For those of us who live in far away towns, not known for a very good (if any really....) selection of games to choose from this is really heartbreaking. I can honestly say that some of those cabs looked better than some I own. I could really use some cabs - I have wayyy more boards than I have cabs. But honestly, I don't have anywere to store many more. If I was in California, PA, Florida, MI or somewhere else where I never had to drive more than 20 minutes to find a game, or where there are 100 games on craigslist on any given day, then I might not care so much.
I would love to have had those games somewhere close to me, because then I certainly would have visited the auction and probably bought some of those. And, for people who love the hobby, but who don't have the money to have perfectly restored machines, this is just gut wrenching to have them called "junk machines". One man's junk is another man's treasure. But, it's no worse than Wal-Mart or any other business writing off its merchandise that doesn't sell. They throw perfectly good items in the trash all the time. They are required to destroy them by law to take a tax break - blame the IRS for this. In a perfect world, they could donate that stuff to people who need it, but this is far from a perfect world.
But really, when it gets down to it, it is any worse than what others do? How many part have you bought that were so rusted that you just had to shake your head. It is any better to have a back yard full of this stuff in the name of preservation, but unprotected to where the sun and rain all but destroy these game?. Or, to keep them in storage where dirt and moisture slowly corrode them? To have them stored for so long that all the electrolytic caps dry out and have to be replaced? How many boards have you bought with water damage, or mud, dirt and dust just caked on them? How many boards that were just scratched to hell from an upper board gouging the parts on the lower board? How many boards with broken traces from all the scratches? How many boards that were worked on by someone who didn't know how to solder, or how to clean up afer doing it? I've received a lot of stuff like this on KLOV, and you probably have too.
I've also seen plenty of pictures here on KLOV with members showing boxes of boards upon boards stacked incorrectly, warping and ruining them. Certainly you've all seen pictures of mis-stored parts an games even from collectors. Is it really any different than what Mr. Tuckey has done with those cabs? Really, how many "junk" parts have you really received off of KLOV by so called "collectors" and "preservationists"? Don't even get me started on MAME'd cabs...
So you wouldn't have smashed those cabs -- I wouldn't have either, but there is a point at which maintaining everything is too costly in terms of both time and money. Are all of your parts perfectly stored? I'll bet you probably have some parts that are stored incorrectly too.
I don't approve of the video, but I don't think that it is really any worse than what a lot of other people are doing with classic arcade games. I will say this, I am happy to have the option of buying something from TNT Amusements. I have bought stuff from them before, and at some really great prices. Banning them from KLOV isn't really going to solve anything. It will only give KLOV buyers one less option for finding parts.
Just my 2 cents.
Now, if he had thrown a Hyper Sports cab off the roof, I'd probably be singing another tune : )
