[From the Love boat/container] : Kung Fu Master! Da Road Trip...

[DarthNuno]

This story has started in the middle of 2012, when "Love" decided to organize the import of cabinets from USA! Despite the complexity of the task (see the full organization topic here, a whole story by itself), well... HE DID IT!

Thanks to him, many members here have now some of their dream cabinets!  

So here's my (small) part of the story.

Sunday 31th of March, 8h00am

Well, this start by a good bye! I've decided to sell my beautiful Moon Patrol. The last opportunity for me to take few last pictures...



...a little bit sad, MP is a great one in any dedicated collection, but I know it'll be in a good home & really be enjoyed!



Loaded! Let's warm up the car...



...while I prepare myself for this road trip to come!  



It's time go.



The container with all our games has arrived a couple of weeks ago in Bremerhaven (Germany), so I was supposed to drive this to pickup my cabinet!  



But Tyrem, who lives in Trier, proposed me & ChrisChris to bring back our cabinets, and save us from an other hell of road trip... yeeess!!  

 

So today, it's gonna be a short one for me    



Rock'n'roll...Starting for Belgium...



...let's cross a second country : Luxembourg    



Funny... it's the road I take every day yo go to my job...



Except this time, I got a little bit further...arriving close to the German border...



The King Of Burger! Hell yeah... since more than 1 year, the Luxembourg counts its first BK restaurant! I go there from time to time with colleagues for our 'Whopper' shoot!  

Few meters further, let's cross a third country : Germany!  



Arriving at the final destination, the city of Trier...



...and here we are. Tyrem owns a video game shop, who cool is that!  
As you can see, the name 'video game shop' really deserves its name more than never, with all these cabinets...  



I recognize the shape!  





An army of Kung Fu Master?

Nope, only two here! Here's mine...



The second one here is for ChrisChris, but we imported three of them! Not too bad, huh?

Ok, before load the KFM, let's unload the MP...



I'm a little bit sad to sell it to be honest...ok, a last picture when she's still mine    



Too late, now property of Tyrem!  



Yeah! This is exactly the best location for an arcade game : in a public location    



I hope Tyrem will let that cabinet as long as possible in his shop, this beautiful MP is a so good eyes catcher!  

Ok, it's time to load my Kung Fu Master... one of the last games who were still in my 'must have games' list!  



Cool... Tyrem is doing all the job...even moving the game for me! I love road trip like that!  

Well, on the negative side of this story, the condition is badder than expected...



...mostly because some water damages on the base of the cabinet, but also a small accident during the transport.  



Bah, this will give me more work than expected, but should be fine at the end!

A last 'cabinet on the public street' picture...



Now loaded!  



Bye Bye Trier... 'till the next time ... this town is 'around the corner' for me    



Hey guys, there is a dedicated Kung Fu Master in my car...hell yeaaaaahhhhhh!    



....and now there is at least one KFM in Belgium!   Or, at least two with the ChrisChris one!  



  Trip : Belgium > Luxembourg > Germany > Luxembourg > Belgium
   Total length : 2h35min - 175  km on road

Thanks again to 'Love' who make this 'container' story possible, to 'Tyrem' for bringing back this cabinet for me and to all the helpers on this story!

I'll be definitively 'in' for the next container  

[SeTTleR]

WOW nice story!! Thanks for sharing! You both live very close to me.. I'm located in Saarbrücken. Nice to know that there is a good video game shop in Trier. Shops like these are rare these days. I don't like Gamestop and the likes. I have been there at the Porta Nigra not that long ago, but haven't noticed the shop. Dammit!
Tyrem: I need to visit you and your shop to do some shopping (and maybe play some Moon Patrol )!

@Bruno: Good luck with the repair of your KFM! Does this thing work? I've never seen the Arcade version, but I loved it on my Gameboy!

Btw.: Love the topic of this thread

[old school]

It's official

i'm jealous  !!!

 

Great catch Bruno

This cabinet is on my 3 Must Have top list !!

I'm a Kung Fu Master lover !!

Please Pics,Pics and more pics to let us dream

Congratulation

one day i will own one .. one day

[Superully]

nice roadtrip for a report for a game that i honestly have NEVER played / seen, but there must be something to it if three people decide to import that cab.

just been to stefan's store yesterday - coll place at a premium location right opposite the unesco world heritage site porta nigra. gota love it

[ckong]

Nice story Bruno. I also never played the game, but as there have arrived 3 in Europe, I'm sure that one day I will. 

