Author Topic: [Roadtrip] The BIG One  (Read 72125 times)

Superully

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #15 on: May 31, 2010, 03:58:29 PM »

ok guys, just returned from the living dead :twisted:, well fed, well rested, well prepared, so without any further ado, let's get this roadtrip report going ...

because it's going to take a while to put this down and because there are clear cuts in between, i'll be dividing this up into four parts with the first one coming right up!

PART 1 - APPETIZER

after reading bruno's roadtrip report for ghosts'n'goblins and moon patrol, i realized there might be some nice games waiting for me in england as well, so i got in touch with ravage from retrokade.com trying to get a deal going. communication was a little bit slow at first because he was basically being flooded with emails from other collectors as well, but it soon picked up speed and after a lot of talking back and forth, a deal was finally struck, a date was set, preparations were made, the roadtrip was here!

here's what's coming up  :arrow:



once again, my companion for this roadtrip is my good friend charlotte :-*. her relationship to the island off the european mainland can be summarized like this:



the weather forecast for the weekend was mixed, with saturday being the better of the two days. after getting up at 6 am, a first glance out of the window :o



but it improved pretty fast and once we arrived at the rental company for the pickup of the van, the sun was out. looking good so far!



along with our sleeping stuff, we brought a maximum amount of straps, pillows and blankets



nice to see a different car display for once  ;)



the transporter is a pleasure to drive, but it still requires full concentration



it doesn't take long to hit our first traffic jam - luckily, this was going to be our last one for the entire journey as well  :)



the good thing about it is that it gives us the chance to "overtake" not one, but two Ferrari F512 at the same time - feels good!!!



there are more "cool" vehicles on the road like G. Frost ...



... or Ghostrider 1  :ghost:



the closer we get to the eurotunnel, the worse the weather gets: dark clouds, stormy winds - tunnel sous la manche, here we come!



driving up to the check-in



this is the first time the both of us are here, so let's figure out how this works



in order to retrieve the booking, you can either insert the credit card or input the booking reference number. however, since the van is extremely high, i simply can't reach the credit card slot and i don't have arms like the following guy - anyone remember him?



that's why i have to use the "old school method"



we never would have imagined the wagons would look like this. they don't look like railway stuff at all!



because there was an accident in the eurotunnel not so long ago and we will be going "20000 leagues under the sea", i'm putting on my diving helmet for protection



and in we go



charlotte decides to do without her diving equipment and takes a quick tour around the transporter



i should ask the car rental company for some kind of commission for displaying their car and contact details so prominently





don't worry, we're not going anywhere anytime soon



i'm using the transit to take a short power nap



once we arrive in england, the weather doesn't surprise me at all. come on, this is england we're talking about  ;D!



suddenly, charlotte spots "my car" in front of ours - well, at least "my license plate"  8)



after travelling on british soil for around two hours, the roads are getting extremely winding and narrow



our first stop does NOT take us to ravage's place, but to some friends of charlotte. a couple of years ago, she was an au pair girl in a british family and this place happens to be just around 15 kilometers from rav, which is a great opportunity for her to do some catching up with them.

btw, this is NOT it as well - but i simply loved the pirate ballon on that road sign  ;) :-*



end of part 1 - to be continued ...

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

ckong

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #16 on: May 31, 2010, 05:22:08 PM »
Nice report so far, the pictures bring back memories. Good of you that you didn't go alone.

Superully

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #17 on: May 31, 2010, 06:26:14 PM »

PART 2 - MAIN DISH

after spending some time with charlotte's host family, it's already around 8 pm - time to head over to ravage's place! welcome to FUNTINGTON - arcade capital of the world ;)



must be somewhere down that road!



because ravage's unit is difficult to find, he provided us with his home address. a quick door bell ring, a hop in the car - follow the leader!



a first peek inside THE UNIT



for those of you who haven't been there, let's quickly walk the aisles



i need to have a tapper - need to, need to, need to :twisted:



unfortunately, q*bert wasn't working :'(



look at this williams row :shock: :shock: :shock:



yes charlotte, that marquee really is three-dimensional - even without 3d glasses!



but before being sucked into some of those fabulous games, i mustn't forget that i'm here on a mission: fill that transporter up to the roof  ;)

rav had already lined up the games i've decided to bring over to germany and had sent me some pictures of the "ully row" right before our departure, but i don't want to show you those pictures just now in order to not spoil the fun of revealing my choices (which include some surprises)! the pictures of the individual cabs which are about to follow had been taken by rav in advance as well, but i'm going to use them to show you the condition of the cabs!

the first game i picked is a great addition to my pac-man row. i already have the original pac-man, ms pac-man and pac-mania. this game differs from the others because it's not a maze game anymore, but a nice side-scrolling jump'n'run game.

ladies and gentlemen: PAC-LAND



apart from some damages to the yellow wooden parts, the cabinet is in pretty nice condition. the most important thing (besides the fact that it's working) is that the sidearts are both there. on most of the cabs i've seen / heard about they are either missing or destroyed and there are no reproductions available at the moment. i'm totally happy that i don't have to worry about that!



the overlay is also ok, magic eraser will make it look even better!



in it goes!



one down, many more to go ...



before i reveal the next game, a short story first: game number two was actually game number one ;D! wtf - you must be thinking! well, let me clear this up: the following game was the VERY FIRST arcade game i ever played, it was put up on location outdoors at our annual wine festival - must have been around 1983. while i can't remember whether it was in an original cab or just a conversion, i remember the thrill it gave me very well. because of that, the following game was NUMBER ONE ON MY MUST-HAVE-LIST (guess i have to find a new number one now ;))

ladies and gentlemen: MOON PATROL



but wait a minute - didn't bruno just buy rav's moon patrol? well, he did, but when i contacted rav the first thing i asked was whether he had another moon patrol for sale, because from what i've heard he has a couple of defenders and three EDOTs - why not another moon patrol? unfortunately, he didn't :'(! just about two weeks later, rav contacted me again!

rav: "hey dude! wasn't there someone on the dragonslair forum looking for a moon patrol? when i got my moon patrol, we actually imported two of them from the usa. mine has been sold to bruno, but the second one is available now. do you know who that guy was?"  ;D

ully: "sure i do - it was me!" 8)

sometimes you have to be extremely lucky in this hobby and ask the right questions. it got even better when rav told me that the cab was in great condition AND that it was working. of course, i couldn't resist!



the sides will only need some minor touchups - if any!



a new overlay, a williams joystick rebuild kit - i'm one happy camper!



bring it on, man!



those williams cabs aren't very heavy, rav was pretty impressed when i literally carried it into the van :spaceace: two down, many more to go ...



up next is a game that you have to love for the sheer beauty of the cabinet (well, to be honest, the control panel could be much better, but the rest ...). i fell in love with the game twice: first because of the "front art" and second because of the game play. although it gets tough pretty fast, it's still one of those game you come back to to play another round!

ladies and gentlemen: DOMINO MAN







can't wait to see this cleaned up and treated with my special nano-tech cockpit spray!



"waiter, one domino man please!"  ;)



rav told me that the cabinet was damaged during transport from the usa to england, which means the right side got a hit and has the tendency to fall off, that's why we have to be careful when lifting the game up!



where to put it? btw, we've reached the halfway point!



the next game is already in my possession, therefore i can totally understand the desire to have it. i'm bringing this one for an arcade friend from austria who responded to my "who's interested in some of ravage's games" call.

ladies and gentlemen: TOOBIN

because ravage didn't know for sure whether the austrian guy was going to take the toobin or not, we have to "maneuver" it out first



freed from all those other cabinets



after OUT comes IN, right? four down, not many more to go ...



up next is a game which i have been looking for for quite a while as well and of which i thought i'd never get it. turns out rav had two of those as well.

ladies and gentlemen: ZOO KEEPER



shaky picture, but it's good enough for a first impression. sideart is in good condition, however the pedestal of the game is destroyed - no wonder when you see which material those were made of. i'll have to rebuild it! the coin door is missing on the pictures, but it was included in the deal!



no complaints about the control panel



another shaky picture which gives me the chance to tell you that unfortunately both the game pcbs and the wiring harness are missing. i do have a spare qix harness which is almost identical to zoo keeper and which should work, and rav has a spare boardset (which is missing just a few chips), but i forgot to ak him about / for it. DAMN, i knew i would be forgetting something!



will the zoo keeper please appear on the stage?



because this is the last game i've picked to bring home from rav's place, we decide to slide the game in on its back - the damaged base makes it difficult to stand up!



"careful, dude, don't squeeze me in!"



just some more pushing ...



