In a rare roadtrip Thursday, KatanaJoe and I went hunting the wild, the rare and the elusive arcade cabinets. Earlier in the week, Joe had found a pair of Joust cocktails on Craigslist and contacted the poster. The first one, which was still adorned with Joust artwork (and presumably Joust boards) was already spoken for but he told them to consider that the other one is sold. That was the start of the road trip. He had Thursday off and I decided to blow a vacation day and ride along. On the way, we called the operator that had the trashed warehouses as we would be passing within a few miles anyway. It turned out that he had just talked his boss into lowering the price of the NeoGeo 4 slot cabinet that Joe had been eyeing on previous visits. So, it was time for a new plan. First to go see the NeoGeo, then the converted Joust cocktail.
The NeoGeo was in beautiful shape, so Joe paid, we all loaded and down the road we went. We didn't have any time to go scrounging
as we had another 40 miles to go to make the appointment to see the Joust.
On the way to see the Joust cocktail, Joe remembered somebody else out that way that he had contacted previously about a Kickman. Fortunately, he was able to contact the lady and we made arrangements to stop by after seeing the Joust.
The Joust had been converted to a LifeForce. New joysticks, some new buttons, no artwork and they had ripped the coindoor out and put a piece of black plexi over it. The game didn't boot and the monitor needs some work. So of course, I bought it even though the guy tried to extort an extra $100 out of me. We settled on an extra $25. The way that house looked, they can use a lot more than an extra $25. So l paid, we loaded and down the road we went.
The third stop was the highlight of the day. We weren't expecting a lot when we saw the buildings, but once the garage door went up, it was game on. I would have loved to have been able to stop by before everything had been so picked over, but oh well. They still had Joe's Kickman. It was a beautiful dedicated machine. The artwork was very nice. And they had two other rare titles. A Universal Space Panic (which Joe picked up) and an Exidy Spectar (which I picked up). Both dedicated and both cabinets were in excellent condition. In addition, there were several jukeboxes and a very cool Triumph TR8 that the owner was restoring. Joe also picked up a couple boxes of 45s and few old 33s.
So from heading out to look at a converted Joust cocktail we ended up with a NeoGeo 4 slot, a dedicated Kickman, a dedicated Space Panic and a dedicated Spectar. Oh yeah, that converted Joust cocktail, too.
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The NeoGeo was in beautiful shape, so Joe paid, we all loaded and down the road we went. We didn't have any time to go scrounging
On the way to see the Joust cocktail, Joe remembered somebody else out that way that he had contacted previously about a Kickman. Fortunately, he was able to contact the lady and we made arrangements to stop by after seeing the Joust.
The Joust had been converted to a LifeForce. New joysticks, some new buttons, no artwork and they had ripped the coindoor out and put a piece of black plexi over it. The game didn't boot and the monitor needs some work. So of course, I bought it even though the guy tried to extort an extra $100 out of me. We settled on an extra $25. The way that house looked, they can use a lot more than an extra $25. So l paid, we loaded and down the road we went.
The third stop was the highlight of the day. We weren't expecting a lot when we saw the buildings, but once the garage door went up, it was game on. I would have loved to have been able to stop by before everything had been so picked over, but oh well. They still had Joe's Kickman. It was a beautiful dedicated machine. The artwork was very nice. And they had two other rare titles. A Universal Space Panic (which Joe picked up) and an Exidy Spectar (which I picked up). Both dedicated and both cabinets were in excellent condition. In addition, there were several jukeboxes and a very cool Triumph TR8 that the owner was restoring. Joe also picked up a couple boxes of 45s and few old 33s.
So from heading out to look at a converted Joust cocktail we ended up with a NeoGeo 4 slot, a dedicated Kickman, a dedicated Space Panic and a dedicated Spectar. Oh yeah, that converted Joust cocktail, too.
ken


