tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5149981118460481762024-02-20T16:45:19.856-07:00Arcade-RevivalClassic Arcade Game & Pinball Collecting and Restoration.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-19066660357780278272010-12-11T11:18:00.005-07:002010-12-26T21:11:27.095-07:00Tron's Legacy.As the end of the year rapidly approaches, and as we find ourselves inundated with the onslaught of red and green stuff in stores, and as the angry Winter storms line up on the horizon to take turns reminding us that it's too late to rattle-can coin doors in the back yard, and as a little movie by Disney that is the sequel to another little movie you may or may not have heard of is about to hit the theaters, it's time to think about a little word called legacy.<br />
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I look back at the past year and wonder where it went and what I have to show for it arcade-wise. Did I spend it wisely ? Did I pad my own arcade-legacy ? Do I even have one ? Will I ever have one ? Do you have one ? Does anyone even care ? I did manage to buy and repair more games and circuit boards and monitor chassis than I can dare to remember. Fought the good fight against parting out games. Met some new collectors and old collectors and probably made a few new enemies as well. The work of an arcade preservationist is never done. <br />
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And what about the legacies of those we lost ? Halfway through this past year, I said my goodbyes to my faithful furry companion of nearly 12 years. He was always there waiting for my return and watching me work on the games I would bring home, waiting patiently for me to finish and then take him for a run. Can a dog have a legacy ? Even if it only matters to one person ? I say sure, why not. He probably did more to make me a better person than most humans ever will. A dog will keep you honest. You just can't lie to your dog. He knows exactly how you feel at every second of every day. You know exactly how he feels of every second of every day. I guess we are even in that regard. But dogs have us in spades when it comes to love and forgiveness and loyalty. That is every dog's legacy. Loyalty is a quality that is lost on a lot of arcade game owners ( I hate referring to the owners that part out and smash games as collectors). I just could never understand how someone can turn on one of their games so quickly and strip it down and sell off the parts. I think you can tell a lot about a person by how he treats his dog or his arcade games. <br />
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And what about the legacy that most of us are currently concerned with, the movie Tron Legacy. Will it have any kind of lasting effect on the hobby of arcade game collecting ? Will it inspire a new generation of collectors ? Will it appeal to the general populace ? Or just the quarter and card-carrying nerds that loved the original Tron. It would be a shame if the effort Disney has put into this movie is wasted. Wouldn't it be great if just like the suit at Disney that woke up one day and thought about bringing Tron back and making a sequel, the hack game owners could watch the movie and wake up and want to bring back arcade games ?<br />
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One can only hope that the memories brought back by seeing Tron and Flynn's arcade on the big screen again will transcend greed and easy money and motivate these arcade game owners to stop the madness. It would be as though a spell that had been cast over these lost souls is suddenly broken. They look down at the sledge hammer in their hand and then at the game that was about to get vaporized and would wonder what had come over them. Maybe the movie will create a higher demand for classic arcade games in complete and working condition and in turn cause the market value of the games to increase. This would make it a lot less lucrative to sell the machines in pieces. Can one movie do all that ? Never underestimate the power of a little Disney magic. This could be and should be Tron's legacy.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-3548385333555847362010-10-16T11:30:00.000-06:002010-10-16T11:30:40.700-06:00Travels, Tribulations, and Triumphs.It's been far too long since I have been able to find the time to come on here and spell out the gory details of my latest arcade related finds, repairs and adventures. The good news is, while I may have neglected my blog, I have not neglected my mission to save and restore games. So without boring everyone to death too much, I figured I would do a little "cheat sheet" version and fill you in on my arcade travels, tribulations, and triumphs over the past few months. <br />
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Since we last met, I have stood in just about every major city on the West Coast. I picked up games in the Seattle, Sacramento and San Francisco areas ( Boot Hill, Super Hang On and Atari Video Pinball ) and dropped off games in Norcal and Socal ( Tron and Warrior ). A quick thanks to all of those involved in those deals and there will be more on that later. I also dropped in on my tech, mentor and (most importantly) my friend Tom who is recovering from a potentially life saving surgery. Get well soon Tom.<br />
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I met up with some collector friends and some old friends along the way, met an operator and checked out his warehouse, and took in some sights too. Winchester Mystery House, Disneyland, Seattle Space Needle and the Hollywood "Walk of Fame" were nice breaks in between long sessions at the wheel and showed that you can mix arcade business with pleasure.<br />
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While back at the fort it was business as usual. My Gravitar is almost ready for prime time, a couple more Amplifone HV boards have had their death sentences commuted and are now fully functioning members of society, and 2 games belonging to other arcade enthusiasts have been revived. A Star Wars arcade that sat idle for 17 years has been ressurected after I rebuilt the WG K6100 in it and a Crystal Castles is back amongst the living. A Centipede cocktail table was restored and now has a new home. It's honestly just as satisfying fixing a game for someone else as it is fixing my own. Sometimes it's even better. <br />
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So there it is. My summer of arcade love all wrapped up in one neat little post. Nothing like an old-school-arcade-infested walkabout to cleanse the toxins left behind by 5 day work weeks and everyday obligations.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-53343593045674405532010-06-19T10:34:00.001-06:002010-06-19T10:36:00.562-06:00Tempest : Act IIIAfter buying and selling a few Tempests over the years and then regretting it every time, I know that this machine will never escape my clutches. With that in mind, I decided to go one step further with this Tempest in the way of a monitor transplant. This machine is certainly clean enough and being an early artwork model I deemed it worthy enough to be fitted with an Amplifone . I hauled the game into the laboratory to get a little "Mad Scientist" on it one last time. <br />
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I removed the WG K6100 and began putting the Amplifone pieces in place. The Amplifone high voltage board was rebuilt and upgraded as was the deflection board. This high voltage board was missing the brightness/focus assembly so I "borrowed" an assembly from an Electrohome G07 chassis. I was in uncharted waters with this focus assembly and would have to just hope for the best.<br />
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I had to disable the pin cushion correction circuit on the motherboard so the picture would look right on the screen. After following the steps outlined on the link at Ionpool.net the game was ready for a test. I powered on the game and everything worked like a charm, even the G07 focus assembly. The original mounting blocks give it a factory look and I am really happy with the outcome.<br />
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<a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/P1020955.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1020955.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
<a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/P1020950.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1020950.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/P1020948.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1020948.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
<a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/P1020967.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1020967.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
</center><br />
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The elements that brought this machine into my possession and the state that it is in now were some of the most satisfying experiences I have known in this hobby. The road trip to get the machine, the rebuilding of the broken corner, being able to salvage the overlay, rebuilding the monitor and experimenting with the G07 focus assembly, getting the sound working and then installing the Amplifone have made this machine one of my favorite pieces. <br />
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The End.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-44348109502476233732010-05-22T17:26:00.002-06:002011-02-02T18:12:48.501-07:00"Add to Cart"Don't you just wish it was that easy at times when looking for rare and obscure arcade games and parts ? I guess in some instances for a price it can be. But in doing so, you lose out on one of the most thrilling aspects of the hobby, that being "The Hunt". I have been on some crazy adventures over the past 15+ years. They have taken me from dark barns and warehouses and factories to airplane hangars and houses that reminded me of movie scenes that I really never care to be a part of. I can remember a road trip returning from Socal back in the day with a pickup truck bed so full of motherboards that I am sure some were left scattered along the highway like pieces of fruit from a tractor trailer on it's way to the cannery. We got pulled over on a lonely stretch of highway near San Luis Obispo just before midnight. I can only imagine what the officer was thinking seeing a load of motherboards under a tarp in a pickup truck. I am surprised he wasn't holding one in his hand that he had picked up along the road asking if it belonged to us. <br />
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You just never know where your next find might come from. If you put enough feelers out there you are liable to find a game almost anywhere. Empty houses, along the curb, a tractor trailer behind a house , the possibilities are endless. Endless to the point that when people ask me where I get all my games I really don't even know how to answer them. I prefer the vague approach and with a grin just say "Oh you know, here and there...".<br />
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One thing is for sure, when you find an obscure game it will be in an obscure place. That probably explains why no one else has found it. I remember back about 8 or 10 years ago meeting an old-timer along the side of the road in Lake Tahoe and sliding an I-Robot and Zaxxon from the back of his truck to the back of mine. I forget how I even found out he had the Zaxxon, but when I asked if he had anything else, he came back with "just some old game called I-Robot". He had rat-holed these games on his property on the edge of somewhere-next-to-the-middle-of-nowhere and decided it was time to get rid of them. Apparently he didn't think anyone would care about the I-Robot. Obscure games in obscure places is a strange phenomenon. Who would ever imagine finding a Vectorbeam Warrior and a Hercules pinball in a barn in rural Idaho ? Not me until I did.<br />
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I have spent many years chasing down games. Occasionally a game falls in your lap and that's ok, but I find it a lot more rewarding to go out and hunt them down. There have been many times where my imagination would run wild on my way to a storage unit or warehouse only to come up empty. It happens, either the games or the prices are just all wrong and it's back to the drawing board. Either that or pay the premium and go the "add to cart" route and buy things from fellow collectors and retailers. It's not the route to games and parts I have taken too often or that I am very familiar with. I prefer the route that leads me through rolling countrysides and down back roads and alleys and towns and places unknown. Leave a light on for me and don't wait up.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-28794783365855842512010-03-21T10:36:00.013-06:002010-03-22T10:50:21.430-06:00Tempest, Where Art Thou ?After searching high and low, I finally found this Tempest in Reno as I have mentioned before. I decided to make a weekend out of it and after spending a couple nights in Reno doing a little relaxing and gambling, it was time to pick up the game and head for home. There is something to be said about a long road trip to pick up a game that you have been wanting for a long time. I think it adds another level of satisfaction to the purchase. It gives you some time to bond with the game too before you get it home and attack it with every tool in your garage in an attempt to save it.
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<br /> "Triage"
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<br />This is an "early artwork" Tempest. Only the first couple of thousand Tempests came this way and so I really was hoping to be able to keep the side art and control panel overlay intact.
