https://kotaku.com/the-tragedy-of-a-former-navy-bases-arcade-games-1803762031

https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/09/08/arcade-raid-a-canadian-horror-story/

$20k worth of games smashed up and thrown away. Ugh.

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

I thumbed up, but makes me so sick to see...where is the emoji for that...this will do

Wait till I post the Flying High Backglass, I just picked up.

DSCN1322 (resized).JPG

Most of the blue is gone. There is coloured snow flakes falling out of the backbox every time it moves.

Got a NEW worst backglass check it out on the projects thread. A Gulfstream that the guy wants a $100.00.

Gulfstream00p0p_9vNTicuMYgm_1200x900 (resized).jpg

I can get you a better quality image when I pick that machine up tonight.

Yeah, not the prettiest.

20170912_220135 (resized).jpg

20170912_220034 (resized).jpg

Now if you can bring it back to life and without a new BACKGLASS you are the KING of restoration!

I can't believe the guy was going to trash it or at least part it out.

Is there a list or tally sheet somewhere that we can definitively "cross off" a title that goes towards the # that is still left in the world? Sorry I love metrics.

Not that I know of but the owners of such neglected pinballs should be punished for their crimes.

A Cliffy should do the trick...

IMG_7002 (resized).JPG

Well, in his defence, he had a garage fill of EM pins that he was restoring. That being said, the damage was all localized to the front of the cabinet and the back box. I suspect that it was stored in a shed or some other exposed area, because there were pieces of leaves stuck under the lock down bar. There is some corrosion and rust on the coin door and mech(and the mechanisms in the back box are tough), but the rest of it looks pretty good.
I thought I was just getting a donor cabinet, but I think I might have to find a new home for the rest of the game.

As some pinsider here told me ultrasonics do wonders with rust. Wish more people in my state liked EM's. tumble weed rolls by...

This is depressingly funny because that naval base was actually on my list of leads to pursue... I didn't know anyone and I had no way to get the Newfoundland but there were some YouTube videos and other Urban Exploring websites that had mentioned this place and it's stash of arcade machines. Due to its disused nature, lots of people were breaking in and such, (Mostly Vandalism but some Urbex) so I'd take a small bit of solace from the fact a great deal of those games WERE destroyed because they'd already BEEN destroyed by vandals... not terribly comforting but I mean hey, they weren't as much of a holy grail as that old ship raid in England.

testors-allpurpose-gloss-enamel-6-color-paint-set (resized).jpg

I had a blast playing that game like 2 weeks ago. It is rare to find a mostly functional MB in the wild!

It's the first one I've ever come across in "the wild". That game was in an arcade at VA beach. I didn't get a chance to play it.

I made history and didn't even notice! LOL

I'll contribute this picture of my Spirit of 76 before restoration, it had OSB scrap plywood for a cabinet back crudely held in place with drywall screws!

DSCN8073 (resized).JPG

The tragedy there is the pin they found was a Raven

I think I may have found something nearly as worse than battery acid...A pinball machine being left my the sea shore. This machine came from Hawaii based on the decals I found on it. Every chip socket needs to be replaced from corrosion. I at least got it to boot.IMG_5932 (resized).JPGIMG_5935 (resized).JPG
IMG_5933 (resized).JPG
IMG_5934 (resized).JPG
IMG_5931 (resized).JPG

Save that WW!

I'm trying. When I first got it, it was dead. So Far I have gotten the machine to boot, and now I am working on the sound portion of the board. Then I am going to branch out to the lights, switches and coils.

I thought maybe as a prize he would at least win one of those horrible, horrible pins that we have seen.

But maybe not having one is the prize???

Well I do own a Big Ben, I'm told that is pretty horrible!

Found these on eBay Australia, Poor Gilligan.

s-l16003 (resized).jpg

s-l16006 (resized).jpg

s-l1600 (resized).jpg

That's not so bad with the professor's help and a couple of coconuts it will be working in no time!

Gary's quote: Well I do own a Big Ben, I'm told that is pretty horrible! Gary I have to say they are not as bad as some say. I think of ones where the first ball comes down and you flip it and it goes down the middle are ones I hate.

That is not going to help anymore.

For sure! The professor has done more with less.

If priced right (and local) thats a project I'd take on in a heartbeat.

