So I enter the seller's business, he's already outside and has the overhead door open so I immediately see the cabs
The seller owns a business in ......printing banners, flags and other promotional stuff so maybe there is a nice new contact made for the future
We talk a bit. He had bought the cab from Belgium a lot of years ago he says. He used to have a game room but then het got children and had to made room and get rid of most of his machines (including pinballs). The Ms.Pac and the Galaxian were the only one's left and he moved them to his business.
He imported the Ms.Pac himself from the US so he paid a lot for shipping (by air). I told him about Paul's 50's container and that this made his Ms.Pac a lot less wanted, I know I would have been all over the Ms.Pac too if that container (and Erik's awesome deal
) never had happened....
Anyway there it was.....the Galaxian I have wanted since......well since I learned about it's existence really
I never remembered the original cabinets I used to play BITD. I do remember playing a button controlled version (likely the Bertollini version) which I totally hated so when I had to chance to buy one of those many years ago in Germany I passed on it (also because it was in really poor shape). This was at world of arcade IIRC...
Anyway: here it was !!!
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
I almost did a little dance again but was able to control myself...because we had agreed on a price already I explained a little bit about the cab and it's rarity and the seller jokingly replied "so I asked too little for it" but he immediately said he liked that it was going to someone who was really fanatical about it so he kept to his deal. In fact in the very start I think he would have taken a bit lower price because he asked "well do you think it is something for you ?" but really I payed a fair price for something so rare so I said yeah sure
Nice thing: Japanese Galaxian cabs have WHEELS on the backside so it was easy to load, put the car right in front of the loading area and soon enough I was on my way home....
Passing Schiphol again (waving at the air traffic controllers, my family was lucky enough to visit that tower, which is extremely rare to happen...)
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
I back-track almost the same route to avoid even more traffic jams and it works pretty well. Only near Rotterdam there are some light problems, but nothing seriously:
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
Crossing the Brienenoord bridge and I'm almost home:
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
So, I unloaded the cab and grabbed my proper camera to take some serious shots:
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE that marquee it is miles better than the Bally version imho (and I already like that one a lot !!!
)
I also like the "artwork" on the top retainer which is huge. This type of cabinet was used for Tank Batallion, Galaxian, Puckman and Galaga and all of them have this same "artwork" but the colors differ for every game.
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
The top is rather oddly constructed compared to the US version. The top is flat and the marquee retainer is "hold up". You also see two bloks to which metal handles were installed, I noticed them on Pieter's pictures from the Japanese arcade museum. They remind me of the metal pieces that Japanese Taito cabs have. I assume these were used to lift the cabs with some crane of sorts ? If so the wooden construction will have to be pretty strong....
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
The front. Love the colors, love the artwork:
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
The famous bezel and CP integrated plexi. Alas it is broken on one side. I'm not too worried about that as Etienne already has the Euro version file, we should be able to easily adapt that with this original at hands
.
I am also lucky because the fire button and even the joystick are the original (the one at the Japanese museum has a black stick, but the flyer shows a red one...)
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
Here's the crack on the plexi, too bad....
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
I am also a little less lucky with regards to the famous Namco P1 and P2 buttons. Did I ever mention I hate smokers...well at least those who thought CP's/buttons were the ideal place to rest their cigarettes on....
P2 is relatively OK:
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
But P1.....:
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
Sigh.....it is also installed upside down for some reason...
I think there is very little I can do about these and finding replacements is close to impossible AFAIK....if anybody has a set for me PLEASE let me know...
Maybe we can 3D print these one day ??
Now...this must be the weirdest hack I've seen on any CP so far.....
Untitled by
Level_42, on Flickr
I guess it's a power led ??
The instruction inlay has also seen better days. Red is not the ideal color to last very long....I'm having some hopes that combined with Gyruss' pictures we might be able to reconstruct this (Etienne ??
)
