Derick2k left this comment in another thread and it felt as though the response was way too off topic and more suited for the introduction forum... so here's a response with a brief history of my involvement with arcades.
I'd grown up near the "legendary" FunSpot and always loved arcades. When I was looking for a summer job in college I decided I wanted to learn how arcades worked so I put on a nice professional looking outfit walked into FunSpot asked if they'd hire me as a tech for minimum wage until I learned the ropes and could become a more full-fledged tech ...they told me to get lost. So I went down the street to the boardwalk arcades near the beach with the same offer and they asked me if I had a change of shirt because they wanted me to start that second. From 2001 through 2003 during the summers I worked full time as a tech repairing machines on a boardwalk arcade, I started from zero and learned everything I needed to know about electronics from the head tech who was the dean of Electrical Engineering for Rhode Island tech.
During that time I got a free dedicated Double Dragon, a dedicated Contra and a Make Traxx Cab that had been converted into Ring King as well as some spare monitors and a few other random, uninteresting parts. I gave the Contra to some friends and accidentally cracked the neck board on the Ring King the very first time I took the back panel off. I later bought MK1 MK2 and UMK3 PCBs on eBay and built a new Control Panel for the Double dragon cab so I could play them properly.... I was familiar with KLOV (the database before they had a forum) and the old RGVAC news group but I never signed up for any of them. The cabs were all free since they were slated for the dump so my only real investment were the MK PCBs, some buttons/sticks for the new CP and some hardware bits. As a poor college student I was pretty happy with it though and MK PCBs were about 1/4th the price then that they are now.
That's all I had for arcade stuff until around 2013 The Ring King sat in a dusty corner never fixed and the Double Dragon/UMK3 cab would get turned on for parties but otherwise remained unused. I'd been out of college and working a good job for a number of years when I decided to buy a KI2 cab since that was my all time favorite arcade game and I really wanted something bigger and nicer than the UMK3 in a DD cab. Then less than a year later I bought Virtual On, then a DDR and so on. I've since sold the Double Dragon cab (after converting it back to double dragon) as well as the (still broken) Ring King cab.
Before buying KI2 I was big into collecting Limited Edition console game, I've since nearly stopped buying those to fund the arcade habit but you can watch this video walk through I made of my "Game Room" just a few months before I picked up KI2
As for what I have for machines currently...
Killer Instinct 2 (Dedicated)
I bought on eBay as a completely trashed and gutted cab that had been converted to Turkey Hunter USA. I had it shipped and completely overpaid. I think the PCB I bought from Mitsurugi-W before I knew who he was
The machine is completely done and it came out quite lovely. Since the pic above I've found a cover for the bill acceptor slot and sourced proper CP artwork (that's a story in and of itself)
Build thread on KLOV: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=267561
Cyber Troopers Virtual On Oratorio Tangram v4.2 (Twin Unit)
I came across an original OMG Twin-Unit on eBay and thought "how cool would it be to own THAT" then noticed it was being sold from a local resort hotel. They wanted to change out some games in their game room and were eager to get rid of it so I made a deal off-line and they were nice enough to load and deliver half the machine (while me and friend loaded and drove the other half). The game was originally on a board walk arcade in Old Orchard Beach Maine and covered in rust and filled with sand. I stripped it and rebuilt it getting most of the metal sand blasted and powder coated, replacing nearly all of the nuts bolts and washers and replacing all of the rubber flooring as well as polishing all of the unpainted metal parts. I eventually sourced Model 3 VOOT PCBs from Japan and converted the power supplies to JVS and rewired for easy swapping between Model 2 and Model 3. I still need to convert all of the artwork and modify the Japanese control panels to work on a USA machine. I also need to cap-kit the monitors and build new sub-woofers since the originals are junk :-/ If anyone comes across VOOT marquees Please let me know, it's the last piece I need to complete this.
Restoration/Conversion thread on KLOV: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=268523
Fix it Felix Jr Replica/MAME cab
A friend of mine bought an original Donkey Kong machine at a state auction for $50, it played DK Jr and sat in his garage for years and stopped working one day. He wanted me to help him convert it to a light gun-shooter. I wanted to build a Fix it Felix so I convinced him to sell it to me for $100 and I would help him find a more appropriate machine for light gun games (He now owns a really nice dedicated Area 51 that I found him). The DK cab had PCBs for both DK and DK Jr but I never could get either one of them running again (though I honestly didn't try very hard) I Build a cheap PC for GroovyMAME with a Hyperspin front end running a custom vertical theme and then loaded it up with Fix it Felix and any MAME game that worked with a vertical monitor and 2 buttons. I need to recap this monitor and restore the chipping/gouges on the cab sides so I can actually apply cab art. I'm also considering trying to swap in a 25in K7000 monitor. (since the pic above it's received all new t-molding)
Incomplete Build thread on BYOAC: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143048.0.html
I have a few interesting pieces but I'd but I'd hardly call it "incredible". I've only actually really been collecting in earnest for the last 3 years.
