Day 1

They say every man goes through a Mid-Life Crisis. Usually having to do with motorcycles, cars, and so forth.  These can be very expensive hobbies and I've kind of had an outlook of re purposing objects. I love reading DIY websites and IkeaHack and so forth. I'm always impressed with people who have an imagination big enough to make something awesome, even if it's just for themselves.

I've always wanted to build my own arcade machine, from the day I first played Space Invaders and said to my friends, "I'm gonna get ME one of these". I shudder to think how much money I've thrown down playing video games since 1974 and I feel the time has come to gain back some of my childhood.

Yesterday, someone posted a gutted arcade cabinet in Craigslist for free and I jumped on it. I didn't really think he'd respond to me, considering how much in demand these cabinets are.  But he did and I made it my quest to get it.

We drove to La Costa, hoping the blasted thing would fit in my Honda Fit. Everything so far has. But when we got there, we found there was no way it was going to happen. I'd already resolved to disassemble the thing right there and I'd brought tools, though I quickly found out that these were designed NOT to be taken apart. It was put together with glue, wood staples and bolts.

So I asked him to hang onto it until the next morning (this morning). Getting up early, my wife and I went down to Home Depot and rented a flatbed truck with a dolly, drove back down and just about killed ourselves getting that puppy back home.

So there it sits: a 1994 Lethal Enforcers 2: Gunfighters cabinet with some 17 years of wear and tear, cigarette burns on the joystick panel and kick marks from years of kids wishing they had played Q*Bert instead.

I brushed it down and wiped it with a combination of glass cleaner and vinegar and it didn't look all that shabby afterward.

 I opened the coin door to have a look. I love the fact that the door is still there. I'm gonna make those coin slots glow even if they don't work.

 The original locks on the coin door were missing, so there was a overlay locking panel in front of it.  All the better for my piggy bank.

I opened the marquee panel and found that the original speakers were still there. I'm still deciding whether to leave them there and use them or replace them with the 2.1 speaker system I have.  I guess it depends on how they sound.




            
I found that with the razor scraper I have and a hair dryer to help melt the glue, it was relatively easy to remove the side art panels.  I want to make my own anyway.

One of the back edges had gotten broken.  Being particle board, it wasn't difficult to fix. Lacking in clamps to hold the broken piece into place, I wedged a board against the wall which should work until the glue cures.














So I sat back and looked at it for a long time, realizing that it has a lot of history behind it, a lot of people who played it and either hated it or loved it. It probably sat in some bar or old arcade and heard a lot of passing lives, loves, anxieties. I decided that the dings, scratches, cigarette burns and small busted chunks of wood revealed its character and I wanted to keep the renovations to a minimum. Aside from the buttons, sticks, lights, side art and marquee panel I put in, I'd leave it the way it is.