Sold my first "Multicade"

As I posted in September, I picked up a Vigilante game for a decent price. Then in November, I posted that I began turning it into a 60-in-1 Multicade. Today was the day that I finished it:


I spent about an hour today wiring the new "Pac" style joystick, installing the rebuilt monitor chassis and mounting the pcb. Previously, I installed a custom marquee and bezel, black control panel overlay and some buttons that matched the color scheme. The next step was to list it on Craigslist. I decided to leave the sideart on it and if it didn't sell I would then remove it for a cleaner all-around look. I took a few pictures, wrote some cheesy copy and popped it up on the local CL. Around 30 minutes later I received a phone call from someone wanting to buy it. Fingers crossed, but by tomorrow by 11 AM this "Multicade" should be sold!

Registered a few domain names

I just registered www.arcadekeychains.com and www.arcadekeychains.net just in case I ever go forward with this as a side business!

DJ DNS made the trip again!

My buddy from Virginia (dj dns on the KLOV forums) made another 6 hour trip up to Pittsburgh yesterday. This time it was for a dedicated Front Line that I picked up for him about 30 minutes away from me. I held it for him for a week or so until he had a chance to pick it up. Since he was already making the trip, I asked him for a few things and he was able to bring them- an R.B.I. Baseball pcb and a JAMMA harness. We tested the R.B.I. Baseball in my Vs. cabinet and I think I'm going to keep it in there for awhile. I forgot how much I loved that game back in the day. The JAMMA harness is for my Mutli Williams project that is slowly progressing along.

Turning Vigilante into a 60 in 1

I began turning my Vigilante machine into a 60 in 1 Multicade. Vigilante is a game I'll never play, but the cabinet is in great shape with a nice monitor. So with very little work, I can turn this into a Multicade and sell it for a decent profit. I rotated the monitor and ordered a 4-way joystick last night. I'll make a generic bezel and leave the marquee and control panel as is. If it won't sell with the Vigilante artwork, I'll buy a Multicade marquee and cpo later. But I think this will go on Craigslist pretty quick for the Holidays. Here's a before shot:

Centipede is working

I received a working AR-II board from a KLOV member this week and had a chance to install it in my Centipede. I fired it up and it had some horizontal sync issues. After about 15 minutes of fine tuning it, Centipede now works! I am a bit concerned about the h-sync not staying as I had to re-adjust it about 2 hours later and it also has lost the color red. I keep troubleshooting it, but I'm guessing the monitor is due for a cap kit...

Traded the Red Tent

With regrets, I traded my Nintendo red tent. I kept hearing from one person in particular that it just took up too much space in the game room. So, instead of selling it outright, I traded it for an upright Nintendo vs. System cabinet. The upright is in nice shape with Excitebike installed. It's also much smaller than any of my other games, so it's a win-win for wifey and I. I'll dig around a bit and see what other chips I can buy to swap onto the board for more games. Here are some quick pics:

Finished my Time Pilot!

I got my new Time Pilot pcb in the mail that I bought from a forum member with his High Score Save Kit installed. I played a few games with the Gyruss control panel that I bought, since it had the correct "Monroe" joystick that Centuri games use. The Monroe stick felt a little "wonky" and wouldn't center correctly. I planned to take it apart and clean it, re-assemble it and re-install it but I became too impatient. I spent some time this past weekend installing the control panel overlay on my cleaned up Time Pilot control panel. It is a bootleg cpo, but I thought it was pretty cool looking, so I gave it a shot. Well, installation went smoothly and I just couldn't wait anymore. I had a yellow ball top Wico joystick handy, so I installed it. WOW- does it look cool! I still plan to clean up the Monroe stick, but this yellow Wico together with the color scheme of the cpo are really growing on me! Now it's a waiting game until the side and kickplate art are reproduced.

I put together a short video on the state of my Game Room as of September 2010:

Crystal Castles is Here!

After a "long" wait, Crystal Castles is finally here! Darryl, a buddy of mine in the arcade hobby, drove 6 hours from Virginia to deliver it. He helped me get it into the game room and I put it in place after a few pics were taken. Wow, is it in nice shape! This game is my "Holy Grail" of arcade games. It was the first game that I remember playing back in the day and it brings back a bunch of fond memories. I played a few games last night and got as high as 2nd place. Of course, I could just erase the High Score table but I want to take the Number 1 spot before doing that! This game was well worth the wait!

