Arcade haul from former arcade operators
So here in Longview/Kelso, there was an arcade that I used to go to every weekend when I was a kid, but they shut down a long time ago. I had heard that the owners of the old arcade also owned a different store downtown, so I went in last week to see if they had any games left over from before, and they took me into the back room to take a look. They said that most of the stuff they had was garbage, and they were just about to take everything to the dump, so it's a good thing I showed up when I did.
I walked into the back and just saw stacks upon stacks of boxes, and after looking at them closer, I realized that they were arcade kits, parts, etc... and there were around 20 machines. I looked up at the ceiling and saw that there were giant rotten holes dripping water onto things, just missing rad pins like Twilight Zone and The Addams Family (unfortunately they wouldn't get rid of the pins), but they are soon to be ruined if they don't get them out of there.
There was a cockpit game (I'm not sure what it is exactly) that had been sitting directly under one of the leaks, and when I showed up today the guy was rolling it out to the dumpster. It was just a sad sight to see everything going to waste, and this guy just thought everything was trash besides a few things. There was a NOS Nintendo Vs Slalom kit in the original box, and when I asked about it, he ripped the box open on one side to look into it and said it was worthless; it made me cringe haha!
Anyways, I gave the guy $900 (which I shouldn't have offered so much, because he happily accepted my offer) and came away with the following:
-18 full size machines (including Space Wars, Space Invaders, Rampage, Monaco GP mini, etc.)
-Around 40 PCBs (including Moonwalker, Tron, Joust, several Defenders, DK Jr, Paperboy, etc.)
-Tons of Nintendo Vs kits, motherboards
-Several boxes of joysticks, coin mechs, buttons, power supplies
-Around 20 Control Panels
-Stacks and stacks of marquees and bezels, CPOs, manuals
-Around 10 extra monitors
...and blah blah, just a ton of stuff. Pretty pumped, now we own 61 arcade cabinets and a TON of extra shit. Here are a few pictures:
Here is what I saw right when I walked in, that ceiling is about 15 feet tall:
Most of the kits still had the original boxes
Some of the games:
Cockpit is hidden in the back:
Anyways, there's a bunch more stuff not even pictured, like some of the cabs and monitors, the control panels, marquees and bezels or whatever. We spent around 7 hours digging stuff out today, and we're going to finish up tomorrow and go through everything again to get anything that we missed.
But yeah, it was hard to hide my boner the whole time I was there.
I walked into the back and just saw stacks upon stacks of boxes, and after looking at them closer, I realized that they were arcade kits, parts, etc... and there were around 20 machines. I looked up at the ceiling and saw that there were giant rotten holes dripping water onto things, just missing rad pins like Twilight Zone and The Addams Family (unfortunately they wouldn't get rid of the pins), but they are soon to be ruined if they don't get them out of there.
There was a cockpit game (I'm not sure what it is exactly) that had been sitting directly under one of the leaks, and when I showed up today the guy was rolling it out to the dumpster. It was just a sad sight to see everything going to waste, and this guy just thought everything was trash besides a few things. There was a NOS Nintendo Vs Slalom kit in the original box, and when I asked about it, he ripped the box open on one side to look into it and said it was worthless; it made me cringe haha!
Anyways, I gave the guy $900 (which I shouldn't have offered so much, because he happily accepted my offer) and came away with the following:
-18 full size machines (including Space Wars, Space Invaders, Rampage, Monaco GP mini, etc.)
-Around 40 PCBs (including Moonwalker, Tron, Joust, several Defenders, DK Jr, Paperboy, etc.)
-Tons of Nintendo Vs kits, motherboards
-Several boxes of joysticks, coin mechs, buttons, power supplies
-Around 20 Control Panels
-Stacks and stacks of marquees and bezels, CPOs, manuals
-Around 10 extra monitors
...and blah blah, just a ton of stuff. Pretty pumped, now we own 61 arcade cabinets and a TON of extra shit. Here are a few pictures:
Here is what I saw right when I walked in, that ceiling is about 15 feet tall:
Most of the kits still had the original boxes
Some of the games:
Cockpit is hidden in the back:
Anyways, there's a bunch more stuff not even pictured, like some of the cabs and monitors, the control panels, marquees and bezels or whatever. We spent around 7 hours digging stuff out today, and we're going to finish up tomorrow and go through everything again to get anything that we missed.
But yeah, it was hard to hide my boner the whole time I was there.
Comments
That's awesome!! Nice snag! And from your childhood arcade, no less. Any gamers dream, from age 10, till death. 1 of the coolest score I have seen in some time. You gonna piece it out, or (what I would do, space pending) make as many as you can with all the stuff, ending in your own, all-to-familiar arcade? Congrats!
I think that we are keeping most of it for parts, but I want to get rid of some of the bigger things like Lazer Ghost. That game is fun but it is just too huge, I could fit two classics in it's place. We actually have a building leased and are in the process of opening an arcade/restaurant, but we only have room for ~55 games, so some of this has got to go before we open in July.
That's awesome! Where the hell are you going to put all this?
Our building downtown is 3,800 square feet, so we have the room to house everything before we figure out what we're going to do with everything. Definitely running out of space though!
That's awesome! Where the hell are you going to put all this?
Our building downtown is 3,800 square feet, so we have the room to house everything before we figure out what we're going to do with everything. Definitely running out of space though!
Oh cool, I didnt know you were opening an arcade/restaurant. That makes this find all the more epic.
I wish there was an arcade with 50+ classic games around my area.
I might be able to find help getting those williams board sets repaired and even take a couple off your hands. PM me when you get them tested and what needs done. Also, check for the ROM colors, we'd be interested in some blue/white ROM boards.
I think there's actually a guy locally around Portland that fixes boards, and a few of the ones we picked up today were labeled "bad". I can't look at them now, because half of them are in our building downtown, some are stuck in a uhaul at the screen printing shop, and a ton of stuff is still waiting to be picked up.
These
old OPs neglecting stuff like this is way more common than it should
be. The guy should sell those pins. The Addams Family and Twilight Zone
pins can go for mega bucks and somebody is always looking for either
one. I'm glad you were able to save a lot of that stuff! And it looks
like you got a pretty good deal on everything. What were the 18 full
size games that you got other than the ones obvious in the pictures? The
one picture I can make out the Monaco GP,Locked and Loaded,and the
Gunsmoke conversion in a Stern cabinet.
It sucks, I just wish I would have thought about going there a year ago before the leaks did their damage. We must have asked a dozen times about getting those pinball games out, but he definitely didn't want us to have them. Twilight Zone was about a foot away from a big leak in the ceiling, and there was just a small piece of cardboard covering the glass, and I could see a little bit of mold starting to form on the side of it.
I can't remember all of the games, but here are the ones I do remember:
Capcom Bowling
Caveman Ninja
Final Fight
Gunforce
Gunsmoke
Lazer Ghost
Locked N Loaded
Monaco GP
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Rampage
Space Invaders
Space Wars
...then there was a sit down motorcycle game, one cab that didn't have a title anywhere on it, the cockpit was a game like R-Type except you're some sort of dragon or something, and I just forget the rest. If I were to see a lot of these on Craigslist, I probably wouldn't try to pick them up, but for $20 per machine I couldn't pass them up.
Still pretty shocked about the whole thing.
haha nice, i think i know the people, from the Wonderland back then? They were friendly, but messy in there computer store!
Ha, yeah it was Wunderland. It's pretty awesome, because I remember playing a handful of these games when there were in the arcade.
We plan on opening up on July 7th, but that's not a definite date right now. It would be rad to have a little get together for the grand opening, drinking beers and playing Donkey Kong.
haha nice, i think i know the people, from the Wonderland back then? They were friendly, but messy in there computer store!
Ha, yeah it was Wunderland. It's pretty awesome, because I remember playing a handful of these games when there were in the arcade.
We plan on opening up on July 7th, but that's not a definite date right now. It would be rad to have a little get together for the grand opening, drinking beers and playing Donkey Kong.
Opening up in Kelso? Sweet more detail. I met them a while ago through an old friend. I was looking for Neo-Geo MVS carts, and they were very friendly and low priced. There store is a MESS! lol good luck!