Have enjoyed the recent threads about cab collections, and thought I'd do one of my own.
I'd always fancied owning a cab, particularly since discovering that cabs could be bought off eBay. Spent a good few years agonising about whether or not I really had the space for a cab (just the one, little did I know ....). And the only cab I really wanted was a full Missile Command upright. I'd never seen one appear on eBay and so that made it easier to put off the decision of buying one. However, a non working MC cocktail appeared. £50 start price. No one else bid, and so I finally took the plunge back in the late summer of 2008:
I collected this from a garden centre just outside Reading. Cab fitted in the back of a Ford Focus hatchback. The cab had been found by the garden centre's newly employed caretaker stuck rotting away in the back bedroom of the bungalow that came as part of his job. I had no clue about how these things worked or how to repair them. PCB eventually found its way to IronGiant for repair. Managed half a game before AR2 went up in smoke. And so began the long and arduous process of having to learn at least basic repair skills. I did eventually get the cab reliable and working. Only had it about 3 months - during which time I'd joined a couple of UK arcade forums and some kind soul agreed to sell me a full upright - so it was sold to make way for that.
And here she is:
Acquired very early 2009. Absolute grail cab and still have it. Came to me non working but complete. Had a G07 (bust) with pretty bad screen burn; a scruffy control panel; a badly scratched bezel; and a power supply in need of a complete rebuild. Overall though, the cab was solid enough and retained original side art.
I learned many painful lessons about getting a cab to run reliably with this MC - driven entirely by the need to play this particular game. Since I've had it the cab now sports a WGD7000 (last run of CRT monitors WG did), repro bezel, repro control panel, fully rebuilt power supply, NOS buttons, NOS trackball, Repro rollers and bearings. Side art is 6.5 / 10 but is staying as it is. Irish cab.
So ..... Way back in the day I'd often be found sitting at the end of Aberystwyth pier, playing either MC or Defender. The 2 cabs were side be side. Absolutely loved Defender and on a list of must have cabs, Defender was number 2. At this point in my collecting career I was still worried about space - and Defender is a big old cab.
So when this came up on eBay I decided to take the plunge due to compact size:
Think this was some time in 2010. Not sure what I paid for it. About £200 I think. Engaged Martin DeliveryMan for first time to grab this for me. Non working. But I'd learnt a thing or two by now and turned out to be a blown bridge rectifier. £1 later and the cab was working. Not a lot of love for Streets Defenders, but hey, I was playing Defender on original Williams hardware .... So much did I love the game that I sold it about 6 months later to make way for ...
A full Williams Defender upright:
I think this was 2011. I'd only met Martin once, but engaged his services to go fetch it. Found myself meeting him one Sunday afternoon in a Sheffield car park to hand him £650 in cash to pay for it. Cab was duly delivered to me about 10 days later. Faulty. Another IronGiant board repair. But I fully rebuilt the power supply myself, and also fitted a repro wiring harness. Cab never let me down and I regret (sort of) letting it go. I spotted a UK poster on KLOV wanting to buy a Defender in the UK. Long story short, it got sold for a lot of money. I've since found out that the buyer was FindArcadeMachines. No complaints from me - very smooth transaction.
I used the funds to buy 2 more Williams cabs.
First up:
Another Defender. Arrived about a fortnight after the last one departed. Must be sometime in 2012. This came to me as a shell. Monitor was beyond saving (tube had gone), wiring harness was missing, no boards at all - I think all it came with was the original power brick. Cab is a US import. Enjoyed putting this cab back together. Quite a big job. Cosmetically it's not the best - but it's rock solid reliable. Running 4116 RAM and original fully rebuilt power supply/boards. Another repro harness (colour coded to match original) - each and every connector replaced. Monitor is a US 900E that has had a tube swap from a TV. Also has NOS joystick. NOS CPO. Nice cab. Still own it.
The second cab I bought (came as a job lot with the Defender):
Robotron (Euro).
This was in a worse state than the Defender above. Tested my resto skills to the limit at the time. The "2084" art on both sides was missing, and a real headache to reinstate. Control panel was toast. No marque. No bezel. No monitor. No wiring. No power supply. A real labour of love. Still have this.
