I spent a couple days looking at web pages , emailing some friends of mine who are good with computers and know games (Warren, Alex, and Phil).  Part of that included looking at craigslist to see if anybody was selling parts and what the prices were.  It all seemed pretty do-able for me.  I was excited to try some soldering and learning about computer boards, and the stuff I didn’t feel like I could do (working with Linux), I figured the boys could.  While the boys weren’t as enthusiastic as I had hoped, craigslist satisfied my new passion.  I discovered that cabinets range widely in styles, availability, completeness, and prices.  I contemplated building my own particle board cabinet for a while, but happened upon one being sold for $50.   I liked its curvy lines.  And with a working coin door, I decided I couldn’t build one for less money or hassle, so drove down to Eugene with Warren to get it.  It was about March 24th…

We met in the Sears parking lot where the owner and his wife brought the cabinet with them.  We stood out in the parking lot for a while, talking about his passion for arcade games and he gave me some ideas on how to find parts and people as resources.  I decided I wanted it and, as I dug the money out of my wallet, I ventured “Would you take $40?”  Oh!  Not only am I exploring the world of arcade machines, but BARGAINING too!  The wife responded “Good girl, of course he will!” and he sheepishly agreed.  He offered me a control panel for $25, too, and at the time I didn’t like the button configuration and wasn’t sure how I’d be able to cut a hole in the metal for a roller ball so I said no thanks.  After I’ve been working on my own control panel, I’m kind of sorry I didn’t counter with “I’ll take them both for $60!”

I convinced some other friends to join me and carry that super heavy cabinet up the stairs to my second story apartment. It was awkward, but not too bad.  Well, actually, I didn’t carry it, so I don’t know how bad it was! They said it wasn’t too bad.  I like how it looks in my living room – it gives the room some height.

A random comment by a friend: “You could make your own House of the Dead game…” followed by a series of webpages that showed how to turn a computer and an old arcade cabinet into one’s own super-special Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Oh the sweet joy! I am going to try to catch up with pictures and words what I and my friends have already done towards creating this awesome machine in the next few posts. And then keep up with it with even more photos and words…  So, here we go!