My first FREE cab - Mario Bros WB!

DP Louie

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Okay, so most of my buddies and co-workers know that I'm into classic arcade games, so last week a co-worker tells me that his dad's neighbor has an arcade game sitting on his porch that he would give away for free if someone would haul it off. I got the guys number and called him that evening, and he told me that "it's an old game called Phraze Craze, it's really dirty from being outside, and theres been mice or rats living in it". Well, I thought for free I'd at least check it out, might be able to salvage a monitor or coin door. I set up a time to meet him yesterday afternoon, and borrowed my brothers truck because it has a utility bed/lift gate, and set out to get the game. It was in a town about 15 miles away, out in the boonies. I get there and I can see the cab on the side of the house - I knew it was a Nintendo cab, and from the orange sides I first thought it was a converted DK jr., but as I got closer I could tell by the cut of the cab, as well as the width and the center speaker, that this was a MB widebody! Needless to say, I jammed my handtruck under it and high tailed it back to the truck, only to find that it has a flat tire! Doh! And no spare! Luckily the seller (giver?) had an air compressor, so I was able to get the tire aired up - it had a pretty fast leak, but I was able to make it into town a few miles away and $15 later I had a patched tire. I had already loaded the cab, so I dropped it off at my dads house, partially because I don't have much room in my garage, but mainly because I didn't want any unwanted critters in my garage. ;) My dad lives out in the country, so if there were any live mice in the cab, hopefully they would run out into the walnut orchards. Anyway, long story short, here it is, my first FREE cab - as you can see, the mice/rat crap was everywhere, along with alot of paper and nesting material. Shop vac'd it up and it doesn't look too bad. Didn't find anything living in the cab except for a few spiders. The smell is pretty bad though. The cab itself is in remarkably good shape considering where its been for who knows how long. The monitor has almost no burn, but the chassis and frame are both pretty rusty - I'm going to clean up the boards and recap it, but I don't know... Same with the power supply - alot of rust. I can save the control panel, it has a few extra holes in it, but I have a small mig welder to take care of those. The coin door is severely rusted/pitted, but I'm going to try to save it. I'll be happy if I can get this cab looking half as good as Gregatrons recent restore. The worst part about this is that the Nintendo serial tag was missing from the back, so no serial number...

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Well the price is right. Looks like it will keep you busy for quite awhile. I wonder if the original Nintendo PS is still any good.
 
Hey Greg,
Congrats, it looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you. The worst part looks to be the CP and that shouldn't be that bad to fill. Mainly cleanup, rust removal, and finding the other parts you need. You've already got the PCB and cage so you're half way there. If you can't get that monitor working hit me up, I have a couple of 20EZ chassis I'm using for parts. Are you planning on painting it or vinyling it?
Man, you seem to find all the local "deals" around here.
 
When you attempt to remove the coin doors you will find that most if not all bolts and nuts are going to be seized. Get ready for that battle ... that's a bitch. Be careful grinding them off because the metal will heat up and burn the wood.
 
Holy crap, that poor Mario Bros. I wouldn't blame you if you just junked it, as sad as that is. Hope you can get something out of it. Jeez.
 
I'll be home on leave soon and have a couple power supplys if you need one.
 
congrats, you should be able to find all the parts. it looks like a lot of work, but thats half the fun.
 
Thank goodness it's a Nintendo plywood cabinet. That means you can wash it out with warm soapy water and a heavy scrub brush, hose it out, and even bleach the insides. You just might get it clean enough to bring it indoors. As bad as it looks, this game is restoreable. The question in my mind, is will even washing it out thoroughly get rid of the smells?

Wade
 
Good lord, that's horrible. I suspect it's going to cost you a lot to get that thing back to normal!

PCB: $100
Power Supply: $20
Side Art: $100
CPO: $75
Harness: $50
T-Molding: $15
Joystick: $30
Buttons: $8
Marquee: $30
Bezel: $75
Horizontal Monitor Brackets: $50

Possible Total: $553.00 plus shipping

And that's not including any kind of paint or bondo.

