Got 3 cabs for free today!

[Jack Burton]

Got a great opportunity today to go get three cabs from the local laundromat for free just for picking them up and getting them out of the way.  So I went and got them. 

I don't have my camera here at my parents with me, so pics will have to wait, but for now I will describe.

Cabinet #1 is a Super Pac-man.  It is in good shape cosmetically and controls wise, but all that happens on power on is a speaker pop and then nothing.  The monitor has severe burn in. 

Cabinet #2 is unknown.  It has the same lines as a Galaga or Pac-man, but it has been painted solid black and converted to Capcom Bowling.  Underneath a few flaked off spots in the black paint I can see a light blue coloring.

It might be a Ms. Pac!

I don't have a key to get in to it and all the stickers on the back have been removed.   I'll have to see the locksmith tomorrow.  The monitor works, although the image is squished a little bit on the left side, and all the controls are not functioning.

Both cabinet #1 and #2 have the old style coin doors with the horizontal coin slots and are in very good condition structural, not water damage or big nicks and cuts.

Cabinet #3 used to be a Rampage and is now a WWF Superstars.  The game will power on and make sounds, but there is no picture on the monitor.  I took the back off and powered on the monitor to see if I could tell anything was wrong and after a while smoke started to whisp off some wires so I turned it off.  The monitor is REALLY dirty, covered thick black dust, so that may have something to do with it.



I'm debating what to do with the cabs now.  The Rampage is in really good condition structurally and is prime for a restore, along with whatever the Capcom Bowling used to be.   

But I'm telling ya, cash is tight for me right now, and the idea of MAMEing them and selling them to my nerd friends is strong, especially for the Rampage cabinet.  It looks like it would be a snap to remove the old 19" monitor, decase a 19" PC CRT and stick it in there with a PC and I-pac.  The cab is nice and wide and it wouldn't be a lot of trouble to make a new control panel. 

The Super Pac I'm thinking about putting a new monitor in and then doing a 60-1 board.  It looks like it would be great for that, considering Super Pac-man isn't that much of a classic game, and the cab has all the same lines as a regular pac man or galaga, and it already has the extra button installed.  I would probably sell it too after that.


The other cabinet I may do a real restore on and keep for myself.  I don't know what it used to be, but it has the same lines as Galaga, and it may get turned into one. 

[RayB]

Light blue = Ms Pac Man.

[Jack Burton]

Hmm, Ms. Pac-man.  Didn't think I would be so lucky. 

I would still like to have a Galaga, but I don't think I could bring myself to deface a Ms. Pac to do it. 

I suppose the only thing I can do is restore it at this point, huh?

[Turnarcades]

Got a great opportunity today to go get three cabs from the local laundromat for free just for picking them up and getting them out of the way.  So I went and got them. 

Git. 

[javeryh]

Do what ever you have to do to the cabs - they are yours!  I'm so jealous of your score even though I have no room for any more cabs in my garage...   

[CheffoJeffo]

Nice snag ... 3 units prime for restoration, but I understand about the $$$ ...

[thatitalian]

You could always donate them to charity!

I have one in mind: the thatitalian cabinet benevolent fund?  

[DeLuSioNal29]

If you're tight on case, you could always hack this USB joystick which only goes for $6.49 here:
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=258

~ D

[SirPeale]

If you're tight on funds, don't call the locksmith, drill the locks out.  You're going to replace the locks anyway.  Locksmith will cost you big $$$.

If you're tight on funds, don't buy monitors to put in there, you said there are monitors in there already.  Use them.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Scour Craigslist for CRT computer monitors.  I got a 21" and 22" for $50 for both on there!

People are all upgrading the LCDs and CRTs are being practically given away.

~ D

[Jack Burton]

Yep, if they get new monitors they're gonna have to be for cheap.  I already have some big CRT computer monitors that I can put in that I picked up at the university auction for a dollar each.  But that's only if I use mame or a multi-board.

The locksmith is one of my friends and he still owes me a favor for helping him fix his pinball machine so that's no problem. 

I already have plenty of hardware laying around for fixing these things up so I don't think it's gonna be that tough.  The real problem will be fixing up the Ms. Pac.  I think I'm gonna do a full restore on that, so that means getting a real 19" arcade monitor working, something I haven't done before.  Well, there's a first time for everything, so I'll get started on it soon.

[RayB]

Hmm, Ms. Pac-man.  Didn't think I would be so lucky. 

I would still like to have a Galaga, but I don't think I could bring myself to deface a Ms. Pac to do it. 

I suppose the only thing I can do is restore it and sell it at this point, huh?

Seems SELLING is your favorite option here for all three? (That's what you seem to be saying). I just want you to know that after all the money put into "restoration" you'd be lucky to get your money back.

People restore for their own personal satisfaction of bringing back a machine they personally want to keep. If you don't want any of those, then just sell them as is to someone who will make better use of them.

[Jack Burton]

Nah, I probably wouldn't sell the Ms. Pac after I got done restoring it.  I have a hard time selling things that I put a lot of work into or were my first project of such a kind.  I still have the old ps1 arcade sticks that I made years ago, even though they haven't seen action since 2005.

[TheShanMan]

Seems SELLING is your favorite option here for all three? (That's what you seem to be saying). I just want you to know that after all the money put into "restoration" you'd be lucky to get your money back.

That's for sure. I've been talking periodically to a couple of different guys locally who are trying to sell their Tron's without luck and when I try to talk them down to what I believe to be a more reasonable amount, they basically say "if you only knew how much I have into it". Well, that's fine and dandy, but it's only worth what someone will pay. And the last 20% of a complete, perfect restoration probably takes 80% of the time and money, and people who want to buy a nice, working cab won't generally see the value in paying what you put into that last 20%.

[Jack Burton]

yeah, my definition fo restore is probably different from most of the guys on this board.  When I say "restore" the cab back to being a Ms. Pac-man, that's about it. 

That means that I'm going to strip off the old black paint and see if I can get the old artwork to show back up.  Then I will put a new control panel in place for the proper controls.  After that comes a Ms. Pac board and whatever else internally.  I will either repair the monitor or put in something that works.  I will make a new marquee or see if I can find one for cheap. 

I'm not going to go for a restoration to a brand new, looks like it just came off the assembly line look, just to merely being a cabinet that plays the game that it was built to play.

My dad's favorite game is Pac-man, so I'm thinking a good place to store the cabinet when it's up and running is at his house. 

[Malenko]

if that WWF game is cheap and JAMMA, I'd buy it (just another game to toss into my MK cab for the nephews) and that'd yield you some cash. Warning, I am a cheapskate when it comes to OLD PCBs, sides you got it free =p