This story is somewhat of a long read but it might interest someone so here goes...
Last month I found a guy on Ebay selling a lot of cabinets and other games. I emailed him, since he was close to my in-laws, and asked him if he had an over/under coin door that I could buy for my MAME project. Turns out he had a really nice one and he said he'd let me have it for $10. I agreed and we arrange a meeting to pick it up next time I was around his way.
Meeting day:
So I go to his place. This guys place was out in the woods on a big piece of property. Very strange place. The first thing I saw pulling in was a giant 15 ft tall dinosaur on the right and a huge elephant on the left. (Like you'd see at an amusement park) Immediately I was overwhelmed and trying to figure out where to go, when all of the sudden he came flying out of nowhere on a golf cart. His place was so huge that he drove around from building to building.
He had me follow him to a garage in the back of his driveway where he had the coin door for me. I was surprised to find a bunch of arcade and pinball games in the garage. So, we started talking about what he had in there. He let me play a few game he was selling and he let me look around a bit. That's when I discovered hundreds of marquees all lined up on shelves. I asked him where they all came from. "I've been saving them from all the games I've burned." Horrified I said "oh my god, no!" He explained to me that he owns a few huge camp sites around NY and that he had a bunch of games in storage here and in another location. He was getting overrun with games and he didn't know what to do with the all them so he just burned some to get rid of them. He had been doing this for a few years now which is why he had so many marquees on that shelf. He does sell some on ebay from time to time when he converts decent cabinets into 48 in 1's etc, but mostly the cabs are in rough shape from being at his campsites so he just dismantles them and gets rid of the "scrap".
I told him how i was amazed at the the games he has burned. It was at this time that he pointed to his truck out in the back. On it was a Williams cabinet. In rough cosmetic condition but still sturdy. He said that he was going to drink some beer and burn the cab that night. I told him not to do it. He asked me if I wanted it for $10 so I took it. He then asked me if I was interested in more stuff. He took me around and started opening these tractor trailers he had lined up. They were full of games, parts, sit-down games, you name it. I was in awe. Unfortunately I do not have room for a big game room or I would have picked up a few things. I did tell him I would be back in the future.
Now, I had originally only planned on getting a coin door and I was not prepared to haul a full arcade cab out of there! Somehow with his help I managed to cram it into my wife's 1999 Honda CRV. It was tight but I got it in there and even managed to close the doors.
I took it back to the in-laws and tell them I have to put something in their basement for a bit. They agreed, but looked like they wanted to take it back when I popped the hatch and pulled out the full size cab!
So to wrap it up... here's what I got for $10. 1 Williams cab that had been converted many times. From what I can tell (from pulling back the layers of CPO's on the panel) this is the time line. Moon Patrol - Sinistar - unknown game - Rastan - 2 player Neo Geo(present)
Needless to say it needs work. I know nothing about restoring games to their original operating condition. i only would be able to handle the cosmetic stuff and converting it to a MAME cab. I was thinking of restoring it to a 2 player Moon patrol MAME cab. I also am toying with the idea of Joust or Sinistar. I haven't decided yet.
It's very dust and needs a few new pieces of wood. It'll be a good project for me this fall. There is no board for any game in it. Not sure if the monitor works but i'm guessing it doesn't. (I don't really intend to mess with it since I have no idea how to wirk on it)
It came with a 2-player Control Panel which I did not take pictures of yet. It is just a reworked original with a beat up Rastan CPO.
full pic
needs new back door to get rid of the mold spots.
nice coin door. just needs a little TLC
needs new plexi
So that's my story. I just wanted to share since I like reading posts like this on here myself. When I get to working on it I'll post pics.
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Topic: check out his Williams cab I purchased for a project - (long story) (Read 2584 times)
