Warehouse raid

[OregonPacman]

As for the vids, I would take all of the major stuff. Remove all the marquees, bezels, control panels, monitors, PCBs and coin doors. I would consider all the wiring harnesses to be trash. Connectors, fuses and the like are probably all corroded.

For the pins, I was hoping that being on legs would have protected the cabinets and backboxes. Unless, of course, if they were stored without legs, then they were probably completely soaked. From the looks of the one you showed the inside of the cabinet, they are probably all ruined. I would salvage backglasses, PCBs, playfields coin doors and maybe the playfield glasses.

From the looks of things, there may not even be one salvagable game, just parts. But, hey, a parts find this big is not bad. If those poor games had to end up ths way, at least the parts can do some good. You might get lucky in the future and find some converted games that you can change back. At least the parts will be rescued.

 

[sidgoop]

This is in Louisiana. Pretty much out in the middle of nowhere but still in an area where Hurricane Katrina F'd the place up bad.

What part exactly? I'm in Metairie, and saw a LOT of damaged games around the area being thrown out after the storm. I snagged a bunch, and had to junk 95% of them. The only ones that made it were the older ones made of plywood that didn't sit in too much water for too long.

 

[quses]

As for the vids, I would take all of the major stuff. Remove all the marquees, bezels, control panels, monitors, PCBs and coin doors. I would consider all the wiring harnesses to be trash. Connectors, fuses and the like are probably all corroded.

For the pins, I was hoping that being on legs would have protected the cabinets and backboxes. Unless, of course, if they were stored without legs, then they were probably completely soaked. From the looks of the one you showed the inside of the cabinet, they are probably all ruined. I would salvage backglasses, PCBs, playfields coin doors and maybe the playfield glasses.

From the looks of things, there may not even be one salvagable game, just parts. But, hey, a parts find this big is not bad. If those poor games had to end up ths way, at least the parts can do some good. You might get lucky in the future and find some converted games that you can change back. At least the parts will be rescued.

I completely pulled the KISS machine. Here's it's current state:

I haven't messed with Bally's of this era. Most of my experience has been with DMD pins, so I don't know how much of the game is in the lower cabinet but it looks like most of it is in the head, which is good, because I believe the water got up to the lower cabinet - it's rotted out. I haven't had a look at the inside of the lower cabinet yet - I'm going to either drill the lock out, or rip the sagging bottom off and open the coin door from the inside. I am thinking it's all going to come down to what condition the underside of the playfield is in as to whether or not this is restoreable. It seems to me, since this is such a high production game, it might be better off parted out?

As expected, the battery on the MPU leaked acid all over everything and there's corrosion all over. It might be nice to restore the game but I think a lot of stuff would probably have to be replaced. Are there repro MPUs available now?

 

[quses]

Made another run to get most of the stuff today... ugh, the dirt and grime was pretty nasty... to give you a look at where we were pulling these things from:

Everything was in two feet of water for almost a month and then sat and rotted. I'll probably be coughing up black stuff for the next week.

First up, here's the details on "Caterpillar"

I could not find any company name or TM but the marquee looks professionally screened. The cabinet was in such horrible condition as soon as we moved it, it began to crumble. I managed to get the marquee, CP and MPU board:

The MPU board has no markings on it that identify a game or company...

Ok, now grab your handkerchief....

That's what was left of a defender cocktail. I pulled off the coin door, both CPs and the bezel/glass.

Some of the things that we loaded up:

CPs for Joust, complete Harlem Globetrotters playfield (left the cabinet - head had no boards and no room for the cab), Tempest CP, Tempest monitor, KRAM boardset, all the marquees I could find. What I didn't dig into: Super Mario Bros, Phoenix, Donkey Kong Jr., Two Centipede games, and a Stargate - I just left them.

 

[quses]

There was too much dust and mold and I wasn't convinced there was enough to salvage - I can go back later if necessary but I saved room for these:

Last game is Buck Rogers and I have the backglass.

I haven't busted open the games yet, but I can see looking through the glass that the playfields are in pretty nice shape. The Mata Hari is a bit rough, but the Buck Rogers is in really nice shape with virtually no significant wear, the same thing for the James Bond - I have a feeling a good condition James Bond backglass is probably pretty rare.

I'm sort of in a quandary now, because I picked up these machines to part out, but I think most of the pinballs could be restored. However, I don't know if it would cost more to restore them or whether parting them out would be a better thing to do. I'm going to have to think on it. What do you all think?