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<br />The hardest part about a game with this many problems is knowing where to start.This time I will lay out the exact order that I like to do things for those of you that could use a little direction in your lives. I always like to start at the bottom. I always check and make sure the game has solid leg levelers on it and replace them and the plates if needed. Make sure your game is on solid ground before anything else. The next stop is in the bottom of the game. Clean out any loose pieces rolling around in there. I make sure there are no foreign objects lodged on fuse holders or anywhere else they don't belong before plugging in the machine. I take everything out and sand the bottom with my finishing sander so it looks fresh and then vacuum it. Make sure the power cord looks solid and replace it if needed. When I plug in the machine, I make sure I am ready to test the +5 volts at the motherboard right away in case it's way too high so I can adjust it. I usually set the dip switch settings to free play prior to firing it up so I don't have to worry about if the coin door wiring is good or not. In this case, the monitor was missing so I was just checking to see if it played blind. I could hear the game but the volume was too low and could not be adjusted any louder.
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<br />The cabinet wasn't any better than the insides. The rear corner was busted up and the back of the game was cracked from a fall it took while being unloaded from a semi trailer at one time. Ouch ! The control panel overlay had a gash in it, the marquee was cracked ( note to the Atari employee that designed this style of marquee: I'M COMING FOR YOU !!! ), the coin door had holes in it from a lock bracket, and did I mention that the rear corner was busted up ? All in all, this game was a midsummer night's nightmare. I promised the previous owner that I would do everything I could to save this game. It was time to make good on that promise.
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<br />"The Road to Recovery"
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<br />Time to get this show on the road, the road to recovery that is. I dropped a deluxe rebuild kit from Bob Roberts into a dead WG K6100 that I had acquired for this machine and I now had a working monitor. Now I could actually see the game playing for the first time and everything looked good. I reseated all the socketed chips on the motherboard anyway to make sure they were solid. The volume was low so I suspected one of the audio amplifiers on the AR-II board, but which one ? I did a couple checks with my multimeter on them and then compared the results with another known good AR-II board. One of the audio amplifiers was metering differently so I changed it. Sure enough, I noticed one of the legs on it was broken as I removed it from the AR-II board. I put in a new one and now had Tempest at full volume. I went ahead and rebuilt the rest of the AR-II just to be safe. The game was now fully operational and working beautifully.
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<br />Looming ahead of me all this time was that broken rear corner and other pieces that were damaged in the fall. I also had to make an executive decision on the control panel gash and I ordered a reproduction marquee. I knew I was going to have to get all "Mad Scientist" on that rear corner at some point and see if I could fix it. It was time to unleash the weapons of mass reconstruction on this game and hope for the best.
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<br /> Tempest is also the name of a play that some famous dude called William Shakespeare wrote. The play is about some people on a boat that gets hit by a gnarly storm and they end up on an island and a bunch of weird things happen, kinda like the tv show LOST. You would think he could have been a little more original. Personally, I think the play should have been about the arcade game. So without further ado, I bring you my version of Tempest. As our friend William Shakespeare once said, "Let every eye negotiate for itself, trust no agent".
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<br />Tempest, I found thee :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020297.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020297.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />But thee is not looking too good. The corner is broken, and the rear panels are cracked and separated:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020299.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020299.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020302.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020302.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a></center>
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020432.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020432.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />Ok, enough with the Shakespeare talk. Let's get down to business. Time to tackle this broken corner:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020440.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020440.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I started cutting around the wound and sanding it smooth:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020442.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020442.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />A little bondo and it's ready for a patch:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020569.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020569.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I cut the patch out, shaped it and glued it:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020571.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020571.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020573.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020573.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020578.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020578.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />After the glue dried I finished shaping it:
<br /><center><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020601.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020601.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020608.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020608.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />Some primer and paint :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020619.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020619.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020628.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020628.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />No more separation anxiety :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020642.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020642.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />The overlay has a gash in it:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020544.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020544.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I clamped on a straight edge and using a razor blade I cut it right above the damaged part :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020551.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020551.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I peeled off the lower damaged part and removed the adhesive:
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020562.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020562.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />I taped off the rest of the overlay with blue painters tape and then primed and painted the lower half of the panel black :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020614.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020614.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I swapped out the coin door with a nicer one and gave it a fresh coat of paint :
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020625.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020625.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />"Something wicked this way comes"
<br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/P1020632.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020632.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />This is one I will savor for a long time. Until we meet again...
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<br />The End.
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<br />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-82663354713379050302010-03-07T08:23:00.004-07:002010-03-07T09:08:58.391-07:00This Just In...More unspeakable acts against arcade games were uncovered today in rural Idaho.
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<br />P.E.T.A , "People for the Ethical Treatment of Arcade games" received a tip that games were being housed in filthy living conditions inside an old dirt floor barn. Acting on this tip, P.E.T.A discovered several arcade games in poor health being housed inside the barn without heat or electricity. The roof had severe leaks that also contributed to the poor condition of the machines. P.E.T.A has also confirmed that one pinball and one jukebox were rescued from the site. The following pictures were taken by our Boise correspondents and we must warn you, they are graphic in nature:
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<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/barn%20find/?action=view¤t=06.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/barn%20find/th_06.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />Initial examinations of the machines have revealed that the deflection board was missing from the Omega Race and the main boards and 2 displays were missing from the Bally Strikes and Spares. We are hoping that some of these machines can be rehabilitated and saved. This post will be updated as information becomes available.
<br />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-22594504468393269152010-02-14T17:05:00.004-07:002010-02-15T08:28:07.723-07:00The Fugitive.I finally have the game at the top of my "most wanted" list under lockdown. The capture went pretty smooth and the fugitive known as Tempest was taken in to custody without incident. I had been tracking this one for quite some time and caught up with it near "the biggest little city in the world", the seedy little place otherwise known as Reno, Nevada. The game was hiding out on the edge of town, just beyond the lights and sounds of the downtown casinos. This game had been passing some time away in a storage unit behind a house on some property. It was night as we moved in to get the first glimpse of where the game had been hiding for the past few years. As the coyotes howled, we rushed the building and found the game ready to surrender. As with most fugitives, I think being captured came as somewhat of a relief. The game will now be well cared for and brought back to its former glory. The game was extradited back to Idaho where it will be processed and admitted to my arcade to serve a life sentence without the possibility of being sold.<br /><br />A fellow collector had harbored the game for the past several years, but as we all know, time passes and priorities change. He finally decided it was time for him to give up the Tempest. What made this an extra special capture was the fact that this appears to be an early artwork model. You can add this one to the list of games that I feel lucky to own. I can't wait to get started on the rehabilitation process. Stay tuned for more as this fugitive is prepared to be locked away in my arcade forever.<br /><br /><br /><center>The first mug shot :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/?action=view¤t=P1020297.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020297.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />Notice the numbers next to the player 1 and 2 start buttons:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/?action=view¤t=P1020298.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020298.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />The rear corner will need some attention :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/?action=view¤t=P1020299.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020299.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/?action=view¤t=P1020300.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020300.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />The game looks a little better after some clean up :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/?action=view¤t=P1020306.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Tempest/th_P1020306.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />To be continued...Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-81726181790496337782009-12-19T09:13:00.007-07:002009-12-19T17:39:35.811-07:00Back, to the future...This year I really feel like I went back in time and relived my early days of collecting. I bought games, traded games, fixed games, restored games, road tripped for games, went to the California Extreme Show, went to an operators warehouse to pick up games, and emptied out an old barn full of games. I added a lot of games to my collection. I added a lot of games to other peoples collections. And I enjoyed every precious second of it. All of these experiences are still out there waiting to be had. There are still lots of opportunities for new collectors to enjoy the thrills of collecting that a lot of people thought were long gone, and you don't have to have a tricked out Delorean to make it happen. All we have to do is go back.<br /><br />I remember when just about every collector was on the same page and the hobby was truly about preserving classics. Things have changed. A lot of the new collectors have no loyalty at all to the games and only care about them until they become bored and want something new. If the game can't be sold in a couple days then it gets parted out. The amount of collectors truly dedicated to preserving the classics seems to be dwindling. The fast buck wins out over the thrill and satisfaction of bringing a game back from the grave and giving it a second chance. My mission this year was to resurrect as many games as I could and get them back in circulation. I was able to save a Star Wars, Space Duel, Space Invaders,Asteroids Deluxe, 3 Battlezones, and a Star Castle to name a few. All of these games had been sitting for many, many years just waiting for their chance. I was happy to give it to them. Some of the other games I am still working on will have to roll over into next years bounty due to time and weather restraints. Some needed extensive work and some didn't, but all of them gave me a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that I was able to give them a second chance to remind us of how great an era that really was. There is just nothing better in this hobby than putting the finishing touches on a long restoration, then coining up the machine and playing a game. <br /><br /><br />My mission for next year will be more of the same, only this time, instead of just saving games from being parted out and dumped in the landfills, I hope to encourage as many collectors as possible to do the same. Forget the fast buck and do something really rewarding. Preserve a classic coin operated piece of history. There are so many resources available to help people repair games. There are fellow collectors giving repair advice on forums, fellow collectors making tons of reproduction parts and artwork, and fellow collectors always willing to lend a helping hand. Make it a New Year's resolution to learn how to repair a monitor, or rebuild a power supply, or fix a broken cabinet or repair one game and find it a home. You are selling yourself short in this hobby if you settle for anything less. It's not too late to go back and start over. I spent this past year doing exactly that. It was fun reliving my glory days of collecting and it was nothing less than an amazing year in the hobby for me. After well over a decade of being in this hobby I was a little jaded and thought I had seen it all. I was wrong and it has never felt so good to be wrong. <br /><br /><br />The collector community has gone soft. Too many of us sit there in silence as the games get parted out for sheer greed or lack of patience. Too many collectors buy these parts and encourage it. We should be encouraging the new collectors to preserve games, not take the easy way out. It just feels like we need to go back. We need to go back and start over and when we get to that point in time where it became acceptable to gut cabinets for no other reason than greed or a lack of patience, we need to grab the steering wheel and veer hard left, or hard right, it doesn't matter. As long as we end up on a different road from the one we are on now. The New Year is coming. Buy a broken game and bring it back. To the future...Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-75135338296549006172009-12-06T08:41:00.002-07:002009-12-06T08:49:03.235-07:00A New Hopefor an old Star Wars arcade game is what I had in mind when I picked up this classic vector . Vectors can elicit both extreme joy and dread in the hearts and minds of arcade collectors. Joy when they are working, and dread when they are not. I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with this one. With the deflection board missing and nothing but static coming from the speakers, this game looked like it had gone to the Dark Side. All I could do was try. But as master Yoda once said, "There is no try, only do...". I suppose this would be my test. Would I be able to control my fear and anger and save it, or would I give in and lose this machine to the Dark Side forever ? Unclear, the future was...<br /><br /><br />The first order of business was to make the game whole by filling the hole where the deflection board once was. Post a wanted ad I will. I figured the chances of finding a decent deflection board would be as likely and expensive as finding transport off Mos Eisley while avoiding any Imperial entanglements. Arcade karma was on my side though as a fellow collector that I had once tipped off about a $100 vector game in his neck of the solar system saw my wanted post and returned the favor. He had the deflection board I needed and a couple days later I had a complete ( but still non-working ) game. This was a known working deflection board ( I tested it in my Space Duel) so I set up the Star Wars monitor behind my Space Duel and used it as a test rig to see if the rest of the WG-K6100 was any good. For some reason the spot-killer LED came on when I put this deflection board in the Star Wars monitor. I changed out all the chassis transistors,metered them to make sure they were not grounded to the chassis yet I still had the same problem. I finally figured out that when the yoke was plugged in to the deflection board, one of the transistors would ground out to the chassis. After spending quite a bit of time going over and over this thing, I noticed that someone had inverted the red and yellow wires going to one of the chassis transistor sockets. After swapping them back to the correct positions, the spot killer was now off and I could hear deflection chatter. Finally a step in the right direction but still no picture on the screen. I re-capped the HV cage and soldered all the pins and still no picture. I was about to go back to the schematic when I heard the words of Obi-Wan in my head, " Use the brightness adjustment". I turned up the brightness and I had a beautiful color XY picture. The Force was strong with this one.<br /><br />I now had a working monitor but the motherboard presented a whole new set of problems. I tested the motherboard using my own working Star Wars arcade game. There were matrix errors,a vram error, a non-volatile ram error,and a math ram error. Remember what I said about Star Wars arcade machines eliciting dread? I struggled to control my fears as I went about working on this motherboard. I replaced the flagged rams, reseated everything on the boards, cleaned the gold edges, and put the connector back on. I still was getting a math ram error, a bad vram, a non-volatile ram error, and the game would not save any changes to the option switches. The odds of the board having this many separate problems seemed odd and unlikely. The schematic showed that the LS138 at 2L could be the culprit of all of these problems. On a hunch I replaced it but still had the same problems. It was worth a try and the possibility that this board really did have 3 or more separate problems was becoming very real. I replaced the non-volatile ram at 1E and that fixed the option save issues. I swapped out the math ram at 5E and still showed a bad ram at 5E so now I know the issue was probably the socket. I replaced the socket and the matrix errors went away but still showed a bad ram at 5E. Using my meter and the schematics I started checking each pin from 5E to various places on the board until I found a dead trace. I soldered on a trace wire and now had a fully operational Star Wars motherboard. I really felt like hitting the cantina right about now but I still had work to do.<br /><br />I put the monitor and motherboard back in the cabinet and powered on the game with my leads connected to check the +5 volts at the motherboard. With almost 6 volts at the motherboard I shut it down right away. Turned down the adjustment pot, started it up again and still had almost 6 volts. No wonder this motherboard had so many problems. I metered out all the resistors in the area of the AR-II board that could be the culprits and they all checked ok. I metered out the adjustment pot and it checked out ok. I decided to shotgun the rest of the AR-II with a rebuild kit and go from there. The rebuild kit worked and I now was able to adjust the +5 to you guessed it, +5 volts.<br /><br />I replaced the marquee light and starter and got ready to play a game of Star Wars. Started up a game and noticed that the cursor on the screen was darting all over the place and the left thumb button didn't work. I replaced the thumb switch and the potentiometer and finally had a fully working Star Wars arcade game.<br /><br />There was still work to be done. One of the rear corner joints had let go and the cabinet was a little on the shaky side. I removed all the old staples and screws, cleaned the area and glued it and screwed it back together. Now this machine really was ready for the jump to light speed. I delivered this game to the house of a fellow collector. Another Atari color vector gets another chance. It was a long process bringing this machine back and another great learning experience. A Star Wars arcade with monitor issues, motherboard issues, audio regulator issues, control issues, and cabinet issues has come back from the from the Dark Side. Never tell me the odds...<br /><br /><br />This yellow and red wire were backwards, hampering the jump to lightspeed:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020164.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020164.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />This is not the chip I was looking for:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020012.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><center><br />It was a little too cold out in the garage so the pinball room became a makeshift shop:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020102.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020102.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />Whenever I put a cardboard shroud back in, I cover the staples with a piece of black electrical tape to protect the bezel :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020119.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020119.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br /></center><br />You could almost fly a Star Destroyer through that gap :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020095.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020095.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020096.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020096.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />Mini vise grips work great to remove old staples. Just tap the legs on the other side against the concrete a couple times till the head sticks out and then pull it through :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020109.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020109.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />Wrapping a micro fiber rag around the blade of a screw driver makes it easy to clean the gap out:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020113.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020113.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />I drilled pilot holes and then glued and screwed it back together. It may not be pretty, but even a wookie couldn't pull this apart now:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020118.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020118.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br />A pipe clamp holds it all in place while the glue sets:<br /></center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020116.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020116.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br /><center><br />For Yoda :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/?action=view&current=P1020157-2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/blog/th_P1020157-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><br /><br />Special thanks to :<br />Ram Controls for the excellent replacement potentiometers.<br />Bob Roberts for the cap kits, various chips, and AR board rebuild kit.<br />Radio Shack for actually having the thumb micro switch.<br />Fellow Klov forum member Dylan aka "Tron Guy" for the deflection board.<br />My tech friend and true Jedi at fixing games Obi-Tom-Kanobi for the encouragement over the phone to stay the course.<br /><br /><br />The End.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></center></center></center>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-35820344611508187702009-10-03T10:23:00.007-06:002009-10-04T08:31:06.769-06:00Heartbreak Hotel.In a small town behind a small hotel is a not so small shack. And in that not so small shack was one of the most horrific sights of arcade related death and decay I have ever witnessed first hand. The kind of death and decay that is eventually cleared out and has a house built on it that becomes haunted by the previous inhabitants. Everyone knew about this shack containing the ghosts of arcades past. It was the kind of place you speed your step up a bit as you walk by. The kind of place that stays with you long after you see it. I first noticed this shack a couple years ago while strolling the streets of this town and deemed all the games in there as beyond salvation. About a month ago I was there and noticed that the games were still sitting and rotting and part of the roof had collapsed. It was maddening, it was sad, it was frustrating, and it was downright heartbreaking to see these classics just rotting away in arcade purgatory waiting to be saved or laid to rest once and for all. Up until now, the word on the street was that the owner did not want to do anything with these other than let them sit. Instead of entertaining people, they were entertaining the feral cats of the neighborhood (including one that looked like it was straight out of Pet Cemetery). I decided it was time to make contact and see what I could do. To my surprise the timing was right and we worked out a deal to clear out the shack. Sadly, the owner had become ill and the town wanted the shack torn down because it’s a hazard. Not exactly the circumstances I want to pick up machines under, but I was assured I would be helping them greatly by doing this. I called Dan ( Hatrick) and took him there to have a look. We were still working on the trailer full of games from Buhl but I felt this might be worth pausing for. We drove out to get a look and decided that there could possibly be a few parts in there but the amount of work involved might not make it such a good deal. Sometimes you just have to check your logic at the door and go for it and that is exactly what we did. We set a date, rented a trailer, rounded up our tools and rolled out. Here are some pics. I will see you on the other side…<br /><br />Down on the corner of lonely street...<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010766.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010766.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010767.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010767.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />Vectorbeam Warrior and a Seawolf that have both seen better days...<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010746.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010746.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />Can we please have a moment of silence...<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010752.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010752.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010753.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010753.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />It's only fitting that the Hercules Pinball was holding the roof up...<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010769.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010769.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010770.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010770.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />A beam came down right on the coin door of the Hercules :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010782.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010782.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />The head of the Hercules pin sits wedged in there. There was dead cat inside of the head that must have gotten trapped when the roof collapsed. It took a long time for us to get the top of the Hercules pin out. Dan had to get in there with a Sawz-all and cut away one corner to free it :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010785.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010785.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><br /></center><br />These nails were sticking through the roof everywhere making it a little nerve-wracking to be under it. We risked taking one of these to the skull for this mission. We tried to make sure only one of us was under the roof at a time (btw Dan, I would have given your DK a good home if anything had happened to you) :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010801.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010801.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />We used some wooden beams to get the roof up off the Hercules while we removed it:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010796.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010796.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br /><br />Hopefully this will clean up nice:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010788.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010788.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />The coin door folded under the weight of the roof:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010793.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010793.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />What once was a burial ground for arcade games is now just a broken down shack:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010803.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010803.