It Finally Happened to ME - Game Rescue 411

Phetishboy

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So I get home with my TMNT pin last night but can't unload it as I had to pick up the (3) kids. They all need dinner, the littlest needs changed, etc. My wife gets home a little later and I decided I'll go "get my things out of the truck", (mainly, my new pin). I get it out, dolly it to the basement and begin set-up. I just get ready to attach the front legs when my phone rings. It's my mom.

"Hey, I was just leaving the hair salon and was passing by a condemned building on main street New Munich (the town has a population of 360 people). I saw a bunch of people taking things out of the building. I saw what looked to be a beer sign and an arcade game.

Me: "really, cool."

Mom: "I got out of the car and saw that it was the New Munich fire dept removing items, as they plan to do a controlled burn on the building. I looked at the arcade game and told the lady that my son fixes these up. It's a TRON machine, are those valuable?"

"Yes I said, are they selling it?"

"Well, I don't know" she says, "do you want me to drive back and ask?"

"Ahh, yeah ma, what the hell."

*waits for 3-5 minutes*

"Yeah, they said you can have it, come get it, I'll wait here for you."

So I run upstairs, tell my wife, she says, "Your mom found an arcade game in New Munich (her home town) and she's waiting there for you? Get going!"

I do, and when I got there, 4 firemen loaded it and an old standing cabinet my mom wanted into my truck. Then the lead dude asks if we wanna go look inside. We do, and it's a scene right out of Hoarders and American Pickers combined. It's is a large old building, only accessible from the back, with 3 floors piled high with mountains of stuff. Old stuff, new stuff still in boxes, junk, cat piss, mouse turds and tons of hidden treasures. The only sucky part is we only had one flashlight and it was treacherous footing and pitch black inside. I grabbed a couple of old things small enough to carry and got the hell out of there. Dude said it used to be a bar owned by his dad, and that it closed 25 years ago. He said he used to play the TRON but it stopped working one day and it was just left sitting there. It's complete minus the upper back door and there is very little water damage. The floor has a bit of swelling, but the sides aren't swelled or broken at all. Whomever bought the building from his dad was an auction addict who would just buy tons of shit and then shove it into this building with no rhyme or reason, piling it around the stuff that was already there, including the TRON. Anyhoo, here is the machine after being pulled out of its 25 year time capsule:

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Unreal. Now it's time to get it cleaned up, working and up for sale.
 
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Very nice man! What perfect timing to have that all line up. And a Tron too, not some horrible frankenstein conversion. Congrats on both the pickups!
 
Sweet! Congrats!

I love storys like this. What was the sign?

I think it was either a Miller or a Lite Beer sign. The nice one was gone when I got there. Only a broken one remained (and it wasn't my style). I am sure that if I go back, I will find a few more items. I actually grabbed an old metal sign that was a metric to standard conversion chart put out by a drill bit company out of Massachusetts. It's about 20" x 14" or so and is just cool to look at. I also grabbed an old railroad lamp and a brand new metal electrical timer box.
 
Nice score, dude. Over the years, I've picked up a couple of freebies here and there. Surprisingly, like your find, many of them have been in solid shape.
 
Nice! You lucky sono***un... So, they just gave it to you? How cool is that?
 
The ironic thing is that I just busted up an old full size cab to make room in the garage, and this TRON got put right in it's place a day later. I can't escape!
 
WOW! That is the best story I have read here in a long time! Your mother is awesome! So, You going to restore that one and have dual Trons? :D I figure you probably won't. Aren't free games the best? Here are mine for this year:

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WOW! That is the best story I have read here in a long time! Your mother is awesome! So, You going to restore that one and have dual Trons? :D I figure you probably won't. Aren't free games the best? Here are mine for this year:

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I have yet to score a free game. Closest I ever came was a $30 bootleg cocktail which now runs Eyes.
 
I didn't think that you would, that restore is so damn beautiful! I wonder how good that one you just picked up would look after some magic erasers and a sharpie to touch up the scratches.
 
Wow, this thread died quicker than the last male escort Fritz tried playing Cowboys and Skindians with. In the old days, people actually cared about this sorta thing. Oh well, update. Got it working this morning:

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Coins up, sound works, buttons work, joystick works, trigger works, spinner does not. Time to PM good old Rip.
 
This is the best thread ever....the fact that your mom was looking out for you....now that is love.:D What did you have to do to get it working...looks like it was in pretty decent shape considering....

I have brand new Tron cab with NOS sideart etc..that needs all the parts if you don't want to tackle the restore...PM me.
 
Shit. The price just went up.

Good job, Shawn, there's a quick $500 in your pocket. Don't forget to buy your mom some flowers. :)
 
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