My epic trip: FL to MD to pick up a Dedicated Major Havoc!

khabbi

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My epic trip: FL to MD to pick up a Dedicated Major Havoc!

Well, I finally have the time to post my game pickup story that I purchased from Joe (Enjoyvelvet's) in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, from what was an epic trip to pick up my #1 grail of all time, a mint condition (ahem, my opinion, thank you) Major Havoc! I'll use this thread to tell the story of what was an epic trip of almost 2,000 miles round trip and over 36 hours of driving between me and a friend over 3 days.. all for a grail. :)

I must mention that I had a personal family thing to take care of up in Maryland also which involved helping a family member, so this was an easy trip in the long run to do. I will keep that personal, however. It was as quick as picking something up to return to Florida, so it was perfect.

Several weeks ago Joe posted a thread asking if Major Havoc came in a 720 looking cabinet and posted one of the most lucky finds I've ever seen (I'll let him tell the story but he came across a Dedicated MH cab while looking at another game that was listed on Craigslist).. When I saw his discovery I PM'd him to let him know if he managed to get the game I would be interested in buying, as I had been looking around for another color vector and wanted a MH. I was considering a MH conversion cab that eXidy had, but I really wanted a dedicated if at all possible. Joe did manage to score the dedicated MH and PM'd me that he had it and told me what he was asking, which I found to be a fair price (sorry, gonna keep that private).. so I told him I'd take it- but we had to figure out how to get this game to me w/o risking any damage to the cab since it was so nice.

After much thinking and a call to a (very) good friend of mine who has helped me numerous times and happens to appreciate the hobby, we decided to make the epic voyage up to Maryland to pick the game up in person so we could give this one the red carpet treatment and guarantee the preservation and care that this game deserves during a long distance move. I called Joe and let him know we'd be up in a few weeks, and he agreed to hold it for me until we could make the trip.

Joe was great to deal with and made this whole transaction easy for me, I must have been sent 50+ pictures of the game as well as over 4 videos of the game from every angle and perspective. He worked with me in every respect, and even sat on the game for a few weeks until I could get the trip and money worked out. A totally cool thing to do, even though he didn't have to with this game. I was also the first to PM him about the game, and he stuck to giving me first dibs on it instead of turning this into a bidding war. This is the integrity that I wish all sellers had of anything they had for sale. Props to Joe for being an outstanding KLOVer and Seller.

Fast forward a few weeks to last thursday.. I worked a full day and travelled up to Jacksonville that night to meet up with the friend that was going to help me make the trip, a short 3.5 hour trip to jax. The next day I helped my friend out at work so he could finish early and start the trip up to Maryland, and at about 3pm we started our trip from St. Augustine (where his work is), which is an hour south of Jax..

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We headed up I-95 until we reached the South of the Border exit in South Carolina at about 9:30pm.. for those that don't know what that is, it's an old tourist trap exit with lots of flash and lights, kind of like a mini-vegas looking area that's all part of "south of the border". It's pretty run down now, but in it's heyday it was pretty cool. We snapped a few pics, hit the head, and noticed that there was an "arcade" within all of the buildings. We went in to check it out and it was as disappointing as most arcades are now days.. they had no classics, and two "class of '81's", one was not functional and the other was a dim red with no other color displayed on the monitor, along with a fishtales pinball and a mixture of some non-exciting 90's games. All of them were in a serious state of disarray and obviously not maintained in the very least. We decided to hit the road and continue on our way

Here's some pics we took at "south of the border" ...

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We proceeded North and threw on some Kiss to keep the pace going...

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We drove a few more hours and settled down at 1am in Emporia, Virginia to get some sleep in run down Days Inn.. it was nasty but served it's purpose :) We were up at 6:30 and back on the road at 7AM, after all we had a long day ahead of us..

Passing through Washington was interesting, it's the first time I had been through there.. Too bad we didn't have time to stop... Here's a pic of the Pentagon as we drove by..

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We finally made it to the Uhaul to pick up a 5X8 enclosed trailer to transport the game in at about 10:30am, and we made it to Joes at about 11:00am, where I finally got to see the game in person :






I must say the game is in AMAZING shape, and with all the pics and vidoes that Joe so graciously sent me, they just didn't do this machine justice. It is in absolutely amazing shape, and I really don't think the pictures can show how much this machine shines.. it was a pleasant surprise for sure. Here are some pics:

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We wrapped this thing up like it was the holy grail itself and loaded it in carefully to prepare it for it's journey :

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We hung around Joe's for about an hour after we loaded and checked out his arcade and talked about games and KLOV... he was a very gracious guy and being a fellow KLOVer we had a lot talk about. Joe has a great collection of games and I could have hung out there all day, but alas, we had to start back to Florida, so we left at about 1:00 pm.

Traffic coming out of Maryland, through Washington, and on through Virginia was the worst I have ever encountered in my life, PERIOD. There were no accidents, to construction, just open interstate, and it took us about 4.5 hours to go 80 miles out of Joes house... OUCH. This really hurt our drive, it took us almost 5 hours (with a stop) to cover what should have taken about an hour, so we knew we were in for it.

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We proceeded south to Jacksonville and finally rolled in to Jax at 4AM.. yep, that was a long day (drove from 7am-11am, then 1pm till 4am the next morning). I slept a little then got up at 9am to finish my trip back to Tampa, which took another 3.5 hours.

So to sum things up, this was a big trip (36 hours of driving in 3 days) to pick up my #1 grail game, and I don't think there's any other game I would do this for.. period (err, maybe a EDOT, lol). It arrived at my arcade in the same condition it left Joe's and I couldn't be happier with it and am glad I made the journey... It was fun in some respects, but I'm glad it's over! Now it's time to enjoy the game..

