One of my coolest arcade hauls, super dope free CL game and 3x nasty surprises!!

FullThrottle

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One of my coolest arcade hauls, super dope free CL game and 3x nasty surprises!!

Last week I see an oddball listed Craigslist ad for a free Donkey Kong machine, very vague, and its over a day old... I don't think too much of it and expect it to be gone anyways, but I send an email off and offer him a case of beer. The next day he emails me back and gives me a call, he's really cool and says that he'll hold it until a better day to do it, but reassures me that its mine if I come out to get it and he'll consider it gone.

A few days later I head out, starting by getting gas and haulin' an 18 pack of Budweiser... expecting a trashed old blue Donkey Kong. But what I find soon turns into a cool oddball place to find and pickup a game... I see the two cooling towers of the old Satsop Power Station off in the distance as I'm getting closer... but mapquest keeps me going towards them... Finally I arrive at the house after getting lost on some country roads for a few minutes... it was located in the shadow of two nuclear reactor cooling towers, just like in the Simpsons show! The sun was going down and it was really a cool sight. I'm fascinated by Nuclear... anyways... I was wondering if it was an omen that he also had a Reactor or Missile Command machine! :)

I get to the house... hoping for something I maybe do a custom Nintendo cabinet up... but its not blue... its a trashed RED Donkey Kong! Serial number 01301... Its mostly complete but is beatup and dirty as hell! She needs a full resto, but is such a cool cabinet its worth the blood sweat and tears. I was very excited, at least the cabinet was solid even after sitting in his garage for nearly 10 years! But... it had a funny smell, and there was alot of shit in the bottom of it so I decided to take it to work and douche the cabinet and see if I could get it working for us to play on breaktime.

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So... I bring the cabinet to work this week so I can leave nasty games away from my collection. I goto crack into it and empty it out... It smells horrid in there! I put on some gloves and start pulling out beer bottles and a full can of beer even. Then... I find the first horrid surprise! Then a second... and a third!!! Holy shit!!! I suppose the maggots were the fourth surprise! The rat carcuses got the dumpster treatment and the entire cabinet got a vacuuming and Simple Green cleaning. Its all there, but I'm not getting proper voltages and no power to the monitor... Oh dear god though, it is nasty, even though its 10,000% cleaner now it needs to be stripped and repainted to be a minty Donkey Kong again.

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nothing some goo gone and windex cant fix!
If you notice the goo from the 3 decomposing rats has soaked into the wood. I vacuumed the shit out of it and used some chemical cleaners, the wood is solid but it needs to be painted and sealed.
 
Damn what a nice score Karl!!!!!! I emailed that guy and never got a response. I thought I got a good deal for $350 for mine, but some beer, that's sweet! I know you're not the biggest DK fan so are you gonna restore it and keep it? - Barry
 
Whoa! You definately have a strong stomach - I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth just looking at the pics! ;) But it's a FREE red DK, so it's worth it. I was a little disappointed that there was no pic of the cab with the cooling towers in the background...

Very cool story, It's always nice to read about interesting cab pickups.
 
So I get to talking about Satsop power station with the Donkey Kong guy... Around our state its known as "whoops". They spent millions and millions of dollars building power plants in the 70's and early 80's only to mothball them when they were almost completed! I had heard the story before, but it was cool hearing it from someone who was a neighbor to the power plant his entire life! He tells me how to get up there and says that I should... so even though it was dark I made the drive up to the nuclear plants cooling towers. I could see pretty descent, but couldn't get a picture to come out worth a damn up there! I'm definately heading back on a nice day during the daytime so I can explore... Nowadays they rent out the reactors land/area to commercial businesses!

How cool would it be to have an arcade in one of their built like a brick shithouse buildings for rent at the base of these babies?! You could call it "Reactor #5 Arcade" or something clever like that...

First one I took while driving towards the DK machine guys's house... the other ones are other people's pictures that is what I could see I just couldn't get a picture to come out descent in the dark of the night.

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I was a little disappointed that there was no pic of the cab with the cooling towers in the background...
Dude... I tried... Oh I tried... had I been able to get there an hour or two earlier it would have been perfect! I didn't realize it was even on my route to pickup the machine or that I could drive right up to it! It was near pitch black, I couldn't hardly get a picture of the DK cab, let alone anything farther than 10 feet like a 400+ ft cooling tower!

Very fun place to visit, I will be heading back to the cooling towers during the day to explore and see if I have the balls or ability to climb to the top.
 
Damn what a nice score Karl!!!!!! I emailed that guy and never got a response. I thought I got a good deal for $350 for mine, but some beer, that's sweet! I know you're not the biggest DK fan so are you gonna restore it and keep it? - Barry
He said that alot of people emailed on it, and that he just couldn't respond to all the people since some were higher offers and alot of mostly questions. I offered the beer and he said my email sounded friendly, I think that may have actually been the nudge besides my "have truck and can show up at your convenience"... Honestly didn't even think I had a crack at it.

