New Addition to Waterborn's Arcade - Part I

Last week I said goodbye to my dedicated SMASH TV to make room for a new addition to Waterborn's Basement Arcade. Well, after waiting a few weeks and barely dodging our most recent snowstorm, Sinistar has arrived. This game was purchased as a bulk deal with three other collectors here in New England. We bought a total of four games from a fellow collector in Tennessee who had posted on the KLOV forums that he was liquidating most of his arcade to raise funds for bills. After confirming the condition of all the games and arranging for shipment of the cabs via American Van Lines, we simply had to sit tight, pray that these snowstorms held off and wait for the games to arrive. Well, I received a call on Tuesday night from my friend JediDentist that the games would arrive Thursday afternoon. I was pumped. Then I got sick with some ungoldly sinus infection that laid me out both Wed & Thursday. On top of that, we had word that Snowpocalypse Part II was heading our way for the weekend. The games arrived late Thursday afternoon and I dragged my backside out of bed to head over to Jedi's to pick up my game, somewhat delerious from meds and a head full of nastiness.

When I arrived at Jedi's, the four games that we ordered (Sinistar for me, Track N Field for my friend Dan, Gorf for Bullwinkle and Journey for Jedi) were waiting in his garage, all wrapped up from shipping.

Before loading up my game, Jedi insisted that I take a few moments to check out his own arcade. He has done some pretty amazing resorations, including TRON and Discs of TRON.

JediDentist's Arcade Line-up

Jedi's Fully Restored TRON (Yes, he hand-made those TRON Helmets)

Jedi's Discs of TRON (this game is rather hard to find in any condition)

After a quick tour of Jedi's arcade, my head was starting to swim thanks to the meds and head funk, so we quickly loaded my Sinistar into the bed of my Subi Baja for the 20 minute ride back to my place. My friend Brian, another coin-op collector, was scheduled to swing by my place after dinner to help me unload the cab and get it into the basement.

Upon closer inspection of the cab after arrving home, I realized that several of the lower panels were frayed. Concerned that these might catch and cause damage to the cab as it was moved across my carpet and into the basement arcade, I decided to install new "soft" footers on the bottom of the cab. This would allow me to raise the cab about 1/2" off the floor and make moving it around the house. So I set to installing the new footers while the cab was still in the back of the Subi. As it was now after 6pm and rather dark, I did this with the aid of a head lamp in my driveway, which earned more than a few odd looks from passes neighbors as they drove by. Once the new footers were installed, I headed inside to relax and await Brian's arrival. 8:00 came and went and so did 9:00, with no word from Brian. I was beginning to get a bit worried as another snowstorm was scheduled to begin at midnight. I had not desire to leave the cab outside overnight and uprotected from snow and wayward teenage hoodlums. As 10:00 rolled around, it was clear that Brian was not going to make it. So I got my fiance to serve as a second pair of eyes and backed the Subi right up the the stairs on our front porch. Once as closed to the porch as possible, I stood the cab up onto the top steop and leveraged it into a standing position on the porch. From here I laid a towel over the lower door jam and manhandled the cab solo over the hearth and inside where it would be safe. Having no intention of trying to get the game into the basement solo (I tried that once and almost died in the process), I decided to store the cab in the kitchen until I could get more assistance.

As luck would have it, as soon as I got the cab in place in the kitchen, my friend Brian called, apologized that he got caught up at a dinner with his wife and friends and said he could head right over. It was 11:00 pm and I was beat, dead tired and feeling the effects of over-exerting myself while sick. I told him to give me a call the next day (Friday) and we could get the cab into the basement then. As I headed off to bed with my new Sinistar sitting snugly in the kitchen, I looked out the window. Sure enough, the snow had begun to fall.

Stay tuned for my next blog for Part II of this story to see what it takes to get a game into my basement arcade. I took video this time. I also have video of Sinstar in action so you can see how the game plays.