First pickup of 2012

jow

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I got a random text from a work buddy last night (who knows about this hobby) who said "I have a friend who has a friend who knows a guy.." with some arcade games in his garage that he needs to get rid of. He mentioned they had been on CL for a while but people kept flaking, and he was getting irritated at the space being taken up and needed to start getting them out. I asked what he had and he told me the only thing he remembered him having from the list was Mortal Kombat. MK is a game I love and I used to own an MK II (my fav) but it was in an MK 1 cab, so I decided to sell it a while back. I always loved the MKII cabs with Raiden on them so I figured I'd find one later on down the road.

Anywho, I asked for the guys contact # and shot him a text to see what the MK was all about. He told me his Dad had recently bought a vending route and one of the locations had closed and they had to bring 6 or 7 games home and figure out what to do with. I asked what he had and there was a bunch of junk...and a Mortal Kombat II. I asked if he had pictures he could send me and he said no, but if I wanted one of the games I could probably have one for cheap and to throw out an offer to him. I asked him about the MKII and all he could tell me was that the cabinet "needed some work" but the game worked from what he could tell. I told him I'd give him $150 sight unseen thinking he would tell me to eff off, and he responded "I'll be home from 10-5 tomorrow, come get it." For $150 I figured I couldn't go wrong, and if it was a mess I could sell the parts for more than that. I show up today, and was pleasantly surprised. The cabinet IS an MKII cab but the marquee was UMK3, and the CP was drilled for the run button. I figured it was probably converted at some point, so I turn it on to play it. Yep, UMK3. Stoked! I love UMK3 (thought I didn't play it as much as MK or MKII so I kinda suck). The cab does need some work - mostly the CP and box but the art is in decent enough shape and the monitor looks great.

My first sight unseen purchase was a success.

(shitty iPhone) Pics:

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I'm thrilled with the purchase. I still have to vacuum out the cab, and once she's all clean I'll put her in the lineup. More pics to come.
 
Thats great jow. Always fun to have a good 2d fighter in the lineup!

I honestly thought it would have been a Punchout or a 720 to get you to purchase without seeing.
 
Congrats man. Not a bad buy at all. Should clean up nice with a little work.

So what was the other "junk" that he had?
 
Nice work amigo. I seriously was just thinking about that game today. I still have a working MKII board with sound board I need to find a cab for. *sigh*
 
I as well would love to someday have a MK II. Wonder which one of the series is considered the best? II?
Definitely wish there was a multi board.
 
nice score there jow! i'll need to practice all of sub zero's moves over the spring and then we can have a kombat-off at cax!
 
Nice score, Jow. Looks good in your gameroom. Now you need to get one of those Midway neons from the neon light thread - that would look sweet centered right above those cabs.
 
You might want to scootch the NBA JAM(s) over to the left a bit so the 4th player has some room between the MK game.

When me and Special Ed come to visit, it's ON, Paleo can't save you now!
 
UMK3 is probably the best of the MK games. At one time I owned that one and MKII. They are okay games and for the price you can't go wrong. I don't own any fighting games now though. If I did, I would probably opt for a set up of duel back to back linked Aero city style cabinets, like they have in Japan (and in some places around here).

Fighting games are still hugely popular in Japan, and so are arcades for that matter. They are still releasing new fighting games there too but few of them seem to end up here. The the Japanese prefer to not see the other player they are playing against so the cabinets are usually positioned back to back. You typically don't see side by side fighting cabinets there.
 
UMK3 is probably the best of the MK games. At one time I owned that one and MKII. They are okay games and for the price you can't go wrong. I don't own any fighting games now though. If I did, I would probably opt for a set up of duel back to back linked Aero city style cabinets, like they have in Japan (and in some places around here).

Fighting games are still hugely popular in Japan, and so are arcades for that matter. They are still releasing new fighting games there too but few of them seem to end up here. The the Japanese prefer to not see the other player they are playing against so the cabinets are usually positioned back to back. You typically don't see side by side fighting cabinets there.

Yep that's true. I was stationed there from 2003-2010, and it surprised me at first that a country with such limited/crowded space would do that.
I would say around 2005 they started to heavily convert to back-to-back linked cabs for games. Also the new fighting games/arcade titles don't really make it over here due to online tech reasons that the US doesn't/can't really support. Also the costs for machines now are insane! 30k new fighting/etc etc. game cabinets, A long crazy story with that. Some companies are trying to bring some fighters over here (arcade) that being Tekken Tag 2.

Anyhow, nice pick up! I know the PCB goes for $150 alone.
 
UMK3 is probably the best of the MK games. At one time I owned that one and MKII. They are okay games and for the price you can't go wrong.

I was always an MKII guy, but remember UMK3 (or MK3) being the first game I played on the PS1 my sophomore year of HS. Its been so long that I have forgotten all of the combos though.

Anyhow, nice pick up! I know the PCB goes for $150 alone.

That was my thinking in picking this up sight unseen. Even it were MKII like he said, and it was thrashed I could have sold the PCB, monitor and other parts for my money back.

I managed to snap a better pic last night, too:

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BTW - can MKII swap right into this harness? I used to have an MKII cab, and wanted to swap in MKI, but needed the T-unit PCB I think to make it work? Can I get an MKII PCB and use it with the UMK3 harness?
 
Congrats. That would be my favorite MK setup. UMK3 in an MKII cab. Raiden looks cool on the side of that cab.
 
I like the look of both cabs MK1 and MKII, but was never a big fan of MK3/UMK3. Nice pick up, but now get one of the first 2 PCBs in there. You don't need net/bomb/rocket ninja robots.
 
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