Finally, the Belgian road-trip !

[level42]

Well the time has finally come. Tomorrow a friend and I will be doing the 2 hours drive up to sunny Zonhoven in Belgium to pick up 3 cabs.

So, Luc called me yesterday and asked if I would have an empty van on the way to his place. I said, yes of course and he replied that that really was a shame. Turned out he had seen a nice Batman Returns pin for sale in Rotterdam and told me he wanted it (to complete his collection of Batman pins ) but asked me to go and take a look how it's condition was (Especially the XXL DM display, which are very expensive). Turned out it was a good looking and working machine, I'd say a 8 out of 10.

So the deal was made and the pin picked up by me and a friend. We were lucky as the seller (a _very_ nice lady ) lived in an area where there are a lot of houses up to three levels high without elevators, but it turned out she lived on the ground floor.

Anyway, expect pics and story here tomorrow

[polaris]

(a _very_ nice lady )

Anyway, expect pics

we're waiting 

[DarthNuno]

3 cabs? Nice lady ... Teasing fro Hell 

Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! 

[polaris]

about time these belgians had a few cabs taken from them too andre, after all the uk raids that certain belgians have made

[Superully]

waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiting  ...

[DarthNuno]

...wait a sec  The Level 42's game room is already full? Where to put three more cabs'? 

Bump! 

[polaris]

...wait a sec  The Level 42's game room is already full? Where to put three more cabs'? 

Bump! 

i thought this, then i thought the cabs may be very special to be replacing others.
send me the cockpit andre, you can get three cabs against that wall 
 

[level42]

Sorry guys, to tired to write now. It's not that special really, it's some cabs I already listed as that I owned but they were simply still in storage at Luc's place. Full story tomorrow !

[level42]

OK here we go.

The story: I've been aquiring my collection of cabs for a couple of years now, and until I built my gameroom, I had them stored at friends' places. The most obvious was the SW cockpit and the Konami GT cockpit and Meteor. However, there was still one cab stored at my good friend Luc, being the Space Invaders that I picked up quite some time ago (in the Dutch provence Limburg, and so I brought it to the Belgian provence Limburg.....confusing ey )

Since I didn't have the space in my room for the Konami GT cockpit (and it was in terrible condition really) I've written that one off. I will get all the parts from it and (shudder) will destroy the cab. I will be measuring it though since I hope one day to recreate it as it's a very nice design.

Also, since I have already sold the Double Axle a long time ago, I had no racing cab at all. An arcade room without a racer is no arcade so I asked if Luc was also getting rid of the upright Power Drift that I had seen in his "storage area". I like PD because I played the sit-down version a lot when it was new in the arcade in Scheveningen. It's good brainles speedy racing fun, perfect addition to the collection. Luc kindly donated the cab in exchange for all my hard work on his upright and cockpit SW machines !

So that made 2 machines to get from his place.

Now, very recently Luc's good friend Peter (Arcadia Amusements, some may know him as the "pony-tail guy"  http://www.arcadia-amusements.com) offered a number of cabs for sale, most too big for my gameroom, but amongst them was one very special machine: an Asterock.
This is an Italian Asteroids Bootleg by a company called Sidam. It looked very nice and it was complete (though not working) so I broke the promise to my wife and mailed him that I would like it. He told me he was glad that I would be getting it as he knew it would be in good hands.

He kindly brought the Asterock to Luc's place so I could pick it up there.

So that made the 3rd machine, well worth the trip.  A friend from my drumband had offered to drive up to Belgium and get the machines with a van he could use from his work, in exchange for some fun gameplay (at my gameroom and Luc's place ).

As mentioned, Luc had asked me to go have a look at a Batman Returns pin that was for sale near my town, so we had a nice "exchange" to do !

