Describe your most harrowing "in the rain" game transport story...

pookdolie

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Describe your most harrowing "in the rain" game transport story...

Andys80s story was a good one. Any others?
 
don't have much really. I picked up an atari system 1 game and loaded in in a truck that has a camper shell. Don't think it was raining when I grabbed the game but it was starting to rain by the time I got home to unload it. Had the game on the dolly and needed to get it up the 4in step from out side to in the front door. Just inside the door is tile and I wasn't thinking that my shoes were wet. Pulled and the game came up the step but as it did my feet slid toward the game and basically the game fell on top of me. The dolly handle was the saving grace as it allowed me room between the floor and the game. So basically the game was supported by the dolly and it's weight wasn't entirely on me. I lay there for a minute or two before deciding that I was gonna have to get out from under this on my own. I lived alone at the time and there was no one around. Not really sure how I did it but I muscled the game to an upright position and got it into the house.
 
I had a Frogger in the back of the truck in the upright position. All of a sudden it started pouring rain. I found a place with a small covered area and tried to back under it, but didn't realize the game stuck up higher than the roof. As I backed in, the roof hit the game and tore a big hole in the side right next to the marquee.

Luckily I was able to bondo it and replace the side art and you couldn't tell it had ever been damaged...
 
I've mentioned a couple of times my odd penchant for acquiring games on rainy days. It almost always happens. I could set up a deal for a year from now and it wouldn't matter. When the big day rolls around, it's gonna rain.

My worst one was just a few weeks ago when I got my Sinistar cockpit. I got to aesop's house, and the sky was starting to look angry. The arcade gods waited to unleash their fury until the precise moment that cash changed hands. It immediately began to POUR. Todd and KingOfTron (my designated arcade game pickup buddy) helped me quickly load it up into the truck, cover it with tarp, and strap it in. In the process, I forgot to put on my hat and jacket, which were still in the truck. I got drenched and my hat blew out of the truck and into some mud while we were loading the game.

Driving that game the 45 minutes or so to my house wasn't much fun (I usually thoroughly enjoy the ride home). I had to pull over once because the tarp started to come off, and the noise from the bed of the pickup was extremely loud the entire ride home.

Naturally, the moment we unloaded the game and got it into my garage, the rain stopped.
 
I've mentioned a couple of times my odd penchant for acquiring games on rainy days. It almost always happens. I could set up a deal for a year from now and it wouldn't matter. When the big day rolls around, it's gonna rain.

My worst one was just a few weeks ago when I got my Sinistar cockpit. I got to aesop's house, and the sky was starting to look angry. The arcade gods waited to unleash their fury until the precise moment that cash changed hands. It immediately began to POUR. Todd and KingOfTron (my designated arcade game pickup buddy) helped me quickly load it up into the truck, cover it with tarp, and strap it in. In the process, I forgot to put on my hat and jacket, which were still in the truck. I got drenched and my hat blew out of the truck and into some mud while we were loading the game.

Driving that game the 45 minutes or so to my house wasn't much fun (I usually thoroughly enjoy the ride home). I had to pull over once because the tarp started to come off, and the noise from the bed of the pickup was extremely loud the entire ride home.

Naturally, the moment we unloaded the game and got it into my garage, the rain stopped.

Don't forget about the kid who parked on the street directly in front of your driveway, forcing us to go door to door to find out who it belonged to so they could move it, all the while it raining on the deteriorating tarp.
 
I had to drive my Tron 1 hour to my home in a blizzard. I was freaking out, but fortunately I was on the highway most of the time, and the snow never settled on it until I got home. No damage done.
 
Several years ago, a coworker of mine and I drove about 150 miles to pick up 3 games from an old college instructor of mine. The trip down was fine but after the games were loaded up, it started to rain fairly steadily. We shrinkwrapped them very well and they were fine. The part I had a problem with was how much of a dickhead the instructor always was and that day was no exception. He didn't help us load and had no worries about the rain. Afterward, we were eating lunch at the local bar and he didn't say word one to us. When it was all said and done, Pole Position (upright), Gorf and Frogger had all made it back to the shop. All 3 (even the Pole) worked and were in great condition. Apparently the guy had run them in the college cafeteria back in the early 80s and they had been well treated. They all sold for good prices with virtually no work other than the trip to get them.
 
This was not a horror story by any means...

I picked up my missile command during a deluge... open bed pick-up. I had wrapped it with about a mile of shrink wrap... you couldn't even see the game through it. Got it home, cut it out of its cellophane cocoon... it was perfectly dry :)
 
Don't forget about the kid who parked on the street directly in front of your driveway, forcing us to go door to door to find out who it belonged to so they could move it, all the while it raining on the deteriorating tarp.

Hahahaha. I forgot about that.

For the rest of you, when Mike found the right house, the conversation went like this:

Mike: "Do you know whose white car that is out there? It's blocking my friend's driveway."
Neighbor: *sigh* "Yes. It's my idiot son."
 