... and in it is!



a shot from the outside (powered by auge autovermietung ;))



now that all the games have been revealed, i can show you the pictures that ravage sent me the night prior to our departure along with the words "sweet dreams"  ;D



isn't that just a great row of games?





demonstration of pac-land working



"dude, moon patrol is running on 110 volts!"



yeah, moon patrol is finally mine!!!



more moon patrol posing!



what is she doing here?



probably listening in on us talking about video games



what's that? another pac-man game? doesn't sound too interesting though: spin the wheel like hell, transport the ball from bottom to top - that's it  :P



after the loading process, it's finally time to play some games, this one is called "two sweaty old dudes playing with tiny bubble blowing dragons"  ;D



we didn't take any more pictures of our gaming session - we just p-l-a-y-e-d!!!

before we left, ravage showed us something extremely cool: his ultimate goal (which is mine as well as you might already know) is to run all his game on tokens. however, he's not just using ANY tokens, but he had 3500 of his own tokens made - retrokade style of course!



unfortunately, because we've been up and on the road for such a long time and we've arranged to spend the night at charlotte's host family's place, we have to leave all that arcade fun behind and hit the road one more time (for today that is). thx a lot, ravage, we've had a wonderful time at your place and you're a great guy!

although the following pictures are blurry, they show exactly how charlotte and i both feel after such a long day! let's go to bed, the night won't be long  :(



end of part 2 - to be continued ...

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

gyruss

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2010, 07:34:00 PM »
Damn Ully, you are crazy! ;) That's indeed a great lineup! :o 
I don't like the the pac man but understand why you bought it. On the other hand, the 3 (!) other cabinets are stunning! Love the zoo keeper and moon patrol, very beautiful! So congrats on finding your #1.




Muerto

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2010, 07:43:21 PM »
wooooh! - nice report!!! if you ever decide to let the Zoo go, i´m your buyer :)
And that domino man is a beauty!! wow!

funkycochise

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #20 on: May 31, 2010, 08:28:37 PM »
Nice pick up, Cabs seem to be all in excellent conditions !!

congratulations !

scr33n

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #21 on: May 31, 2010, 08:49:24 PM »
AWESOME Ully !!!  :spaceace:

Great choice ... Moon Patrol  :-* :-* :-* and Domino Man ... the only one in Europe  :spaceace: :spaceace:

Thanks for report and pics  8)
PROJECTS FROM SCRATCH:

Galaga - PacMan - Donkey Kong Red Cab - Track & Field Upright - Tempest - Burgertime - Gyruss - Defender - Track & Field Cocktail - Robotron 2084

RESTORATIONS:

Q*bert - Timber

DarthNuno

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #22 on: May 31, 2010, 08:51:37 PM »
Huge my friend, congratulation  :)

Of course, for immediate release  :-*  :arrow:



I'm waiting the end of the story  :-* :-* :-*

ckong

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #23 on: May 31, 2010, 09:12:28 PM »
Nice catch on that moon patrol. I envy you.  ;)

Superully

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #24 on: May 31, 2010, 09:51:42 PM »
PART 3 - DESSERT

we arrive at our night's lodging at around a quarter to eleven, just in time to watch "our" lena :-* take home the eurovision song contest crown for germany!



of course we can't resist to watch that to the end. it's a lot of fun seeing the english host family complain about their dreadful song becoming last while "we" on the other hand are winning. let's see where the cards fall in the soccer world cup ...

anyway, i hit the mattress at almost midnight, charlotte stays up even longer to chat some more with our "hostel wardens". time is not on our side, because we have a train to catch at 6.50 in the morning! after a little more than three hours of sleep, we wake up to that horrible sound an alarm clock produces!



f*** - i'm tired!!!



we start the day off with some statistics: 933 kilometers so far! note: the clock is still set on german time, so you have to deduct one hour to get our departure time. can you do the math? ;)



it won't be long though until the sun comes up, the photographer calls this the "blue hour", the one-hour period before sunrise or after sunset. you can take the best pictures in that time period! i love the following picture  :arrow:



with only a couple of hours of sleep, an exhausting day behind us and another looong day ahead of us, you have to be extremely cautious not to fall asleep behind the steering wheel



fortunately, our trip back can be divided in three pieces with the first part almost coming to a close: eurotunnel ahead!



here comes the sun ...



checking in in the early morning hours



waiting in line for our departure (picture courtesy of auge autovermietung ;))



down we go again ...



