Looky what I just got.......

[Iggy]

Man, this thing is in ROUGH shape......



How rough? You ask........ look:



Yes, that's the back door and the piece it rests on hanging off. The piece below it where the rear wheels are is also off on one side.

Why would I acquire an arcade cabinet in such shape, you wonder?

Long story, but I'll make it short:

Back in the early 80s, I literally lived at the pool hall across the street from my house. Wake up, go to school, finish the day, go home, clean up and change... go over there. Stay there until closing time... then go home, sleep, and do it all over again.

The place burned down in '84. They never rebuilt, and I earned my Lunar Lander cabinet by helping them move the others to their house. I had been best friends with the owners son.... and as happens, we lost contact over the years.

Fast forward to Sept of last year. My grandmother had passed, and I had moved down near where the parents live. I was on my way to the dollar store one late morning, and saw them outside. So I went over to talk for a bit. We caught up, and as I'd recently gotten my Dig Dug cocktail, I mentioned it. I told them that I still had Lunar Lander after all these years, and they asked me if I wanted a Poker machine. I told them I already had one, but it brought about my next question.... "What else do you have in there?" They mentioned "That Racing Game"(Pole Position), and thought they had some others. They also said that they were looking to clear the garage out. I offered to help as much as I could, and they offered me Pole Position.

I had no idea they'd had any of them left. I was saddened to learn that all of the others had been junked, but at least this one remained. Despite it's rather sorry state, I made the claim that I would not only get it working again, but that I would be proud to have a piece of my own history in my line up.

I did some proper research, and learned quite a bit. Despite having been in a fire, I can repair it. The cabinet is actually more solid than it looks, but does need some help. I picked up some parts today, and got to work on it. It's still in process of being repaired, but I SHOULD have it running before this weekend. After that, I'll worry about fixing the cabinet, and then put a whole new set of capacitors on the monitor(seems to need them). It needed a Helluva cleaning, both inside and out..... but this is another cabinet that will never leave my collection. I will die before I part with it.

I put it in the line up, and the Poker machine is being relegated to the basement(it needs repair also, but those are a fucker to work on) to make room:

[Innoc]

I put a ton of quarters into the 3 video games you have there during the Golden Age of the Arcade.

[Iggy]

Heh.... so did I. It was a great time to be a teenager. Lunar Lander I actually got back in '84..... after the fire. Had to wait 32 years to get Pole Position, from the same fire.

Oh, I also have this classic:



Yet another game I pumped lots of quarters in BitD.

[9u-9u-9u]

that arcade machine looks irreparable. are you gonna have to do woodwork making a new cabinet?

i looked up dig dug. that game looks hard to play on an arcade machine where you have a joystick and popout buttons. i dunno how someone can play with precision on those. with split seconds important in games like ff on input it seems like someone on a machine like that would end up in a tantrum. have you ever seen someone take it out on a machine. or do you collect them so you can finally give them that beating you've had in the works since '85

[Iggy]

Pole Position is actually in better shape than it looks.... at least, structurally. I did get a replacement piece for the top, but the bits down bottom can be glued and sealed back together. Given what I know it's been through, I'm quite surprised it's in as good of a shape as it is. It is as clean as I can get it, though.... heat damage to the side-art could be fixed(replaced), but I prefer to leave it original.

Dig Dug.... Yes, the game is difficult... as most of them were back in the 80s. I never got mad at a machine for "kicking my ass", though.... as it was simply doing what it was programmed to do. The variable involved was myself.

PP is giving me a fit, though, on the electrical side. I've got the PCB re-wired for better power flow, and replaced the blown parts on the AR-II board. Something else is wrong in there, so I'm going to start tracing from the power cord right up to each end point. The monitor, marquee, etc are getting power.... but the PCB still isn't. So there's a problem somewhere.

I collect these things, because I played them back in the 80s, and still find them a challenge. I have a list of about 35 more of them I'd love to acquire. I just don't have the room for them right now.

In a way, it's hard to get mad at them now, since they don't actually cost money to play. Back then, you put a quarter in, played, and if you sucked.... had to either walk away, or put another quarter into it and try again.