PICS you want, yes I know Since we seem to have the most hardcore road-trip pics fans here, you get the full coverage here

Sunday morning 11.00. I put the pin outside and collected all the stuff that I needed to bring with me, amongst them a crate full of empty beer bottles. Not just some beer, but Luc's own beer brand Zonderik (www.zonderik.be) which is a great tasting beer ! Time to return the empty bottles and crate to the owner

[level42]

So.....I waited.......and waited......until it was 11.30 and I started worrying.....so I called my friend....and again....and again....no reply. So I jumped in the car and drove up to his house, rang the door and his sister opens...she says, isn't he awake yet, goes up and kicks him out of bed......jeezz....it had gotten too late the night before.....

Anyway, with over an hour delay, he showed up at my home with the weapon of choice for this road-trip, a Citroen Jumper.
OK, there's no picture of arcade cabs on the side, but I'm sure that will work too

So we load up the pin:


and of we drive. I must say he was trying to make up for the time-loss (but in reality, he's just the type of driver that just doesn't like speed limits). So in no time we reach the Belgian border:


And, so we don't get confused:


Very soon we reach the city of Antwerp:


The "Sports palace" where lots of artists perform concerts.It looks hideous from the outside:


Wow, a rare sight these days: A Lada ! Who says the Russians build inferior cars ? Look how long this one survived !


Gotta love that roof-rack. I'm sure there's airbags, ABS, airco, power-steering etc. hidden somewhere:


Well with only 1 hour delay, we arrive at Luc's place. Very quickly the pin was unloaded and installed:


It's working nicely. Only the right sling-shot doesn't work, but that turned out to be simply a loose wire which was quickly fixed by soldering it. The machine looks really nice, there's a few chips here and there, but the overall machine is in great condition. Luc was really happy with it



Next it was loading time ! Before I knew it the Power Drift was already in the van. Next up was the Asterock. What struck me most about that machine is that it's very compact. Not only is it less deep (the weird, but great feeling CPO set-up saves a lot of space !) but it's also very "thin" looking from the front-side. Like a beautiful Italian lady !

Being a supermarket owner has a number of advantages, and this is one of them:

[Muerto]

wow! great pics!
that´s a huge DMD! - no wonder he want you to check it before he bought it!

That´s a lovely GnG he has!, which cab is it?

[level42]

Luc acting if he has to push the load himself.....no Oscar this year for you Luc, I'm afraid !  


Already with the Power Drift we realized the cabs wouldn't fit standing so we laid them down:




Wow, must be the nicest finished bottom of a cab I've ever seen Still enough space for the SI.


Yup, SI fits nicely too. But hey, what is Luc putting in there ? A fresh new crate of filled Zonderik bottles WAHOO ! :


OK after all this hard work it was time for some fun !

Of course I wanted to play Luc's latest addition to his re-issue's collection, DK-DKjr-MB combo ! Nice one !


Playing MB vertical is not bad at all, it really doesn't affect the gameplay. The controls are of course a bit different feeling. I managed to improve the MB high score but it was still far from what I can do at home....not too much time to practice though.

This cab, along with a SI/Qix, Pac/Galaga, Centi/Milli/MC re-issues and a Global VR (maybe the only one in Europe?) and a Ultra-pin are in a "play area" of Luc's supermaket and are on free play for all visitors. Must be the best supermarket in Europe ! Wish it was closer as I would be "shopping" with the wife a lot more

Of course we played a number of Luc's numerous pins and cabs. The one my friend Hans liked best was ........of course, Daytona USA 2 (which I love too):
IMHO this is still the best racing cab ever.

We also saved the world by completing (hey, free play is nice) Time Crisis II:


So after some very good time, it was time to get back into the van and head back home again.

Yes, the typical summer look from a car: hundreds of insect corpses scatterered  on the windscreen. I bet they will take revenge when I play Centipede again...


Hans obviously thought he was still on the Daytona:


But the cabs didn't seem to care:


The holidays are starting to come to an end here so there was lot's of holiday traffic returning from France, Spain etc. but luckely no traffic jams at all:


Yes, heading for Rotterdam !


