Hm, guess I’m not pulling the cab apart after all. There is no way I can do it without screwing up the wood, so it stays as it is I guess.
Thanks for the heads up about the cardboard bezel. The one for the Star Splash is just black, isn’t it?
And now… roadtripping!
German roads are estimately 15673 times better than Norwegian roads. Even in Rheinland-Pfalz.
When I was given the Zacc Star Splash I went on DLF and asked if anybody could help me by scanning some artwork. The plan was to vectorize and reproduce the art, because there was no way I thought I could source original art for the cab. Well, I was wrong. I was contacted by Luigi who knew where to find a NOS bezel, and Laschek who had two marquees for sale. Problem was, I was in Norway and they were in Germany and sending the glass bezel and marquees would most likely end in a glass shard disaster.
As it happens, I have a Norwegian friend who lives in Karlsruhe, Germany, and last year I booked tickets to visit him. I knew that in Karlsruhe there is a museum called Retrogames where they have a lot of old cabs, and had announced on J+ that I had planned to go there. I seemed to remember a reply from Luigi that he lived only 50 km away from that place, which again ment that I could actually go from Karlsruhe to Luigi’s place to pick up the bezel. On his end he did one hell of a job to get the bezel transported from another place in Germany. It all started to come together nicely.
Initially, I had planned to have Laschek’s two glass marquees sent to me by post. This was not the optimal solution, given the fragility of the items and the high shipping cost that we non-EU citizens are blessed with. I mentioned to him that I was going to Luigi’s place, and although he lives quite far off, he kindly offered to deliver the marquees to me in person.
So here is the scenario: the marquee coming from somewhere north of Frankfurt, Laschek coming from Kaiserslautern, me coming from Norway via Karlsruhe, and we’re all meeting up at Luigi’s place at 15:00 on Saturday. Something’s got to go wrong, right? No! It all went down perfectly!
I arrived with my friends who had offered to drive me, we met Luigi and he showed me his wonderful game room, and shortly after Laschek arrived. Zacc wares were exchanged, and we chatted a bit before I left for Karlsruhe again with a car full of valuable glass and a smile on my face! Thanks again to Laschek and Luigi who went out of their way for an unknown guy from Norway. You guys are the best!
Me and Luigi wheelin' and dealin' over the NOS bezel.
The deal is made!
Laschek and me sealin' tha deal.
Later in the evening we went to Retrogames (
http://retrogames.info/) and had an absolute ball! The friendly guys there, Klaus-Peter and Mario among others, were kind enough to give me a tour behind the scenes, where they had rare Atari cabs like Gotcha (
http://retrogames.info/arcade/show/858), Battlezone, a very early Sprint clone and a very nice Asteroids cabaret. The rest of the night was spent in the main game room where we enjoyed beer, 80's music, Centipede cabaret , Star Wars upright, Juno First, Tron, Space Harrier cockpit and a lot of Marble Madness rivalry with my friends. A great night, and I really really recommend a visit to Retrogames!
You can't go wrong with beer and a Centipede cabaret. I WANT ONEEE!!!
My friend Finn gloating about kicking my butt in MM.
I’m now back in good old Norway where I plan to do some heavy work on the cab in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!