I was looking for another, mostly working, project and came across RayB selling his beloved Atari Dominos cab.
We made the deal and met up at the better part of the Starburst/Playdium auction here in Toronto.
For those who don't know, the Starburst/Playdium (Starburst in the Canadian distributor for Happ and bought Playdium a few years back) auction happens every other month or so here and the best deals are always had in the parking lot next door. I had to make a pair of round trips (fortunately under 20 minutes each as I live near by) because I didn't have a truck to haul cabs away in bulk, so I missed a bunch of the dealings. I think it would be fair to say that the deals "next door" were worth well more than the items at the auction. I saw about 15 nice pins change hands, not to mention a number of cool vids -- 2 of which came home with me.
One of the attendees (who is a cool guy -- never had a trade with him, but we have discussed NAOMI hardware at length at a prior auction) put a video up on YouTube including pics taken from the events surrounding the auction ... I will note that he missed most of the exchanges by taking pictures early (I made two appearances before the auction even started and those pictures predated my first arrival). I do not appear in the pictures presented, although my Robotron can be seen early on in the bed of a pickup beside a Mario Bros and a Joust-become-NeoGeo).
For me, the highlight of the day (aside from getting to see RayB, who is a stand-up guy, typically an auction good-luck charm, and the only other BYOACer there) was b1bug hauling a pin from the parking lot over to the warehouse where the auction was, using their power cords and then selling the pin right there on the spot.
Buyer's premium: $0!
Nice.
So, awaiting nothing more than a cosmetic resto, is Atari's Dominos:
My daughter (not pictured) absolutely adores this game -- RayB has taken wonderful care of her (the game, not my kid) -- she is 100% working and just needs some TLC.
For those who may consider buying from RayB in the future, DO SO!
RayB was completely clear in his description of the cabinet (including offers of live video) and included an original copy of the manual (I have always been happy with PDFs before ... never again ... it's cool to be able to actually read the schematics) AND a
very cool keychain featuring the original flyer. I imagine most folks are thinking "yeah, cool, but ..." ... let me tell you, it is very cool and I have put Mrs. Cheffo on eBay-alert(tm) to buy original manuals for all of our dedicated cabs and will be putting together keytags for every machine. He also included a marquee retainer than wasn't original, but was pretty damned close. I have already ground it down to fit (was 1mm too wide!) and it is installed.
The best part of this is that RayB has high-res
scans pics of the CP, so the hard part of the resto is
done made easier.
I know that some of you think that this game is boring ... you are right ... but it is important in the grand history and it is really cool to have one in my collection.
Raw pic taken after I hauled the newly-acquired cabs in from the impending rain and before I haul them to the basement: