What was your scariest incident moving a game?

Oh man...I would have ran also!!!! Yikes!!
I was ajusting the picture on a G07 and the anode cup popped of and started arking with the frame, blue electric bolts !!! Ran and unplugged the machine from the wall. Yes it was just a fuse to repair it.
 
Get rid of that dolly NOW! Get solid tire dolly..So much better and safer!!!
I was moving a game into my basement (several steps that I set boards up on).

My friend pushed a bit too hard and I lost my footing and ended up underneath the dolly and the game. Thankfully I didn't get hurt at all and was able to wiggle out and resume bringing the game in.

Only other one was recently trying to set down an Asteroids in the back bed of a pickup truck, and I couldn't maintain grip on it.... and it I grappled at it, and pushed against it to slow it's fall into it's back. Thankfully the game and I were both unharmed. Thankfully the game was unharmed, as my friend and I just drove it all the way to CT from MA to trade it for a Space Invaders upright.

I don't recall any other scary incidents. But I do wish I had an easier way of moving these that would help take the load/balancing act out of moving them. The inflatable tires on the hand truck I have are nice.... but they do tend to making moving them a tad more unstable though.
 
I tried to move an upright Pole Position into the basement and the particle board piece I grabbed separated from the cabinet. The game tumbled down the flight of stairs towards my friend. He luckily got out of the way, but now I need a replacement Pole Position cabinet...
 
People in this thread who've broken bones/needed stitches, I assume the game pickup is abandoned at that point? Did you go back? Or did you deal with it until the game was loaded? Definitely curious.

Hell no! You dust yourself off, mop up the blood and finish loading the game.

No game left behind!!!
 
I pull hard, slip, slide under the Wacky Gator, and come millimeters from crushing some rather sensitive parts.

I had this happen to me while moving a Championship Sprint. It was late winter/early spring and of course the guy doesn't didn't tell me that the only way to get it out was going around the side of the house and up an icy embankment.

Before even getting to the incline I was pulling the dolly backwards out the patio onto the grass, hit an icy patch and it fell right on top of me. Luckily I was on the grass, still hurt like hell though.

Then getting it up the incline was nearly impossible. It wasn't a nice flat incline, it was a trough with ice in the middle between two houses so you had to go up the side really close to the house. Even near the house the ground was treacherous and angled. We laid the dolly flat and were arduously pulling the beast to the top inch-by-inch (squatting and trying not to slip and fall) when it tipped on it's side and slid all the way back down to the bottom some 20ft. scratching the side and we had to start over.

We finally made it to the top but I was pissed, bruised and sore with a scratched game. Luckily the game damage was only cosmetic. Had I known the situation I would've brought a truck with a winch and just pulled it up to the front from the street. I think the guy was worried I'd back out of the deal if he told me how difficult it was going to be.
 
The biggest "Oh shit!" moment would have to be when I moved from Boston to Missouri. We started to wheel my Star Wars cockpit down the loading ramp into my shop when I realized the ramp had walls that were too high for the wheels to work. While I was trying to think if I had some heavy plywood to put on top of the ramp, my brother grabs the heavy end, says "come on, we got this!" and starts walking backward down the ramp. I'm like "AAAGGHHHH NOOOOOOO!!!!!!" but he wasn't stopping. So I, with my skinny-ass 125 lb. self, have to grab the other end.

Oh. Shit.

We carried that heavy @#$@!! Atari cockpit *IN THE AIR* the length of the truck, down the ramp, and into my shop, around and through the funky corner entry, and then set it down. Gently. It was about 40 feet of "Oh, Jesus, this is the day. See you in a few!" agony.

As soon as we set it down we started thinking exactly how to DIE. He sat down with a mixed drink, took one sip, and almost passed out. I was lying in the grass, pant-sobbing, and cursing Atari and their 800 lb. gorilla cabinets in every way I could think of.

Damn! F-U Atari!!!

But oddly enough, cabaret cabs have given me the most scares.

I was moving an AD Deluxe mini down the (wet from rain) outside deck stairs when it got away from me. I wound up on my stomach getting dragged off the deck with only one hand on the dolly. My fingers got it pretty good when they broke the edge off the steps. Yeah, stepS. My hand went through 3 of them. :(

Scariest thing I've witnessed was when my girlfriend and her son were moving a Ms. Pacman mini down some concrete steps. He dropped the bottom end and she narrowly avoided the machine coming down with her between it and the steps. That was HORRIFYING to watch. But at least there's an endless supply of "my girlfriend vs Ms. Pacman street brawl" jokes now. :) And she still helps me move the machines! She's a definite keeper.
 
People in this thread who've broken bones/needed stitches, I assume the game pickup is abandoned at that point? Did you go back? Or did you deal with it until the game was loaded? Definitely curious.

I didn't abandon the SF Rush pickup. It hurt, but didn't know the toes were broken until I went to Dr. a few days later. Fortunately they weren't broken all the way through...just fractures.
 
I tried to move an attack from mars pin myself up a hill on one of those little harbor freight tables and it slid off.

I half caught it with my leg but it still hit the ground hard.

It fired right up and worked fine when I got it setup.. I was 100% sure it was going to have issues.

Williams knew how to build games back then.. if that was a Stern pinball it probably would have cracked in half.
 
Let's see... My Hard Drivin cockpit almost squashed me on my garage floor, but that's only because I was in too much of a hurry to get any help and decided to take it down the trailer ramp by myself. Those Atari cockpits gain speed rather quickly...

HOTD2. Same trailer, but going up the ramp. Again, too much of a hurry to get any help. I get 3/4 of the way up the ramp, see that the game is taller than the trailer, (it looked like it would fit) and stop the upward progress. HOTD2 is heavy, so as I attempted to back it down the ramp, my shoes lost traction on the plywood sheathing of the trailer ramp. Down I went with HOTD2 doing everything in it's power to make me 3. The dolly handle landed just short of what would have been a very painful injury, the cabinet had my legs pinned at an awkward angle, and one hand was now trapped in the dolly handle, under the game, pinned against me. I conceded the battle and called to my neighbor for help. After he was done laughing at me, he helped get it off of me and into the trailer, on it's back, with some furniture dollies.

I have got to stop being in such a hurry all the time...
 
Scariest? My dad and I went to go pickup a Ms. Pacman recently off a guy on Letgo, now I'm downtown on the South side of Chicago, and I'm pretty accustomed to the area, but this guy was on the west side near the conservatory. Needless to say I was completely out of my element, and was trying to explain to my dad it wasn't that bad of an area the entire time. The area WAS that bad. Got our Ms. Pacman and got the hell out of there.

Another time, my dad and I was moving a Donkey Kong we had just gotten for practically nothing across a guy's driveway into the car, I was walking backwards and no one was looking out/ could see I was walking backwards towards a wood pile. So, I tripped over the wood pile, and tried brainlessly to save the donkey kong from making a thud and cracking the wood. Successfully tore my left pec muscle in the process, but I saved the cabinet.
 
Going down these in search of a Star Trek Captain's Chair:

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Thought someone would be wearing my skin by the end of the night.
 
Was that pick up at M.C. Escher's house?

Anyone else hear the words 'Finish Him' in their head after nearly being killed by a machine they're moving? :)
 
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