I'm sure Joe would be willing to talk about his score of this game, his pickup story has to be the pickup of the decade to any of us KLOV'ers! (I think even better than Shilmovers free Star Wars cockpit, lol).
 
Great story and pics. You've officially experienced the full joy of why most in this area try as hard as they possibly can to work fairly close to the house. Traffic here is insane, but looks like it was well worth the pain of having to go through that chunk of road in the afternoon. :) I'm kicking myself for apparently not being as on top of craigslist as I should be, unless he found it somewhere up in PA. Well done boys. :)
 
Great story and pics. You've officially experienced the full joy of why most in this area try as hard as they possibly can to work fairly close to the house. Traffic here is insane, but looks like it was well worth the pain of having to go through that chunk of road in the afternoon. :) I'm kicking myself for apparently not being as on top of craigslist as I should be, unless he found it somewhere up in PA. Well done boys. :)

The traffic up in the Virginia/DC/Maryland area is so bad that I don't think I'd ever want to go through there again.. unless it was the middle of the night. 4.5 hours to go 80 miles on the interstate? Painful to say the least.
 
Nice, you have a Valentine One. I've got one for each car and have had them since around 1997 or so. I've kept them updated, too.

- M1A
 
FYI...

IF You ever come back through Virginia.. Make sure that the Radar/Laser detector is no where near reach.. You will get fined out the rear on that..

We took it down when we saw the sign on the interstate that they were illegal, but it wouldn't have mattered... Traffic was so bad that we wouldn't have had the opportunity to speed anyways..
 
Shame on you Joe;), for making the man drive on 395. That road is always traffic hell. There is no good time to ever be on 95 just below D.C. Fredericksburg to D.C. is always nasty. Better way would have been 301 north through southern Maryland to route 50 west then onto 295 north.

I remeber up until 9/11, I used to be able to drive around on the road right next to the pentagon. Then after 9/11 the same road had signs posted that told you the road was open to Pentagon traffic only, and if you pull onto the road you will get followed by police if not stopped.

Cool Score, was wondering what happened to the game when Joe first mentioned it.
 
So I picked up the Major Havoc at the beginning of Aug. from a guy who I originally had purchased his Robotron 2084 and Joust from. The guy was not an arcade fanatic by any means and was going to be renting his home so instead of letting the machines get potentially beat up he decided to sell. He only listed his Joust on craigslist and upon meeting the gentleman he stated that he was the original owner of the machine and had a Robotron and a Major Havoc as well. He wasn't bragging that he was the original owner...just was very matter of fact about it...he could really care less about the machines. I inquired about the Major Havoc and he said he had bought it new in 83' and it had been sitting in his bedroom since then. It was his favorite game and he seemed iffy about selling it so I didn't push him. It was obvious he didn't know what he had (and I didn't know either until you guys informed me it was a dedicated cab). I emailed the guy a couple days later just to let him know if he changed his mind I would love to have it...he emailed me back the next day at a price I couldn't beat. I had no interest in the cab but I knew there was some hype behind it and it was a pretty rare and cool piece of arcade history since it was dedicated. All the serial numbers match including the ampliphone. Only the deflection board is not original. Obviously, I have no way to prove he bought it new and that it wasn't ever in an arcade so I won't claim that for fear of the flamers.

Eric had inquired about it first and we really hit it off so I figured if he is determined enough to drive all the way to Maryland then I would hold it for him until he could figure things out. All in all it was a sucess and Eric couldn't have been a nicer guy. Put up some pics when you get it in your arcade!
 
So I picked up the Major Havoc at the beginning of Aug. from a guy who I originally had purchased his Robotron 2084 and Joust from. The guy was not an arcade fanatic by any means and was going to be renting his home so instead of letting the machines get potentially beat up he decided to sell. He only listed his Joust on craigslist and upon meeting the gentleman he stated that he was the original owner of the machine and had a Robotron and a Major Havoc as well. He wasn't bragging that he was the original owner...just was very matter of fact about it...he could really care less about the machines. I inquired about the Major Havoc and he said he had bought it new in 83' and it had been sitting in his bedroom since then. It was his favorite game and he seemed iffy about selling it so I didn't push him. It was obvious he didn't know what he had (and I didn't know either until you guys informed me it was a dedicated cab). I emailed the guy a couple days later just to let him know if he changed his mind I would love to have it...he emailed me back the next day at a price I couldn't beat. I had no interest in the cab but I knew there was some hype behind it and it was a pretty rare and cool piece of arcade history since it was dedicated. All the serial numbers match including the ampliphone. Only the deflection board is not original. Obviously, I have no way to prove he bought it new and that it wasn't ever in an arcade so I won't claim that for fear of the flamers.

Eric had inquired about it first and we really hit it off so I figured if he is determined enough to drive all the way to Maryland then I would hold it for him until he could figure things out. All in all it was a sucess and Eric couldn't have been a nicer guy. Put up some pics when you get it in your arcade!

Now I know the exact CL post that all this started from, or pretty sure I do. I remember asking if he had a sales reciept or something for the Joust as the price (I thought) was a bit steep for a regular machine, but a good deal for HUO if it was documentable. I remember the reply being less than pleasant, glad to hear someone managed to get things going w/ him.
 
Yea the Joust owner wasn't exactly friendly in his emails but he was a nice guy in person. I think he had some personal drama going on in his life. I just got the Robotron working 100% today thanks to Yellowdog capping the power supply board for me!
 
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