If these cabs could talk.

mr_b

Windjammers Wonder
10 Year Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Posts
1,379
After reading some of the stories of other members cab's. I thought we could start a thread about maybe some unknown backstory, facts or tidbits of your cabs.

I love hearing stories of where the cabs have been or how they were aquired.

Share any stories and pics you have...

My first cab was a KI2 dedicated cabinet. It was definitely one my holy grails and told myself I would always have one some day. I moved to Chicago about 3 years ago and had a 2nd bedroom I was going to turn into my game room. I wanted to get a cab so I started looking around. I found it on craigslist for $400 about 15 miles away from my place. I jumped on it.
Turns out the guy used to work for Midway. He used to put the cabinets together and get them ready to be shipped out and would do some service calls as well. He was a really cool guy. He shared some stories about some of his days out in the field. He said that everyone used to say Orchid on the side art was Paula Abdul.

Eventually, The weight and size of woody got to me and with living in a 2 bedroom apt. I decided to sell it. I sold it to someone local and when they came to load it up. They had a male dancer promotional van. Me and my buddy had to laugh when we saw the company name, it slips my mind at the moment, but never the less I hope they treating it well.

Someday, I'll have get another KI2 dedicated once I get a house.
 
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68k

Tung Fu Rue's Prize Student
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2006
Posts
6,780
I have two Sega Astro City cabinets, both acquired separately.

Astro City #1

I had been looking for an Astro City for some time, and I was not comfortable with the thought of shipping a cabinet. Being located in Central Alabama, my options are very limited. A friend of mine emailed me a link to an ebay auction for an Astro City cabinet located in Miami. After talking to the owner and negotiating a price, I decided to embark on the 12 hour (one way) drive to pick it up.

The only vehicle I had access to that could accommodate the Astro (while keeping it out of the random Floridian summertime storms) was my friend's 1991 Chevy Suburban. No AC, no cruise control, no power assisted brakes, this was a former power company utility truck and it was a beast.

So we drive down on a Saturday and plan on meeting the guy the following morning. We grabbed a hotel close by not knowing that it was in a somewhat seedy area of Miami. After a rough night of sleep, we met up with the seller, picked up the Astro (and a Jaleco Pony MK II for a friend), and set off on the 12 hour drive home.

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That was an exhausting trip, but I had a blast. It's an experience I look upon with fond memories of life before marriage :)

Astro City #2

I picked this one up about 2 hours from me. A friend was selling it to buy an Egret II from bibliophile. Drove up and brought it home. Not much excitement there :).
 

The King Prawn

Marked Wolf
Joined
Jan 16, 2012
Posts
223
I've always wanted an upright for as long as I can remember, and I was very close about 4 years ago when my property was decomishing a Midway KI cab (Spinal on the side artwork). Totally stripped of all electronics, no glass or marquee, but it would be mine to do as I please- a MAME system or otherwise. I was friends at the time with a senior tech at a company we dealt with and they were to remove a few pieces from our property & with permission from my boss at the time I arranged for them to take "my" cab with for me to pick up at a later date. Well living in a rented 2nd floor condo at the time shifting that Midway cab would have taken an act of god! So it sat in their warehouse... probably still there.

The good news is that I realised what I really wanted was a Big Red. Fast forward- new job, now have a house, new vendors to deal with... We just took delivery of about 7 pieces from said new company and the owner popped in to see how the install went the next day. We start BS'n about the industry and how we both got into it and I mentioned I wanted a 4 slot upright for the house. His eyes grew and I thought he was a NEO GEO fan as well, however he had just acquired one at auction the week prior from CA. He offered it to me for the same price he picked it up for. I jumped on it. I don't know much history on it prior to that but I can tell you it wasn't one of FAC's (Family Amusement Consultants) machines as they rivet a plaque with their unique SN on the top of the coin box enclosure. There is a sticker on the back for 3-KOAM Company, so I know where it was probably built.

There's no doubt this machine has done it's service in full, it's a bit rough right now. But I enjoy projects like this, and this one will be a hell of a lot cheaper then restoring a Triumph Spitfire or MGB!
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
great stories so far! i guess i can throw my 3 so far into the fray. my first cab was a snow bros that i saw on a CL ad that said $50 monitor doesnt come on... so i figured well i ll go check it out and maybe get something out of it, the very least a snow bros PCB. I call the guy and he says he'll meet me up at the warehouse to let me take a look. We go in and hes got three machines, the Snow Bros, a Lucky and Wild Deluxe, and then some Taito Bike Racer Upright. I go over to the Snow Bros and ask if he has power, he shows me the switch and I "hear" the monitor powering on, I pull the back off and notice a Atari sticker on the back.....hmmm, do i see that there is neckglow and I buy it no questions asked. The guy helps me load it in the truck and I ask if he could hold on to the Lucky and Wild as for $50 it was a steal if only for the monitor...... its prolly still there. the Snow Bros was pretty muc in bad shape, monitor had horrible burn-in and needed a new power supply. I got a new supply for it and turned it on, no dice, the game lit up and played but no graphics. I stil have the board but the cab is long gone, come to find out it was a converted centipede, my friend has since converted it back sans sideart and enjoys it lot now.

The other two cabs I have which is a dedicated 2-slot and a Vertical dynamo type that used to be a multicade. I traded my Neo AES and 7 commons, 4 of which had never been opened. There wasnt much fanfare for those and my next two cabs I hoping to be New Astro Citys..... so I guess thats about it for me :D
 

DeadPixels

Beast Buster
Joined
May 25, 2006
Posts
2,106
Great idea for a thread guys, love the stories so far.

Out of all my cab purchases the story of how I got my first one is probably my favorite. One morning my wife and I were talking about our dreams from the night before over coffee. Strangely enough we both happened to dream about buying an MVS cabinet (really strange because, while she enjoys arcade games, we never really discussed arcade collecting). Amused by this, we decided to hop on eBay and strangely enough, without any sort of location filter in the search, the first result happened to be a 4-slot big red in our town.

Over the course of the day we had a bid war with a potential buyer, unfortunately I had to go to work that afternoon. My wife stayed home and gave me a call that night telling me that she went a bit overboard but won the cab. In disbelief, I didn't even start thinking about things like, "shit, how am I going to get this monster up to my third story apartment?!" Needless to say, all went well, and 7 cabs later the addiction has just gotten stronger.

The guy who sold the cab is a local vendor who has become a friend of mine. We've done plenty of business and work together, and he's become a great resource to have when trying to source particular machines.

All of my other cabinets I've either acquired through group buys, sales here, or the occasional lucky find- like when a friend of mine pointed me into the direction of an immaculate Donkey Kong JR that was just sitting on a loading dock waiting to be trashed. :buttrock:
 
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