And I'm Back: A Red Tent, a PC10, and a side of Hantavirus

nerdygrrl

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After being out of the hobby for a number of years after selling my collection off during covid I am back with a bang! Out of nowhere a barn find red tent popped up a couple of hours from me and then a mouse infested PC10 popped up for sale two weeks later.

The red tent was a pretty straight forward pickup. A guy was listing it for an op friend. The pics weren't great but for the listed price it was worth the drive. When I got there and the seller opened it up I discovered that it had a decent amount of mouse activity. There was a nest on the one chassis that took me three hours to completely take off and remove entirely. It has a decent amount of rust, but should be ok.

The PC10. Oh Lordy the PC10. Hands down the sketchiest pickup of my life. It was listed on CL for $2500. I wrote the seller and told her it was in pretty rough shape, and that I was interested, but probably would only be willing to pay $500-800 for it depending on what I saw when I got there.

Oh the things that I saw when I got there. I pulled into the driveway and it was a total squatter situation. Tents, campers, a condemned house. Trash bags and bags of human waste all over the yard. I opened the cab to inches of mouse waste and a hypodermic needle. Needless to say I broke it down and loaded it as fast as I could.

I have never seen such mouse damage before. It's such a shame because this lived in their garage arcade for years and aside from teh mouse damage the boards, chassis and tubes were in fantastic shape.

Anyhoo, a couple of fun winter projects.
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The PC10 was in pretty rough shape, it was basically a health hazard and could not be brought inside. There was a mouse nest filling the entire marquee box, and underneath the coin boxes. Once opened you could smell the mouse waste 15 ft away. Everything, and I mean everything was black from mouse urine.

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Cool finds, but yeah, really gross!
Hazmat respirator kinda work for sure.

On top of everything else, sunlight and fresh air does do wonders really!
 
Cool finds, but yeah, really gross!
Hazmat respirator kinda work for sure.

On top of everything else, sunlight and fresh air does do wonders really!

Oh big time hazmat situation on the PC-10. That was a major health hazard. By far the worst cabinet I have ever taken in.

The red tent had mouse activity, but it was pretty recent and isolated. The bulk of their damage was chewed chassis wires and just hay everywhere. Literally everywhere.
 

Oh yeah. They're just a bit more than I had hoped for in terms of repairs and cosmetic needs. Basically every single piece in both of them needed to be pulled and hand cleaned. Ever connector, harness, etc.

There was so much hay and loose quarters in the red tent is was an absolute joke. I have scraped, brushed, vacuumed every inch of that cab, rolled it over and over and upside down and I am still finding hay.
 
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Little Zep industrial strength will clean everything up. I remember you saying you were going to replace resistors on a monitor, I believe it was a sharp. I know this is a Sanyo but if they're in the condition like r470 from mouse pee I'd run them before I replace it and see what happens. I'd also first wash the pcb and see if the resistors look any better may just be surface contamination. Damage looks to only be on the surface should still work. I'd be more concerned with t45 if any copper has corroded on that little transformer
 
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Little Zep industrial strength will clean everything up. I remember you saying you were going to replace resistors on a monitor, I believe it was a sharp. I know this is a Sanyo but if they're in the condition like r470 from mouse pee I'd run them before I replace it and see what happens. I'd also first wash the pcb and see if the resistors look any better may just be surface contamination. Damage looks to only be on the surface should still work. I'd be more concerned with t45 if any copper has corroded on that little transformer


In theory the monitors were working when the game was sold to me. The sale ad had the monitors working, but there was no electricity on site and I had no interest in them firing up the generator they had used to run the game for the FS ad. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I had 1K in my pocket and was outnumbered about 10-1.

I plan to retest them in a few days. I'm just waiting for the chassis to dry out. Then I plan to do a cap kit and replace those resistors.
 
In theory the monitors were working when the game was sold to me. The sale ad had the monitors working, but there was no electricity on site and I had no interest in them firing up the generator they had used to run the game for the FS ad. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I had 1K in my pocket and was outnumbered about 10-1.

I plan to retest them in a few days. I'm just waiting for the chassis to dry out. Then I plan to do a cap kit and replace those resistors.
Yea sometimes in the moment you gotta take a chance. Maybe buy a portable ac battery bank for these kinds of deals if you find you're buying a lot of games. Better to let the boards dry out completely. Sounds salvageable to me
 
Lived in the squatters garage arcade? I'm not following

When the seller was growing up they had an arcade above their garage. They had the PC10, another game, and a pool table. Clearly the property has fallen into disrepair. Total hoarder looking situation. There were piles of trash and human waste everywhere. I could barely pull the game from garage to my car.

The father passed away over the summer. I am guessing the seller told her friends they could come and stay on the property. There were multiple tents with people living in them, campers, etc. Then again it's rural Maine so not too uncommon.
 
I would be interested in trying Krud Kutter on some of those parts. It works so well on nicotine and general dirt, I'd imagine it could do wonders here.
 
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I would be interested in trying Krud Kutter on some of those parts. It works so well on nicotine and general dirt, I'd imagine it could do woners here.

Simple green on the plastic and metal it just drips right off. For the wood, scrape, sand, and then peroxide and baking soda and set in the sun.
 
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