Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle
General Chat => Arcade Lifestyle => Topic started by: ckong on December 20, 2011, 12:11:40 AM
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(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/news/bulkuk.jpg)
I felt bored last week, so I called a good friend and asked him if he wanted to have some fun. Sure, he said, so off we went.
And fun we had. ;D And not a lot of sleep either, about 4 hours in 2 1/2 day. But hey, sometimes you have to be a crazy fool to get something nice.
So, this isn't the tipical road trip report, with tons of pictures of roads, road signs, etc.,I just want to show some photo's of a trip Gyruss and I made last weekend.
As some of you know, I bought a Black Widow in the UK a few weeks ago, and it was time to collect it. But not only the Black Widow, Gyruss happened to buy a nice working Moon Patrol from the same seller, based in Cambridge. And if that was not all, I also had to collect two games from Rav, Joust and HOTD, games that I bought in June, but I didn't had the time and opportunity to collect them earlier.
But that's still not all, because of a special occasion I also had the opportunity to got another great game, Phoenix, a game that I played a lot a looooooong time ago. And to conclude this, Pieter and I also collected games for others as well. In total the two of us transported 9 games to the mainland.
I could tell pages and pages about the preparation, but I won't. Just believe me that it's a trip that I don't want to do ever again (that is, until the next great opportunity arises ;D ;D )
This is the route that we took, 1700 km's in total. In total the trip took 42 hours, from Friday night 10 PM until Sunday afternoon 4 PM. Unfortunately Pieter wasn't allowed to drive the van (and I wouldn't have trusted him to do so :lol: , just kidding), so I had a great and long driving experience in the UK.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/AMroadtrip.jpg)
To fund my new purchases, I had (and have) to sell other gaming stuff, like this very NOS and pretty rare Sega Aero City:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4560.jpg)
I only had it for like 2 months, but it had to go, so I put up an add last wednesday and it was gone within 24 hours! Although I very much regretted to sell it, it made more than double the money, so it was a good investment I guess :D And I was very lucky with the location of the buyer, because he was also located in Cambridge, only 5 miles from my first pick up address (Black widow).
She is so lonely
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/P1000329.jpg)
Going on the train, at 5 AM I believe. Because of the size and weight of the van, and also because of the volume of the goods on the way back, we had to take the freight train.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011420-1.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011422.jpg)
Arriving in Cambridge, at 8 AM. I believe I woke up the buyer of the Aero City half an hour earlier saying that we would soon be there, but I knew him already (well known in the Candy cab world) and he was OK with the early arrival.
Typical English:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011427-1.jpg)
Unloading the Aero, bye bye
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4559.jpg)
After a short chat, we then drove a few miles to our second address, to James, where Black Widow
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/bw_front.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4567.jpg)
and Moon Patrol
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011435.jpg)
were waiting. By the way, James has some nice games
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011430.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011431.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4570.jpg)
After getting the games in the van, we drove off to our third address to collect the remaing games. It was a drive of about two hours, we got hungry, we ate something at MacDonalds somewhere and even saw a Namco arcade, although, the place was not worthy the name Arcade:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011438.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011439.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011440.jpg)
At about 2 PM we arrived at Archer Maclean's house, where we met a lot of friends, Olly (Alpha1), Ravage, Hi, Atarimania and later Bruno and Chris joined us also. What a coincedence! And then there was also Archer himself. It was great to meet him and talk with him. He is a very kind man and a fanatic arcade game collector and very good in restoring project games. In fact, the Black Widow that I bought from James, was originally a beaten up Gravitar, which Archer restored and turned into a Black Widow in 2002 (so says his remark that he wrote inside the cab.
Call me crazy, but I brought a Retrogamer with me with an interview of him inside and I got Archer to put a personal message to it for me. After all, didn't we all like IK+, dropzone and other games of his when we were young. Maybe some of us are still enjoing his classic and modern games, I know I am.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/WP_001031.jpg)
We stayed there for a few hours, awed at some very nice and rare games (Dropzone cab for instance). Man, how beautiful is Tempest, it's awesome. Next on my list? In the meantime we were also loading games into the van:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/WP_001014.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/WP_001017.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/17122011443.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4598.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4600.jpg)
Fortunately, Olly and Rav had taken my two games from Rav to archer's place, saved us about 200 km's. Thanks guys.
At the end of the visit some of us bought additional game PCB's and/or artwork (I got a new Gravitar CPO and a Phoenix Marquee), and then we drove off, at about 5 PM. In the back 9 games!! On the way back we had bad luck because of traffic jam, hours waiting for the tunnel train,
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/IMAG4609.jpg)
and snow and rain.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/18122011469.jpg)
The trip back took to Belgium took almost 12 hours, but fortunately Chris was waiting for us until 4.30 AM and offered us a very nice and warm bed, breakfast and a lot of coffee (also on the go).
