Hello All, for the last 30 years I have been collecting and trying to repair arcade games.
I started out with an Daytona USA twin with numerous faults bought from an arcade about 30 years ago for 150 euro, I was able to fix all problems after that I got one of my favorite games Space Harrier Deluxe for 250 euro back then. At this time I was still living at my parents house I also bought a Rad Mobile 200 euro and a Propcycle for 150 euro all had some defects which I could eventually fix.
I moved out of my parents home short after and all machines had to go because I went to live in an apartment at this time I put all stuff on ebay and got peanuts for those games which I still hate myself for, my beloved Space Harrier Deluxe went for 150 euro and I spend quite some money on it to make it perfect...
After that I moved to a small house and I got a Scudrace Deluxe for 250 euro as it didn't work, I was lucky as the PSU was set to 4.9v just setting it to 5.1v and the game worked right away! I bought some more games like Rave racer, Virtua Racing Twin (which I still have today), Hard Drivin', Sega Rally Twin, some normal cabs like The Invaders Zaccaria (still have this one) l, Outrun Deluxe (also have this one) and teenage mutant hero turtles. After 5 years I broke up with my girlfriend and had to sell all again, Virtua racing twin and the invaders I could store at my parents, again I lost a lot of money on those games I needed to get rid of fast.
Some time later I got an offer I couldn't resist 100 arcade cabinets mostly small cabs but some games like Afterburner Deluxe my brother had a big hangar where I could store them only 50 euro per cab so 5000 euro for all. But again after 6 months my brother stopped renting the hangar and all needed to go again this time sadly for 25 euro a cab!
So now about 15 years ago I bought a house with a 200 square meter hangar in the back with a big gate and 3 phase power all this with my ultimate machine Sega R360 in mind, but I never found one at a price I could afford at least.
I bought two Daytona USA Deluxe of which one I converted to a Multi racer started with BigPanik's great tutorial on how to use an arduino to send FF commands to the drive board and build on top of that, compiled mame, supermodel and dolphin emulator to include the code to send from the emulators to my arduino so I can play games with FF including Crazy Taxi where I converted the rumble to shaking of the model 3 steering wheel which feels quite nice.
What I now have in my hangar at the moment is:
- Outrun Deluxe (still need to fix the sound!!)
- Virtua Racing Twin
- Daytona USA Deluxe x2 (one is quite broken but more like a parts machine now)
- Manx TT Deluxe (need to fix the motor sliding mechanism)
- Police 24/7 (Let the battery drain, so now doesnt work anymore)
- The Invaders without monitor or pcb (a raspberry pi in there now with games that work on the original controls, but boots to Invaders by default)
- Gti Club Twin
- Gti Club Deluxe
Recently bought a Sega Rally Twin in really nice condition with broken monitor and pcb from one side not working, although I fixed the monitor and with getting the boards out and switching around with my Manx TT I got it to work, and Manx TT also still works so probably a bad contact...
Just last week bought a Scud Race Twin that was sold as perfect but it actually has been a nightmare so far
Anyways I am starting feeling better now I have been in a depression for the last couple of years and couldnt do anything on the arcades, but now I feel like when I am working on them I feel better for sure.
The machines I would still like to have are Space Harrier Deluxe, Sega R360, Sega Killer Shark or Sea Devil, PropCycle would be nice to get some physical training in.
I started out with an Daytona USA twin with numerous faults bought from an arcade about 30 years ago for 150 euro, I was able to fix all problems after that I got one of my favorite games Space Harrier Deluxe for 250 euro back then. At this time I was still living at my parents house I also bought a Rad Mobile 200 euro and a Propcycle for 150 euro all had some defects which I could eventually fix.
I moved out of my parents home short after and all machines had to go because I went to live in an apartment at this time I put all stuff on ebay and got peanuts for those games which I still hate myself for, my beloved Space Harrier Deluxe went for 150 euro and I spend quite some money on it to make it perfect...
After that I moved to a small house and I got a Scudrace Deluxe for 250 euro as it didn't work, I was lucky as the PSU was set to 4.9v just setting it to 5.1v and the game worked right away! I bought some more games like Rave racer, Virtua Racing Twin (which I still have today), Hard Drivin', Sega Rally Twin, some normal cabs like The Invaders Zaccaria (still have this one) l, Outrun Deluxe (also have this one) and teenage mutant hero turtles. After 5 years I broke up with my girlfriend and had to sell all again, Virtua racing twin and the invaders I could store at my parents, again I lost a lot of money on those games I needed to get rid of fast.
Some time later I got an offer I couldn't resist 100 arcade cabinets mostly small cabs but some games like Afterburner Deluxe my brother had a big hangar where I could store them only 50 euro per cab so 5000 euro for all. But again after 6 months my brother stopped renting the hangar and all needed to go again this time sadly for 25 euro a cab!
So now about 15 years ago I bought a house with a 200 square meter hangar in the back with a big gate and 3 phase power all this with my ultimate machine Sega R360 in mind, but I never found one at a price I could afford at least.
I bought two Daytona USA Deluxe of which one I converted to a Multi racer started with BigPanik's great tutorial on how to use an arduino to send FF commands to the drive board and build on top of that, compiled mame, supermodel and dolphin emulator to include the code to send from the emulators to my arduino so I can play games with FF including Crazy Taxi where I converted the rumble to shaking of the model 3 steering wheel which feels quite nice.
What I now have in my hangar at the moment is:
- Outrun Deluxe (still need to fix the sound!!)
- Virtua Racing Twin
- Daytona USA Deluxe x2 (one is quite broken but more like a parts machine now)
- Manx TT Deluxe (need to fix the motor sliding mechanism)
- Police 24/7 (Let the battery drain, so now doesnt work anymore)
- The Invaders without monitor or pcb (a raspberry pi in there now with games that work on the original controls, but boots to Invaders by default)
- Gti Club Twin
- Gti Club Deluxe
Recently bought a Sega Rally Twin in really nice condition with broken monitor and pcb from one side not working, although I fixed the monitor and with getting the boards out and switching around with my Manx TT I got it to work, and Manx TT also still works so probably a bad contact...
Just last week bought a Scud Race Twin that was sold as perfect but it actually has been a nightmare so far
Anyways I am starting feeling better now I have been in a depression for the last couple of years and couldnt do anything on the arcades, but now I feel like when I am working on them I feel better for sure.
The machines I would still like to have are Space Harrier Deluxe, Sega R360, Sega Killer Shark or Sea Devil, PropCycle would be nice to get some physical training in.