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />It will take us awhile to process all of this and see just exactly what we have. When all was said and done, we were tired, hungry,and sore, but at the same time filled with a sense of satisfaction knowing we did what had to be done. So how exactly does a bunch of classic pinball and arcade machines end up in this old shack? Well, as the story goes, the games were set up in an arcade in town and the building was sold. The owner put the games in this shack in working condition as a temporary home until he could find another place for them. That was about 15 years ago. <br />As we were clearing the place out the curious locals would stop by and talk to us. They were shocked and yet pleased that the games were finally being removed and that some parts would be salvaged. We heard lots of stories about the previous owner and what a great man he was and what he had meant to the town. What had at times felt like a huge chore was beginning to feel a little more like a privilege. I think it’s fair to say that we were the right people for the job. We cleared the place out over a couple of days and spent a lot of time reflecting on it. I am just thankful that the games didn’t all go straight to the landfill without any of it being saved. It is all a little bittersweet. As much as I hate to see machines parted out, after 15 years of being exposed to the weather I don’t think any or at least many can be saved. <br />I hope the previous owner can find some comfort knowing that we will salvage what we can and realize it was time to let these machines go. If only it were that easy…Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-68858044434141776902009-08-29T00:02:00.003-06:002009-08-29T00:07:55.578-06:00The Best Laid Plans…of mice and men often go astray. Well that is what they say anyway. But the only hitch in these plans was the one used to tow these arcade games home to get a second chance at making adults feel like kids all over again. It was a year ago that I first found out about these games. It was the usual scenario. Dusty, dirty, forgotten games locked up in a dark storage container just biding their time and waiting for a miracle. But sadly, the timing was all wrong. I had just changed jobs and winter was setting in quickly. They would have to spend another sub-freezing holiday season without much to cheer about. When I was finally ready, the owner wasn’t. Time passed and other games came along to fill the void. With winter coming faster than I care to think about, and hope for saving these games fading away, I decided to make one last attempt for a rescue. I contacted the owner. The long wait to bring these games home would soon be over. <br /><br />I decided to bring my friend Dan in on this one as there was a Star Wars arcade in the mix and I knew it was the game that topped his want list. There were 9 games in all, with Star Wars and a Space Ace taking the top honors and a Space Invaders, Star Trek, Tournament Cyberball, Omega Race, Shinobi, Sprint 2 , converted Mach 3 rounding out the roster. We picked a day, reserved the trailer, and asked our bosses for a half day off work. The day came and we met up at my house, grabbed lunch, picked up the trailer, and headed off for parts unknown. <br />We rolled through the countryside and after about an hour and a half and 3 towns later arrived at Buhl, Idaho. Population: you. After some delicate negotiations, we paid up, loaded up, and headed for home. Dan got his Star Wars, I took the Space Ace, and we will sell the rest and split it. My amazing year of collecting just doesn’t let up. We split them up between our garages and will now begin the task of breathing some new life into these games and finding them new homes. We have each had some fast success and look forward to working on the rest. <br /><br />Another batch of games saved from death and decay means another satisfying moment in my collecting career. I look out at these games stashed away safely in my garage and know that I am utterly defenseless to their charm. They hold sway over us and like trained assassins know exactly when and where to strike and bring us to our knees. These machines pulled us away from our daily lives and jobs and friends and loved ones and coerced us to drive out and pick them up. It just seems so wrong at times. I resent being at their disposal and yet I love every second of it. The best hobby in the world just keeps getting better. The best laid plans do often go astray but not on this day. <br />I don’t think the games would have allowed it . <br /><br /> Some pics for the “ pics or it didn’t happen” crew :<br /><br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010614.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010614.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010616.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010616.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010625.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010625.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010630.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010630.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010632.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010632.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-370785335122637742009-08-01T13:02:00.005-06:002009-08-01T15:09:45.848-06:00My Own Private Idaho...It's been almost 5 years since I packed up everything I own, said my goodbyes, and headed for the land of Famous Potatoes. You don't even realize how hectic life is in the big city until you break away and then look back from a safe distance. Idaho has been good to me. Good for my blood pressure. Good for my soul. And most importantly, good for my arcade collecting addiction. I decided it was time to give a little more intimate look at my game room and some of the highly valuable junk that is in it. <br /><br />Flanking the entry is a poster from one of my favorite horror movies, a picture from one of my favorite TV shows and a concept drawing of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010384.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010384.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />The opposite side of the entrance is home to the Star Wars posters including one that was autographed by Mark Hamill, The Racer X tin sign, and one of the JBL speakers that deliver non-stop 80's hits from Billy Idol, Men without Hats and the like :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010375.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010375.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />Some of the Batman artwork I have including a couple that were signed by the creator of the Dark Knight himself, Bob Kane :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010376.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010376.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010377.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010377.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010378.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010378.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />"The Shelf", home to all my figurines and other random items including my old D&D handbook and an autographed picture of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010380.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010380.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><br />Another movie poster of an all time classic, my custom neon sign made right here in downtown Boise by Rocket Neon, and a glimpse of the obligatory Tron poster :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010383.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010383.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />This little gem joined us after retiring from a Chuck E. Cheese. Looking right at home in front of the window is my beloved Joust Cocktail :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010389.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010389.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />Would you believe this is the original painted on artwork on the cabinet? Would you believe this is the original control panel overlay ? Would you believe all I did to this game was repaint the black area around the monitor and put new orange t-molding on ? Would you believe this game came from the San Jose auction ? I was there when Scott Evans scored this gem and a few months later he sold it to me for the same price of $700. I have yet to see a cleaner original Pacman at any price : <br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010369.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010369.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />And when the lights go down it looks something like this :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010304.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010304.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010309.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010309.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010310.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010310.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010315.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010315.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010342.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010342.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a></centercenter><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010307.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010307.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, my pinball parlor has slowly been taking shape and will eventually be decked out in 50's memorabilia :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010346.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010346.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010348.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010348.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010349.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010349.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />So there ya have it. My time capsule,my panic room and the place I can step into anytime I need a little blast from the past or some peace of mind all rolled into one. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my game room,my pinball parlor, and my own private Idaho.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-67293770520471019252009-07-26T11:46:00.005-06:002010-11-11T08:12:11.562-07:00CSI BoiseBeen in this hobby going on 17 years now and I must say, this has been one of my most rewarding and fulfilling years for collecting since I brought home a Space Invaders back in 1993. Since Mother’s Day of this year I have had quite a streak of finding and restoring games while also working on the game room to get it ready for all of these new acquisitions. I was ready to put the brakes on any new games until I had all of my current projects finished. I then heard about a dead Star Castle just down the road from me (everything in Boise is just down the road if you haven’t figured that out by now ) and I had to have a peek. Once again, me and the R2 unit rolled out to investigate. <br />
<br />
It was another unseasonably warm day in Boise as we arrived on the scene and took notes of the surroundings. The garage door was open and the victim was sitting in the left rear corner of the garage. We were instantly greeted by a woman identifying herself only as Judy as we strolled up the driveway. A few other collectables were strewn here and there throughout the garage including a Gottlieb pinball and an organ from the 1800’s. I took a statement from the lady. She insisted that the kids were just playing the game one day and it died. There was no evidence of foul play so I took her at her word. “Approximately how long ago was that Ma’am? “ I asked. “About ten years” she replied. The spiderwebs inside the game seem to substantiate that claim. The trail was cold by now and we would be on our own to determine what killed this machine. I asked if it would be ok to plug in the game and she obliged. The only sign of life was a flash of the LED on the motherboard when I powered on the game. No picture on the screen, no sound from the speakers. For all intended purposes this game was D.O.A. Time to draw a chalk outline around this one and slap on a toe-tag.<br />
<br />
While I was conducting my investigation, Judy told me about how her father had traded for this game many years ago for his grandkids to play. Between hearing her story, and seeing that little flash of light, I knew what I had to do. “But wait just a second Dave. This is a Cinematronics vector, don’t let your emotions get the best of you. They can be hard to find parts for and you really don’t know that much about them...”, I could hear my inner voice telling me. My inner voice was right. I had to keep my senses about me and not get in over my head. I offered her $50.00 figuring at that price I couldn’t get hurt too bad if I couldn’t get it working. She accepted. I looked in my wallet and realized that I only had $47.00 after stopping for coffee and donuts on the way there. I offered the $47.00 and a sincere promise to do everything within my power to get to the bottom of what stopped this Star Castle dead in its tracks and bring this game some justice. I think the promise meant more to her than the money and with that, R2 and I loaded up the game and headed for home. <br />
<br />
The first thing I did was reset the circuit breakers (I had forgotten this game uses breakers instead of fuses) and turned the game on. I could here the monitor crackle and start to come alive and then after about 3 seconds the breaker blew. I decided to go online and do a little detective work. Using the Cinematronic vector repair guide, I was quickly able to determine that the X side of the monitor was the guilty party. I took the monitor out and starting metering away looking for clues. Eventually I was able to determine that the cause of death was due to a shorted heat sink transistor that looked like it took another transistor out with it. I replaced all the heat sink transistors with the upgrades recommended in the guide, making sure not to mix up the NPN and PNP transistors. I powered up the game and now had a working monitor. The game played fine with the exception of sound, or I should say lack of it. First I looked for any obvious clues and found nothing. Not a single sign of trauma anywhere. I jumpered the volume knob to make sure it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t. Metered the speaker and it was showing 1.8 ohms on an 8ohm speaker. This was not good. Using the Star Castle sound board guide on Outerworldarcade.com, I was able to determine that there were blown transistors on the sound board. I replaced those and put in a new speaker and now Star Castle was putting out some beautiful music. I replaced the marquee lamp and starter and this game was now completely back from the dead. I repainted the metal brackets around the control panel and marquee, installed new white buttons, gave it a little cleaning and another vector is now ready for duty. This game proved to be a bit of a challenge. Whenever I ran out of clues to keep me going, I would lean on the promise I had made to a nice lady who wanted nothing more than to know that her father’s game would get my best attempt at a second chance. I recently contacted Judy and let her know that this case has been solved and the Star Castle is now in my game room. <br />
<br />
Exhibit A: Star Castle in gameroom.<center><br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010354.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010354.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
Despite evidence of some cigarette burns, the game still looks nice:<br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010355.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010355.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
After dusting for fingerprints,all I did to the coin door area was clean it:<br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010356.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010356.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
Partners in crime:<br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010359.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010359.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Case closed.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-2240877918618515942009-07-14T10:17:00.009-06:002010-05-07T18:22:02.164-06:00Urban Legends...We all know about urban legends. When I was a teenager growing up in the East Bay we were all aware of the urban legend about the White Witch that roamed the East Bay back roads. I would be a liar if I said I had never gone out with my friends looking for her. We spent countless weekend nights cruising along dark and windy roads hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Fast forward many years and now I had a new urban legend to chase after: a warehouse full of games. After hearing about it from a couple different people, I decided to look into it a little deeper. The rumor was that this warehouse was home to four Battlezones, a game that was high on my want list. It was time to go a little "Scooby Doo " and track this one down. With a little help from Dan (Hatrick) I was able to get a contact number for the owner of the machines and gave him a call. After talking a bit he made me an offer: get the Battlezones working and I can keep one. He said I would be able to cherry pick all of the best parts to put on the cabinet I wanted to keep. I told him I would want to see the machines before accepting the challenge. I met one of his guys at the warehouse that just happened to be a couple miles down the road from where I live. We went in and took a look around. Most of the classics were gone, but the Battlezones were still there along with a hundred or so other games sitting, collecting dust, and providing habitat for the Black Widow spiders in the neighborhood. Of course the Battlezones were upstairs. Why should it be any easier than it has to be? <br />
