Mission Control V4
Feb 14th
The start of a new layout for mission control. I’ve moved a few things around and got my arcade machines in. Turned them all on for the first time together. Thought you might like to see the results!
No… Really… No-one Can Survive the Masher
Feb 9th
9th February 2010: EEEEEeeeeeeeekkkkk! No other words needed!
Dances With Machines
Feb 1st
Wahoo! Dragon’s Lair 2 came. The only trouble is there’s nowhere to put it! So:
Shift the Smash T.V.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Jan 18th
Wah we wah we wahhhh: My Smash T.V. and Powerdrift eventually got delivered. Smash T.V. is nigh on mint, it just needs a bit of a clean on the control panel. Powered it up and it worked fine. Absolutely brilliant game.
Wah we wah we wahhh: The Powerdrift was damaged internally. The monitor control PCB had fallen off its shelf and pulled the back of the monitor off. I tried to fix it, clipping back the PCB where it should go, replacing some ROMs that had fallen off the main PCB and replacing the back of the monitor (it looked like it it just clipped back on). Turned on the power, nothing. A bit of fault finding later and I found that the wires inside the plug had come out of their connectors. I fixed that, plugged it back in, flicked the power switch. “Bang! Flash!”, exclaimed the monitor. I suppose I can take heart in that I sussed out the power problem. To check the state of the newly exploded monitor I need to take it out of the cabinet and I can’t do that until I get a tamper proof screwdriver for the tamper proof screws that it’s held together with.
Wah we wah we wahhh. The courier that was taking my Cinematronics Space Ace to Italy finally managed to set off once the snow had melted. He was due to deliver the machine today, but instead has been involved in a really bad crash in Belgium. The van overturned and is a mess. Most of the contents, including the Space Ace, have been badly damaged. I now need to refund a grand {that I have already spent} to the buyer and hope that the insurance pays up {as I’ve been assured it will}. Apparently the remains of what was once a proud video game are being brought back to England and when they arrive I will need to go and inspect the body and arrange the insurance claim with the courier.
I’ll post pictures as soon as I have some.
Get me out of Here!
Jan 4th
4th January, 2010:
I sold it a few days ago and the time arrived where I had to prepare to move my Cinematronics Space Ace ready for removal by a courier. As it happened it was Sunday, 3rd January and I had the motivation to move it. I wasn’t expecting the courier for another week or so. Read the rest of this entry »
My Life is Empty!
Jan 4th
4th January, 2010:
Sent my Space Ace out today to a lucky owner in Italy. So I have no cabs in my room! My life is empty and will be until the snow disappears. I have loads of pictures of packing it up, I’ll post them shortly.
First Steps First
Dec 29th
29th December, 2009:
Obviously my plan to own my own dog’s nadgers arcade room thingy has to begin somewhere. Today it was to arrange delivery of my existing Space Ace to Italy and to sort out a second job.
Seriously… A second job. Well not so much a job as a way of raising funds to buy more arcade games. Let’s call it a hobby to support a hobby.
There’s simply no way at the moment that I can afford to sustain a hobby where the games regularly break 1000 sovs each, it’s a large step up from anything I’ve done before. I’ve managed to scrimp enough together to get myself a Dragon’s Lair, Smash TV and also get them delivered by selling all my other game related stuff, but to do any more is going to take some serious moolah.
So a hobby to sustain a hobby it is. I have some spare cash to set myself up and believe me, I spent hours agonizing over whether I should possibly waste a grand on a possibly futile exercise to support a hobby or just buy a Ketsui. I reckon if I don’t give it a go though, I’ll never know. You’ll be able to tell how successful I am by how many games get added to this blog!
Double bonus is that I’ll need a trailer, so in future I can pick up my own cabs 
The Space Ace delivery to Italy goes out in the next couple of weeks, so I have to pack it up. Call back to find out how it goes!
Cheers
Lee
Goodge St Casino, London: A Visit
Dec 27th
Goodge St Casino, London: A Visit
Tuesday, 18 July 2006 00:00
There I was one day, reading some discussions at shmups.com, when I noticed a discussion about arcades. It’s a topic close to my heart because I go to Blackpool every year for a couple of days specifically to visit the arcades. The only things that interrupt my mini arcade fest are McDonalds and beer. The simple fact is though that Blackpool’s arcades are a shadow of their former selves. Read the rest of this entry »
The Space Ace Saga: Part II, “Can We Keep Him?”
Dec 27th
The Space Ace Saga: Part II, “Can We Keep Him?”
Tuesday, 11 January 2005 21:00
So to recap, it’s just after Christmas 2004 and there I was with a piece of smashed up wood in my front room and all I could do was play the Space Ace laserdisc on a separate player. Read the rest of this entry »
The Space Ace Saga: Part I, “No-One Can Survive the Masher”
Dec 27th
The Space Ace Saga: Part I, “No-One Can Survive the Masher”
Friday, 11 February 2005 20:00
November, 2004… eBay should be switched off. Well that’s my opinion anyway because it’s solely responsible for a new disease sweeping the world; the “press the button, go on, BIN it, you know you want it, it’s there, just press the button” disease. It’s the ultimate car boot sale. There I was one day, minding my own business, when all of a sudden the urge hit me, but eBay, for once, couldn’t help me. So off to the rest of the interweb I went and posted a couple of messages on a couple of discussion boards thus, “Space Ace wanted”.
Read the rest of this entry »