[Roadtrip] Road to Berlin Part II (Five in a Row)

[Superully]

One short note before this roadtrip begins: I didn't bring my professional camera on this roadtrip - nice pictures were not my top priority! The only thing I had was my crappy mobile phone camera, but crappy pictures are still better than no pictures at all, right? Well then, here we go ...

Time to return to Berlin! As you probably remember from my last roadtrip (https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=804.0), there are still some games waiting for me in the German capital. This time, however, I'm not taking my own car with me. How should I fit 5 cabs in my car at once? Suggestions, please 

Therefore, I'm using a car pool to travel north. Unfortunately, I happened to pick a car with heavy metal fans. Not that I don't like heavy metal, but 6 hours in an enclosed "heavy metal environment" is too much - even for my blood   

Here's my "ticket to Berlin" 



After a seemingly endless ride in the car, I'm dropped off somewhere in Berlin, so I have to use public transportation to reach my destination.







in order to bring all 5 games home at once, i'm taking a rental car to the by now well-known fire station.



the "tunnel" in the fire station's cellar which leads to the seller's storage room



let me show you that storage again (picture taken during my last berlin roadtrip) 



the loading process begins ...











i'm also taking a couple of spare hantarex monitors - you never know when they might come in handy!



everything's loaded, time to begin the long journey home 





after many hours on the road, i arrive home safe and sound. here's where we stand 



the next morning. let's check if everything is still where it belongs ... CHECKED!!!



the van in front of my "storage unit" at patrik's place



after unloading, four fantastic classic games in their temporary shelter - hopefully not for long!





but wait a minute: only FOUR games, isn't there one missing. what happened to the wizard of wor? well, i couldn't resist, i had to take it up into my (temporary) gameroom. i'm looking forward to starting the restoration process on this one, a new control panel overlay and new sidearts are already on their way!



one continent, six COUNTIES, way too many kilometers - this roadtrip is OFFICIALLY OVER!

[Sonic 1992]

Totally Cool!!!  It's like you pulled off a heist!!  A bunch of games in one shot!!!   Good Job!! 

I would be playing WOW First too!!!       

[level42]

Well those pics are not _that_ crappy for a phone.....I've seen worse

Great haul !

Indeed WOW would be the first for me too. It's a great game to play with two players.....I volunteer

The Centipede is Irish built, I like the Irish colors much better than the US built Centi. If you want to replace the CPO mamemarquees.com can provide the one with the Irish color blue. The other repro's that are offered have a much darker blue color which doesn't match the Irish bezel and looks off IMHO. You can see that here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=63654.msg757723#msg757723

The Mamemarquees one is also not 100% match though (but I still prefer it over the darker US color blue) unless Scott modified the file with the information from my pictures ( http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=63654.msg771488#msg771488 ).

If you order from Mamemarquees look for the LIGHT blue version of the CPO:
http://www.mamemarquees.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=centipede&osCsid=mgsnuh1l0hc2sqcpk0q2ivmbj4&x=0&y=0

For the trackball I suggest Bob Roberts' bearings and rollers. Bob's rollers are stainless steel, unlike the one's sold elsewhere (which are "regular" steel like the originals. He also pre-greases the bearings and breaks them in so you don't have to do that yourself (by either playing a lot or spinning the bearings with a drill).

I noticed the Defender marquee, what's up with the "balls" are those stickers or something ?

[Valsimot]

Awesome haul. Congratulations.
Is the side art on the Outrun original? Haven't seen it before, but the scuffed up look suits it well if you ask me =]

[level42]

Yes that's original. It's a mini (or if you prefer cabaret) sized cab. Good thing they still used a 19" monitor for it !

Here's another one for sale that has the same side-art:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350029797754

[Zorg]

Congrats on this catch, nice to see thoose lovely cabs.

WoW is pretty hard to find over europe.

PS: Qix CPO stills on work 

[Superully]

Indeed WOW would be the first for me too. It's a great game to play with two players.....I volunteer

as soon as it has been restored, you're welcome to come over and play!

The Centipede is Irish built, I like the Irish colors much better than the US built Centi. If you want to replace the CPO mamemarquees.com can provide the one with the Irish color blue. The other repro's that are offered have a much darker blue color which doesn't match the Irish bezel and looks off IMHO.

didn't know that there were different versions, but now that i've checked your links everything's making sense. i will replace that cpo for sure and of course i will pick the light blue version. looks so much better! thanks a lot for that valuable piece of information!

I noticed the Defender marquee, what's up with the "balls" are those stickers or something ?

those balls are the logo of a german tv station (sat1) and can be removed easily - at least i hope so. they are simple stickers!

