Time to finally clear out some of the arcade road trips I still haven’t shared.
Let’s jump back a little over three years, to September 2022.
At that moment, I was going through a slightly odd phase. I had drifted away from the arcade world for a while, drawn back toward another long‑standing passion of mine: music, and more specifically, the guitar.
For anyone curious, my YouTube channel with my guitar covers was my main creative outlet back then. Check this out (and feel free to like) ->
My Guitar YT ChannelSo yes - I wasn’t really looking for anything arcade‑related anymore. My “must‑have” list felt complete, and the hunt had pretty much gone quiet.
But after so many years of checking what’s for sale around me, the habit stayed. And during one of those casual scans, I stumbled upon a listing… just 44 km from home.
Not much preparation, the seller didn’t live far, so no schedule stress. I had no idea what I was going to buy, or even if I would buy anything at all.
I didn’t negotiate anything; I simply told the seller I’d stop by, just ‘to have a look’…
So here we are, September 27th, 2022.
Like I said, it was practically next door…
...and that was for the best, because at that point I wouldn’t have driven much farther for anything arcade‑related.
(around that same period I did go on a looong road trip for ...a guitar.
But that’s another story)
Living in Belgium, right at the ‘three borders,’ is pretty convenient… A few kilometers in any direction and I’m either in Luxembourg, France, or Germany.
For this story, though, we’ll be crossing into France...
With such a short drive, there really wasn’t anything epic to report… At best, I could show you a French roundabout?
...or perhaps I should show you a picturesque little French village while I’m at it?
Alright, enough chatter...we’ve arrived at the seller’s place.
I step into the seller’s warehouse or rather, the place of the person handling the sale (he's not the owner).
I’m not alone; a few other potential buyers are already there. And it makes sense, there’s quite a lot of interesting old stuff lying around
For example, this Atari Sprint
or this Super Bug (which has less impact on me, since I already owned that cabinet once and eventually sold it).
Not bad, not bad… but these aren’t the cabinets I came for. Let’s see what else is around.
Hmm… some generic Sidam machines, a few old Super Breakout… and quite a lot of jukeboxes...
Turns out I’m the only guy here actually interested in these old arcade cabinets — which works out just fine for me.
Ah, there it is... the cabinet that actually got me off my butt and driving out here… an ultra‑rare
Polaris cabaret by Taito
(and behind it, two more Super Breakouts… Good lord, that’s five already!
).
She’s in rough shape: at first glance, the back door is missing, the monitor tube is broken, the base has water damage, and the original control panel is gone… Honestly, that’s fine by me, definitely a lot of work ahead, but also plenty of arguments for not paying too much in the end... and I’m not about to get picky when it comes to a cabinet this rare!
With the negotiation done, I kept walking around before loading the Polaris — just in case I stumbled upon another gem.
A whole row of cocktail tables, though I’d say they were all generic models.
Another generic cabinet — though this one is interesting because it comes from the old French arcade ‘J.R.’.
@Old School : could this be one of the machines from your legendary ‘JR’ Arcade?
Here’s another very interesting cabinet. It’s an Atari Coupe Davis, the European version of Atari’s Pong Doubles in the US.
I hesitated to take that one too. But I didn’t have the space to bring it back right away, since I was about to load the Polaris into the car.
So I figured I could always come back later. I’m not far from home anyway…
There were a few more generic cabinets that I didn’t even bother taking pictures of, but trust me — nothing interesting.
Alright, time to load the Polaris
On the short road back, I had to take the official ‘catch of the day’ photo :
Except… yeah, I look a bit grumpy or sad there.
We all go through rough patches, and I was definitely in one of those phases. Arcade stuff wasn’t really what I needed at that moment.
Another thing: in that warehouse, there was clearly stuff for other collectors. After picking up the Polaris, I could have shared the location. But as I said, I wasn’t really in the arcade mood anymore. I feel a bit guilty about it, especially since I’m usually the one advocating for sharing
A few months after this road trip, I contacted the seller again to see if anything was left, but I never got a reply. I also regret letting the Sprint and the Monte Carlo slip away...
Alright, back in Belgium — short distance or not, it still qualifies as an international road trip
And here are my stats as a "professional road‑tripper"
(who doesn’t earn a single cent doing all this — quite the opposite, actually…
)
BELGIUM -> FRANCE -> BELGIUM
ROADTRIP TIME ELAPSED 2H32
DISTANCE 88 KM
The cabinet is out of the car and ready to enter the Nuno’s Lair.
Stay tuned for its restoration.
