I really thought I was done with "new to me" cabs for a while after finishing up the long-delayed restoration work on Eyes and Kickman last month. But instead I started obsessively scrolling through Craigslist and LetGo and other sales sites, and lo and behold, there it was:
Over there on the right, the one game that was my favorite since the first time I laid eyes on that gorgeous color Quadrascan monitor, but after prices started skyrocketing over the last 20 years I'd lost any realistic hope of landing one. This particular cab was listed as part of a package deal, but I emailed the seller and asked if they'd let me know should they decide to break up the lot. To my surprise I got a near-immediate positive response and started planning to check it out. The Tempest was listed as "dead vector," with no other details. On inquiring I learned that it played blind, and a picture of the monitor looked clean and repairable. So off I went, couple of hours drive away, with a Uhaul reservation in my back pocket in case everything worked out.
It worked out. The seller, who was unloading his old collection ahead of a divorce sale of the house they were in, said he'd bought it at a Super Auction about 20 years ago, and that it had stopped working maybe 10 years ago. He'd checked the board with an o-scope and gotten X and Y, and the monitor had a good neck glow; the Spot Killer light comes on. Really as soon as I saw the tube was intact I was ready to make a deal, and got a pretty good one. For $500 (by far the most I've ever paid for a cab; it's actually more than I'd paid for all my other cabs combined, but still) it was mine.
Got it home, and was pleased to find that it still played blind. The monitor is going out for repair work on Monday. In the meantime I'll be cleaning up and fixing some of the cosmetics: the grille below the marquee is missing, some nimrod had gouged out the rear door lock, and there's a chunk of laminate missing next to the coin door. I should be able to clean up the latter two. For the grille I'll probably have to fabricate something, it doesn't look like that part is available much of anywhere.
But I did get off to a good start, replacing the marquee bulb and starter.
I'm stoked. This is literally the game I've always wanted.