of Targ, Millipede, and Space Invaders. If you like arcade classics, it's worth getting a cheap system just to play that game. I thought the rest of the library was very mediocre... some of the unreleased games were technically impressive, but I didn't find anything that held my interest.

I'd rather play the N-Gage.

Hi!
Another USA member (Boston area)... I joined RVG after getting Laird's invite. Thanks!

I've been obsessively playing/collecting videogames since the mid-70s. Stacks of plastic storage bins everywhere.

The Japanese Saturn is my all-time favorite console. (Dreamcast and Genesis are great too)

To me, the Japanese Saturn library is the pinnacle of 2D gaming with amazing games across all genres. esp. shmups and fighting games

I just bought several new Jap Saturn games this week!

Which games did you buy?

The Japanese Saturn is my all-time favorite console. (Dreamcast and Genesis are great too)

To me, the Japanese Saturn library is the pinnacle of 2D gaming with amazing games across all genres. esp. shmups and fighting games