a wee tumble through time

[JohnBud]

inspired by outrun2's write up i thought " why not "

i'm really bad at typing so it will be an add on job

my first cab

for years i had wandered the barren landscape of scotland looking to buy an actual arcade video cab. i've lived all over scotland through the years and always chanced my arm to buy a cab from an operator in the local vicinity. i picked up my first pinball in the the late 80's possibly hitting 1990 max. however getting a video cab was proving to be a fair bit harder

every op would tell me the same ??? you need a licence

it's all changed now for you young folk

so anyway i chanced upon a place in glasgow who said they would sell me a cab

i grabbed the address and wheel spun down the road to the sales unit. it was your bog standard op's place ??? about 15 jamma cabs

i'm playing it cool but inside i'm like a 5 year old

the op pointed to a few for sale and told me the price. now bear in mind that mame was just starting to be a thing but had potential

so we wander around some 19" cabs and then " holy sh*t " there is this huge behemoth of a thing staring at me from behind 2 19" jobs. this was a huge big bastard of a thing " and i'm in lo0ve "

all sorts of magical even wondrous thoughts are filling my head ??? spinners, trackballs, guns and make it a 4 player cab

so i ask him the price and he said it was more expensive ??? it was bigger than the others " back in the old days we bought jamma cabs by the pound "

the cab in question was an AMR 33" jamma cab ??? very similar weight " heavy bastards " to BAS cabs. i bought it for £350 and although i did build a truely monumental " shame cab " and wasted about £1500

i so wanted this bad boy to be awesome but i never got it fully working

this was the first cab i ever burned ??? there was a time i couldn't give cabs away

 

[JohnBud]

so the next cab ??? 1 of my favourite cabs a 19" woody jamma

i have had at least 100 of these pass through me. i was working for a mobility company and the son took us over. he bought a unit next to his main business and we moved in. it was an auctioneer company and has stuff all over the world. outside his unit was a yard for bringing stock etc in/out. they also had a couple of skips which they filled with non selling stuff etc. our yard looked onto theirs and 1 day i saw something ??? it looked like a 19" jamma cab lying on it's side. by this time i was talking to the guys " next door "

so i'm like " is that a video cab there bud " and lo did he say yup. it transpires that it was in the canteen and wasn't making money so the owner " my new boss " had binned it

obviously im like " right lads in my van " but they were hesitant in doing this ??? nobody is allowed to take from the skips they said. don't worry nobody will see said 1

i went into work next day and the boss booted my bum

i kept the cab and fired it up. it was a strange kind of happiness ??? here i was with a working cab and board

the board ??? a sf2 bootleg

but it worked and i the met netdent iirc it was for my misile command ??? he then told me about online forums " and that's why we shouldn't have them "

 

[JohnBud]

so i discovered online forums and what an eye opener ??? so many cabs for sale it was awesome. i started buying more cabs and got a bit carried away

my first sit down cab was an afterburner commander

i bought it for iirc £150 it was totally dead

it also came with a spare set of boards which was nice. i tinkered with it for a bit then did a tech post i'm not sure if it was here or J+. first thing i needed was a working monitor. so i picked up a 4 player simpsons cab

mr sharkfactor was visiting and he helped back the cab up in order to plug the afterburner in to the monitor. bingo it fired up the game on all controls were working too

the movement however was not playing ball

it was possibly seized brakes on the motors but by now i ad owned the cab for about 2/3 years. it was sold to a collector in wales and the last i heard it was rotting away in an old warehouse

the simpsons shell was offered free minus the monitor but back then you really couldn't easily dispose of shells. the next sit down cab was an ID1

i kept this for a fair bit but as i had completed and was ranked no1 it was time to move it on. and yeah i still have my card somewhere

after that cab left the next sit down was a twin pod racer

it was bought as broken but hey maybe just a fuse right

strangely i sold a zac invaders cab to neil and as i showed him inside the cab i explained that i didn't try to fix it. a common fault in these cabs is the fuse holder

in this case it wasn't the fuse but the fuse holder that was at fault. so always check the fuses

so back to the pod racer. i went about the usual checks ??? swap mobo's etc. sadly the mobo was cooked but the other side was working. so i built 1 side using the best parts and stripped the other side. i kept this for a bit until i completed it in expert mode

when you do this you get your name in the opening credits. it was sold to a new retro place in glasgow who have now sadly closed

i'm sure i also had an outrun woody at some point too but maybe no. i defo had a crazy taxi though but it wasn't for me ??? i'm a schmup kind of guy. i will be getting another sit down driver though as the mrs likes them.

 

[JohnBud]

so there i am a classic arcade collector

i'm still of the age that i often say to people i'm off home to play some space invaders

i've only ever had a zac job but still possibly pick up a taito although i do have a taito cocktail

sadly though it's a zenitone conversion

i like the odd games out there. but anyway armed with my new found knowledge of cabs etc it was time to go hunting

i quickly discovered a wedge of cash is your friend when hitting places

never walk away from something you want ??? buy it and worry about the rest on the way home. i always gauge the situation ??? if i pay for this stuff will he run away. with dealers it unlikely but for a single cab that you can't pick up for a week it's a different situation. always ask what they want first ??? you might be willing to pay £500 and they might offer it for a ton never take a supergun ??? non tested boards are classed as non workers don't be put of with rust but avoid swollen wood ??? the t-moulding is narrower than the wood edge. chunks out of the wood can be fixed but swelling cannot. always expect the unexpected ??? i went to a place in glasgow to buy a jamma cab and ended up with 5 cabs in total including my first naomi it was working and playing sports jam

it sounded like a harrier jump jet warming up but i was taken by it straight away. he offered me it and i said " dunno how much " 100 bangers he said i have another too. this was the start of my candy obsession

 

[Flinnster]

Fut me I've been BudSpammed!

 

[JohnBud]

i'm sh*te at typing

i'm just skirting about the outside just now. is it boring ??? i can stop ??? i can write rubbish on facebook " and usually does "

 

[Sbdesign]

 

[Flinnster]

i'm sh*te at typing

i'm just skirting about the outside just now. is it boring ??? i can stop ??? i can write rubbish on facebook " and usually does "

It's not boring, no

But try pressing the enter/return key every now and again to space things out

(I'm still shocked that you can't remember if you had an upright Outrun or not!)

 

[Sbdesign]

Flinnster, that is exactly what I said above but in John's native language.

 

[iamjimmi]

Don't stop John, this is a whole lot more interesting than yet anoher valuation thread!

 

[Flinnster]

(note to admin, there's no Haggis emoticon.. needs sorting!)

I thought John spoke fluent Q-Bert actually

Flinnster2019-08-23 15:45:08

 

[JohnBud]

i'm in no hurry to try and write it up ??? things like this to me are like " MDMA " comes in waves

i'll probably also include stuff like meets raids and other sh*t

i can vaguely remember alpha1 giving idchappy a score and saying " get the boys a pint " we thought he meant drink the lot

this was at the first revival " cheers bud " if i could post pictures i would but i can't

so i will just plod along and try to add stuff as it pops up

 

[JohnBud]

@sbdesign that is exactly true ??? i'm part of the cag wars ??? american classic gaming. it's got a load of well known people in the cartoon ??? water day, richie knuckles, cat despira a few more and " me "

i'm involved for various reasons but known by the obvious

i'm deeply honoured by that and also by the fact i'm also in revival survival

you can play the game at revival events