A couple of weeks ago a friend at work told me his little girl was at a skating party in a backwoods town in TN. He was talking to the very old man that owned the rink about his video games. 1/2 of which didn't work. He said he'd get rid of them if somebody wanted them.
He told me about it and I called him. He said he was wanting to close the rink, he could keep up with the kids anymore. I asked him about the video games, and he said if a man came down and got them all, he could have them. I was shaking when I told him I'd take a look.
The old man said that kids today have no respect. They smash the games and try and rip the coin doors out and he was tired of watching them spend "money they should use to eat" in them. (I didn't tell him if they were that poor they wouldn't be skating). So he wanted to get rid of them.
I got my partner in crime and we got my ATV trailer and his big Ford 250 and we went there. He said sure, take 'em all. There were 11, covered in dust in a corner of his business.
In the group was a hang on, Turbo, Kung Fu Master, Commando, Street fighter II, POW, Double Dragon, a dead one with no board (I think it was sega baseball), Mario Brothers wide body, Nintendo Vs system, and a Heavy Barrel.
After cleaning 15 years of dust and and grime that only a barn like skating rink could make, 1/2 of them worked right off. The POW was actually a moon patrol cab converted, the Double dragon was a stargate, and the street fighter was a dynamo. I took cap kits and put in them in some and cleaned them up. We took those 3 to the arcade auction last week in Nashville and sold them for $525 for all 3.
The Heavy barrel was missing the bezel, and the rotary joystick on the P1 side had a cracked PCB that was fixed in about 3 minutes with a soldering gun. I kept it, it's a cool game.
The old man said the commando worked, but only on one side ?? Turned out the dip switches were set wrong. I put a cap kit in it, the marquee was unlit, the bulbs were loose. It came right up. I soldered the neckboard where the KR was broken and put in a capkit and man, it's perfect. My buddy loves that game, but his wife told him he can't have it in the house, so I'll host it here. (What is it with wives and video games?)
The other ones I haven't gotten into yet. They show signs of life and all but the turbo show monitor life. (and the dead one, which had a near perfect WG4600 in it along with a midway style coin door).
So I have been busy. We also yeilded about $15 in quarters that were still in the locked coin boxes and in the bottom of the cabs, so that paid for gas.
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Topic: Be green with envy boys (Read 2054 times)