Another Data East cab!

I picked up a Data East Vigilante game last night off of Craigslist. I was emailing the seller back and forth last week and we agreed on a price. From the pictures, it was really clean- side art in tact, cpo, marquee and bezel are in great shape. The monitor is crystal clear as well. With a 90 degree monitor rotation, this will make a perfect 60 in 1. Or, depending on availability, I might make it a horizontal 19 in 1. Either way, this is a perfect cabinet for a multigame since this game isn't that sought after.

Finally added GAMES to the GAME Room!

After the neighborhood annual garage sale this past weekend, there was finally room in the Game Room for... GAMES! We sold a bunch of stuff, including the huge entertainment center that took up a lot of space in the Game Room. With that piece gone, the space that it occupied was perfect for 2 games side by side. I vacuumed, dusted and then moved Karate Champ and Heavy Barrel in. They now sit snugly in the space left by the entertainment center. I moved the Red Tent over a bit to make room. The MAME machine still sits in the other corner. I have Crystal Castles coming soon, so I need to open up Google SketchUp and plan what to do next. Here's a pic without the flash:

Custom Control Panel Overlay for Heavy Barrel

I took about 20 minutes the other night to put together a custom control panel overlay for my Heavy Barrel. It will still need a few tweaks but I'm happy with the look of it:

Here's the mock up of it in Google SketchUp:

I have to size it and make sure all the measurements are correct and then I'll send it off to Game On Grafix.com to print.

One Step Closer To My Arcade Grail...

Last night, I drove 2 hours to pick up a game for a fellow KLOVer. In return for this pick up, he'll be cutting me a huge deal on my arcade game Holy Grail- Crystal Castles. He lives in Virginia about 6 hours away from me and there was no way for me to drive there and get it (and I wasn't having it shipped!) Well, it just so happened that he bought a project game off of eBay that was in the Pittsburgh area and offered me a deal if I would go pick it up and hold it for him. He'll be shipping the Crystal Castles to me and the shipper will pick up his project cab and take it back to him! Step One is complete!

P.O.W. is now Heavy Barrel

I spent a bit of time over the weekend converting my P.O.W. to a Heavy Barrel cabinet. I removed the P.O.W. marquee, bezel and pcb. I rotated the monitor to the vertical position (wow, is that easy to do in the Dynamo cabinets!) and installed the Heavy Barrel marquee, bezel and pcb. I spent an hour or so cleaning up the LS-30 rotary joysticks and installing them. I now have a working JAMMA rotary joystick game cabinet. I received a Time Soldiers pcb (another rotary game) but the rotary function doesn't work :-( I will troubleshoot it at a later time.

For this cabinet to be completely finished, I need to find a Data East control panel overlay and create some side art (using Heavy Barrel art). I also need to clean up the coin door and add coin door lights. I'd like to find a JAMMA switcher as well, so I can switch between a few rotary games like Heavy Barrel, Time Soldiers and Search & Rescue, but I'm not sure how that would work with the extra joystick harnesses... For now, Heavy Barrel is up and running- I forgot how much fun that game is!

Comic Wall In Game Room Is Taking Shape

I finally framed my Daredevil poster that I bought last year and flanked it with my Silver Age Daredevil #1 and Daredevil #1 from the new series:

I like it, but I want to jazz it up a bit so I'm on the lookout for more CGC graded comics that I can display on the wall. I'm thinking 6-8 more and the wall will look great. I will use the same type of frames specifically designed for CGC graded comics from http://www.frameitagainsam.com/. Stay tuned True Believers!

Time Pilot Problems

Well, I got a chance to dig into my Time Pilot a bit more in the past few nights. There was a problem with the old joystick (so I thought)- when moving the joystick to the left, it would have no effect to your ship onscreen. I thought this was simply a joystick problem since the old joystick was a Happ Universal stick that had been slapped on there. It was rusted, the microswitches were beat, etc. I bought a converted Time Pilot control panel (converted to a Gyruss) off of a KLOV member because it had a Monroe joystick in it. The Monroe is the "official" joystick that came with Time Pilot. I was really excited to find the control panel for the price- the Monroe stick alone was worth it! So I plugged the panel in and still no movement left. Dammit. I checked from the leaf switch to the board and I have continuity every step of the way. I then switched another direction with the left direction and still no left movement. I posted for help on KLOV and a few of the guys are pretty sure it's a board problem. Dammit again. So now I can troubleshoot the board on my own, I could send it to someone to fix, or I can buy a new board- none of which I am thrilled about!