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/L1170361.jpg)
We would like to thank you and your wife for your hospitality. So, on sunday morning we swapped some games (Timber out, Mario bros. in), and although we only slept for 4 hours, it was enough to travel the remaing distance back home on Sunday. At about 1 PM we arrived at Pieter's place, where we unloaded the Mario Bros. and the Moon Patrol. The van is almost empty again
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/18122011463.jpg)
Then I drove home all alone :( where I arrived at 4 PM, and unloaded the cab with the last games
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/P1000341.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/P1000342.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/P1000343.jpg)
Black Widow of course has a special place in my house, I played it already quite a lot this evening. And it is not quite over yet, the two Star Wars games will be transported further into Europe in a few weeks.
So, that's it, another great weekend full of arcade experiences. A bit exhausting though, my wife told me that she could see me breath, so she knew that I was still alive, but I looked like a zombie.
And to finish the report, here is a picture which says it all, and I would like to thank Olly and Archer for a great weekend.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/Archer%20Mcleans%20road%20trip/archerfest.jpg)
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thx for that report, erik, i can only imagine how stressful it must have been for you guys - especially for the driver :shock:. what a great selection of games you brought back with you: joust, star wars, moon patrol, phoenix and a timber - i wonder who's going to get that :P. can't thank you guys enough for your efforts, but from what i can see it was totally worth it!
i like the picture where you're unloading games directly into your soon-to-be gameroom. if only i had that opportunity as well: open the door of the van / car and simply drop the game into the room ...
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Geez, what a monster trip ! Of course you understand that. I think you "decided wisely" regarding the plastic vs. real cabs ;D ;D ;D ...although I have to say the Astro is definitly the best looking candy IMHO....
Man, you got another grail, Black Widow !!!! That will be one hell of a sight, the Gravi next to the BW !!!!!
ANd some other lovely cabs too !!!
In one way I regret not being able to join the trip, on the other....not at all ! ;)
A new CP for the Gravitar ?? Isnt that a bit overkill ? It looked brilliant after my hard scrubbing ;););)
Was extemely happy to at least participate in getting something that I wanted badly......a nice Working Lunar Lander PCB for a resonable price (not cheap, reasonable), and one of Archers' repro LL control panels as a bonus ! The fact that the LL PCB was pre-owned by the programmer of two of my favorite Atari 8 bit games simply adds a bit extra of course :)
Badly desperate to see some pics of the Dropzone cab ! :):)
Thanks to all who made this possible by the way !!
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Oh and congrats to Pieter as well of course !! Moon Patrol and Mario Bross. excellent additions !!!
....and I think someone will be very happy with those Star Wars cabs......but uhmmmm, two ? ;D
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Damn that was a big road trip, I need a trailer like that :P
You guys got nice caps really like that the house of the dead
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I just realize, that we don't know the world "impossible", if we have the opportunity to get our most wanted cabs. ::)
This is the longest and the most exhausting roadtrip I've ever heard and you collected a great selection of real classics. ;)
Congrats guys, you made arcade history!
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haha what a crazy roadtrip. But so many nice catches! Those 2 Star Wars cabs look so nice! I like the Black Widow too, looks fresh.
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Thanks for the report guys! :arrow:
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/news/bulkuk.jpg)
It was a crazy week end :P What a great happy end : cool games, nice meeting! :-*
I'm preparing my report too ;)
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I'm seriously impressed! Have you all recovered in time for Chirstmas?
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Great report, some very nice cabs there.
Shame to see them leaving the UK though ;)
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Great report Erik! It was indeed an intensive and exhausting weekend but the cab's made it well worth. I would like to thank you for your companionship, great driving, the food, keeping me awake(!) and organizing everything! Another big thank you goes to Chris and his lovely girlfriend for letting us sleep at his place, it was the best 3 hours of sleep i ever had. ;D
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Sjeeezzzz what a monster trip !
you guys scored some nice cabinets !
Thanks for the trip :spaceace:
Next week i will be at pieter for a "pickup", and i feel the need to touch that moon patrol ! ;)
(no, not a cabinet...)
Great to meet some other DLF-ers there, it almost looks like a reunion ;D
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Nice report Eric! - damn, wish i could have been there!!! :-[ ......
Would have loved to show you guys the town im living in, that has to wait till next time....
and.. my cab is waiting to be picked up in the new year maby ;)
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Damn that was a big road trip, I need a trailer like that :P
You guys got nice caps really like that the house of the dead
Yes, the HOTD is nice, I got 2 extra sets of sideart with it too.
haha what a crazy roadtrip. But so many nice catches! Those 2 Star Wars cabs look so nice! I like the Black Widow too, looks fresh.
The Black Widow is like NOS, and it plays great. A very fun game, and the grandfather of Robotron.