I don't know about horror story, but I would have to say that I drove through one of the worst rainstorms I ever saw when I picked up my Sinistar. The drive from Cleveland, OH to Flint, MI wasn't bad at all. Once I got there the rain started pouring. It was a commercial building that had a metal "warehouse" added to it. The rain was falling so hard on the metal that you could hear the person next to you talk. The storm was so strong that I had to wait and extra 1-1/2 hours to load the machine into my Blazer because when the opened the loading dock door the rain came in sideways and there was no room to load the game without getting it wet even though I had backed my truck in almost to the back wall. Finally we said f it and just shrinkwrapped the entire game and loaded it. The drive back took me 1-1/2 hours longer that the drive there not only because of the storm but because of a problem the OH and MI seem to share. This problem is when it rains people pull in the left most lane on the highways and refuse to move to the right for faster traffic. Granted I had four wheel drive but when you are going 40mph in the left most lane on the highway and someone pulls up behind you going 60 move your ass over to the right. Once I hit Toledo the typhoon conditions ceased. I know it's not much but that's all I got.
 
The first game I had gone to pick up that was out of town was in the rain.

It was a Neo Geo 1 slot in an old Atari cabinet, seemed to be Rolling Thunder.

The cab was wobbly, and didn't have the back piece, or a top piece. We put it in the back of my truck and wrapped a tarp around it.

It was a little more than an hour drive, but my friend and I stopped for lunch on the way back through.

It was pouring the whole time.

When I got home, I stuck it in the garage overnight, and brought it in the next day.

Me being the inexperienced, and impatient guy I was at the time, I decided to try it out, despite it still being a bit damp (the tarp didn't help much) and all I got was a nice loud electrical buzz... crap. It did work when I picked it up.

So... I was worried... but I let it sit for another day or two inside and tried it again. Fortunately, it fired right up.

A few months later I passed that cabinet on to Jaymax. I don't know if he still has it.
 
I've only ever had to move one game in the rain, a Twin Eagle converted from a Zaxxon cab that a buddy bought from me. It was only misting when I left my house, I wrapped the cab in a blanket and a tarp. By the time I got to his place, it had gotten 20 degrees colder and the rain was pretty much a deluge.

Water was about 2 inches deep along the curbs as it streamed toward the sewers. We got it unloaded, getting us soaking wet in the process. When we unwrapped the game monitor/bezel was all fogged up. He was anxious to try it even though I didn't want to power up the machine while it was so damp.

He fired it up and *nothing*. I knew it had been working 2 hours earlier. We let it sit and warm up for about an hour, then just did the shotgun approach of reseating all the board an monitor connections. I was crapping my pants because I didn't feel like dragging it back home, but thank God it fired right up.
 
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ha ha .. . ha... what's rain?
 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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ha ha .. . ha... what's rain?

I know - in this hobby, folks in the southwest are totally spoiled when it comes to transporting, storing and, frankly, acquiring games.

Collecting in Massachusetts was hard work. One good thing, though: because home collections at the time I lived there were few and far between, visitors were blown away when they saw an arcade machine in the house.

Out here, if someome sees my games, it's always "Oh, cool. My friend has a few of these in his garage."
 
I know - in this hobby, folks in the southwest are totally spoiled when it comes to transporting, storing and, frankly, acquiring games.

Collecting in Massachusetts was hard work. One good thing, though: because home collections at the time I lived there were few and far between, visitors were blown away when they saw an arcade machine in the house.

Out here, if someome sees my games, it's always "Oh, cool. My friend has a few of these in his garage."

Ha! Yeah, It's indescribable seeing the expression on someone's face when they first step foot into your garage. :)
 
Don't forget about the kid who parked on the street directly in front of your driveway, forcing us to go door to door to find out who it belonged to so they could move it, all the while it raining on the deteriorating tarp.

I would've just called it in and had that fucker towed ASAP.
 
... ha ha .. . ha... what's rain?

It's that thing that only plagues 30fathomdave out here! :rolleyes:

I've been reeeeeeaaall lucky. No downpours yet, but quite a few "sprinkly" days that weren't that bad... I started putting palettes down in my truck bed before grabbing a game if I see dark clouds now. And I always have several tarps and tons of tie-downs in my truck. :)
 
Back in 2006 I picked up my Lunar Lander & Tron in Rockford, IL. About 30 miles north of my destination the radio starts freaking out about a tornado alert, as one touched down in the area I was in. About 2 minutes later pouring rain followed by a plow wind, I was lucky to pull over under an overpass. After the wind left I kept traveling along the interstate to Rockford in heavy rain. Once I arrived to load the games, it quit raining, yes the arcade gods were smiling on me. But, once I started traveling the rain started again and it was dark. As I get up to highway speed I hear noise coming from the box of the truck. I look in the side mirror and sure enough, one of the bungee cords let loose and my tarp is waving in the wind. On a a busy interstate 16 hours from home I lucked out and there was a rest stop exit almost immediately when I noticed the tarp flapping. Fixed everything up in the pouring rain, the games never got wet luckily. I drove towards the MN/WS border in the rain that evening, which never let up thinking to myself...are these games worth it?
HELL YEAH :)
 
First game I ever picked up, back in 1998: Space Invaders.

It was in the low 30's and snow was in the forecast. I took along a huge plastic tarp just in case. No snow on the way to pick up the game(about an hour away).

Once I got it loaded up(and wrapped nice and tight) it started to snow; that heavy, wet snow that melts right away when it hits anything. The tarp was soaked when I got home(it repelled the snow and water nicely), and my SI was as dry as the desert thank God......
 
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