I like the red DK cabs... not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I am going to finish cleaning it, find a marquee, get it working, I'm having a power supply problem at the minimum right now... I'm seriously thinking of doing a full blown resto on it since its almost all there and unmolested, dirty as fuck, but all there other than a marquee and some silly random crap. If it was a blue one I would have probably built a Dr. Mario machine, but being red it must be repaired and restored to its former glory...

I know if I start dumping money into it I may never recover it, so I'm going to start by maybe matching the red paint and spraying it out, adding some t-molding, and put the guts back in it cleaned up and re-capped.

I WOULD ALSO TRADE THIS FOR SOMETHING I REALLY LIKE, I FIGURE ITS A GOOD PAWN IF I END UP NOT FALLING IN LOVE WITH DONKEY KONG... I WAS ALSO THINKING OF AUCTIONING IT OFF REPAIRED AND CLEANED UP ON EBAY AND USING THE PROCEEDS FOR MY BUCKLEY FOOD BANK DONATION THIS YEAR.

Basically I have not decided...
 
It would look great all cleaned up and next to your Mario Bros. I am very happy to see you get it since you appreciate the rarity of that cab. Is the cab in that bad of shape. From the pics it looks dirty but overall pretty good. I have been lazy and need to get into gear and reassemble mine. I have the boardset at Dicks getting all fixed up. I know you have little room but maybe DK will grow on you........ - Barry
 
It would look great all cleaned up and next to your Mario Bros. I am very happy to see you get it since you appreciate the rarity of that cab. Is the cab in that bad of shape. From the pics it looks dirty but overall pretty good. I have been lazy and need to get into gear and reassemble mine. I have the boardset at Dicks getting all fixed up. I know you have little room but maybe DK will grow on you........ - Barry
In critter pic #2 you can see the staining and damage from the juices sitting in there for possibly years. The cabinet is solid as hell, but it has alot of chips and is gouged on the right side (didn't post a pic of that side, no sideart). I suppose it could be cleaned up and left alone, I'll see how well it cleans up, but I think in this case its worth going the full meal deal and just painting the sides. Its not laminate, it is painted on wood red color. It has the early Nintendo coin door but is missing a few little do-dads off of it.

I do appreciate how few DK's come in red, and would like to do it justice and restore it... Its rough as hell, been in an open garage / carport for almost 10 years.

I'll keep it for a while, if it grows on me it grows on me... if not and someone offers a good trade, or I'm liquidating games, it will go to another local collector.

I like the look of DK, the history of DK, the legend... yada yada yada, love the red cabinets and thats the only way I think I'd own an original DK for keepers in my collection, but for some reason the gameplay just doesn't get me excited in the pants. If other people like it I may keep it for not having to say no I don't have a Donkey Kong anymore when people ask! :p
 
No they are not. What the heck are you talking about? 18 packs are all the rage now, and they are all 12 oz. beers.

Uh...not here. You get two choices... 24 x 12 oz or 18 x 16 oz. I don't think they even have 18 x 12oz packages here... maybe it's regional, not sure. I know because I always get 18 x 16oz as I save a buck over 24 x 12oz and I don't have to make as many trips to the refer.

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The dead rat pix are awsome!

I just found a dead rat in my old dryer, he was stretched across all three legs of the

240volt power cord connector block. ZAPPED!
 
dont try and school me on beer, i live in wisconsin! 18 packs are regular 12 oz cans, and a case is still 24 of them. unfortunately they no longer stock returnable bottles, which were my fave until a couple years ago due to the thicker bottles keeping out light better (resulting in fresher beer) and when youre drinking it, keeping the beer colder. regular bottles are made out of thin shitty glass.

maybe your 16 oz cans are regional, when i lived in florida they couldnt sell 40s, only quarts for some reason. i would get quarts of natty ice down on the beacj for 99 cents.

ahh, the good old days!!!
 
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dont try and school me on beer, i live in wisconsin! 18 packs are regular 12 oz cans, and a case is still 24 of them. unfortunately they no longer stock returnable bottles, which were my fave until a couple years ago due to the thicker bottles keeping out light better (resulting in fresher beer) and when youre drinking it, keeping the beer colder. regular bottles are made out of thin shitty glass.

maybe your 16 oz cans are regional, when i lived in florida they couldnt sell 40s, only quarts for some reason. i would get quarts of natty ice down on the beacj for 99 cents.

ahh, the good old days!!!


Dunno what to say... the photo I posted clearly shows 18 pack 16 oz cans. That's how they do it here. Not sure about your neck of the woods.

12 packs, 24 packs, and 30 packs = 12 oz

18 packs = 16 oz

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