Hawai'ian style raid

[bobbyb13]

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- have I been busy.

So I found this ad on craigslist out here that had 8 cabinets listed as a lot- for $15k
I'm not kidding.
I emailed the guy (who turns out to be a really nice individual who is a retired police sergeant) about buying the Rampage I saw in there and his reply was only "package deal."

So I ignored that, and still stalked his craigslist post of course.

Three weeks go by and all of a sudden his post says $300.  Each of course, but now I'm in. 

After a few emails back and forth (and me actually knowing some of his former police dpt. buddies) I get to the point where I am willing to go get 'em.
So I rent a U-Haul on the other side of the island (Memorial Day mind you- before everybody needs to move out from their old apartment!) and drive the other 15 miles to Kaimuki to go have a look.

They are termite food.

His family had owned this neighborhood convenience store building in this rather old neighborhood on 10th St. for 3 generations and it was going to be sold.  These (once) gems had been relegated to the abyss downstairs- but the cellar/storage needed to be cleared out before the sale was complete.

For extra fun it was a gnarly narrow alleywaydown 1 story from the real road to get to this basement access.
I should've taken pictures of that alone.

After talking to Jerrold for a bit we settle on me building a cabinet for him and his grandkids (with him paying the $$ for materials) in trade for these poor specimens- effectively the hardware of now 6 original games housed in termite poo that I am looking at.

A fair deal for both actually.

The few weeks in-between have been pretty interesting!
I think I need to have the whole workshop termite tented earlier than planned.

[baritonomarchetto]

Nice
This reminds me those old posts on DLF forum

Keep us updated!

[Zebidee]

Wow. That is a great find. Hope you have the space for it!

I'm certain you won't have much trouble re-creating the woodwork, you have the perfect templates already.

[bobbyb13]

That pile consumed a lot of room for a few weeks but finally I have cleared the zone.
All but the Sky Shark turned Tetris were totally bug eaten.
I completely gutted them all for the hardware and traced what I needed to and catalogued cut lists too.

Holy crap.

Now I have more projects than I can get through for years!

The one I will rebuild for myself first (afted I am done with the Galaga style for the Sgt.) will be the Rampage.

While I've been waiting for a legit screen for the Galaga to arrive I already started on the Rampage rebuild.
 

[pbj]

They don’t look that bad.  I played a Ms Pac-Man secured to a palm tree with a chain.  It played fine.  Stop making excuses.

[bobbyb13]

From a few thousand miles away they look great! 
I do like the idea of chaining ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- down out here.
Petty theft is rampant in places.

The Ms. Pacs were like sheets of paint filled with termite poo.
When I pulled the marquee off of one there were termites crawling out of the edge of the speaker panel.
If they had eyes I would swear they were looking at me.

Every time I moved any of these cabinets a pint or more of bug ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- would spill out.
I'm still sweeping it out of the workshop.
You can stick your finger through the holes in many spots and most of them were collapsing on themselves by the time I moved them into the U-haul, out of the U-haul, and into and out of the shop once each.
Every time they got wobblier.

It sucks.
Although I'm not afraid of building cabinets I would prefer to just have real live ones to play with.
The only wood that the termites don't devour immediately is the stuff that is still alive.
Even the borate squeezed ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- eventually winds up dust out here.

Of the 11 original cabinets I have acquired out here only 3 weren't larva food when I got them.

At this point I will need to have the entire workshop tented to save my assortment.

Damn worms-

[baritonomarchetto]

Even if you found termite residues, it is possible that they are not there anymore (believe it or not, it happend to me once).

Checking for their presence is expensive (calls for a thermo imaging camera), but also a stethoscope could help for a first poll

[Zebidee]

Termites love MDF, like nectar for them.

Termites are just part of life in tropical climates. We get them somewhere every year, usually during the wet season (the new queens swarm with the early rains). We have lots of trees, big wooden buildings, and a damn river, so yeah termites. In fact, just found a new nest we have to get rid of. We need to spray around all the buildings at least a couple times a year.

Wait until you get ants invading your x-boxes! They also like my Game Elf & Pandora's Box. Ants are in some ways worse because they invade your electronics looking for a cosy place to live. Not GreenAntz, little black guys. Leave eggs everywhere, coated with some sticky ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. You have to open up everything because the darker the corner, the more they like it.

Now I recall I got a nasty allergy reaction to all the formic acid when cleaning out the xboxes. Next time it happened (with the Game Elf and some other stuff), I went outside and used a mask and compressed air. Take care cleaning out those cabs Bobby!

Word for the day: Borax

[bobbyb13]

I'm ready to build a borax moat around the workshop.

The wood was so bad that I figured the bugs had long ago moved on from having eaten all the good stuff already.
But there were some still around!

All the cabs but the Tetris are so structurally unsound that they are getting diced up and tossed.

Sad to lose the art on the Ms Pacs and Rampage but I will be re-creating lighter stronger boxes for them at least.
Eventually.

The Dynamo SF II  box had no board in it and the Targ had been converted to a Bank Panic.

I'll get a few jamma switchers and have some fun at some point.

[BadMouth]

You missed an opportunity to use the Uhaul as the termite tent. 

[Zebidee]

... and the Targ had been converted to a Bank Panic.

Yay \o/  Now you can put that BP PCB in your Mocktail to both avert disaster and complete my evil plans

[pbj]

Bank Panic is an excellent game.  Get that board going.

[bobbyb13]

You missed an opportunity to use the Uhaul as the termite tent. 

A brilliant plan actually!- but that the chemical cocktail to deprive those things of oxygen is heavily regulated here.
 

Another fellow of like mind to you gents on the Bank Panic is making me a jamma adapter for that board as we speak, so it will be alive again in not terribly long I believe.
That board is actually the first excuse for the soon to be built horizontal jamma cabinet.
If the Tetris cab turns out to be buggy also (the bottom is disintegrating from something) then the Tetris board will go in with the Bank Panic too.

The new vertical one I make will get a BitKit2 and Jrok Q*bert to start.

Man, what a slippery slope all this ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- turned out to be.
 

[Mike A]

Another fellow of like mind to you gents on the Bank Panic is making me a jamma adapter for that board as we speak

Yeah. I have a project for one other guy to do, then I can wire up that adapter.

If I don't get it done this week I will throw mine in the mail for you.

Then if I want to ever play Bank Panic again I will have to wire up another one for myself.

[Zebidee]

Please try to put Bank Panic in a cocktail. For two-player it is the bomb! You and Nikki will not regret it!

[nitrogen_widget]

You missed an opportunity to use the Uhaul as the termite tent. 

HA!
I was thinking the same thing.
bug bomb the truck and close the door.

[bobbyb13]

Another fellow of like mind to you gents on the Bank Panic is making me a jamma adapter for that board as we speak

Yeah. I have a project for one other guy to do, then I can wire up that adapter.

If I don't get it done this week I will throw mine in the mail for you.

Then if I want to ever play Bank Panic again I will have to wire up another one for myself.

Greatly appreciate that Mike, but ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, I don't even have that cabinet built yet!
Take your time, I'm stoked as it is.

And then you could always tell your crew you are heading out to come stay with us and play my Bank Panic here.
 

You rock.