I had just finished resurrecting this HH, and had returned it to my customer, when it had an unfortunate meeting with a garage door.
IMG_20170914_190913999 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_191020937 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_222430929 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_224723587 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_223149188 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_223159786 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_224306584 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170914_224716011 (resized).jpg

Gezz, I would have guessed bank vault door.

I wanted to show this story has a happy ending...

Ratchet straps and glue.
IMG_20170914_234138611 (resized).jpg

Pry out the nails
IMG_20170917_182855258 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170917_182900571 (resized).jpg

Replaced the back with luan
IMG_20170917_185315361 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170917_191807194 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170918_190203523 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170918_190809750 (resized).jpg

Cast fiberglass resin on the missing corner
IMG_20170918_193806571 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170918_194200542 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170919_191933245 (resized).jpg

My wife touched up the paint
IMG_20170920_183805860 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170920_183851916 (resized).jpg

All we need is a backglass (the glass was already ruined, it wasn't broken in this accident)
IMG_20170923_140056168 (resized).jpg
IMG_20170923_141332324 (resized).jpg

IMG_20170923_132652767_HDR (resized).jpg

Nice job putting it back together I know more than a few people who just would have stripped it for parts thinking something like that would be beyond saving.

Because so many games have been stripped for parts it's actually pretty easy to just find a new cabinet altogether. I picked up a demo man once that had termite damage to the lower cabinet. I found a new cab in about an hour.

I've been looking for a DM cab for a full year and nada.

I bought the last one lol.

I'm just playing obviously. Might have to get just a wpc cab and re decal it.

Anybody need an original MM cabinet I have one for sale but I'm not shipping it though.

John

A great opportunity for the age old wisdom: NEVER TRANSPORT YOUR GAMES WITH THE HEADS ON!!
and
ALWAYS KNOW THE HEIGHT OF YOUR FREIGHT AND THE CLEARANCE!

My Dad drove tractor trailers for nearly a decade and more than once told me stories and showed pictures of guys who make it halfway across the country, then do something stupid like rip off the top of their trailer pulling into taco bell.

Glad you are a wizard and teleported that head back to a time before it met the garage door.

PM'd you.

Lol

Yeah, I ended up finding some DM decals to re-do the cab. A cab swap just would have been much easier.

Oh, man, that bottom picture is a smashed up Stargazer cabinet. Less than 1000 made!

Sometimes you have to; Out of 30 or so pins purchased I have had to transport 4 or 5 with heads on. In the majority of cases no keys were available to get the door off to access the bolts, one case the bolts were frozen and in another the inserts were spinning in the lower cabinet.

Strap the head tight to the cab of the truck, wrap it up good with moving blanket and tarp and head home. What else can you do? So far no failures with a little common sense.

Support the head, wrap it well, strap the machine down good.

Thats why you always bring a drill, sockets/wrenchs and vise grips. I move all my games with a 4runner so leaving the head on is never a option. Ive moved hundreds of games, locks are very easy to drill (like less then 2 minutes). Leaving a head on during transport should never be done.

I have a full size truck and with a few thousand miles of cumulative travel picking up pins with 100% success rate... so I must be doing something right.

The only way Bazaar made it home was with the head on, period. The bolts were frozen and they only came loose with soaking over night with penetrating oil and working them. I don't think the former owner (a state away) would have put up with me sacking out in his driveway for a day waiting for the oil to work its magic.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, head off is preferred of course but in the real world not always an option.

Note the attached picture of Spirit of '76- The back of the plug between the head and cabinet was totally gone and the head was unsupported at the rear. Bolts could not be removed due to the fact the inserts were totally countersunk into the plywood and spinning for good measure. No way to get pliers of any sort on it.

Game made it home with head attached from MA and is now repaired and going to a good home in Delaware next weekend.

I will be transporting it with the head off for that journey though

91afb0a68d1df5231ae00a16e9d870335c3c2040 (resized).jpg

20170925_134731 (resized).jpg

20170925_134726 (resized).jpg

Been there done that. I had to take a grinder to an F-14 Tomcat....
The head bolts were too long and jammed into the Tee nuts and the Tee nuts ended up
stripping up/tearing up the wood in the neck of the cabinet.

Is that fire damage??? Wtf!!

When something shorts to ground, the full current flows continuously through resistors like that to ground and they heat up like a toaster oven, except this appears to be a Data East MPU board, and not a slice of bread.

Shoulda maybe just shot a couple sidewinders down there!