Latest addition- FREE!

MasterFygar

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Well, been working on this one for a while, glad to finally have it! My friend J told me last year his old church had an old Donkey Kong Jr. machine and he would try to get it for me to fix it since I'm an arcade guy and all. Anyway, because it was a donation, even though it was buried at the back of the closet they said they couldn't give it up.

Well, fast forward about a year and he goes to play it again, then realizes- the game is broken! The screen scrolls indescribable images all over the place nonstop and it plays blind, but with horrendous beeps and borks instead of normal sound.

Well, being in the condition it is, he speaks to his old church's youth leader telling him it's broken, and they come to the conclusion that it's just taking up space and said to just take it. Well, today we finally did, and ironically enough it's all working fine! The scrolling was just one of the knobs on the monitor turned incorrectly; and the sound was just the volume set to low where it wouldn't actually play many of the sounds (some glitch was letting it still make a couple). It works great now and looks awesome, too! J is awesome. It's 100% working condition and beautiful (horrible webcam pics do no justice) and only needs a new ball on the Player 2 joystick. Anyone know where to find one? :D
 

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Cool man !! I love those DK Jr cocktails !! Free is the greatest !!!
 
Yep, I couldn't believe it actually finally happened! Thanks for all your comments guys. It really is a great game- hard, and I can't get past the second level yet, but a ton of fun. And thanks a lot Nazerine and Russ, order made :D
 
...your conscience isn't bothering you? Even a little? :rolleyes:

Cool get, for sure.
 
...your conscience isn't bothering you? Even a little? :rolleyes:


I agree. I understand free and everything, but not letting a church know that there was never anything wrong with it and still taking it is a little too much for me. I couldn't do it. JMHO.
 
I understand free and everything, but not letting a church know that there was never anything wrong with it and still taking it is a little too much for me. I couldn't do it.

yea, I think I give a little extra in an offering, or something...
 
Well, I would have felt the same way for sure, but the youth group leader knew it was working- the switch had been fixed long before we got it in the end. J wasn't aware at first that it was, but we turned it on and showed the guy it was working before we took it and he seemed to already know and not care at all. Not sure why he still wanted us to take it so adamantly, but he still really seemed to just want it out of there. I'm not sure why- it was stuffed in the back under a bunch of basketball netting and plastic horseshoes, it wasn't really holding up any real space and didn't appear to have been played for at least a few years (according to him- I can't see how anyone could resist free play arcade, though, I wish my church had some set up...). Then again, maybe that's why!

I may still have to fix it, too- it appears to be having a bit of cap trouble on the board, going scrambled on the screen when left on too long without being reset. The sounds are also a bit warped still, but it's good enough to not be worth fixing immediately.

J actually says the other guy was the one who brought it up again... not sure why the eagerness, but this dude just wanted it gone for some reason.

Also interesting to note is that the machine has "Southern Amusements" stickers on it- the company that owns Flipper McCoys! I'm sure any collectors in Tidewater know where that is. Perhaps this was in another of the now closed locations at some point?
 
Also, one more thing because I did just realize that, as the post reads, it sounds like a complete AH move-

It wasn't like this was a random find to take advantage of somebody. J had been going to that church since before he was born, and his grandfather was the pastor of the church for 30 or so years beforehand. Back when the machine was practically HUO he played it all the time and has extremely fond memories of it since he was old enough to reach it standing up to play :p

His grandfather was pastor there still up until about two years ago, I'm not sure what happened then. J had always been friends with the youth group guy and was talking to him again one time right before I showed him my Dig Dug machine (then new) which spurred him to remember the old machine.

When he finally found it in the back and saw what shape it was in (not very nice at that time- it's been cleaned up since then) and how it was buried underneath random garbage, he wanted to get it back to its former glory and taken care of. The joystick and monitor problems happened since he had played it last, in the couple of years since he transferred churches and it was roughed up by a few new kids before thrown in the back and forgotten. When he asked the youth group guy he said sure but then talked to one of the board members who said it was an absolute no.

Eventually the board member decided he didn't care and told the youth group leader to do whatever he wanted with it. He contacted J, really wanting to do him the favor and see the machine go to a good owner, and J contacted me, and the transaction was a Christmas present to me this year as well as a chance for him to finally play it again. He really just wanted to get it in a place where it would be treated like a classic and he could play it as he remembered playing it, and since I already had the space for something like that all planned out he decided to work it out with me. We've got it all cleaned up now and adjusted the monitor to look spic and span, and he was thrilled to just get to level 2- something he had only done once BITD :D

So yeah, I agree it would be horrible if it was just what I said in the first post, and I'm sorry for not conveying it clearly enough- I'm still a bit new here and getting the hang of the difference between long story posts and "WOW LOOK AT THIS SCORE" posts. As it was sort of both for me, I figured just posting the "WHOAH" parts would be the easiest but I guess with something this unusual it's a bit different. There's the whole story. :)
 
No, no, I plan too as soon as I'm not broke, heheh. There's a reason I have to get free games at the moment ;)

I'll need to find a way to keep J from feeling awkward about it as this was technically not a "score" but a Christmas present (that he promised me last Christmas too :p) and that's what he told the board as well, but I do plan to repay the favor somehow and we've tried to decide an appropriate compensation before it was even mentioned here. I've donated to the church before (as well as my own, of course), and something is certainly in order in this case as well... I'm just explaining that I'm not a common arcade bandit, heh :D
 
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Also interesting to note is that the machine has "Southern Amusements" stickers on it- the company that owns Flipper McCoys! I'm sure any collectors in Tidewater know where that is. Perhaps this was in another of the now closed locations at some point?


That's a great game. I picked one up a few years ago somewhere in Chesapeake I think and it was in pretty good condition but it had been converted to an 8 Ball Action,ROM upgrade for DK Jr. The glass top was badly scratched and I was lucky to find someone that sold me a NOS glass. I also sent the board off and had it converted to Double Donkey Kong so I have DK and DK Jr in one game. I have lived in Hampton all my life and I remember Flipper McCoy's very well. Back in the day they had so many games in that place, with all the people it was hard to move around. They thinned out the heard in the last few years but still had a good selection of classic and new games. It's been over a year sense I have been to their Military Circle location but I have heard they have now closed it down. I think the one in Virginia Beach on the ocean front is still open but I haven't been to it since sometimes in the 1980's. Guess I need to visit it more often.:D
http://members.cox.net/sverlander/double_donkey_kong_cocktail.html
 

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I was thinking the same thing. I took a game from a boys and girls club once that wasnt working and they were tired of it but I left them a different working game in exchange and the kids loved it.

...your conscience isn't bothering you? Even a little? :rolleyes:

Cool get, for sure.
 
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