I recently visited an Arcade
Operator who has been in the industry for twenty five years. Nowadays the Op deals in fruit machines and
vending machines, pool tables and jukeboxes.
Video games have become a smaller part of the business and sadly he
admits that a lot of arcade gear has been scrapped over the years. The Op told me he had lost track of what he
had, and allowed me to have a rummage round the premises and stockpile items I
was interested in buying. There were some
nice items to be found.
Machine Storage Area
In this room there were a lot
of fruit machines with a few arcade cabs amongst them.
A partially buried Simpsons
cab.
Point Blank and Ninja Assault,
two great Namco shooting games.
A Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man pinball
backbox.
A Dinosaur King and a Love
and Berry
cab. I think it’s the first time I’ve
seen the latter. The Op mentioned that these
may go back on site.
A generic cocktail
cabinet. Unfortunately it looked pretty
beat-up.
A classic Taito Space Invaders.
Parts Store Room
I spent most of my time
rummaging in this room. Items had to be
relocated to move round the room, and getting gear out was a bit of a
mission! Again it was mostly fruit
machine parts, but I did manage to dig out some nice items.
There was a full arsenal with
guns, sniper rifles and even a crossbow!
Some buried monitors.
These Sega stacks were well
buried, but I was determined to dig them out!
The Op thinks they are Sega
Rally and Touring Cars, but wasn’t sure.
Hopefully they will be useful to someone.
A homemade track ball panel.
There were all sorts of
random items on the shelves, including monitor chassis, joysticks, buttons, looms,
power supplies and Sega Model 1 parts.
Workshop and Storage Area
The workshop area had
shelving units full of spares. On one
shelf I found a stack of PCB boards and some monitor chassis.
The PCB’s include Asteroids,
Liquid Kids, Space Invaders and Wardner, as well as some others I haven’t yet
identified. Quite a random selection to
find on a shelf. I don’t recall seeing
either Liquid Kids or Wardner back in the day.
They also had pool tables,
crane machines and a Terminator Salvation.
My pile of pick ups.
After a bit of Tetrising I
managed to fit it all in the boot.
Operator who has been in the industry for twenty five years. Nowadays the Op deals in fruit machines and
vending machines, pool tables and jukeboxes.
Video games have become a smaller part of the business and sadly he
admits that a lot of arcade gear has been scrapped over the years. The Op told me he had lost track of what he
had, and allowed me to have a rummage round the premises and stockpile items I
was interested in buying. There were some
nice items to be found.
Machine Storage Area
In this room there were a lot
of fruit machines with a few arcade cabs amongst them.
A partially buried Simpsons
cab.
Point Blank and Ninja Assault,
two great Namco shooting games.
A Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man pinball
backbox.
A Dinosaur King and a Love
and Berry
cab. I think it’s the first time I’ve
seen the latter. The Op mentioned that these
may go back on site.
A generic cocktail
cabinet. Unfortunately it looked pretty
beat-up.
A classic Taito Space Invaders.
Parts Store Room
I spent most of my time
rummaging in this room. Items had to be
relocated to move round the room, and getting gear out was a bit of a
mission! Again it was mostly fruit
machine parts, but I did manage to dig out some nice items.
There was a full arsenal with
guns, sniper rifles and even a crossbow!
Some buried monitors.
These Sega stacks were well
buried, but I was determined to dig them out!
The Op thinks they are Sega
Rally and Touring Cars, but wasn’t sure.
Hopefully they will be useful to someone.
A homemade track ball panel.
There were all sorts of
random items on the shelves, including monitor chassis, joysticks, buttons, looms,
power supplies and Sega Model 1 parts.
Workshop and Storage Area
The workshop area had
shelving units full of spares. On one
shelf I found a stack of PCB boards and some monitor chassis.
The PCB’s include Asteroids,
Liquid Kids, Space Invaders and Wardner, as well as some others I haven’t yet
identified. Quite a random selection to
find on a shelf. I don’t recall seeing
either Liquid Kids or Wardner back in the day.
They also had pool tables,
crane machines and a Terminator Salvation.
My pile of pick ups.
After a bit of Tetrising I
managed to fit it all in the boot.