<br />
<br />
All four machines were clustered together in the dark corner of the second story behind a couple other machines reminding me of a scene from “I am Legend”. They had been sitting there about 15 years. We dug them out and looked them over. They were in various states starting at fair and going down from there. Just the kind of challenge I like. I decided to go for it. We hauled the machines down the stairs, loaded them up,and took them to my garage. Maybe catching up with an urban legend wasn't such a good thing after all. Time would tell. <br />
<br />
First things first. I had to decide what cabinet I wanted for myself and start moving all the best parts to it. After getting my game assembled I put the others together. There were only enough parts to make 3 complete machines so that is what I did. One of the cabinets had the 2 lower front and back panels busted out. I set it aside and went to work on the others. Using my rebuilt spare monitor, I tested all the motherboards. They were all partially working. There was only one good set of roms between the 4 motherboards. I used that set and found 3 of the motherboards to be good. I ordered the High Score save kits for those boards and went to work on the monitors. After capping the monitors and changing the chassis transistors, I had two working monitors and one that was blowing fuses. Using my meter, I was able to find the guilty transistor on the deflection board and changed it out. <br />
<br />
Now it was time to take control of the controls. I had to repair some wiring and replace a couple bellows and the controls were working like new again. Flowed some solder over the AR-2 boards in a few places, adjusted the voltages and I had 3 out of 4 Battlezones ready to do battle again. I consider it a moral victory getting 3 out 4 working again as there weren’t enough parts to make the fourth game whole and the cabinet was busted up. <br />
<br />
I replaced the t-molding on my game and put some new rubber mat on the step. I ended up with what I consider a collector quality game, a great learning experience, and 3 more games back amongst the living. There are still games out there in dusty old warehouses waiting to be saved. They won’t crawl out of there on their own. All it takes is a little initiative, and in some cases, being willing to believe in a local urban legend. Sometimes you find your “White Witch” and sometimes you don’t. This urban legend proved to be real and worth the Scooby Snacks it cost me to find my Battlezone. <br />
<br />
<br />
Zoinks ! A picture is worth a thousand words... <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010011.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010011.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
</center> <br />
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This note gives me the creeps : <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010176.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010176.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
</center> <br />
<br />
What would Scooby Doo ? He would select this shaggy looking cabinet to keep for his own, and so did I : <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
Obviously the work of a dark and twisted mind, or a four year old : <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000996.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000996.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
Not looking too shabby now : <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010267.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010267.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010269.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010269.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
</center> <br />
One for the money : <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010265.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010265.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010266.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010266.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
</center> <br />
And two for the road : <br />
<center> <br />
<a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010204.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010204.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a> <br />
</center> <br />
<br />
The mystery of the missing Battlezones has been solved. <br />
<br />
The End.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-28743327433659738202009-07-13T23:28:00.003-06:002009-07-14T00:00:26.120-06:00Lost in Space...Early this morning at approximately 01:30 hours, a Lunar Lander burned into the southwest corner of Idaho's atmosphere. There was very little fanfare on this lonely stretch of highway. The event was only witnessed by two earthlings and punctuated by a lightning strike off in the distance. Me and my trusty sidekick Duke welcomed home the Lunar Lander after its 6 year mission in space. So the title is a little misleading. It wasn't really lost and it wasn’t really in space either. It was located in the Chabot Space and Science Center nestled in the hills of Oakland California. It’s mission: to boldly go where no arcade game has ever gone before , to explore new worlds, and to help future astronauts hone their skills should they be called upon to travel into space and land on the moon. <br /><br />I had seen a request by the Chabot Space and Science Center for a Lunar Lander arcade game to be used in one of their exhibits. I happened to know where one was for sale at a pretty decent price. I had just absorbed several games from the seller and was trying to get them working and out of the garage. Space in my garage was at a premium with 2 newly acquired Star Wars cockpits and Star Wars and Asteroids uprights sitting in there. I was going to pass on the Lunar Lander but figured I could pick it up and loan it to the Chabot Center for awhile. I replied to the Chabot Center and told them I could help them out. I picked up the Lunar Lander and started preparing the game for its mission. My tech friend Tom dropped by to get the game working. As usual he asked,“How good does this one need to be?” I just looked at him and said “Space Shuttle”. He got the hint. While Tom got the game working and bullet-proofed, I had a custom plexiglass cover made to protect the control panel from the potentially harsh environment it would be exposed to. I delivered the game and what was originally going to be a two year mission ended up lasting about six years. The game was on almost every single day with only two complications, both motherboard related. Not bad for an old Lunar Lander with G05-801 hardware in it. <br /><br />After moving to Idaho and being away for several years, I decided it was time for the Lunar Lander to come home. Tamara, the exhibits manager at the Chabot asked for a little time to have a new venue prepared to take the place of the Lunar Lander. We set the pick up time for July so I could make the Cal Extreme Show and complete two objectives in one trip down. Everything went as planned and now the Lunar Lander is back where it belongs. It felt good being able to help out the Chabot Center and then ending up with a Lunar Lander. Special thanks to Tom for doing a great job prepping the game, Tamara Schwarz and her associates for taking great care of the game while it was there, and fellow collector Frank A. for making a trip to the Chabot Center and repairing the motherboard when it gave out. I hope NASA appreciates our efforts to train their astronauts for them.<br /><br />Going to the Cal Extreme show in the new location and picking up my Lunar Lander, not a bad way to spend a weekend. The Lunar Lander will be checked out and then retired to my game room. This machine was probably played more at the Chabot Center than it ever was played in an arcade. It was great seeing this game get another chance to be out there and enjoyed and appreciated by so many people. The mission was a complete success. It was an honor and a privilege to help out the Chabot Space and Science Center. Who knows, at the rate North Korea is going, maybe the Defense Department will put out a request for a Missile Command game. I’ll be ready.<br /><br />As usual, a few photos to finish things off...<br /><br /><br />"Hey, it's not a bad gig, i get 3 square meals a day and a roof over my head" :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=LunarLanderIMG_2471.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_LunarLanderIMG_2471.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />Not even the Space Shuttle gets wrapped up this well for it's journey home:<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010255-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010255-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />I had to replace the mission selection lamps and the starter for the marquee light but other than that the game passed it's post flight check list with flying colors :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010260.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010260.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br />A little detailing and minor adjustments and it's ready for it's next mission, to the game room :<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010274.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010274.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />The End.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-63483167855220003632009-06-16T21:19:00.012-06:002009-06-17T15:10:40.180-06:00A man walks into a barber shopand sits down to get a haircut . He takes a look around and notices an Asteroids Deluxe sitting in the corner with a “for sale” sign on it. Wait just a minute. You thought this was one of those “man walks into a barber shop” jokes didn’t you? Well it isn’t, and he did, and there really was an Asteroids Deluxe sitting there with a for sale sign on it. Did you really think I would make a joke out of something as serious as an Asteroids Deluxe sitting in a barber shop with a for sale sign on it ? You should know me better than that by now so just settle down and let me finish my story would ya ? Ok, where I was? It was about 1989 when our previously mentioned young- at –the- time hero Miles walked into Judy’s Barber Shop in Boise. He saw the game for sale and thought it would be the perfect gift for his 10 year old son James who would soon be coming to live with him. Now most people would be content walking out of a barber shop with just a haircut. Some would be happy with a cut and a designer hair brush or bottle of fancy shampoo to rejuvenate their scalp. Not our young hero Miles. He left that shop the proud new owner of an Asteroids Deluxe arcade game. The arcade game and son James took up occupancy at the house and all was well. Miles really was a hero in the eyes of son James and the game got a chance to work its arcade magic one more time. About 10 years would pass before the Asteroids Deluxe finally had lost its luster and ended up in the family storage unit. Sadly, it would sit there for another 10 years without seeing the light of day.
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<br />The time had finally come to empty out the storage unit and this is where I enter the story. I saw the ad Miles placed on Craigslist and made the call. Luckily the Asteroids Deluxe was still available. We set up a time for the next day to meet at his house. Father and son went to the storage unit and retrieved the old arcade game from what had become a makeshift tomb. When I arrived at their house the game was sitting in the back of a utility trailer. The machine was dirty and run down on the outside, but almost seemed to be begging for one more chance to coin-up and do its thing.
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<br />We talked for awhile about the game and how much fun it was to play back when James was a kid. I promised them visitation rights and that it was going to a good home and capable hands and would be given the attention it sorely needed and deserved. I paid the asking price of $100 and loaded the game into the back of my old Ford. I circled around the end of the court and drove back by and with a smile and a wave we were off. The game was on the first leg of its journey back to reliving its glory days.
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<br />There was not much that was very deluxe about this Asteroids when it first arrived. The blacklight was burned out and the blue monitor overlay was missing, two of the key ingredients that make this game special. The overlay was cracked. There was a ton of dirt and grime on the cabinet. The monitor went from partially working to completely dead then the whole game seemed to just give out. This game needed a trip to one of those fancy day spas to bring that old glow back but seeing as no such place for arcade games exists just yet, my garage will have to suffice. It was time to do a little revitalizing on a tired game.
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<br />First I installed a cap kit, replaced the chassis transistors and replaced the blown fuses. I then looked for what was causing the rest of the game to give out. It ended up being one of the slip on connectors at the bridge rectifier under the power brick. I fixed the connection, stood back, and powered the game on. My hunch was correct. This machine still had a little something to prove. I played a quick game and went back to work. I installed a new blacklight and blue monitor overlay, a new control panel overlay, white buttons, cones , a door lock and painted the coin door and marquee brackets. I detoxed the sideart and the treatment was complete. Another classic vector saved and added to the collection. The game really has regained its luster and is ready for action. See for yourself.
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<br />This is beyond what Botox can do. Going to need a new overlay :
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<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000893.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000893.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />Looks like a deep cleansing is in order:
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000891.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000891.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />I sent a sample of this to the lab. I am in quarantine as I write this:
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000892.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000892.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />A slight build up on the mirror inside the game :
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<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000967.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000967.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />I found this power cord a little shocking. It was replaced :
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000899.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000899.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />Duke seems to approve of the outcome:
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<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010135.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010135.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />Not sure what is more difficult, landing a Boeing 747 perfectly in the middle of a runway or landing an overlay that has not been die-cut perfectly in the middle of a control panel:
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010142.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010142.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />I detoxed the sides of the game :
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<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010137.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010137.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010138.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010138.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
<br />This Asteroids really is looking Deluxe again amongst a row of Ataris:
<br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1010143.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1010143.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>
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<br />The End.