 

[Rrcade]

This kind of thing will NEVER happen to me. Congrats, make sure you get Everything-someone can use it.

 

[Ghostlyguy]

I might be interested in the caterpillar board, Marquee and Cp.

 

[Ghostlyguy]

This kind of thing will NEVER happen to me. Congrats, make sure you get Everything-someone can use it.

+11111111111111!!! Why the fell do the sort-time collectors get the good stuff?

 

[MasterFygar]

That "caterpillar" stuff is amazing! That's an incredible find, I love obscure stuff.

 

[quses]

+11111111111111!!! Why the fell do the sort-time collectors get the good stuff?

I don't know if this would be the "good stuff" - now if there was a Cactus Canyon, Medieval Madness, Major Havoc and Computer Space in there, then I'd be doing the Snoopy dance. But, hey I'm not complaining.

I am very thankful to a friend who turned me onto this. This was not advertised. A friend knew I was into pinball and someone was taking loads of stuff to the dump and wondered if anybody would want the stuff, so I got the call. If you put the word out that you're looking for things, friends will make referrals - if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. You just have to be patient. I will say, we had to get really dirty to get to this stuff. It was literally under piles of rotten things, in two inches of mud with mold and mildew everywhere. But yea, it's fun to find a cache of stuff like this.

There are several cabs I didn't dig into, but I'm really not sure if it's worth it... DKJr, SMB, Centipede... all the system boards were probably immersed in water... everything is corroded - I might be able to get a bezel, but how much is someone going to pay for that much hassle? The coin doors were also in pretty bad shape. I wasn't thinking they'd be worth the hassle to pull them out when they were all covered in rust.

 

[YellowDog]

You might be surprised. A lot of that stuff was all made specifically for that game. And coin doors may be rusted but the plastic parts are not being made anymore. There will be a swap meet in the parking lot of the Houston Arcade show October 9th. You would be surprised at how much worse looking stuff gets bought/swapped there. Pull it out and haul it down.

ken

 

[Ghostlyguy]

I don't know if this would be the "good stuff" - now if there was a Cactus Canyon, Medieval Madness, Major Havoc and Computer Space in there, then I'd be doing the Snoopy dance. But, hey I'm not complaining.

I am very thankful to a friend who turned me onto this. This was not advertised. A friend knew I was into pinball and someone was taking loads of stuff to the dump and wondered if anybody would want the stuff, so I got the call. If you put the word out that you're looking for things, friends will make referrals - if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. You just have to be patient. I will say, we had to get really dirty to get to this stuff. It was literally under piles of rotten things, in two inches of mud with mold and mildew everywhere. But yea, it's fun to find a cache of stuff like this.

There are several cabs I didn't dig into, but I'm really not sure if it's worth it... DKJr, SMB, Centipede... all the system boards were probably immersed in water... everything is corroded - I might be able to get a bezel, but how much is someone going to pay for that much hassle? The coin doors were also in pretty bad shape. I wasn't thinking they'd be worth the hassle to pull them out when they were all covered in rust.

Ha, I'm only messing with you. But It just seems I don't have much luck, arcade collecting sometimes. I guess all will have unlucky times, other times not. But the fact that your friend showed you to the games makes you way more luck though.


Anyways I completely understand why you decided to not rummage through a few of the games.

 

[Schusler]

Pm sent......

 

[Mark Hooks]

The Joust marquee is the best I've seen. No scratches. I had one that was in bad condition so I might keep that.

My plan I think with the pinball machines is to pull the playfields, backglasses, harnesses and boards and junk the cabinets.

I'll grab as much of the other stuff as I can - things like video game parts I'll happily sell to people here if they need them for whatever you think is fair -- ironically, the guy who gave me the deal on the machines accidentally bumped into my car while hauling one of the machines and mashed up my bumper, so now I've got an added expense I have to deal with (he had no insurance, lovely).

There's a really cool Defender cocktail - it really saddened me to see it in such bad shape. Is there anything unique salvageable from it? It got a lot of water damage.

Heck, I'll buy the whole Kiss pinball and rebuild it. I can build a new cabinet. PM me if interested.

Mark Hooks

 

[quses]

You might be surprised. A lot of that stuff was all made specifically for that game. And coin doors may be rusted but the plastic parts are not being made anymore. There will be a swap meet in the parking lot of the Houston Arcade show October 9th. You would be surprised at how much worse looking stuff gets bought/swapped there. Pull it out and haul it down.

ken

Oooh really? I was wondering if there would be a swap meet in Houston. I will be there and I'm getting in two days early. If anyone wants me to bring anything specific to Houston, I can. I'd prefer to not bring anything that I couldn't easily get rid of. And I could go back to the warehouse to get certain things, but unless someone says something like "the Donkey Kong Jr. bezel is worth $50 for sure", I can't see diving into that mess of black mold. I've been feeling nauseous all evening now. Who knows what I inhaled there.

By the way, I was a bit upset about the Caterpillar machine.... I had these two "good ol' boys" who were cleaning out the place helping me - one was the owner. And he asked me what I wanted, I told him to clear a path so I could get some pictures of the Caterpillar machine, and the next thing I knew he said "it fell over and fell apart!" So I just climbed in and grabbed what I could - I don't have any pictures of the small room where most of the games were because, well, honestly, it was so disgusting in there that it was like scuba diving - I had to run in, grab stuff, then get out to fresh air.

In the next day or so I'll try to inventory what I got, but if memory serves:

* cp for joust, bezel for joust
* tore open the Dragon's Lair - laserdisc player was gone, so I grabbed the system board
* tore apart the defender cocktail and got the top glass/bezel and both CPs, coin door
* got the cp and monitor from the tempest - can see there's a reasonable amount of burn-in on the tempest monitor but the boardset looks clean
* kram boardset, marquee
* joust boardset
* caterpillar marquee, cp, and MPU
* complete populated harlem globetrotters playfield

I didn't pick up any power suplies, most had been underwater

pinball machines:

* bally kiss
* gottlieb james bond
* gottlieb buck rogers
* gottlieb spider man
* bally mata hari

the main problem with the pinball games is that the bottom plywood panel is rotted out - looks like the water may have come up to the bottom for a short period. Anything that was on the bottom was ruined. The playfields however, look to be in really good condition and from what I've seen, with the exception of the Harlem Globetrotters (which was missing system boards) seems to be complete. The mata hari is in the worst condition, and even it may be restoreable.

I am thinking that the James Bond should definitely be restored - it's in really good shape and a pretty rare title. Spiderman and Buck Rogers are medium-production machines - not sure what to do with them. Mata Hari is pretty popular but not rare. Harlem Globetrotters I don't think is very valuable and they made 14000 of them. I'm trying to figure out what to keep/restore and what to part out. I welcome any comments or suggestions.

 

[thebman80]

If by chance you part this out and the power supply is in good shape the big power brick in the bottom of the game with the transformers on it. I need it badly I currently have another power brick from a Mars God of War in my Spiderman and would like to try and get the correct part. If you could get me some pictures of the bottom of the game after you crack it open I can better judge if I can still use the power brick.

 

[khabbi]

That Kiss Pin makes me very sad...

 

[quses]

If by chance you part this out and the power supply is in good shape the big power brick in the bottom of the game with the transformers on it. I need it badly I currently have another power brick from a Mars God of War in my Spiderman and would like to try and get the correct part. If you could get me some pictures of the bottom of the game after you crack it open I can better judge if I can still use the power brick.

I just checked. The power supply and transformers are still in the machine, but they're in bad shape. Anything on the bottom panel likely got exposed to water. Would that matter to the transformers? The rest of the power supply looks to have lots of corrosion on it though.

Here's the situation:

power supply in pretty bad shape, but then contrast that with the playfield:

It's pretty bizarre to see the lower half all corroded and the upper half in decent shape.

 

[quses]

Upon doing some research, what do you guys make of this?

compared to this?

source: http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=caterpillar&page=detail&id=3858

So Caterpillar was a knock-off of Pac Man? And this game I found might be a knock-off of the knock-off??

 

[thebman80]

I just checked. The power supply and transformers are still in the machine, but they're in bad shape. Anything on the bottom panel likely got exposed to water. Would that matter to the transformers? The rest of the power supply looks to have lots of corrosion on it though.

Here's the situation:

power supply in pretty bad shape, but then contrast that with the playfield:

It's pretty bizarre to see the lower half all corroded and the upper half in decent shape.

That does suck I do have a working set of transformers and can buy a new cap and rectifiers. The real question is what shape would the wires inside the wire casing be in? Plus could it even be moved without it just falling apart? I guess I might have to keep looking for another one.