So guys, I'm back home. It was a crazy drive, made more than 800 km's this afternoon and evening. And like André I also think that the German Autobahn isn't what it used to be. Nowadays there are only road works, with crazy speed limits, traffic jams and accidents. Where are the good old days where you could put the pedal to the metal?
I blame it all on the Ossies, who got all the government money after the Anschluss. West-German roads suffered because of it. And because he economy is now not in a good shape, even in Germany, the German government thought that it was a good idea to pump a lot of money in road works, good for the jobs! I can see that it is needed, but why all the highways at the same moment?
Fortunately, on the way back, in the evening, things were much better, I could maintain a cruising speed of about 150 km/h, only slightly dropped at road works, where I still could drive about 110-120 (my philosophy is to drive as fast as possible through them because you don't want to stay long on those narrow lanes
)
Oh, and sorry, no road trip photo's this time, was too busy watching the traffic.
Anyway, I had a succesfull trip. I brought back a nice and rare Zaccaria Moon Crest, for 50 bucks! The seller told me that he thought that I was a lunitic, driving all the way from Holland for such a dirty, non-working game (more about that later). I told him that this was peanuts, and that I and others (You Guys!
) have done much stranger things. He just shaked his head!
About the cab, it was, and still is extemely dirty, especially on the bottom and on the inside. Probably one of the dirtiest cabs that I've ever seen, although my SW cockpit isn't very clean either.
Anyway, underneath the dirt, the cab is in great shape:
Bezel: like NOS
Marquee: likewise
Side-art: 8+ (left side) and 9+ (right side)
CPO: Hm, the usual cigarette burns. Not that much and I now know about the great trick of Robin, which will make the CPO like new again, NOS
Monitor bezel: 9, just one little torn on the lower side, easy fix.
T-molding: 10-
Originality and completeness: 100%, I think. Everything from the inside looks original: wiring, trafo, monitor (MTC 90 chassis), documentation (MTC 90 manual and Moon Crest Technical User Guide, in original Zaccaria enveloppe), everything else and ..... the Game PCB.
OK, not 100%, the backdoor has no lock, the coin door had no key (fortunately I could release the CP hinches from the back of the cab and then unscrew the coindoorlock from the inside) and the stickers and tags are missing at the back (Etiènne ... ?
) That's it, everything else is there, even the floor chain.
About the game PCB, I have an original Moon Cresta PCB, but it is stored away. But if I follow the link to this very reliable site topic:
https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1558.0, then I see the same board that is in this Moon Crest. At least almost the same, let's say 99%. The 'daughter-board' on the Moon crest PCB has one more rom, but the handwriting on the eproms is exactly the same!!!! That is strange, how come? I will take detailed photo's in a few days.
I didn't fire up the cab, I first want to clean it a bit and check the obvious stuff. The seller told me that it didn't work, but I did test the marquee light and that one works.
The fact that the seller didn't see or hear the game working might be because the backdoor was not mounted. And we all know about back door switches, don't we?
So, the game might work after all, I will no that pretty soon.
I'm now going to bed, photo's will follow soon, probably after the weekend, which will be a busy one, not hobby related