<br />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-15888338218007410512009-05-25T21:11:00.015-06:002009-05-25T21:27:06.915-06:00Endangered Species.“Are you sure I won’t be imposing?” I said into my end of the phone. It was after all mid-afternoon on Mother’s Day when the call came inviting me to check out a Space Duel. “Not at all “, he replied. A few minutes later and I was in my driveway heaving the R2 unit into the back of my truck and then heaving myself up on to the red vinyl bench seat of my pre-bailout era Ford F250. The R2 is really my old refrigerator dolly with the extra set of wheels that kick out in the back. I bought it from a retiring operator many years ago after raiding his warehouse. On the drive down I came to realize that it’s been exactly 20 years since I had anything more important to do on Mother’s Day. I don’t think I ever feel quite normal when it rolls around each year. And with not feeling quite normal and nothing better to do, I might as well go look at an arcade game. <br /><br /> All I knew going into this one is that the game was not working. With an XY monitor as part of that equation it can get a little scary. A few miles down the highway and a few gallons of gas later and I arrived on the scene. I walked to the shop out back and saw the game. Aside from the control panel overlay the cabinet was in great shape and worth saving. I took the back door off the game and glanced inside. Looked like some mice had shown this old Atari some love and I will leave it at that. I unplugged the monitor and then plugged in the game. Flipped the switch and all I heard was a hum. No power to the game board. Checked a couple connections and tried again. Nothing. Plugged the monitor back in and tried one more time and smoke came pouring out. This was not good. We agreed on a price of $125.00 and I pulled the truck around to load the game. Nothing gets the nostalgic juices flowing better than rolling down the road in my 1977 Ford truck with a 1981 Atari Space Duel riding in the back. Other than a few sideways glances on the short trip home, it was uneventful yet fulfilling.<br /><br />Space Duel is a game I consider to be an endangered species. Like some animals of the wild kingdom that are hunted for their tusks and pelts, these games are hunted for their XY monitors. The big (arcade) game poachers would just yank the monitor out, sell a few other parts, and discard the carcass. These color XY monitors are not easy to come by and can fetch a high price. It felt good knowing this Space Duel was going to be saved from an unhappy ending at the hands of a poacher. The first goal was to get the game to play blind. The fuse holder in the bottom was looking pretty corroded. I metered the fuses and they checked ok. I took a fuse holder from another power brick that had a smoked transformer and swapped it in. Flipped the game on and I now had 5 volts to the board. Coined up a game and heard exactly what I was hoping for. I ordered the deluxe rebuild kit from Bob Roberts for the k6100. Rather than even bother troubleshooting the monitor, I felt it was better to just shotgun it with the $40.00 kit. After installing the kit and taking care of a few other loose ends, it was time to give it the smoke test. I double checked all the connections and powered on the game. I could hear the beautiful music that an XY makes when working properly. The picture came up and looked great. After a few minutes of adjusting the monitor it was time to play a couple games. I forgot how cool this game really is. <br /><br />So the game is working great and now it’s time for a little cosmetics. I installed a new control panel overlay, cleaned the original buttons, and rattle-canned the coin door and marquee brackets. The game really made a nice turn around. After living off the grid for awhile, Space Duel is back among it’s own kind and in a place similar to it’s natural habitat. I took a few snapshots of the whole ordeal. Time to show them off like a proud papa. <br /><br /><br />The old corroded fuse block. I will give you one guess what is on there :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000961.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000961.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />I hope the previous landlord kept the security deposit from the previous tenant:.<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000867.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000867.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />Mickey Mouse = Cool. Mouse that ate the insulation off of these wires = Very uncool :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000883.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000883.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000881.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000881.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />Tastes like chicken ?<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000875.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000875.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br /><br />These wires both just fell right out of the molex plug going to the HV cage. That can't be good :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000886.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000886.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />Amazing what an old toothbrush and some q-tips dipped in a little warm water can do: <br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000942.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000942.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000889.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000889.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>Houston, we have a problem. Well, we had a problem, but nothing that a new overlay couldn't solve :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000949.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000949.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />A new satin finish on an old Space Duel coin door works wonders:<br /><br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000959.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000959.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />A little bit of cleaning and the sides are looking good too:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000944.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000944.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/?action=view¤t=P1000946.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/space%20duel/th_P1000946.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br /><br />This game is now off of the endangered species list.<br />The End.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-67587314475359836842009-05-23T09:14:00.004-06:002009-05-23T10:47:52.560-06:00Results May Vary...Are you struggling with a coin-op collecting addiction? Do you fail to see a way out and feel overwhelmed, anxious and as though the people closest to you fail to understand what you are going through? Have you experienced any of the following symptoms:<br /><br />1. You brought a control panel or playfield along to restore on weekend getaways, trips to the in-laws or even your honeymoon.<br />2. During Family gatherings and holidays you sneak out to the garage to work on machines.<br />3. You have called in sick to work on days you are expecting parts in the mail.<br /><br />These are just some examples of extreme coin-op collecting addiction. You need to understand that this is normal behavior and it is your family and friends that need <br />treatment to cope with your addiction, not you. <br /><br />Today is your lucky day. We here at Arcade-Revival have put together a plan for the friends and families of collectors so that they can understand, cope and nurture their loved one appropriately. It is at this time that we request you stop reading, step away, and direct your significant other, family member or friend to the computer so that we may start the procedure. <br /><br />Dear family member/and or friend of coin-op collector,<br />This program will help you recognize, understand, and cope with the loss of your loved one to classic coin-op collecting. We regret to inform you that there is absolutely no treatment for him/her and that the recovery rate is less than .01% We understand your loss and have put together a list of actions to take in direct response to those of the loved one. Here are a list of scenarios and the appropriate responses to those actions. We encourage you to implement these immediately. Your family member may seem suspicious at first but will be too consumed by his/her addiction to give it much thought. <br /><br />Here are some scenarios and responses:<br />Scenario:The addict is on craiglist or ebay looking for more machines or parts.<br />Response: Walk away/leave room.<br /><br />Scenario: At a family gathering you notice the addict is not participating. You eventually locate addict in the garage working on a machine.<br />Response: Walk away/ leave room.<br /><br />Scenario: Addict states that instead of going to Mother-In-Law’s for her birthday he is going to stay home and work on a machine.<br />Response: Get in car/drive away.<br /><br />Scenario: Addict comes home with new machine that is clearly beyond the household budget.<br />Response:Walk away/leave room.<br /><br />Scenario : Addict states he/she plans to attend coin-op show or auction.<br />Response : Walk away/leave room.<br /><br /><br /><br />This is the pattern of responses that will help you deal with your loved one’s addiction and lessen the strain of the addiction on your personal relationship with him/her. Repetition is the key to success with this program. Once again, we sympathize with your loss and through this program we feel you can minimize the frustration and helplessness of the situation.Remember, it is you that has the problem dealing with it, not him/her. Good luck. You can now direct the addict back to the computer.<br /><br />Dear classic coin-op collector,<br />This should help ease some of your anxiety and lessen the confrontations with your loved ones. Your family and friends reactions to your addiction may seem strange at first. This is normal and will diminish after the first few days. Results may vary.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-23443747086209443872009-04-05T10:47:00.017-06:002009-04-09T15:23:52.410-06:00Imagine...It seems that each day we can add something new to the list of things that today's youth will have to do without. Without naming names or placing blames let’s just all acknowledge the fact that we are not allowing the children of today to enjoy the same world we grew up in. Innocence is lost. The list of things that will be banned, forgotten or extinct, things of both biological and man made origins is growing rapidly. One item in particular that I added to that list the other day will not make headlines. It won’t be the focal point of a government agency or any kind of focus group whatsoever. This addendum will not inspire protests, rallies or radio talk show phone calls. But in my mind, it’s just as criminal and shameful as everything else we are cheating them out of. How is it that we can do away with making anything in this world today that will be worth collecting tomorrow? Can you imagine a world where nothing being made will ever be collectable? Can you imagine anything that Walmart sells ever being collectable? Can you imagine anything with “Made In China” stamped on it ever being highly sought after? Nothing being made today has soul. Nothing. What cheap piece of junk being made today could possibly be coveted in 20-40 years as today's youth look for a token from their childhood or teen years? What cheap piece of junk being made today will even last that long?<br /><br /><br />The only reason I can find any comfort in this at all is in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they will adopt our treasures to fill the void. These classic coin-op machines do not discriminate. I have yet to see someone of any age look at one of these jewels from the past without a smile erupting on their face. These machines cast spells, spells that are not easily resisted. And it is in this little known fact along with the lack of anything being made today worth collecting that I place my hope for their survival. Turn on a Gottlieb Kings and Queens and tell me it doesn’t have a soul. Turn on a 1950’s jukebox and tell me it doesn’t have a soul. Observe a row of classic arcade games lighting up the dark and tell me there isn’t just a little something more to them than the base materials of plywood and wire would suggest. <br /><br />The power these machines wield is almost scary. We collectors are well aware of what they can make us do, forget, and remember. They can make us travel great distances, forget to exercise sound judgment, and remember specific places and times that we might otherwise forget. I can look at one of these machines and in an instant be reminded of holding hands with my friends’ big sister as we roller skated on Friday night at the rink. Nothing beats being a 5th grader skating with a 7th grader during couples skate. I can look at one of these machines and flashback to my Dad looking over my shoulder and yelling “whoops” through his semi-crooked smile, a smile forged from the the lack of control over the left side of his face, not the lack of character within, as another ball drained right down the middle without me even getting to smack it once with a flipper. Sure made it hard to justify another quarter when that would happen. I look at these machines and wonder if there is any rhyme or reason as to why some survived and yet others were sentenced to early deaths by operators and lazy, greedy collectors. If they really do have souls then can these things possibly be inherently good or bad and are they being saved or punished accordingly? Maybe those machines that were parted out or slaughtered by those sledgehammer wielding operators and sent to the landfills were the same ones that enticed that money Mom gave you for milk and bread right out of your pocket as you entered 7-11. And what about the games that were fortunate enough to be spared death by sledgehammer and find their way out of those dark, dusty warehouses and into our game rooms? Are they the “good”ones? <br /><br />Ok, I am starting to drift a little here so back to the point. No matter what you believe, we have a moral obligation to establish a connection between these coin-operated relics and as many youngsters as we can so that hopefully one day after we are gone they will have something to call their own. We have sold out and we have souled out and we owe them something for it. And when my own personal expiration date comes and if I should be lucky enough to enter the pearly gates, I hope there are some classic arcade games, A Seeburg Hi-Fidelity juke, and a Gottlieb Wedgehead or two there waiting for me. There must have been at least a couple machines that were wrongly executed, bypassed our game rooms and made it up there. “Pearly Gates Arcade”, I like the sound of that. You can call me a dreamer. I’m sure I’m not the only one.