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!