Astro Invader Added!

I had been emailing this nice lady back and forth about a "video game- the type that is used in bars." I was the second to call about her Craigslist ad last week and she said that she had someone else coming to pick it up. We chatted for a few minutes and I let her know that I collect and restore these as a hobby and if she didn't get rid of it to call me. Well, as luck would have it, I got a call the next day and the person coming to pick it up never showed (big surprise). I ended up being able to pick it up tonight for a grand total of $30! Not sure what I will do with it yet. I am getting good readings from the power supply and it might just be a monitor issue. I'll dig into it a bit more when I get a chance.

Father's Day Arcade Work

Besides the great gifts and time spent with the family on Father's Day, wifey decided to let me do what I wanted- work on my arcade games! I spent about 4 hours in the garage yesterday doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

First, I cleaned up my red tent. It looks nice, but I'm not declaring it "game room ready" just yet. I'm waiting on some new plexi for the instruction cards, looking for 1 button of the correct color and I might remove the control panels and re-paint them. There is a bit of rust where you would rest your palm.

Next, I began transferring my Time Pilot from its current cabinet to my Tri-Sports cabinet. The Tri-Sports is in a Centuri cabinet (used to be a Vanguard) that is in much nicer shape than my Time Pilot. I removed the entire Time Pilot harness, power supply, monitor and coin door and installed it in the Tri-Sports cabinet. I now have an empty Centuri cab with a G07 monitor that will be perfect for a 60 in 1 multigame.

As part of the Time Pilot restoration, I removed the old, beat up control panel overlay and prepped it for the new overlay installation. After scraping, sanding and using Goo Gone, it is now down to the bare metal and ready for the new cpo. I am using a bootleg cpo until I can find a NOS cpo. I think the bootleg one is pretty cool:

I also plan on putting new t-molding on it- I haven't decided on the color yet. Down the road will be the side art as it has not been reproduced yet. I have a very nice marquee and an average bezel installed. After the cpo is installed, I'll cap the monitor and it will be "game room ready."

Got My High Score on Excitebike Tonight

Wifey was working out and the kids were in bed so I thought I'd pop down to the garage to get a few games of Excitebike in. I only played one game of Excitebike, since I got my highest score ever- 167,000. I didn't want to ruin it by playing again and not qualify for the 3rd race or something, so I shut 'er down for the night. Not bad for only playing about two dozen games since 1984...

Centipede Has Been Added!

Much to the "delight" of my wife, I have added a Centipede to the garage today. I bought it off of a nice lady that told me the story of her dad and how he loved to tinker with it when he was alive. Now that I will be tinkering with it, I hope I can get it to work! I got it home, plugged it in and out came a horribly loud beeping noise! Wow was it annoying! I'm thinking it has something to do with the audio regulator board, as these seem to go quite easily on the Atari games. With some help from the forums, I hope for this one to be a quick fix. I'm debating whether or not to replace the side art. Stay tuned...

Sold the Dynamo

I've been emailing back and forth with a local guy who was looking for another Dynamo cab. I picked up the huge-ass Dynamo below and planned to make some type of rotary joystick JAMMA cab. It came with Ikari III: The Rescue in it (horrible game) and that prompted me to pick up more PCBs that use the rotary joysticks. Unfortunately, Ikari III is a horizontal game and my favorite rotary joystick game of all time is Heavy Barrel, a vertical game. I suppose it wouldn't take much to rotate the 25 inch monitor that was in it, but the cab was a bit beat for my tastes. So I stripped the joysticks, Ikari PCB and marquee for a future rotary joystick game project. Even stripped of these parts, it turned out to be just what this guy was looking for. He came by today and we crammed this 350 lb. cabinet into his dad's old Toyota RAV-4. What an adventure that was! We ended up fitting it and he drove away happy. The monitor was crisp and probably ended up being a pretty good deal for him at $100.

I picked up a Heavy Barrel PCB, bezel and marquee a few months ago. I'm now on the lookout for two more vertical PCBs that use the rotary joysticks: SAR - Search And Rescue and Time Soldiers. I might even tear my P.O.W. cab apart for this project...

I picked up a Nintendo Red Tent!