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-31386861068105237962009-02-28T10:41:00.004-07:002009-02-28T11:11:11.602-07:00"Restoration-Lite"This being a blog about arcade game collecting and restoration, I know I can only skate so long between extreme game makeovers. But due to time restraints, weather restraints and plain old lack of motivation restraints, I have been hard-pressed to get my you- know-what in gear and get out there and fix up a game. A recent reconfiguration of the gameroom ( more on that to come ) left me with a gaping hole to fill. It was just the motivation I needed to overcome previously discussed restraints and make something happen. <br />Typically speaking, when you see the word “lite” after anything, it means you are paying more for less. Less sugar, less calories, less fat, you know, basically everything and anything that makes something good to begin with.” Lite” usually means unnatural, artificial, and as much as you try and kid yourself, worse- tasting than the original. Well I am bucking the trend here with an old Zaxxon arcade game. This game is really what I consider a survivor. It has been in deep hibernation in the garage for about 5 years now. There were a few minor blems here and there but nothing too serious. The sides are almost flawless so it was really just the front that needed attention. I was really tempted to go big and replace the front wood grain, control panel overlay, t-molding and the buttons but stopped just short of pulling the trigger. After giving it a little more thought, the goal here would be to salvage as much of the original game as I could and like some of those home-improvement shows, I wanted to make the game look as good as I could on a shoe-string budget. <br /><br />A lot of people have a real dislike for the wood grain on some of the classics like this Zaxxon. For me, it brings back memories of the coffee table we had when I was a kid. I grew up in a pretty strict household. There wasn’t a lot of wiggle room on the house rules, but luckily one thing my parents understood was the importance of Hot Wheel cars being allowed on the coffee table. The ”Speed Racer canyon jump” from the arm of the sofa to the coffee table was an integral part of my childhood. Rather than fight it, my Mom just covered the table with some faux pas contact paper and would replace it about every 6 months or 3,000 Hot Wheel car miles, whichever came first. The wood grain on the Zaxxon would have to stay.<br /><br />The trick to a resto-lite isn’t to make everything perfect, but to touch up the blemishes just enough to where your eye passes over them, at least initially. I cleaned the lower black panel and touched it up. I also touched up the spot in the middle of the front wood grain panel where it had obviously been allowed to free-fall open and hit a key that was in the lower access panel. . I cleaned the original overlay and buttons. I repainted all of the black metal pieces except the marquee bracket and speaker grill as they looked fine.<br /> I did take one liberty and painted the inside edges and around the speaker grill area black. The original brown paint was totally worn off in several places. The only parts that were actually replaced were the locks on the doors. The keys were missing and I had to break in to the game. <br /><br />Unlike something that is typically “lite“, my restoration of this game was less expensive and the game is almost completely original. It was more like a face-lift than a restoration actually. In the end, I am pleased with the outcome and for once I am more proud of what I didn’t replace than what I did replace. Like our old coffee table, this game isn’t perfect, but it is presentable and as Mom used to say “A little powder and a little paint, makes you pretty when you really aint “. So without further a-do, I give you all the less- than- gory details of a resto-lite. I think Mom would be proud. <br /><br /><br />Before :<br /><br /><br />The itsy bitsy spider was here:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000626.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000626.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>The original overlay and handle looking a little shabby-chic:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000622.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000622.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>A chip dead-center of the front and chipped black paint and rust around the coin acceptors:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000620.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000620.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>The lower panel in need of some TLC. Most of that is actually ON the paint, not scratches IN the paint :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000618.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000618.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />The After :<br /><br /><br />Brown may be the new black, but on this game I had to march to my own beat:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000674.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000674.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>The overlay isn't perfect, but it is better thanks to some Permatax Fast Orange hand cleaner followed up with some vinyl conditioner. I did in fact purchase one of the new overlays before I decided to salvage the old one so I set it aside. Normally I would have that joystick handle powdercoated, but this being a budget makeover I went with Rustoleum Satin :<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000678.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000678.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>The chip in the front was touched up with a dab of brown paint so it blends into the woodgrain better and your eyes are drawn to the fresh black paint of the coin acceptors:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000661.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000661.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>I was so close to repainting this whole panel but a little ( ok well alot of ) elbow grease and some touch up paint and the budget makeover train continued to roll:<br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000659.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000659.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center>Zaxxon struts it's stuff amongst the other classics.It's "stuff" may be a little time-worn, but this game has nothing to be ashamed of : <br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=P1000671.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000671.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a><br /></center><br />The End.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-55970940963572655002009-01-11T10:50:00.004-07:002018-03-09T00:24:58.925-07:00The Traveler.The year is approximately 1996 as a man quickly makes his way through the San Francisco International Airport. He is a traveler just like any of the other people zig-zagging the busy terminal weaving in and out before him. This traveler however is unlike the others in that he has no luggage, no passport and no rental car reserved. No companion, no carry- ons, and no concerns about delays or FAA rules and regulations. His ticket is a pocket full of quarters. His destination is 1980. As he makes his way towards the arcade in the international terminal to play Donkey Kong, visions of various journeys from the past dodge in and out of his mind just like the frazzled passengers in his path. He has been a traveler of sorts most of his life. He grew up in a middle class family who frequently took to the road with their travel trailer in tow. This family belonged to a trailer club made up of about 20 or so families that enjoyed meeting up at a camp ground or RV park one weekend out of every month. On the longer Easter week vacations they would caravan and cover several hundred miles down the coast to Mexico or the amusement parks of Southern California. <br />
<br />
If there was one constant among RV parks it would be rec-rooms and if there was one constant among RV park rec- rooms it would be arcade games and pinball machines. Virtually every park back then had at least a couple of games and a couple of kids playing them at any given time. I was one of those kids. Those were some of the best times of my life. Each year as the schedule of outings was announced I would do a quick internal review of the rec-rooms of each park on the list. Occasionally there would be a park that was new to us. “They better have some machines if they know what’s good for them” I thought. Of course, most of the games back then were of the electro-mechanical nature as this was the early to mid 1970’s. I can still remember playing the old EM pins at Smith Woods in Felton and the Speedway at Travel Village near Magic Mountain. Travel Village had one of the better game rooms and was something I really looked forward to, almost as much as the amusement park itself. This would go on for years. Two travel trailers and tens if not hundreds of thousands of miles later, our trailering career slowly came to an end. When you are in elementary school, there is nothing cooler than your parents rolling up outside of the school around noon on a Friday with the trailer in tow to pick you up early and head off on an adventure. When you are a freshman in High School, there is nothing more un-cool than your parents rolling up outside around noon on a Friday with the trailer in tow to pick you up early and head out on an adventure. And so it came to pass. We would outgrow the trailer and it would eventually be sold. Life does that sometimes.<br />
<br />
A simple “Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find gate D11 ? “ and my mind drifted back to the air terminal I was in. “Can’t you see I’m on my way to play DK on my lunch break? “ I wanted to say but instead I would set yet another lost passenger in the right direction and then be on my way. It’s not easy covering that much ground in an airport wearing a uniform and carrying a walkie- talkie without being flagged down at least once or twice. Don't these people realize they are cutting into my precious Donkey Kong time? Eventually I arrived at the arcade. The Donkey Kong in there was the lone artifact of the early 80’s era. It was neglected in every sense of the word. But for me, it was a destination that was probably just as satisfying as that of any other traveler in that airport. After a few minutes the radio came to life. ”Base to Dave, copy?”. Can’t they see I’m playing Donkey Kong ? !!! “Ya, I’m here” I replied. The radio crackled again,“We have Aircraft 337 out of service on D32 . Need you to meet inbound trip 17 at D27 and pick up an AOG ,then head to UA asap ! I wanted to fire back “I’m playing DK on 1P with JM2 on L4 and I have 86k , hold on !”<br />
But as my very own resume states, “I procured aircraft parts and tooling on a global scale for out of service aircraft". Fellow travelers were counting on me. It’s what I was getting paid for. Amidst all the madness of a busy International airport terminal I had found my destination, but work had also found me. “On my way” I replied and I was on the move again.<br />
<br />
It was hard not to think about all of those people spending thousands of dollars to get to their destinations compared to the relatively inexpensive yet memory laden trips we took in the travel trailer. I managed to travel quite a bit while with the airlines but it was never quite the same as an outing with my family in the trailer. Sometimes I wonder if those rec-rooms still exist in the trailer parks we traveled to. Sometimes I wonder if those parks are even still there. And while sometimes it is nice to hop on a jet and go far away to a distant land, sometimes a travel budget of 25 cents and a lunch break is all you need.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-16875002661694094222008-12-20T09:34:00.010-07:002008-12-27T18:42:36.686-07:00Send it Back...This isn’t the Christmas I ordered. Is it the Christmas you ordered? If Christmas or what Christmas has become I should say was a meal in a restaurant I’d send it back. “Excuse me, waitress, this isn’t what I was expecting, it’s like it’s out of a can or something. The flavor is just all wrong.” Send it back and take me back to when Christmas was free from all the additives and “flavor enhancers” and felt more like a home cooked meal. <br />Take me back to when making Christmas cookies with Mom meant actually having to have a bag of flour in the house and you knew exactly what was going into them even though it was supposed to be a secret recipe of Grandma's. You actually made the dough yourself instead of rolling out some glob of stuff that was sealed in a plastic bag with an expiration date on it so far into the future it could be handed down like an heirloom. “I leave my unused bag of cookie dough in the fridge to my great nephew Billy”. Making the cookies was an event instead of something you had to hurry up with and get out of the way.