[Superully]

Awesome haul. Congratulations.
Is the side art on the Outrun original? Haven't seen it before, but the scuffed up look suits it well if you ask me =]

as level42 already pointed out, this is the mini outrun version. i would have preferred the full upright version, but this is better than no outrun at all - it's a classic. restoring the sides will be difficult and it will also be a huge problem finding a replacement dashboard for this mini version (which has cigarette burns). but time will be on my side 

[petieken]

Congrats on your VERY nice catch
Good luck with the restoration of these cabs

[Superully]

For the trackball I suggest Bob Roberts' bearings and rollers. Bob's rollers are stainless steel, unlike the one's sold elsewhere (which are "regular" steel like the originals. He also pre-greases the bearings and breaks them in so you don't have to do that yourself (by either playing a lot or spinning the bearings with a drill).

i've tried cleaning the trackball already, but it still remains "nicotine yellow", therefore i'm ordering a new one from bob roberts. the original centipede trackball was "off white", but since i'm going to get a new cpo (where the white IS really white) and a new white button, i think i'm going with "snow white". what do you think?  http://www.therealbobroberts.net/tbcolors.jpg

@level42: why did you decide to use a red translucent trackball and why did you "light" all your buttons plus the trackball? are any of the buttons illuminated on the original centipede at all?

[DarthNuno]

AWESOME 

An other great road trip... and what some great cabs' 

So how many games in the Superully's lair so far? 

 

[level42]

For the trackball I suggest Bob Roberts' bearings and rollers. Bob's rollers are stainless steel, unlike the one's sold elsewhere (which are "regular" steel like the originals. He also pre-greases the bearings and breaks them in so you don't have to do that yourself (by either playing a lot or spinning the bearings with a drill).

i've tried cleaning the trackball already, but it still remains "nicotine yellow", therefore i'm ordering a new one from bob roberts. the original centipede trackball was "off white", but since i'm going to get a new cpo (where the white IS really white) and a new white button, i think i'm going with "snow white". what do you think?  http://www.therealbobroberts.net/tbcolors.jpg

@level42: why did you decide to use a red translucent trackball and why did you "light" all your buttons plus the trackball? are any of the buttons illuminated on the original centipede at all?

Impossible to get the ball white again....indeed ordering a new one is the way to go.

The backlit trackball and button were just an idea that came up in the thread and I had toyed with the idea a lot. On one hand, I'm always for staying 100% original, but on the other I _really_ liked the idea.

First I used a red translucent ball and a red translucent button. It was just not what I wanted it to look like  (especially when turned off). The lens-effect on the trackball makes it bright in the center and dim on the edge. The Electric ICE is TOTALLY even lit. I also didn't like the oneven look of the red translucent button:


When GGG released it's 2nd edition of the Electric Ice Trackball I fell for it. This was the perfect solution together with an electric Ice button. When turned off, the machine looks pretty original since button and ball look white. Of course it's not 100% the original white look, but still it's close. When turned on, the ball  and button light up really nice red.

I guess the pictures on the Centipede thread are not really up-to date. I discussed the entire Electric Ice things on my Centi and GGG's "introduction" thread of the Electric ICE V2.0 trackball:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=76162.80

Here's how it looks now when off in bright day light:

It is extremely hard to get a picture that really shows how great it looks when turned on. I think this one gives the best impression, but you really have to see it "live":



Of course, this is all completely non-standard. However, there's no harm done, the button and ball can always be replaced for originals if needed.

One more thing, because the Electric ICE button is meant for microswitches it meant I had to use one.....I bought GGG's "micro-leaf" switch and it works great for the Centipede. Centi is a game where you tend to hold the fire down a lot and only release when aiming for the single bits of the centi. It's definitly the best microswitch I've played with.

[Superully]

AWESOME 

An other great road trip... and what some great cabs' 

So how many games in the Superully's lair so far? 

 

Complete cabinets: 13 (all dedicated UR)

Projects to be rebuilt: 2 (Bubble Bobble / Qix)

But not all of them are in my temporary gameroom, because there might be a move coming up and I don't want to carry them 60 flights of stairs upwards (winding btw) only to carry them down again one month later. AND: I honestly don't know how much weight the floor of my gameroom can handle (does anyone know?). It would be a nightmare to wake up one morning and find all those beautiful games suddenly "six feet under"   

[Etienne MacGyver]

This is a really nice catch !  congratiolations !

[level42]

Almost forgot to mention: of course the P1 and P2 cone buttons ARE originally lit on the Centipede cab !!!!
They flash depending on the number of credits (P1 when only 1 credit, P1 & P2 when 2 or more credits inserted). The are steady on depending on the selected number of players during the game.

The constantly flash when set to free-play.