Sunday Spelunking

YellowDog

In Memoriam

Donor 2011, 2013
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Location
Humble, Texas
KatanaJoe and I did a little warehouse spelunking this afternoon with some interesting results. Earlier this month Joe started a dialog with a guy that had advertised some cabinets on Craigslist. He was making arrangements to go out and look at the machines when the guy mentioned that there were 3 warehouse buildings with games and stuff that hadn't been looked at in years. So of course we were, maybe, sort of, a little bit, interested.

Here are the results of what we found. To set expectations, all but the first building had their ceilings collapse due to water damage.

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Part of the parts shelves in the main building.

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The first warehouse building. The things you can barely see hanging down are the ceiling lathwork. There was plaster, rust and other crap over everything.

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Same place a little further in.

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The other side of the room.

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The second warehouse. Things were moved in here because it was supposed to be dry. It turned out it was not. Everything was covered in pidgeon crap. The soffet on the side of the building had collapsed and pidgeons had been roosting in here for years. In fact there were at least 10 dead pidgeons scattered around on the floor. This building had been the local tittie bar until it had been closed for the remodeling that never happened.

ken

--- To Be Continued ---
 

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Part 2

The second building did yield a couple of keepers. I picked up a Ghosts n Goblins in a Dynamo cabinet that may have a fatal dose of water damage. Joe picked up a Ring King that may or may not work, but the cabinet is solid.

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Another view of the inside of the tittie bar. Note the way that cabinet next to the Big Buck Hunter is leaning. It is collapsing from water damage.

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They were storing some bumper cars there also. Thank the pidgeons for all the nice whitewash.

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The florth building. The heap on the floor to the left center of the picture was a Final Fight. It was only recognizable by the remains of the side art on the splinters that had been the right side of the cabinet.

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The Donkey Kong cocktail Joe & I pulled from the rubble of the second building. It is now residing in my garage.

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The Red Tent. It was one of the three cocktails that Joe bought. Based on what we saw, it was probably in the first building (their office) rather than any of the warehouses.

ken

--- To Be Continued ---
 

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Part 3

Loading the good stuff up. The Donkey Kong found in the first warehouse (see part 2) and the Ghosts n Goblins found in the second warehouse, were my purchases. The Red tent (see part 2) and the ones below were Joe's. The Red tent was working and seemed to be in good shape, although one of the monitors was shaking just a little.

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Joe's Phoenix cocktail.

The gem of the trip:

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This was working in the office (first) building. It was a good thing Joe bought it or I would have.

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It was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get them all into the back of the pickup. But we did manage to fit them all in, with about 1" to spare.

Surprisingly, they did make it back in one piece. We even hit some rain that washed the pidgeon poop off the top of the Ghost n Goblins and the Ring King.

ken
 

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Nice haul, guys!

I don't know what makes me more upset: Abandoned arcade cabs or a closed titty bar.
 
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Cool pics.... how was the smell? Looks like a bunch of crap and that you guys got the best it had to offer. Nice rescue.

The smell was pretty amazing in a couple of the buildings. Fortunately, I still have a little bit of a sinus infection, so it didn't hit me all that bad.

The worst thing was that there was no power in 2 of the 3 warehouses. and they were dark. Fortunately, I had a couple of flashlights along or we would have been totally screwed. It was almost impossible to navigate with all of the ceiling on the floor without the flashlights.

The amount of carnage that was done to the games, jukeboxes and pool tables was just amazing and very hard to fathom why it was allowed to occur in the first place.

ken
 
The smell was pretty amazing in a couple of the buildings. Fortunately, I still have a little bit of a sinus infection, so it didn't hit me all that bad.

The worst thing was that there was no power in 2 of the 3 warehouses. and they were dark. Fortunately, I had a couple of flashlights along or we would have been totally screwed. It was almost impossible to navigate with all of the ceiling on the floor without the flashlights.

The amount of carnage that was done to the games, jukeboxes and pool tables was just amazing and very hard to fathom why it was allowed to occur in the first place.

ken

Nice save!
 
Whoa, never seen a CC cocktail, didn't even realize they made one.
 
Nice save guys! It never ceases to amaze me at how cheap old ops and old business owners are...letting buildings go to pot ..but still wanting top dollar for the waterdamaged goods inside. You didn't mention how much you paid..so i'm assuming you got a really sweet deal on the games.
 
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How where the prices? You know I tend to collect newer stuff, so you guys can feel free to call me when you go out to places like this, at the very least I'll be able to provide some cargo space with my truck. :)

Oh yeah, nice score BTW.
 
How where the prices? You know I tend to collect newer stuff, so you guys can feel free to call me when you go out to places like this, at the very least I'll be able to provide some cargo space with my truck. :)

Oh yeah, nice score BTW.

If we go back, we'll try to let you know. Most of the newer cabs were either gutted, water damaged, nasty or all three. The pictures really don't do justice to how bad these cabinets were. The Donkey Kong cocktail was only worth pulling because it was stacked under a second DK cocktail that took the brunt of the water and crap falling down.

was this place local? Is he selling any of the bumper cars?

It was about 3.5 hours each way. So, by Texas standards, it was relatively local :D.

I am sure they would be interested in selling the bumper cars. We didn't ask for a price. I am not sure you could get a big enough tub of disinfectant to soak them in to get all the pidgeon crap off. And if you did, I am not sure I would sit in one. They were that nasty.

ken
 
man i didn't get invited??? WTF???? thats it joust II is staying here as well as joe's virtual on's!!!!

Sorry Trey, this went from "do you have anything else stashed away?" to "c'mon down" in a really short time. We didn't have time to get it organized, if organized is the right term for it. We almost drove off without the dolly, barely had enough straps, I had to go back in the house for the flashlights and worst of all I didn't even bring any munchies along!!!!:eek:!!! Just threw some water and some sodas in the cooler and ran out the door.

Ping Joe, I sure something he saw is going to be eating at him and he'll want to go back. Maybe this time, with a little advanced warning we can all meet up out there.

ken
 
Hmm - Maybe he got it for me as an early Xmas present.... :rolleyes:

Keep up the PMA. ;)

Actually, when I saw it, you were the first person I thought of. If Joe hadn't bought it, I would have picked it up for you. But he was the one that made the contact, so he got first pick. Plus it would have been a long walk home with a CC cocktail on my back :eek:.

ken
 
Here is a link to the rest of the photos at a decent size (I had to shrink them by 90% to make the 100K limit to post in the thread. :(): link

ken
 
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Sorry Trey, this went from "do you have anything else stashed away?" to "c'mon down" in a really short time. We didn't have time to get it organized, if organized is the right term for it. We almost drove off without the dolly, barely had enough straps, I had to go back in the house for the flashlights and worst of all I didn't even bring any munchies along!!!!:eek:!!! Just threw some water and some sodas in the cooler and ran out the door.

Ping Joe, I sure something he saw is going to be eating at him and he'll want to go back. Maybe this time, with a little advanced warning we can all meet up out there.

ken

it's ok ill forgive you guys this one time and one time only!!! lol hopefuly you guys go back
 
Finally got a chance to try cleaning the DK Cocktail. It was sooooo nasty I used Lysol instead of Windex. It is Serial number 4372 for those that track such things. The license tag on it was from 1983 (29 years in that warehouse.....[shudders]).

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Since I don't have keys, I'll have at least 2 locks to drill out to get the top open and another one to get the coin door open..

Has anybody repro-ed the DK instruction sheet and the Player 1 & 2 instruction sheets? I am guessing that these are trashed once I can get to top open.

ken
 

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Why drill? I thought the nintendo CTs all used the same key...
 
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