Arcade preservation and salvage?

Well, Its nice to know that fellow NA'ers in my area also can appreciate attempting to preserve Video game arcade machines as much as I do. I was privledged to gain access to a old warehouse that had sat abandonded for about 3 years. this ware house had been home to a Bakery and a Vending machine company. And low and behold a Pinball and Video game arcade heaven / waste land. We traveled there this past thusday and had a look arond. (packing our own flashlights) because the building being vacent means no power for lights. So off to the dingy basement to look at some cabinets. We scoped out what we thought was acceptable to restore and what was good for parts or others projects. 

So..... fast foreward to today. 10am we started our quest and was informed that a nother room containing about 20 more video game cabinets were discovered since our last visit. So we busted a sweat tearing trhough the inventory and was able to pick up 9 cabinets we deamed worthy of saving. and we helped ourselfs to more PCB's , marques, and control panel overlays that we could carry. As we left we discovered boxes of manuals that we also had thrown into the deal. We have alot of cleanning and seperating on our hands but we are up to the challange. Retro Raiders style. 

Comments

  • I was involved with this and it was insane and sad at the same time. There were so many destroyed cabinets that it was heartwrenching... However we saved everything we could today and will go back and check everything before they demo the place out. 



    One of my favorite items is the Ice Cold Beer!




  • Always wanted a cab of my own, someday when space isn't an issue!
  • What pinball related items were there?

  • All in pretty much parts condition. But there was 1) Dolly Parton 2) atari wide body Superman 3) Black Rose 4) F-14 Tomcar 5) Black Knight 6) Space Invaders 7) one that was Pre-Flipper era pinball machine I can't remember the title. 8) Tarzan 9) hot pursuit and a few that were so bad I couldn't tell.
  • disregarding condition and functionality, are any of them complete?   I'd be interested in restoring that Black Rose if you don't have any interest.
  • How did you gain access to the building, are you friends with the lot owner?
  • Originally posted by: cosmicjim

    disregarding condition and functionality, are any of them complete?   I'd be interested in restoring that Black Rose if you don't have any interest.





    Unfortunately all the pinball stuff was claimed before we got there.
  • Originally posted by: Space Jockey

    How did you gain access to the building, are you friends with the lot owner?





    There was an ad saying there was various stuff for sale and we contacted the building owner.
  • I was involved with this, too. All of these are currently sitting in my garage.. lol. Feels good to know we saved these from going to the dump. Hopefully, we will be able to get them restored so they can be enjoyed once again.
  • Originally posted by: dewisp02

    I was involved with this, too. All of these are currently sitting in my garage.. lol. Feels good to know we saved these from going to the dump. Hopefully, we will be able to get them restored so they can be enjoyed once again.





    I really hope we have good luck with a lot of these. So much work but well worth it in the end.
  • Nice score guys. Keep us updated with the restoration.
  • Wow. I'm pretty sure having an arcade game at home is a dream of many. It's sad to hear these were abandoned for so long!

    The Asteroids one looks gorgeous, but I see the joystick and buttons are missing. Good luck with the restoration, I'm pretty curious of seeing the steps you'll make to fix them up.
  • I will try to remember to take pictures as we work on them.
  • Pictures are a must and we were all bad at taking pictures during the process.
  • That looks like a fun project
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