About a week after the Defender and Robotron arrived I decided to buy this:
Alca Planets:
[
This was a bad idea, and the only cab I regret buying. I simply had too much on and had bitten off more than I could chew. Cab was £150 including a working Atari Asteroids boardset. Rest of cab including monitor was untested. In the short space of time I had this I did almost manage to get the cab up and running. Got the monitor as far as working but with horizontal collapse. Learned a few valuable tech lessons, but decided enough was enough so flogged it on for £50 as it stood but kept hold on the Atari PCB.
Did quite fancy an Asteroids though ..... And after I'd got the Defender and Robotron resurrections complete this popped up on eBay with a £200 BIN. So I snagged it:
Asteroids Deluxe Cabaret:
I collected this myself from what turned out to be motor sports club house just south of York. Located on an old airfield used by light aircraft. Guy I picked it up from told me that 30 years back they had 200 members and the club house used to rock. They'd bought the cab outright when the club was at its prime.
Club house has gone to seed and only about a dozen members still use it. Cab in terrible cosmetic state, but was solid enough though, and didn't take much to get it up and running. Did a lot on the cosmetic side of things with this one. Still with me, and very pleased with how it turned out:
The Asty DLX gave me a thirst for more Atari vector goodness. Wanted colour vector next. Tempest top of my list, and if at all possible in cabaret trim. Think we're now in to late 2012 - when what was once a Centipede Cabaret came up for sale on Jamma+:
This I converted to a Tempest cabaret. Learnt a lot along the way with this one. Still with me. Lovely cab, awesome game.
Last cab on my list. Acquired last year from Jon Stoodley who did a terrific restoration on this Isis Subelectro:
Wired for Konami. Sporting original Konami Scramble board. Has a special place in my collection as I used to play Scramble on a cab identical to this back in the day in my local chippy. For a bit of variety I often run a 60-1 board (using adaptor).
So that's me. No idea where I'm going next with cab collecting but it's been an enjoyable ride so far. tb lilley2014-08-21 10:59:58
I'd always fancied owning a cab, particularly since discovering that cabs could be bought off eBay. Spent a good few years agonising about whether or not I really had the space for a cab (just the one, little did I know ....). And the only cab I really wanted was a full Missile Command upright. I'd never seen one appear on eBay and so that made it easier to put off the decision of buying one. However, a non working MC cocktail appeared. £50 start price. No one else bid, and so I finally took the plunge back in the late summer of 2008:
I collected this from a garden centre just outside Reading. Cab fitted in the back of a Ford Focus hatchback. The cab had been found by the garden centre's newly employed caretaker stuck rotting away in the back bedroom of the bungalow that came as part of his job. I had no clue about how these things worked or how to repair them. PCB eventually found its way to IronGiant for repair. Managed half a game before AR2 went up in smoke. And so began the long and arduous process of having to learn at least basic repair skills. I did eventually get the cab reliable and working. Only had it about 3 months - during which time I'd joined a couple of UK arcade forums and some kind soul agreed to sell me a full upright - so it was sold to make way for that.
And here she is:
Acquired very early 2009. Absolute grail cab and still have it. Came to me non working but complete. Had a G07 (bust) with pretty bad screen burn; a scruffy control panel; a badly scratched bezel; and a power supply in need of a complete rebuild. Overall though, the cab was solid enough and retained original side art.
I learned many painful lessons about getting a cab to run reliably with this MC - driven entirely by the need to play this particular game. Since I've had it the cab now sports a WGD7000 (last run of CRT monitors WG did), repro bezel, repro control panel, fully rebuilt power supply, NOS buttons, NOS trackball, Repro rollers and bearings. Side art is 6.5 / 10 but is staying as it is. Irish cab.
So ..... Way back in the day I'd often be found sitting at the end of Aberystwyth pier, playing either MC or Defender. The 2 cabs were side be side. Absolutely loved Defender and on a list of must have cabs, Defender was number 2. At this point in my collecting career I was still worried about space - and Defender is a big old cab.
