ever since i failed to get a nintendo vs dualsystem upright AND ever since i realized how beautiful those dualsystem cocktails aka red tents are, i had wanted one - especially since i already had a nice collection of vs roms and vs ppus at home. a few weeks back another one showed up on marktplaats. i contacted the seller immediately with an offer, but he told me that it was already spoken for. HOWEVER, he said that he's considering the other one he has from his personal collection. i asked for pics, this one was even nicer than the one on marktplaats and me made a deal. now the only problem was to get this baby to my place. i contacted patrick "anunaki" who lives in the same town as the seller, but was surprised to hear that patrick was also offered a red tent . what the heck is going on here, we thought. well, it turned out that the seller not only had two, but FOUR red tents in his possession, all of which are gone by now, so don't bother contacting the seller! to make a long story short: patrick kindly agree to pick up the cabinet for me, but not only that, he also made an appointment with erik who was coming over to pick up my pleaids, they passed the torch and erik eventually delivered the red tent to my place! EADS at its best!!!

last sunday was the day i had been waiting for for quite a while and i had already done some preparations, like making up some space in my gameroom ...



... like clearing the stairs as much as possible



... like putting some much needed energy drinks in the fridge



ok erik, everything's ready, you can deliver the red tent to my doorstep now, please



however, it wasn't as easy as it looked, because two years ago the guys living one floor down decided to put a closet for shoes in the middle of the staircase - right where the stairs are really narrow. and with the red tent being deeper than the usual arcade cabinets, there was no way we could pass the closet. there was only one option: move the entire thing up one staircase and push it into the apartment of my neighbours (sorry, another blurry picture. was i drunk?). when we later moved the closet back again to its original position, it almost completely fell apart. what a cheap piece of shit!!!



anyway, before i show you some good photos of the red tent, i have a small problem: the plug has been cut off and therefore i have no idea what kind of voltage that baby needs! the identification plaque says 120 volts, but the coin inserts show GULDEN - the former dutch currency!





unfortunately, i can't make heads or tails of the innards, some wires seem to be connected to 220 volts, some to 110 volts and those nintendo monitors use 100 volts.





the red tents from marktplaats we've seen so far all had the 120 volts plaque if i remember correctly, but were running on 230 volts without a stepdown converter, but i want to be sure before i install the plug and "fire up the engine" - don't wanna blow this thing up!!!

so perhaps some of you guys can tell me what's going on with the wiring. if you need any more pics, please feel free to ask, i'll gladly take some ...

there's more to the story to be told, but for now let's try to get the power issue solved, please!!!

thx guys

since i don't own a cabinet using a 19-inch med-res monitor anymore, there's no need to keep them in stock. therefore i've decided to sell my TWO wells-gardner monitors. they are NOS, have never been used before (therefore no screenburn) and are in perfect condition. unfortunately, they are not boxed, which means i won't be able to send them to anyone interested.

BUT, since we have a perfect EADS established, i'm pretty sure we could get those beauties to their news owner(s) easily (e.g. erik's coming over most likely in october and i'm pretty sure he would be willing to transport them to the netherlands)!

here's a few photos:











stuff like that doesn't show up very often anymore these days, so get those monitors while they're H-O-T!!!

asking price: 250 euros per monitor! grab both of them at once and i'll knock off 50

went through various boxes today and found quite a few items which are in desperate need of a new home - listed them all on ebay!

here's a quick run-down of what's available:

Control Panel - Breakout
Control Panel Dashboard - Pole Position
Bezel - Pole Position (Cockpit)
Bezel - Qix
Marquee - Qix
Marquee - Buggy Challenge
Marquee - Donkey Kong Junior
Marquee - Ikari Warriors
Marquee - Mario Bros.
Marquee - vs. Dr. Mario (Dual System)
Marquee - vs. Top Gun (Dual System)
Marquee - vs. Super Mario Bros. (Dual System))
Marquee - vs. Super Mario Bros. von Nintendo
Marquees - vs. Hogan's Alley (Dual System)
Marquee - vs. Hogan's Alley
Road Blasters Atari System 1 Kit (PCB / Control & Gas Panel / Marquee / Manual)

if there's anything you're really interested in (and there's no bid on the item yet, please contact me and i'm sure we can figure something out

i've been rearranging my workroom and stumbled upon some stuff which i'll probably never use, so i thought someone else might be interested. here we go ...

up for grabs is a TRON TOPPER COMBO from gamestencils.com consisting of one light cycle and one recognizer to be mounted on top of a Tron cabinet (or somewhere else) which glow under blacklight. here is the link to the item description on brian's homepage!

installed on top of a cabinet





the ones i'm selling have never been installed / used and are still in their original bubble wrap. you can see them on the following pics. i didn't want to unwrap them, just wanted to show you guys what you'll get!





i'm asking 30 euros for the tron topper combo! to make it a little bit more tempting, i'll throw in three tron legacy toys which our hungarian friend managed to source for free quite a while ago and which he kindly gave out to interested parties. they are the perfect gameroom decoration (if you prefer a messy gameroom ) or - if you'll ever feel bored - you can of course also PLAY WITH THEM

anyway, here's what you'll get as a bonus







once again, you will get THE TRON TOPPER COMBO PLUS THE TRON LEGACY TOYS FOR 30 EUROS!!! of course, it would be very convenient to bring the stuff to eurocade, but since i'm not coming i could also send the package to thorsten / dirk or stefan (sorry guys, didn't ask you, but i'm sure that's fine with you) and they could bring the items along. this way, you would only have to pay shipping within germany which is 6 euros. of course if you're not coming to eurocade and you want this stuff anyway, i'll gladly send it wherever you are as long as you're willing to pay shipping!

enough said, now someone grab those beauties while they're still available

i want to trim down my collection a little bit further and the first machine that has to leave my apartment is my pleaids machine in the rare spanish version. you can find it on ebay NOW!!!

i'll be selling some more machines in the future, e.g. paperboy or zoo keeper, so if there's anything you want, why don't you check my VAPS account to see which games i have - and who knows, maybe you can convince me to sell it to you ...

thx for your interest!!!

ok guys, as some of you MIGHT have noticed, i haven't been active at all over the course of the last few months. apart from the fact that i organized - once again - our local school event of the year, i've become kind of "arcade-bored". i haven't touched any of my restoration projects for a good quarter of a year - let alone played a game. i'm reading this (and other) forum(s) on a regular basis, but that's it. one huge factor is that i still haven't been able to figure out what to do with my games gameroom-wise, but on the other hand this has to do with something which is both a good and a bad thing at the same time: containers!

while i really appreciate the time and effort that thomas spent (and is still spending) on getting those games and containers over to germany, the containers have somehow killed the hobby - at least for me and for now. don't get me wrong: i have greatly benefited from those containers and i would probably have never got games like major havoc or tapper, BUT they also took away what was - to me - the most interesting factor of our hobby: the thrill of the hunt! back in the days, how many hours have we spent on various sites trying to find new games, how important was it to have good connections and how thrilling was it to go on a roadtrip without knowing what to expect. nowadays, it's more like ordering something online from a catalogue (that is: KLOV), waiting for a ship to bring the stuff over and then either pick it up or have it delivered to your doorstep. as simple as that! nothing seems to be impossible anymore and the guy with the deepest pockets brings home the coolest games - basically without having to do anything! this somehow makes me sad ...

(almost) gone have all those great roadtrip reports, those discoveries which were (and still are) to be made on our continent and personally i have lost interest in those things myself, because why should i spent countless hours on the net and on the road when i can have everything with a few emails? once again, don't get me wrong: the containers opened a whole new world for us and our hobby, but they also closed one which was really important - at least for me. i still have a few games over in the US which i'm looking forward to already, but somehow it doesn't (and I don't) feel as enthusiastic anymore as it did years ago ... i really hope it will come back in the months and years to come! i've sold quite a few games, but i'm still on the lookout for a select few. i will eventually get them and they will be transported over here on ships in a container and they will make me happy for sure, but they won't bring back what has been lost ...

what do you guys think? too dramatic, partially right, you don't give a shit, superully's lost his mind, spot on, you couldn't care less, so true, what the hell is he talking about, i need a drink, ...

please share your thoughts!!!

p.s. thomas, hope you're still bringing my remaining games over! as i've said, nothing personal, just something i've been experiencing and wanted to share with you guys!

as one restoration comes to a close, another one is just around the corner - or has already started!

i've decided to bring Gottlieb's Reactor down into my mom's basement for a complete makeover - for various reasons:
(a) it's a game you don't see every day with an unusual gameplay
(b) awesome cabinet design and color scheme
(c) nothing beats the attract mode music - NOTHING!!!

let's start with a quick inspection of the game! it looks ok at first glance (apart from being damn dirty), but the bottom part is pretty rough (more on that later)!





artwork is still nice and original (just a few minor cracks around the edges), the magic eraser should work its magic on it!



the power supply pcb is missing, but that's not important, because those mcr based games always developed issues with the power supplies



inside, some kind of conversion has already been done, but this doesn't look like a nice job, so i'll have to redo some of the wiring



what's striking is the poor condition of the transformer unit - look at all that dirt and rust. in fact, all the metal parts are extremely rusty and will need to spend a few hours in my nice comfy anti-rust bath



looking much better after complete disassembly, cleaning and repainting!



another photo before ...



... and after!



still a lot of work to do, but i can't wait to smash the atoms, cool the core and escape the vortex!

while waiting for some parts for my Bubble Bobble Project to arrive, i thought i could tackle a slightly different restoration project which is not going to take forever and which brings a lot of fun - especially at parties! ladies and gentlemen: ice cold beer anyone?



cabinet structure is ok, control panel definitely not original!



base is pretty rough, must have been dragged around a lot! on the left you can see the plate which reveals the "winning lottery tickets"



left side



as you can see, the beer lady aka waitress has some nasty scratches from being in service for too long. therefore, she will be replaced with an identical clone



a look inside at the back of the playfield



inside's pretty clean, on the right the ticket dispenser!



that's it for now, more over the next couple of days!!!