TheShanMan's Christmas game haul

TheShanMan

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Donor 2011, 2024
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Hillsboro, Oregon
With the space provided by my new gameroom, I decided to turn my California Christmas trip into an opportunity to grow the collection. The Portland area isn't exactly overwhelmed with classics on Craigslist and I really wanted to make a substantial addition to the line up as soon as possible.

Most of the games came from fellow klov'ers, but a few came from the same guy in Ashland that caddysrule bought his Tapper from. Everyone I dealt with was awesome and the majority of the adventure was pleasantly memorable. However, the trip got off to a rough start. I transported a game from bigsleepy in Eugene, OR to acejedi near Sacramento, CA. While I am quite experienced pulling a trailer in general, I have never pulled a *big* trailer. So unfortunately before I realized that I couldn't ignore the 6x12 uhaul like I can my trailers, I clipped the bumper of bigsleepy's wife's car trying to park on their narrow street. He and his wife were really cool and easy going about it, but of course I felt awful for them and their inconvenience. Insurance takes care of it of course but who wants to deal with that??? Needless to say, my wife didn't feel like getting out and taking pics of bigsleepy and me loading the game.

On top of that, my grand cherokee had a bad "MAP" sensor which went undetected until pulling the trailer. What that meant is I had essentially no power when needing to give it significant gas. Not good when going over the Siskiyous! Transporting a single game going 40 and being passed by everyone including the semi's was a bit embarrassing, but mostly it was worrying because if I had that much trouble with a single game, what would it be like coming back with a full trailer if I couldn't get the problem fixed in CA?

The first game buy happened in Oroville, CA. I bought a much desired Paperboy! Pindork1 was the seller, and it was almost an undiscovered purchase. He was the last guy I contacted about games and only did so because I ran across an old PM from p1899m saying he might have a game to sell. Little did I realize I'd end up with a Paperboy! It needs a little work (side art painted over, controller needed some TLC, some sounds don't work, monitor needs a cap kit), but I couldn't be happier about it.

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The second game buy happened in Rocklin, CA from p1899m. Acejedi was also gracious enough to come over to help wrap and load after I dropped off bigsleepy's game to him. Got 2 projects - Spy Hunter cockpit and Phoenix with Pleiades art. Both games work (more or less) but need some physical attention. I'm not a big fan of the Pleiades art and don't even remember playing it as a kid, so I think I'll be converting back to Phoenix, and possibly I'll buy a Pleiades board to swap in. Both guys were great even though we were up late prepping and loading the games.

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That pretty much concluded the trip down. Even though it was around midnight, my wife and I decided to plow ahead and get to San Jose, and arrived at my parents' house at 2:15 AM. My wife, kids, and dogs were great about the whole trip down. It took over 19 hours and I underestimated the time each stop would take tremendously. Taking a detour to Oroville also added significantly to the length, but of course who could complain about that when Paperboy is the result? Fortunately the adrenaline of getting the games kept me going for all that time even though I only had 5 hours of sleep the night prior!

In San Jose I stopped by mrbill2084's to buy Mappy. Yet another nice guy and another purchase that worked out great. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no pics of this stop. After I got the Mappy, I spent a good deal of time playing tetris on paper so that we could fit everything on the trailer and minimize the need to move games around on the trip back. Finally found a layout that would work but I knew it would be really tight!

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Going home, we decided that while we had fewer stops and none off the main route, it would be prudent to split it up into 2 days to make it easier on everyone. First day proved much better in terms of the jeep handling the load going up hills. We made it over the Siskiyou pass into Oregon, and stopped in Ashland to pick up Tempest, Popeye, and Super Mario Bros from the non-klov'er who sold the Tapper to caddysrule. Nice guy who has been slowly selling off his collection. The interesting part of this stop is that he lived up a mountain on a dead end street and I had nowhere to turn around! Had to back all the way down the street with my wife directing me over cell phone. That went fine but just took a while, and unfortunately by the time we were done and picked up dinner it was 9:30.

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Final day of the trip had us stopping at oregonarcade's in Salem to pick up another Spy Hunter cockpit project. Got to meet gozer too and both guys helped load. We actually had to lift the Spy Hunter seat section over the side as the final step because without doing it like that we couldn't have squeezed the main body into the back. There was literally like 1/4 inch to spare!

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Got home, dropped off the trailer, and went to Red Robin to reward the kids for being so awesome about the long trip with long game stops. Then unloaded the games and removed all the wrap. Everything made it safe and sound!

Here's the trailer ready to unload (full, huh???), and here I am taking the SH seat off first (again, that's the only way to make room for the main body to make its way off the tail gate). Finally, the trailer is empty!

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Games thrown in the game room, then finally unwrapped, then in a temporary arrangement including the games that are currently working (not ready to put out Spy Hunter yet, and I also have a pole cockpit project I'll be working on soon).

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Game room after rearranging to divide the working games from the "not ready" games...

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Let me wrap up by saying it was quite a memorable adventure. Got to meet new people and buy games I really want. Everyone was really cool, and that especially goes for the patience of my wife and kids! Only got 10.8 mpg, but it was worth it!!! I also learned that it is A LOT of work - lining up games to buy, wrapping and loading games, arranging the trailer. Kinda makes professional shipping sound appealing! But I couldn't be happier overall, and would definitely do it again in the right circumstances.
 

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Awesome thread, and a very nice haul. Quite the impressive collection you have going there now :)
 
Thanks guys. Major rain going down, but fortunately not a whole lot going back. Actually in Salem we were thinking of not even wrapping the spy hunter because it had been dry (but overcast) all day. Then right when we were about to load it, we felt drops. I didn't wrap it great, but figured we weren't far from home and it made it just fine.
 
Very cool..

Very cool!! Its always great when you get stuff you really want! Hopefully you got some good deals!

You passed right through my neck of the woods too..I live about 10-15 min from Rocklin...hehe

Enjoy the games! Your game room looks great!

Glad you and the family made it home safe!

Happy New Year!

J
 
YOU SIR ARE IRON! That goes for your family as well. Great story and pics, thanks for sharing them.
p.s. you must the 4.0 in that jeep, can't kill 'em.
 
Wow Jeff. Congrats on the great haul and thanks for sharing with pictures. You definitely look happy in most of those pictures. Sounds like it was a fun trip.

So you unloaded all those games by yourself with one arm while flexing the other? ;)
 
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