Hans is a fan of American cars and he owns a classic Firebird so he pointed me to this one:

Nice, but this was much nicer. OK it's a Volkswagen, but the idea, concept and even the first basic drawing were Dutch:
What a lovely looking one this is ! And still on it's original first (Dutch) license

A lovely easy summer evening, so lot's of balloons:


Back at the "border":


Moerdijk bridges. Was going under them exactly a week ago on my brothers speed -boat   The artwork is part of the former bridge that used to be there. The statue was right in the middle of the water where the border of the provences of South-Holland and North-Brabant was. The first bridge you see is the new bridge for the high-speed train that will be running from Paris to Amsterdam. The one behind it is the old "normal speed" train bridge. Bridges were heavily fought in WW2.




Almost there, Ridderkerk here we come !


Arrived, and unloaded the games right away:


The SI is really in bad condition. The PD is OK, but has had a rough life and it shows on parts. The Asterock is a beutiful slender lady, in extremely nice condition for her age !
Look how thin she looks compared to the SI ! That's a great feature if your gameroom is as small as mine

Had dinner and rested a bit. Had to make some space in the gameroom (which was not yet full my friends ) and took some random pics:



Asterock:


PCB:


Coin Door inside:


Hey papers ! (look like freshly print from the intenet ):


PSU:


Aaaahhhh, such a shame. I just discovered it's just gone out of warranty !
Monitor and PSU was only 6 months warranty, the rest 12 months....

The Sidam version of the AR board:


Coin door, nice one ! Looking very nice still too ! The whole cab looks like it only needs a bit of cleaning !! None of the metal parts have rusted or look damaged. GREAT !


A good look at the CP. I must say one of the most innovative idea's I've ever seen. I think this may actually play much more comfortable than the original. There's a little wear on the paint, but nothing else ! Notice that the CP doubles as an ashtray !!!!


The sides of the PD are black...no side art  


I already did some work on the PD and Asterock: removing the French/Belgian power plugs, which are most often compatble here, but these once's wouldn't fit in our earthed sockets.

The Asterock's monitor powered up, there is neck glow and the spot killer LED is on. There is no picture. I did hear some random (it seems) beeps and the start buttons were flickering....will look into that later....

I cleaned up the machines roughly on the outside. Believe me a parking garage is not a good place for those machines.....everything the cars put out (plus more) ends up on them. Used a load of kitchen towel and cleaning spray to get the machines touchable.

So, in they go:

You can see the difference in depth between the Centi and the Asterock clearly here:


Front of CP:


Coin door close-up. Anyone recognize this operator ?

Marquee:

It's nice that the PD is working:

Just needs some cleaning, adjusting and maybe caps:


Last pic, shot of the Asterock PCB, looking very clean.

[level42]

wow! great pics!
that´s a huge DMD! - no wonder he want you to check it before he bought it!

That´s a lovely GnG he has!, which cab is it?

Yeah he ordered the GnG and T&F fully restored with new monitor etc etc from Quarterarcade I think.
Flawless looking machines ! Both were "childhood" memories for Luc so that's why he definitly wanted those.

I'm now sure what you mean with "which cab is it ?" Are there more than one version ? I'm not a GnG fan at all so I don't really know much about it. I guess it's the US cab.

Yeah that DMD is not produced anymore and hard to get now. They go for 350 euro acc. to what Luc told me. So that's why he wanted to be sure it was perfect. Frankenstein is another pin that used that DMD.

I'm sorry about the pics being so large. They also got cut off at the right side a bit, I will look if it is possible to get them a bit smaller.

[Etienne MacGyver]

PICS you want, yes I know Since we seem to have the most hardcore road-trip pics fans here, you get the full coverage here

You got that right ! this is what we where waiting for 

Very nice pictures, love the complete story !

Goodluck with the cabs !

[Muerto]

I'm now sure what you mean with "which cab is it ?" Are there more than one version ? I'm not a GnG fan at all so I don't really know much about it. I guess it's the US cab.

i spoken to fred on arcadefever, he mensioned somthing about GnG being sold as a conversion kit... maby im wrong..