I'd grown up near the "legendary" FunSpot and always loved arcades. When I was looking for a summer job in college I decided I wanted to learn how arcades worked so I put on a nice professional looking outfit walked into FunSpot asked if they'd hire me as a tech for minimum wage until I learned the ropes and could become a more full-fledged tech ...they told me to get lost. So I went down the street to the boardwalk arcades near the beach with the same offer and they asked me if I had a change of shirt because they wanted me to start that second. From 2001 through 2003 during the summers I worked full time as a tech repairing machines on a boardwalk arcade, I started from zero and learned everything I needed to know about electronics from the head tech who was the dean of Electrical Engineering for Rhode Island tech.
During that time I got a free dedicated Double Dragon, a dedicated Contra and a Make Traxx Cab that had been converted into Ring King as well as some spare monitors and a few other random, uninteresting parts. I gave the Contra to some friends and accidentally cracked the neck board on the Ring King the very first time I took the back panel off. I later bought MK1 MK2 and UMK3 PCBs on eBay and built a new Control Panel for the Double dragon cab so I could play them properly.... I was familiar with KLOV (the database before they had a forum) and the old RGVAC news group but I never signed up for any of them. The cabs were all free since they were slated for the dump so my only real investment were the MK PCBs, some buttons/sticks for the new CP and some hardware bits. As a poor college student I was pretty happy with it though and MK PCBs were about 1/4th the price then that they are now.
That's all I had for arcade stuff until around 2013 The Ring King sat in a dusty corner never fixed and the Double Dragon/UMK3 cab would get turned on for parties but otherwise remained unused. I'd been out of college and working a good job for a number of years when I decided to buy a KI2 cab since that was my all time favorite arcade game and I really wanted something bigger and nicer than the UMK3 in a DD cab. Then less than a year later I bought Virtual On, then a DDR and so on. I've since sold the Double Dragon cab (after converting it back to double dragon) as well as the (still broken) Ring King cab.
Before buying KI2 I was big into collecting Limited Edition console game, I've since nearly stopped buying those to fund the arcade habit but you can watch this video walk through I made of my "Game Room" just a few months before I picked up KI2
As for what I have for machines currently...
Killer Instinct 2 (Dedicated)
I bought on eBay as a completely trashed and gutted cab that had been converted to Turkey Hunter USA. I had it shipped and completely overpaid. I think the PCB I bought from Mitsurugi-W before I knew who he was
The machine is completely done and it came out quite lovely. Since the pic above I've found a cover for the bill acceptor slot and sourced proper CP artwork (that's a story in and of itself)Build thread on KLOV: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=267561
Cyber Troopers Virtual On Oratorio Tangram v4.2 (Twin Unit)
I came across an original OMG Twin-Unit on eBay and thought "how cool would it be to own THAT" then noticed it was being sold from a local resort hotel. They wanted to change out some games in their game room and were eager to get rid of it so I made a deal off-line and they were nice enough to load and deliver half the machine (while me and friend loaded and drove the other half). The game was originally on a board walk arcade in Old Orchard Beach Maine and covered in rust and filled with sand. I stripped it and rebuilt it getting most of the metal sand blasted and powder coated, replacing nearly all of the nuts bolts and washers and replacing all of the rubber flooring as well as polishing all of the unpainted metal parts. I eventually sourced Model 3 VOOT PCBs from Japan and converted the power supplies to JVS and rewired for easy swapping between Model 2 and Model 3. I still need to convert all of the artwork and modify the Japanese control panels to work on a USA machine. I also need to cap-kit the monitors and build new sub-woofers since the originals are junk :-/ If anyone comes across VOOT marquees Please let me know, it's the last piece I need to complete this.
Restoration/Conversion thread on KLOV: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=268523
Fix it Felix Jr Replica/MAME cab
A friend of mine bought an original Donkey Kong machine at a state auction for $50, it played DK Jr and sat in his garage for years and stopped working one day. He wanted me to help him convert it to a light gun-shooter. I wanted to build a Fix it Felix so I convinced him to sell it to me for $100 and I would help him find a more appropriate machine for light gun games (He now owns a really nice dedicated Area 51 that I found him). The DK cab had PCBs for both DK and DK Jr but I never could get either one of them running again (though I honestly didn't try very hard) I Build a cheap PC for GroovyMAME with a Hyperspin front end running a custom vertical theme and then loaded it up with Fix it Felix and any MAME game that worked with a vertical monitor and 2 buttons. I need to recap this monitor and restore the chipping/gouges on the cab sides so I can actually apply cab art. I'm also considering trying to swap in a 25in K7000 monitor. (since the pic above it's received all new t-molding)
Incomplete Build thread on BYOAC: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143048.0.html
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