<br /><br />Take me back to a time when Christmas was not just about giving, but <em>forgiving</em> so you could keep from <em>re-living</em> what ever grudge you were hanging onto. And while I’m on the subject of giving, all of those gifts you bought on the credit cards are tainted by the negative vibe that comes with them as the recipients realize you are giving more than you can or need to or should. Just like 4 of a kind beats a full house, a simple Christmas card beats a credit card any day of the week. Anyone worthy of a gift from you would never expect you to go beyond your means. <br /><br />Take me back to when a single strand of multi-colored lights across the front of the house would suffice. In my subdivision there is a contest giving away cash to the best decorated house. Too bad my single strand of 1970’s style multi-colored bulbs won’t stand a chance against the meter-spinning displays that belong to some of my neighbors. But don’t get me wrong, I will enjoy Christmas and will do it on my terms, not the ones that have been set forth by my HOA, the commercials on the radio telling me how every woman wants diamonds, the neighbors that want to cover every square inch of their house with a light, and the parents that are out trampling people and fighting over toys in the department stores. There is a commercial on the radio here for a salon that gives massages to relieve the stress of the holidays. If you need a massage to relieve holiday stress then you are seriously doing something wrong. My message is a little late for this year but I have been busy relaxing, reminiscing and then refusing to comply with the current Christmas standards.<br /><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/?action=view¤t=cbxmas-766361.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/cbxmas-766361.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><br />"<em>no artificial ingredients</em>"<br /><br /><br /><br />I will enjoy my “Charlie Brown Christmas” by watching a Charlie Brown Christmas and playing some classic arcade games. Games from the era of when Christmas was still a religious holiday and not a holiday where religion was on a holiday. Christmas should be like the arcade games we all love. Simple, nostalgic, and fun. Start a new trend using old trends and send this one back. <br /><br />Merry Christmas !Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-2586250701043776552008-11-01T12:53:00.008-06:002008-11-01T13:15:42.558-06:00Turning Back the ClockToday we turn back the clocks. It will be great to sleep in an extra hour. Halloween has come and gone and as usual was a stark reminder of how fast time flies. Hard to believe it’s been a few decades since I was out ringing doorbells myself and filling up an old pillowcase with candy. It would be great to turn back the clocks more than just an hour and turn them back far enough to dress up and head out for a night of trick or treating one more time. I can remember my old neighborhood at Halloween. Tons of candy, cool costumes and decked out houses everywhere. The home made haunted houses in garages where you would reach in a container of eyeballs ( grapes ) ,there were people jumping out at you and they had blacklights and fog machines. Ahh... the good old days. Halloween was, is and always will be my most favorite time of year. And while I may not be able to turn the clock back that far for myself , I am going to try and turn the clock back to 1980 for a Defender I picked up today. <br /><br />Halloween is over and so all things scary are supposed to go back into hiding until next year aren’t they? Guess not. Because the Defender I just picked up from local fellow collector Jon ( a.k.a Frizzlefried on the arcade forums) is about as scary as it gets. Jon warned me. I knew going in it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. Some people are magnets for stray animals. I seem to be a magnet for games that have seen more than their fair share of abuse and neglect. Luckily (?) for me Jon decided that he had enough projects on his plate as it is and was willing to let this one go. Twice in the past I have owned Defenders and have sold or traded them off to offers I could not refuse. I have been wanting another Defender for quite some time and here was my chance. It’s almost impossible to name the top games of the 80’s and not include Defender. It’s hard to see such an iconic game like this in such sad shape. It’s been awhile since I tackled a major restoration project. Time to go a little "Mad Scientist" again and bring yet another classic back from the dead. Stay tuned. <br /><center><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/?action=view¤t=Defenderbeforepics004.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/th_Defenderbeforepics004.jpg"></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/?action=view¤t=Defenderbeforepics005.jpg" target="_blank"><br /><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/th_Defenderbeforepics005.jpg"></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/?action=view¤t=Defenderbeforepics007.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/th_Defenderbeforepics007.jpg"></a><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/?action=view¤t=Defenderbeforepics027.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/th_Defenderbeforepics027.jpg"></a><br><br><br /><a href="http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/?action=view¤t=Defenderbeforepics038.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/Defender/th_Defenderbeforepics038.jpg"></a><br /></center>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-53271828582693276842008-10-12T13:05:00.007-06:002008-10-13T18:19:41.242-06:00Quantum of Solace<center><br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/P1000482.jpg" target="_blank"><br /><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_P1000482.jpg"></a><br /></center><br /><br /><br />Yeah, yeah, I know, this is the title of the upcoming James Bond movie, the follow up to the excellent “reboot” of the Bond series that was Casino Royale. Well as much as I loved that movie and I am looking forward to the next one, this is about something else. So forget about car chases and exotic women in exotic locales and martinis that are shaken and not stirred and just try and think about arcade games or at the very least try and think about arcade games in exotic locales with exotic women and exotic cars. Ok, are you with me now? Good. <br /><br />I often think about how I got started in this hobby. The forces both seen and unseen that came together and led me down this path. The combination of memories, timing and yearning for days gone by and wanting to go back to a time that frankly was just a better place for me. Guess in a way I was looking for my own “reboot” and for some strange reason I thought I could find it in an old arcade game. But it wouldn’t or couldn’t be just any game. It had to be a Space Invaders. This was the game that I had the most vivid memories of playing. There was one located at the Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor in the mall near our house. Farrell’s in itself was a place fueled by nostalgia. An old fashioned ice cream parlor loaded with memorabilia, clanging bells, sirens, flashing lights, and ragtime music. The checkout area was a bastion of lollipops, licorice and tennis ball sized jawbreakers. I spent many birthdays there with my parents who by now had passed and many Friday and Saturday nights there while in High School hanging out with my friends. Amidst all the sugary delights at the cash register stood a lone arcade game. That game as you can probably guess by now was a Space Invaders. I don’t even dare calculate how many quarters I slipped into that machine. I just knew that I wanted to own one. I knew it would reconnect me to a time and specific place of good memories. No other arcade game would suffice. <br /><br />It was sometime around 1993. I had no idea what the internet was. My only hope for finding an old game would be the newspaper. One day I saw an ad in the San Jose Mercury for arcade games. In fact, that is about all it said. Arcade games for sale and a phone number. I made the call. The man that answered identified himself as Yogi. Being new to this I had no idea who he was or what to expect from a guy called Yogi. I asked him if by some miracle he had a Space Invaders. “I think I have 2 or 3 “he said. After talking for a few minutes he explained where I could find him. We set up a time and I drove to his place. This was just too good to be true. On the outside it was just your average beige warehouse type of building. Inside it was another world .I stepped in the door and was shell-shocked. There were several classic beauties all lined up. I remember seeing a Berzerk, Defender , and a nicely restored pitch and bat game among others. Yogi led me through a maze of games and into the back of the warehouse. He had a row of Gottlieb wedgehead pins if I remember correctly and it seems like I remember a Missile Command Cockpit too. Just about every classic title was well represented. With equal parts Willy Wonka and “man behind the curtain” from the Wizard of Oz, Yogi showed me his collection. It was just simply amazing and hard to do it justice with just words. I saw the Space Invaders I wanted and and I also saw an Asteroids that I thought might be my next purchase. We settled on a price. For $400 I could take the Space Invaders home and reconnect with my past. My fate was sealed. <br /><br />Time passed and I decided I would call Yogi and see about that Asteroids. Apparently I was too late. Yogi had liquidated the games. All was lost. Never mind the how or the why. It matters not. All I could think of was how difficult it must have been to give up such a remarkable stash of coin-op machines. To this day I think only a select few even know of this legendary collection of machines and the man that was responsible for them. To Yogi , if by some miracle you happen upon this blog the way I happened upon your magical collection of machines, may you find at the very least a quantum of solace knowing that a seed was planted and that I have done my very best to carry the torch. I hope all is well with you. May all your games end in high scores and if you ever need anything coin-op related come and see me. I owe you one.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-514998111846048176.post-80596840386588368462008-09-13T10:48:00.008-06:002008-09-13T11:14:12.512-06:00The Dark Side of Collecting...Imagine as a kid walking into your local arcade. You walk up to your favorite game, pull out a light saber, and put it right through the screen. You come back with a second swing that leaves a jagged hole through the lower front of the machine. Another strike slices through the side art like it's warm butter. Hard to imagine isn’t it ? Well it’s hard to imagine that any kid that spent any amount of time in an arcade could grow up and destroy a game as an adult either. It used to be that the collecting community was all about saving the arcade games of the galaxy. Now unfortunately, we have a “new breed” of collectors that appear to be turning away from the rest of us. This new group of “hack collectors” as I like to call them will buy a game for cheap and part it out without giving it a second thought. These games had enough enemies as it was. Time and neglect eating away at resistors, capacitors and cabinets. Operators converting machines into hideous new creations. Weather taking its toll on machines left outside by clueless civilians. Now we can officially add greed and instant gratification to the list. <br /><br />These new hack collectors will see a cheap game, buy it, and harvest off its organs without a bit of remorse or care. Greed and instant gratification has lured them to the Dark Side of collecting. The dollar sign has become mightier than the nostalgia for these guys. I understand some games are beyond saving due to water damage, infestation and so on. I’m not talking about those. I am talking about perfectly good games or games that could be saved with minimal effort. I see hack collectors trying to justify their greed all the time. Excuses like “I need the space “or I can’t find a buyer for the complete game “. Some don’t even bother. For some they enjoy the power trip of being “the guy that has what you need”. Guess you can add egos to the list of threats too. As a collector, when you buy a machine, you have an obligation to preserve it. That means sitting on it until you find a buyer if needed. Most of the time when they need space it’s so they can pick up a different machine. They just don’t have the patience to find that unwanted game a new home. They need instant gratification so they just part the machine out. “Gotta get that <em>other</em> game right now ! ” <br /><br />The people that claim to love and restore these machines have become the biggest threat. Greed and instant gratification, the Dark Side of collecting, probably kills more machines in a year than all other threats combined. I remember the days when I would be glad to see these machines make it into the hands of fellow collectors. I knew they would be preserved. Not anymore. Now we as collectors have to identify the collectors who have turned and be careful who we sell to. It used to be that we tried getting games away from the operators, now we have to keep them away from the Dark Side. <br /><br />It’s not too late. It’s not too late for the games and it’s not too late for you if you are one of these hacks. You can change your ways. Somewhere deep down you have a connection to these games that brought you in to the community. The temptations of greed and instant gratification corrupted your previously good intentions. All it takes is some discipline and patience. Discipline to say no to the dollar signs of the Dark Side and patience to find the right buyer for a game you no longer want. Remember the scene in “Return of the Jedi “when Vader realizes he is killing his own son, has a moment of clarity, and turns on the emperor ? That could be you! Put the light saber down and step away from the game. Search your true feelings. The machines are counting on you. Do not let the power of the Dark Side take control. And <em>may The Force be with you</em>, always…<br /><br /><center><br /><a href="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/emp.jpg" target="_blank"><br /><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff48/Space-Invader/th_emp.jpg"></a><br /></center><br /> <center>"No Father ! I will never part out an arcade game ! "</center>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07347020138053503509noreply@blogger.com0