And... labor....

Hmmmmm.....

Let's see, what's your time worth? Let's use a somewhat average number.

40 hours x $20 an hour = $800.00.

$800 + $553 = $1,353.00.

Doesn't sound like a good idea! Go find a somewhat decent one for $300! :)

If not, I commend you for your effort! Good luck, pal!
 
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Good lord, that's horrible. I suspect it's going to cost you a lot to get that thing back to normal!

PCB: $100
Power Supply: $20
Side Art: $100
CPO: $75
Harness: $50
T-Molding: $15
Joystick: $30
Buttons: $8
Marquee: $30
Bezel: $75
Horizontal Monitor Brackets: $50

Possible Total: $553.00 plus shipping

And that's not including any kind of paint or bondo.

And... labor....

Hmmmmm.....

Let's see, what's your time worth? Let's use a somewhat average number.

40 hours x $20 an hour = $800.00.

$800 + $553 = $1,353.00.

Doesn't sound like a good idea! Go find a somewhat decent one for $300! :)

If not, I commend you for your effort! Good luck, pal!

I dont really know if you can count his labor charge since its him doing it to his own cab lol, im not gonna try and sell my jamma for 12000 because im always tweaking something and that adds to labor.

but yea the 553 part seems right give or take for free parts or bigger discounts.

Like I said good luck, And DOCUMENT IT!
 
Definitely a big project, but I think if you were to gut the cab and give it a good cleaning you'd feel even better about restoring it.
 
Thanks guys for the support & suggestions. Believe me, I've gone back and forth thinking about restoring/junking it... Now that I've shop vac'ed it and wiped it down, it looks much better, and the smell is getting fainter. I think if I scrub the inside with bleach and soap it will be fine. My biggest concern at the moment is the monitor and power supply. If I can rebuild both of them with cap kits and maybe a few cheap parts and they work, then I think I'll restore the whole cab. I already have a MB pcb and cage, the wiring harness is hacked but still in the cab, so really the only parts I'll need are a bezel, marquee, joystick and buttons... the monitor mount looks to be original, I think I can just rotate the monitor frame within the mount to get it horizontal. I can get sideart from Phoenix Arcade for $80 shipped, so I think for around $250 in parts I can have a mint cab... Of course as blkdog7 pointed out, that doesn't include labor. But I can't count that, after all, it's a labor of love. :) If I do go for the full resto, I'll take plenty of pics. Sadly, Jon, the serial tag was missing, and I didn't see a number stamped anywhere on the cab...
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the power supply still works. Cross your fingers!

Finding the monitor brackets is a b&tch, unless you just buy the expensive repros from Quarter Arcade or Mike's Arcade.

And, yes.. labor is a real tangible cost. Your time is worth something. I spent easily 40 hours on my Punch-Out!! It was torture. The end result was amazing. But, it was intense work, it never seemed to end. I love how it turned out, but I am now hesitant to do another project like that. It might have been not worth it. If I would have spent just a little more money I could have saved myself TONS of time. But, I guess that's not what this hobby is about. Is it? Or is it? Who knows! LOL!
 
And, yes.. labor is a real tangible cost. Your time is worth something. I spent easily 40 hours on my Punch-Out!! It was torture. The end result was amazing. But, it was intense work, it never seemed to end. I love how it turned out, but I am now hesitant to do another project like that. It might have been not worth it. If I would have spent just a little more money I could have saved myself TONS of time. But, I guess that's not what this hobby is about. Is it? Or is it? Who knows! LOL!

He could use a regular swithing PS, heck the one in the bottom might already work.

You are right though. I used to do a lot of restorations when I really enjoyed it and I didn't consider the time=money factor. I love those games and I'm glad I have them. Now though, I don't have jack for spare time, nor the desire to spend 100 hours restoring a game. So I just look for better examples... usually the price different more than justifies the time/effort saved.

Different strokes for different folks... I know a lot of people who love putting a little work into a beater and making it nice or selling it to make some cash. I might do it too if I had time. My spare time is literally just a few hours a week though.

Wade
 
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