[YomMamasHouse]

Oh man, dig dug, there's an old memory of mine. I tried playing that on a PC emulator but it just wasn't the same experience.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by YomMamasHouse

Oh man, dig dug, there's an old memory of mine. I tried playing that on a PC emulator but it just wasn't the same experience.

I have found that to be the case with a lot of games. I even bought an "Atari 2600 style" joystick for my PC, and run some games through emulation...... even with the familiar joystick, it's just not the same.

Right now, my "game room" consists of 4 machines in the dining room. The three uprights against the wall, and Dig Dug got moved in there to serve as a prep table when not being played. It was in the living room, originally put there as a coffee table our pit bull couldn't move. Sadly, it sits a little too high for that purpose.

My "future project" is to have an actual dedicated room(or basement) for them, all done up like an old 80s style arcade. It will probably mean having to re-wire the area for enough power to have them all on at the same time. That will be in a future home we don't have yet.

Yes, I have a VERY understanding wife. How many women do you know that would actually "sacrifice" dining space for 30+ year old video games the size of a refrigerator?

There are a few games on my "must have" list that are more for her than for me..... so I guess that's a bit of compromise.

One of my fellow collectors not only has an incredible game room set up, but hand-built a 50s style diner just off of it for his wife to entertain in:

[Grantt]

it's pretty old for sure

[Iggy]

In for a penny, in for a pound...........



Picked these two up a couple of weeks ago. Mostly just for the cabinets. I'm going to convert them into multi-cade machines, and try to sell them. Going to need new electronics, of course... monitors, and control panels, and something for a bezel(the glass part over the screen). Still in the planning stage on these.

[9u-9u-9u]

turn them into something else. i'd imagine poker is the least played machine in an arcade

what's a multicade is that like mario all stars where there's many games in one

is it gonna be worth it if you have to replace the monitors. those seem like they'd be the most expensive part

[Iggy]

A multi-cade basically uses a new board with a bunch of different games on it, that use the same control configuration.

As far as the monitors go, it's possible to put LCD screens in them, and they can be gotten for cheap if you know where to look. The purist in my doesn't like that, but considering that it will be the general populous I'd be targeting for selling to, they won't care as long as it plays.

CRTs are getting expensive, though.... not sure how I'm going to proceed on the one I'm going to keep. I do have some 14" monitors around here, they may be good enough.

[Fat-Suzy]

i made this over easter...

https://imgur.com/a/FHuIR
(excuse dog, snuck into my upload folder)
I stripped down a usb game controller to its pcb, then soldered the button pads to crimp connectors, and connected it to arcade hardware. The box is made of a strip of hardwood decking and the faceplate is cut out of the side of an old atx tower.

been meaning to upload pics for a long time. Thought it should go in this thread. I plan on doing a full cabnet build next, i have all the buttons and sticks i need, prolly use an old computer for the brain and emulate games.

[Iggy]

You might have a better time with it if you use one of these:

https://www.highscoresaves.com/pcbs/multigame-kits.html

They are pretty easy to set up, where-as a MAME emulator can be a real bastard. It uses a JAMMA harness(included), which is the current standard(has been since ~'85)... so almost any game PCB can be dropped in without changing anything else.

I think there's a website for building your own arcade cabinets... but I'd have to do some searching to find it.

[Fat-Suzy]

I think i'd enjoy the challenge of starting with an old computer or rasp pi and a linux distro... i like getting my hands dirty with that stuff.

I was thinkin i'd just get someone like you to send me some cabnet measurements... im a carpenter by trade so the actual construction side of it is easy for me

[Dr. eXpl0si0n]

Originally Posted by Fat-Suzy

i made this over easter...

https://imgur.com/a/FHuIR
(excuse dog, snuck into my upload folder)
I stripped down a usb game controller to its pcb, then soldered the button pads to crimp connectors, and connected it to arcade hardware. The box is made of a strip of hardwood decking and the faceplate is cut out of the side of an old atx tower.

been meaning to upload pics for a long time. Thought it should go in this thread. I plan on doing a full cabnet build next, i have all the buttons and sticks i need, prolly use an old computer for the brain and emulate games.

i have a sammy too!