First game you bought and when

Xybots... FleaBay "buy it now" 250$... it cost me 350$ to have it shipped from NC to SF East Bay... That was 25yrs ago. Haven't done a thing to it accept replace one of the cherry switches in the L joystick.

Interesting how I got it to me... the seller wasn't interested in doing much. I looked up an arcade near him and called and asked to speak to the owner. I explained the situation to him. He said if I could get the seller to drop it off at the arcade, he would have his fellas put it on a pallet and wrap it up and have it shipped out. Said they ship them all the time. When it got to me, it was VERY well wrapped with thin foam sheeting with cardboard and plenty of stretch wrap over EVERYTHING. then it was strapped to the pallet. Whoever packed it up did so like it was their own game. There was ZERO damage to it on its trip to me. I still can't believe to this day how I was able to get the arcade owner to do that for me for just the cost of materials and the freight bill. Been so long ago I can't remember his name or the name of the arcade...

If you happen to be a member here and read this... THANKYOU AGAIN!!! I still enjoy playing it with my kids from time to time.

-D
 
If anyone is interested in reading about the delivery day when I first got it... I posted this in another thread... moving it from California to Idaho was much easier... It went on a refrigerator dolly, up the liftgate into my boxtruck, across 3 states and back off via the liftgate... (cue Dire Straights... Money for nothing.... "look at them yo-yos... thats the way ya do it"

-D

That ain't no lie... it was raining when I brought my Xybots home from the dock at work.. The machine was well wrapped with cardboard and stretch wrap and stayed dry... but.... up two steps into the house a 90° turn in the entry way to go through the kitchen to the dining room. All the while wrestling the wet slippery 300# bitch on wet tile floor. By the time she was in place there were a couple mashed fingers, lots of swear words and my brother in-law was bleeding... fun times... just got the second Atari yesterday (Tempest UR). Off the truck and into storage with no issues... but she ain't home yet... that's another load into the truck and a 650 mile drive... still plenty of time for her to get pissed off and bite and scratch...
 
Of course... my BITKIT2 is just sitting in the top of the cocktail cab it's going in for now... I've got the Jamma connector and a fingerboard to make a plug in adapter for the cab... so no, haven't even fussed with it... only took it out of the bag to take a pic to get my poster... the adapter is next up... then my Tempest UR! I just got back to Cali this afternoon from a month in Idaho.
 
Galaxian cocktail. Purchased back in 87 when I was a freshman in high school. I think it was 75.00. Then a defender that was in the classified paper for 100.00.
 
I bought a broken Mortal Kombat II for $200 in the early 2010s, can't exactly remember when. Fixed it up, and that was my intro to arcade ownership.
 
not sure if i chimed in this thread yet. i mean we're on page 15 with 707+ posts in already...

my very first arcade was a Double Dragon, which unfortunately was installed inside a Zaxxon cabinet. I forgot how much I paid for it, probably in the $200~400 range. Dunno.

unsure of the year, probably late 1990s or early 2000s. i have 0% proof of purchase since the internet was young and i found this when Craigslist was first invented.

But it worked and I loved it so much. It brought me many smiles for those miles!


gleeks-double-dragon.jpg
 
not sure if i chimed in this thread yet. i mean we're on page 15 with 707+ posts in already...

my very first arcade was a Double Dragon, which unfortunately was installed inside a Zaxxon cabinet. I forgot how much I paid for it, probably in the $200~400 range. Dunno.

unsure of the year, probably late 1990s or early 2000s. i have 0% proof of purchase since the internet was young and i found this when Craigslist was first invented.

But it worked and I loved it so much. It brought me many smiles for those miles!


View attachment 601757
Gotta say man, those goggles are fuckin' Baller.
 
not sure if i chimed in this thread yet. i mean we're on page 15 with 707+ posts in already...

my very first arcade was a Double Dragon, which unfortunately was installed inside a Zaxxon cabinet. I forgot how much I paid for it, probably in the $200~400 range. Dunno.

unsure of the year, probably late 1990s or early 2000s. i have 0% proof of purchase since the internet was young and i found this when Craigslist was first invented.

But it worked and I loved it so much. It brought me many smiles for those miles!


View attachment 601757
Taller than Sega-Gremlin (Zaxxon) upright? That cab is 6' plus….
 
Taller than Sega-Gremlin (Zaxxon) upright? That cab is 6' plus….
Might be wearing platform shoes? There may have been some die hards trailing some 70s fashions into the early 80s? Can't tell if there's bell bottoms there too!
 
June 7 2005. Got my free* Defender that had been stripped and converted to a Double Dragon. Left it as a Double Dragon for a while (after removing the nasty plexi) until I got bored of elbowing my way through the game without dying. I sold the DD marquee and PCB and ran a Neo-Geo in there for years. More recently got a 19-in-1 board and have been using that in there for a while. Finally got a JROK (last night) and Defender style multi Williams CPO to start working it back towards a Defender. It appears the original artwork is under all that paint, but I will likely end up getting some stencils and hoping for the best in the near future.
dd2.jpgdd3.jpg
Still need to replace the Control panel and speaker grill in this one, then on to the paint:
Capture.PNG
 
that crazy climber looks exactly like one that a guy in OC was selling a few weeks ago. if its the same one its pretty damn nice. I saw it at his yard sale and then on craigslist a week or so later....then again on craigslist as part of some lot sale. Any luck getting replacement legs?
Yes, Gene @vintage Arcade Superstore hooked me up with a set of replacement legs for $200 a short time afterwards, so Crazy Climber cocktail is whole again :)
 
Gene is such good people. He's hooked me up several times.
Absolutely concur…Gene is a living legend. An understatement to call him an all time great. So much knowledge, skill, humility and kindness.

Bitd, Gene would let me spend hours rummaging through his warehouse alone for parts to restore. Found all kind of rare hard to find NOS parts and art he was willing to sell.

And no matter how busy he is, always has time to chat and take you around his shop, answer questions and tell stories of how it was when he was an arcade op.
 
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First game was Missile Command, February 2020! Got it for free for helping someone figure out what was wrong with their pin and @RtypeEman was gracious enough to help me figure out what was wrong with my PCB. Just a bad CPU. Since then I've bought several more machines and I'm sure @RtypeEman is sick of me constantly going to him for help with them lol.

I don't have a current photo at the ready but I got a control panel and marquee for it and it's looking a lot better!
71EA7D81-0E7C-4B04-85EA-AAA152DD4CCE.jpeg
 
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