... and up on the other side



welcome back on the Continent - feels good to drive on the right (= correct & directionwise) side of the road again!



setting the sat nav for the second part of our return trip home



nothing spectacular on the three-hour trip to our next stop - except the fact that i envy charlotte sleeping next to me while i'm driving! here's a picture of my failed attempt to photograph that scene while driving  :arrow:



the roads leading up to our next destination are winding and steep, we have to "climb" them up like the cyclist in the first of the two following pictures



they're not only winding and steep, but also narrow!



next stop: pascal's house



a couple of weeks ago, pascal (kroustibat on the forum) put up a for sale thread for a couple of games he had discovered close to his place. he was just interested in the outrun, but there were other games as well which the seller only wanted to sell as part of a bulk buy. i was happy to find out that a rampage was part of that package deal and because i've been trying to find a rampage for my collection (it's simply a fun 3-player game) and because pascal's location was directly "en route", i couldn't pass on this opportunity. timing was perfect - pascal had picked up all the games from the bulk buy the day before our arrival!





and here's my rampage! the cabinet is pretty beat, i'm curious to find out myself what restoration will do to that baby ;). btw, have a look at those premises: do i "smell" game room here?  ;D



let's first inspect what's inside of that transporter





ully: "ok, we could either put it on top of that zookeeper ..."



ully: "... or directly in front of it. what do you think, pascal?"



pascal: "puh, no idea! rampage is extremely bulky (and heavy)! let me get a meter to do some measuring."



taking measures





will it fit? this is going to be a very close call!



ok, let's just try it! while we are standing there, the rain is beginning to fall  >:( (nice picture, charlotte!)



speaking of charlotte: while she doesn't like driving big cars on highways, what she does like is driving big cars backwards into parking lots - in fact, she's very good at that!



well done, girl!  :spaceace:



now the rampage somehow has to go from the garage ...



... into the van! unfortunately, noone's around to do some voodoo magic  :(



let's transport the rampage to the front of the garage. i'm almost lying hidden underneath (behind) it



this is as far as it goes



we soon have to realize that the cabinet is simply too heavy for the two of us. there are two problems making it almost impossible to get the cab up into the van:
(1) pascal's trolly is not used to that kind of weight - it would break apart!
(2) the path up to the van is not tarred, but only filled with loose stones

to the rescue: pascal's family!!! pictured here: his sister and his father



four people - that should do the trick!



let's simply CARRY it up the path



piece of cake



almost there!



putting it in an upright position



giving it a 90° turn



this is where it needs to go ...  :arrow:



... and this is what pascal's mother must be thinking  :arrow:



we're giving it a try nevertheless!



five people at once trying to push in the rampage cabinet



this is what failure looks like - have a look at the expressions on our faces!!!  :( :( :(



what now? charlotte's putting down the camera, we're trying to think tetris-esque and come up with a masterplan: the zoo keeper has to be moved out of the transporter, the toobin has to go where the zoo keeper once was, the rampage has to go in front of the toobin and the domino man (which are standing side by side) and - finally - the zoo keeper has to go back in again, this time in an upright position!

we don't have any pictures of the entire process, because we needed all the man /woman power to get this done! a job which normally takes no more than 10 minutes took us 1 1/2 hours to do, but we succeeded!  :spaceace:



why am i looking more exhausted than pascal?



well done! we have to say THANK YOU to pascal and his family for the great support, because without you, we wouldn't have been able to fulfill our mission: load that transporter up to the roof! it was nice to meet you guys ...



end of part 3 - to be continued ...

« Last Edit: June 01, 2010, 02:04:20 PM by Superully »
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Brry71

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #25 on: May 31, 2010, 09:51:58 PM »
Awesome!!! Great catches dude :)
LOOKING FOR: a license to print money.....

And a Pacman. And a Donkey Kong.

slowcade

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #26 on: May 31, 2010, 09:54:24 PM »
Wow, what a fantastic trip! Congratulations!!  ;D ;D

flip971

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #27 on: May 31, 2010, 09:56:18 PM »
Ully, beautiful trip and nice catchs!!! ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #28 on: May 31, 2010, 10:11:38 PM »
Super story Super Ully !

Congrats with the beauties !

subzero1970

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Re: [Roadtrip] The BIG One
« Reply #29 on: June 01, 2010, 12:37:29 AM »
I wont say too much but you have bought 2 nice cabs there....