I've been emailing back and forth with a local guy that has a ton of video games. We've talked about the games we like, our wants, what we have to trade, etc. Ever since I became a member of the KLOV forums, I've been intrigued by Nintendo's sit-down Vs. System affectionately called a "red tent." First of all, Super Mario, Excitebike, RBI Baseball were some of my favorite games back in the day- so why not get one of these cool-looking red tents with two of my favorites? It finally happened when the local guy emailed me letting me know that he needed some space and would sell one to me for cheap. I jumped on the opportunity and went to pick it up last night:

What a great machine this is! I popped a few quarters in and played a few games of Excitebike before wifey came home. I can't wait to move this one into the game room, pull up a stool, have a beer or two and play for a few hours!

Arcade Game Key Chains

Back in the Spring of 2009, to keep wifey off my back about my new hobby- I needed to find a way to fund it. I came across a few posts on the KLOV forums about key chains for your arcade game locks. I made photo key chains before for giveaways at my kids' birthday parties, why not make arcade game key chains for peoples' collections? That was in April of 2009. As of today, I've made over 2000 key chains for collectors all over the world (and I do mean "world"- collectors in New Zealand, Austalia, Europe and Canada have my key chains!)

I have a streamlined process that enables me to keep the cost down and the assembly time to a minimum. Click Here for a thread over on KLOV about them. $2.00 each- not too bad, eh?

Time Pilot memories...

What great memories this game brings back for me. It reminds me of my youth, tagging along with my dad to his weekly bowling league night. He would bowl, I would play video games. I'd be out of quarters in no time and run back to my dad- he'd give me a couple more bucks and tell me to, "Make it last!" Well, Time Pilot was one of the games where I would "make it last." I could make it to the flying saucers regularly and (if I brought a friend that night) my buddy and I would go back and forth trying to beat each other's score. Even though Time Pilot is not a highly sought after arcade game by most, it was for me. This is what collecting arcade games is all about for me- the memories. So late last year, I picked up a Time Pilot for $125. The control panel is hacked to hell and the cabinet needs some work but the monitor and pcb function just fine. Since I picked this up, I've been slowly accumulating parts for it- NOS joystick, bezel, control panel overlay, coin door, etc. I am also in the process, with a few other KLOV members, of recreating the side art. I hope to have this one restored and in the game room by the end of the summer. The side art will come later...

My "Game Room"

My family and I purchased a new house in August of last year. I was just getting into collecting arcade games and I only had one game at that time, so a large finished game room/basement wasn't in the front of my mind when looking for a house. Fast forward to present day: the house we bought is a nice size (4 BR, 2.5 Bath) with a nice size yard (1/4 acre) for my family and I. The one complaint is the small-ass finished "game room" area. It seems like the builders just threw together a small finished area with the leftover space off of the garage. The house is only 10 years old, so it's not like everything was retro-fitted- it was actually planned in the build. So off of the attached 2-car garage is my carpeted "game room" with a total square footage of 132 sq. ft.!!! What a waste. To rub it in even more, the laundy room behind the game room is 225 sq. ft. They actually made the laundry room larger than the game room?!?! For now, I'm stuck with my 11 x 12 ft. area to stick a few games in. The rest will stay in "my side" of the garage. Down the road, the plan is to bust out the walls between the game room and laundry room and have a finished game room in the neighborhood of 12 x 26 ft. Hmmm... how many games could I fit in a space that size... carry the one...

Karate Champ Complete!

I bought a Karate Champ arcade game in April 2009 for $125.00. For me, this is a game that brings back all the memories from my time spent in the arcades "back in the day." My buddies and I would spend most of our quarters on this game. Karate Champ was the 'Mortal Kombat' of its day.

I was super excited to get this game- and it was in nice shape too! A little magic eraser, simple green and time and this game looked better than the ones we played in the arcades. It did have a cracked marquee, a very faded, washed out on-screen image, no coin door or marquee lights and peeling side art.

This past weekend I attempted my first cap kit- with success! I recapped the monitor and now the colors are bold and bright:


What a difference from when I purchased it. I also headed to the auto parts store to pick up replacement bulbs for the coin door, put in new CFL bulbs for the marquee light, installed the marquee that I got off of the KLOV forums and... TA DA! Karate Champ is ready for the game room! I'll keep an eye out for NOS side art or purchase some repro art, but that's down the road. One down, six to go (with more purchases along the way, of course.)