Nice report Eric! - damn, wish i could have been there!!! :-[ ......
Would have loved to show you guys the town im living in, that has to wait till next time....
Yep, too bad that we didn't meet, but understandable of course. However, I'm sure that we will get another opportunity someday.
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Amazing trip! Well done on getting all these beauties! :spaceace:
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wow amazing group RT ! DLF invaded uk ^^
greats cabs and archer :D what else ?
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Wonderful cabs, amazing trip....wow, Juno First....will it be in your gameroom (or did I miss that part?) ?
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wOW Wow and WOw !!!!!
Great selections of cabs:
Black Widow
Moon Patrol
Star Wars
Juno First
Joust
Congratulations guys !!! :spaceace:
Juno First....will it be in your gameroom (or did I miss that part?) ?
Juno First (in my opinion) :arrow: Bruno's gameroom
Right Bruno?
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you are forgetting a beautiful Joust!
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Juno First (in my opinion) :arrow: Bruno's gameroom
Right Bruno?
Héhéh... maybe? There's a special story about this Juno ::) :P
Report in progress ;)
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you are forgetting a beautiful Joust!
Opppssss :oops: corrected.
Juno First (in my opinion) :arrow: Bruno's gameroom
Right Bruno?
Héhéh... maybe? There's a special story about this Juno ::) :P
Report in progress ;)
Gotcha!!! ;) 8)
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Juno First (in my opinion) :arrow: Bruno's gameroom
Right Bruno?
Héhéh... maybe? There's a special story about this Juno ::) :P
Report in progress ;)
:o :o :o :o ;D ;)
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1700 Km on the road! Are you mad?! ;D
Great cabinet selection!
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Nice report! And what an awesome collection of games you have gathered there :) Well worth all the effort! I'm curious where the SW Cabs will end up.
Anyway: take your time to recover and enjoy your new games. I'm officially jelous :D
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My part of this awesome story right here :arrow:
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/news/wacko.jpg) (https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=3215)
;)
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WOW Very nice roadtrip :o
Damn a moon patrol :P i hate you :D
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It's running perfect and has a nice nos monitor.... ;D ;D
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It's running perfect and has a nice nos monitor.... ;D ;D
Must say that your timing is perfect.......its xmas holiday soon ;)
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And it continues today.
Today is a sad day because 2 beaties are going to leave me, forever! :'(
Oh no, I'm wrong, it's a great day because I'm going to make somebody very happy today, with a holy grail. No, 2 of them: ;D ( ??? This picture looks my gameroom too be very tiny, but it's huge, it is!!!! :shock: )
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000392.jpg)
And these are special ones, they have a unique watermark:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000391.jpg)
for a second I had the urge to make them even more unique :D :D but I didn't.
anyway, here are some photo's of the packing. Bela, I think that they are good to go.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000393.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000394.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000395.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000396.jpg)
Yes, there is a cab in it, with a plastic cover for 'rain protection' (yes, it's raining today, again)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000397.jpg)
The second one:
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000400.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000404.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000405.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000407.jpg)
And here they are both, waiting for the transporter.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000408.jpg)
To be continued ...
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May the force be with these two packages! :)
:spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:
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Lol, Erik you rock, never saw a more well packed cabinet before. ;D
Milllliiooooooonnn thanks! ;D
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great packing job, erik, love the "graffiti" you put on the cardboard! unfortunately, on the other hand i'm no fan of archer's "graffiti" on the star wars cabs, i just see no reason why he should put his signature there ...
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congrats bela! :o :spaceace:
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I agree but its Belas machine and he wanted it. I also hear it is washable ink...
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I agree but its Belas machine and he wanted it. I also hear it is washable ink...
sure it is, and he can do whatever he want with it. hell, he can even put a stupid board game on top of it :P
washable ink - at least it's "restorable" ;)
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Leave my signatures alone!!! ;D
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6 PM tonight
Hm! That doesn't fit
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000411.jpg)
And the cabs are too hight to stand upright. OK, let's remove the ceiling
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000413.jpg)
Well, that didn't go well either, after a lot of lifting one cabs was on it feet in the cab, angled at 45 degrees!! the cab couldn't be tilled horizontally because of the low door area. So, let's take everything out, 're-arrange the contents of the van (it was already filled for 2/3 part) and put one cab in on his back.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000414.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000416.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000417.jpg)
Hm, the other cab won't fit aside, 5 cm. too narrow. So, let's flip the cab and put the second one on top.
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000418.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000420.jpg)
Almost done, only have to put back all the other stuff and close the door
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000423.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/ckong65/2%20Star%20Wars%20cabs%20ready%20for%20transport/P1000424.jpg)
And after about 1.5 hour the twin cabs were finally in the van and on their way to Hungary.
Game on!
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OMG, that was close! :o
Erik, I owe you one or two or.......!!! :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace: