here's another yet unpublished roadtrip report from 2011, only one more left and i'm up to date - hopefully
after the first pole position cockpit i had bought way back
was destroyed i had always been on the lookout for a replacement and although i had aquired an
upright cab in the meantime, a cockpit was still what i was looking for. one day late last year, a pole position cockpit showed up on a swiss auction site. the seller's location was deep into switzerland, so normally i would have let it pass, but since an arcade friend of mine had bought stuff from the same seller and would have to go there with a trailer anyway, he kindly agreed to bring the cockpit along - if i succeeded in buying it. i did and the price was nice, so now all i had to do is wait for the news of a successful pickup and head out to the location in germany where the cabinet was stored. luckily, this location was close to my place and i could combine the pickup with a personal visit of one of the best (if not THE best) arcade places in germany!
enough said, here's what's coming up
starting with the usual statistics
i also brought a broken b/w monitor for mac gyver and some q*bert artwork along for the ride because i was going to meet some arcade friends along the way
normally my car has been big enough for every cabinet i've picked up on my various roadtrips, but a cockpit is something different, so i borrowed a trailer from a friend of mine and headed out
there was only a tiny problem: the thing on the right (too new) wouldn't fit into the thing on the left (too old), and without those two connected i'm not allowed to drive because the electronics on the trailer don't work
so i took a little detour and visited this shop to get the missing puzzle piece
with 25 euros (!) less in my pockets, i was finally able to
really start this roadtrip
this is where i wanted to go
this is where i went
this is what i came for
well, in fact
THIS IS what i came for, the other thing was just the back door
. as you can see, the cabinet is a hybrid between pole position 1 and 2: pp2 art on the front section, pp1 art on the back section, pp2 art on the backdoor. however, when you examine the cab closer, you see that the pp2 art has only been slapped over the original pp1 artwork. although i like the pp2 art much more, there are no reproductions available and unless a miracle happens i'll be restoring this back to pole position 1.
the back plexi is intact (puh), it has only been removed
[dream mode on] this is where i'll be sitting one day [dream mode off]
here's simon, the guy who picked the game up for me, trying to find the right tool ...
... to install a german plug instead of the swiss version!
let's make the connection
checking the voltages - unfortunately the generator simon brought along just wasn't strong enough to power the game, so i have no idea of its functionality!
simon is a great guy who often buys arcade stuff for one euro (stuff which noone elso wants), then he fixes it and sells it for two
. let's see what else simon has stored in his garage
simon had this
revolution x in his house in the past and because it was too big to get through the doors (or down the stairs, i can't remember), he took a circular saw and cut it into two pieces
enough time spent talking and testing, let's load that baby onto the trailer
just make sure those straps are tight
i can tell you this: transporting a pole position cockpit on a trailer
IS a head turner for people passing by
that was the
work part of the trip, now on to the
fun part (which is pretty close as you can see)
night has already fallen (it's late in the year after all), but i'm almost there
thorsten and dirk had opened their arcade for a private end-of-the-year party and i was one of the lucky guests invited (amongst them some other arcade lifestyle forum members). here's a setup of their premises (sorry, not the best of pictures)
i won't bore you with words, please enjoy some photos of pure arcade grandeur
and then there's their workshop
thanks a lot to thorsten and dirk for inviting me to your party, it's always magnificent to walk the aisles of your arcade!
on my way home, i had to make a pitstop at a gas station
how fitting for this roadtrip, i was almost seduced to put the tap into the cockpit
at home, one last thing to do
one country, two counties, 381 kilometers, 12 hours 10 minutes on the road - this roadtrip is OFFICIALLY OVER!p.s.: on my way back (with the cockpit behind my car), i was driving a little bit too fast in a road construction area (66 km/h instead of the 60 allowed) and therefore got a ticket for speeding