[Etienne MacGyver]

NIce one !

I actually did play it in my town, only like all others back in the day, on a Royal video cabinet with probably a boot inside  

And ofcourse on my C64...

the C64 port was actually not too bad :

Arcade :

C64:

[Belike]

Great team spirit story again, congrats for the nice catch.
I never played the arcade version, but spent loooooong hours killing the enemies with the low kick on my good old C64, the music is aslo great.

[DarthNuno]

Does this thing work?

Here's the seller description...very short : "no monitor, play blind". So I hope the board is still working...

Regarding the computer versions, I had the game on my Amstrad (Schneider) CPC 464, and it was cool at the time, but I've to admit it's not as good as the C64 version.
Funny fact : for technical constraint (or just maybe the coders were too lazy), the Amstrad port uses an elevator to bring 'Thomas' (coincidence?! LOL) in the upper levels, where the original arcade version, but also the C64 port, uses stairs! 

[level42]

I never heard of Kung-Fu Master until I saw the machines @ the storage ! 

Maybe because of my general dislike of fighting games ? No that can't be it....I really liked Karateka and IK+ and even Chop Suey (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrIt04oydyY) on the Atari 8 bit computers....I just never was much into throwing a guilder into a fighter arcade machine....

Also, there was no version for the A8's of this game. There _was_ a 1987 (can you believe it, I was playing games on my Atari ST at that time) release version done by Activision though.

Since it was 1987 and since it was Activision, it actually looks like an amazingly good port for the 2600:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNe_JJyyMkA

All in all....great story and pics Bruno. I really like Moon Patrol cab, but I do understand that it is one of the games you chose to not keep....somehow it just seems it didn't age very well compared to some other classics. I played a LOT of MP on the A8 and really loved it BITD but it's not a game I fire up too often anymore and if I do somehow I don't play very long...

[Tyrem]

All in all....great story and pics Bruno. I really like Moon Patrol cab, but I do understand that it is one of the games you chose to not keep....somehow it just seems it didn't age very well compared to some other classics. I played a LOT of MP on the A8 and really loved it BITD but it's not a game I fire up too often anymore and if I do somehow I don't play very long...

Great thread... and I am very happy that I got the chance to buy Moon Patrol from Bruno. It is such a beauty. Right now I am sitting in my shop looking at it... and the Porta Nigra right behind it. Amazing, never thougth I would get the chance to own one.

I will put the save kit in the machine as soon as it arrives. I think this adds some replay value to the game although I love it just the way it is.

And by the way... Bruno is a great guy. Was a bit sorry that you did not make it to Trier on Friday to team up with superully and chrischris... but I know you will come again for the burgers, right?

[Muerto]

Great report Bruno as always! - and 3 of them in the same container??!!

[Sonic 1992]

Great trip, Sad to see you loose your Moon Patrol..   


Also, What a beatuiful Country you live in       unlike my home, boring & flat.   

[Tyrem]

Great trip, Sad to see you loose your Moon Patrol..   

it is in good hands, don't worry. every time I look at it my heart jumps for joy!

[level42]

unlike my home, boring & flat.   

Hey....sounds familiar.

Yes I still think MP is a great looking cab, and it is at it's best place where it's loved a lot

[DarthNuno]

Unloading the beast...



...and close inspection... ouch! 



Never tighten up a strap against an edge without a protection between the edge and the cabinet, or you will damage the cabinet like this  





General view from the left :



Now, the front of the cabinet... unexpected damage too... holes! 



...and water damages on the base...



Regarding the holes & the water damages on the base, it's my fault... the seller (on craiglist) only provided pictures of the upper half of the cabinet/very bad quality pictures, and so I didn't see these damages. I wanted a quick deal, so I didn't asked more and agree the sale. My fault! 

Now the right side :



The back :



Let's check what's left inside...



Board is present... and supposed to be working (play 'blind' according the seller)...hope I'll be lucky regarding the board!



Well, once again, a little bit sad for the unexpected damages -which means more working time on this project-, but at the end,  really happy to have at last one the the last games in my 'must have list' 



Now, let's start its restoration!