Thursday pick up: "Tempest"

alejandromad

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Donor 2011
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This was a CL post... I manage a look at CL maybe once a day. This was Sunday afternoon and I saw it probably 30 minutes after it was posted. No phone number or email provided by the poster. It was listed as non-working, 'mint', $300. There were no pictures.

I sent a response through CL, included my phone number and email, and waited. The city it was in is about 100 miles from me but I included, in my response, that I would come and pick it up immediately. An hour later, still no reply. I figured I missed out.

Monday morning we awake to a craptacular overnight snowfall. Takes me nearly 3 hours to do the 22 mile drive to work. I get there and I check my email, still no response. I check CL and it's still listed. I am thinking it's sold but just not removed yet. About 11 AM I get a call from the seller. He says he doesn't get to the computer much and he's just checking on responses to his CL ad. I was first to reply so...

We talked. He told me the story of the game. It was his late wife's. She was awesome on it he says. It's been sitting in the corner now, unused, for maybe 10 years. It broke once before and they had it fixed. Now it's broken again and he doesn't know why... just wants to move it along to a good home. I told him I was interested but, there's no way I can drive to him right now. Weather is far too sketchy so I'm sorry. Guy laughs and says if I want it, he'll take it off CL and wait for me to come down. If I change my mind, no worries, he'll just re-list it. We decide on the weekend for pickup... today (Sat) is gonna be the day.

True to his word... an hour later the CL post is gone.

Tuesday night he calls me. I am thinking "here we go... bidding war" or he decided to sell it to someone else. He tells me that he really needs the $300 to help out a friend and asks is there any way we can do it before Sat? If not, he says, we can stick by our original arrangement. I ended up taking a half day from work on Thursday morning and driving down to get it. Very nice older guy.

I haven't plugged it in yet... no power at my storage place. He gave me the complete set of manuals/schematics etc. AND an extra "motherboard" they purchased when it was broken the first time. (That didn't fix it so I imagine the PCB is NOT what's wrong with it)

It might be the most "complete" game I have picked up in 15 years. It has everything... even the coin box and lid!

Moral of the story is sometimes people do display integrity and honesty.
Refreshing.

Without further ado...
 

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more pics...
 

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final batch...
 

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Congrats on a fine looking Tempest, great score! It's very refreshing to hear stories of honest people on craigslist (or just in general...). It looks so clean, and since the original manuals are included I was wondering if this was a HUO machine?

Edit:
Doh, I just looked at the pics of the coin counters - over 33k each, I guess thats a bit much for HUO, lol.
 
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That is a beauty. Hopefully it's not the monitor.

I always hope it is the monitor since they are easy to fix compared to the PCB. That deflection board looks so damn clean... You need to put one of the low voltage mods on that thing and do the normal cap kit. Reflow the solder on all of the header pins on the deflection board while you are at it. Once that monitor is bullet proofed, it won't give you any trouble. :D

Congrats on one of the finest unrestored Tempest games I have ever seen!
 
Congrats! One of the cleanest (non-restored) Tempest I have ever seen! That marquee looks great!
 
It looks so clean, and since the original manuals are included I was wondering if this was a HUO machine?
.

I think he told they bought it in 1988... so it had been in their house for 22 years or so.

Just goes to show ya... these games are out there... in basements and storage sheds all across America. If it weren't for the rise of things like CL I would never have gotten a whiff of this.

Thanks for all the kind words.
If I didn't live in a second story, 2 bedroom apartment that already has 8 vids and pins in it... I would have it up here and be checking it out already!
 
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Nice pickup. I'm surprised the cardboard fuse block cover isn't still in place. That's a prize piece right there..congrats.
 
Very nice example of a Tempest ya got there.... and an even nicer story behind the deal to boot. :)

Kinda odd request, but what does the backside of that "Out of Order" insert look like ?
I had actually thought about designing something like that for a place I used to work at.
Just curious if it just slips in and slips out. I kinda wanted something that would slip in, but had to be "released" from the inside. (so people wouldn't walk off with them)
 
Could post a better scan of the Out for Service coin insert? That will look great in my problematic games (...eyes Omega Race...).

As others have said, nice Tempest.
 
Kinda odd request, but what does the backside of that "Out of Order" insert look like ?
Just curious if it just slips in and slips out. I kinda wanted something that would slip in, but had to be "released" from the inside. (so people wouldn't walk off with them)

Back side looks like the front side. There were two of them on the game when I picked it up... the red one and a white one. They weren't in the coin slots so I don't know if they have to be released but it doesn't seem like they do anything other than slide into the slot. They were laying against the monitor bezel.

Could post a better scan of the Out for Service coin insert? That will look great in my problematic games (...eyes Omega Race...).

Yeah... sure, I will scan it and post it. Maybe I'll find time to get to it tomorrow.
 
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