So when this came up on eBay I decided to take the plunge due to compact size:
Think this was some time in 2010. Not sure what I paid for it. About £200 I think. Engaged Martin DeliveryMan for first time to grab this for me. Non working. But I'd learnt a thing or two by now and turned out to be a blown bridge rectifier. £1 later and the cab was working. Not a lot of love for Streets Defenders, but hey, I was playing Defender on original Williams hardware .... So much did I love the game that I sold it about 6 months later to make way for ...
A full Williams Defender upright:
I think this was 2011. I'd only met Martin once, but engaged his services to go fetch it. Found myself meeting him one Sunday afternoon in a Sheffield car park to hand him £650 in cash to pay for it. Cab was duly delivered to me about 10 days later. Faulty. Another IronGiant board repair. But I fully rebuilt the power supply myself, and also fitted a repro wiring harness. Cab never let me down and I regret (sort of) letting it go. I spotted a UK poster on KLOV wanting to buy a Defender in the UK. Long story short, it got sold for a lot of money. I've since found out that the buyer was FindArcadeMachines. No complaints from me - very smooth transaction.
I used the funds to buy 2 more Williams cabs.
First up:
Another Defender. Arrived about a fortnight after the last one departed. Must be sometime in 2012. This came to me as a shell. Monitor was beyond saving (tube had gone), wiring harness was missing, no boards at all - I think all it came with was the original power brick. Cab is a US import. Enjoyed putting this cab back together. Quite a big job. Cosmetically it's not the best - but it's rock solid reliable. Running 4116 RAM and original fully rebuilt power supply/boards. Another repro harness (colour coded to match original) - each and every connector replaced. Monitor is a US 900E that has had a tube swap from a TV. Also has NOS joystick. NOS CPO. Nice cab. Still own it.
The second cab I bought (came as a job lot with the Defender):
Robotron (Euro).
This was in a worse state than the Defender above. Tested my resto skills to the limit at the time. The "2084" art on both sides was missing, and a real headache to reinstate. Control panel was toast. No marque. No bezel. No monitor. No wiring. No power supply. A real labour of love. Still have this.
About a week after the Defender and Robotron arrived I decided to buy this:
Alca Planets:
This was a bad idea, and the only cab I regret buying. I simply had too much on and had bitten off more than I could chew. Cab was £150 including a working Atari Asteroids boardset. Rest of cab including monitor was untested. In the short space of time I had this I did almost manage to get the cab up and running. Got the monitor as far as working but with horizontal collapse. Learned a few valuable tech lessons, but decided enough was enough so flogged it on for £50 as it stood but kept hold on the Atari PCB.
Did quite fancy an Asteroids though ..... And after I'd got the Defender and Robotron resurrections complete this popped up on eBay with a £200 BIN. So I snagged it:
Asteroids Deluxe Cabaret:
I collected this myself from what turned out to be motor sports club house just south of York. Located on an old airfield used by light aircraft. Guy I picked it up from told me that 30 years back they had 200 members and the club house used to rock. They'd bought the cab outright when the club was at its prime.
Club house has gone to seed and only about a dozen members still use it. Cab in terrible cosmetic state, but was solid enough though, and didn't take much to get it up and running. Did a lot on the cosmetic side of things with this one. Still with me, and very pleased with how it turned out:
The Asty DLX gave me a thirst for more Atari vector goodness. Wanted colour vector next. Tempest top of my list, and if at all possible in cabaret trim. Think we're now in to late 2012 - when what was once a Centipede Cabaret came up for sale on Jamma+:
This I converted to a Tempest cabaret. Learnt a lot along the way with this one. Still with me. Lovely cab, awesome game.
Last cab on my list. Acquired last year from Jon Stoodley who did a terrific restoration on this Isis Subelectro:
Wired for Konami. Sporting original Konami Scramble board. Has a special place in my collection as I used to play Scramble on a cab identical to this back in the day in my local chippy. For a bit of variety I often run a 60-1 board (using adaptor).
So that's me. No idea where I'm going next with cab collecting but it's been an enjoyable ride so far. tb lilley2014-08-21 10:59:58
