I just realized that I never really mentioned how I got my arcade collecting illness. Boy, are you in for a treat.

I mentioned a few years ago to my Wife (girlfriend back then) that my two favorite arcade games were Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, and that it would be cool to have one of those in the house someday.  So…on Christmas of 2003 she got me this:

Now, this was very cool and all, but I was not yet stricken with the bug causing me to fill up every square inch of available space in my house and garage with arcade stuffs. It stood alone in our living room for almost 3 full years.

She bought this from TNT Amusements (Todd Tuckey). He’s a great guy. I’ve dealt with him on a few parts sales since. We got a letter in the mail from him some time in the middle of 2006 offering to sell us a 256 in 1 board for the cabinet we (she) bought. He also offered a trade in, so if we wanted we could send him the Ms. Pac/Galaga PCB and get this one for more $$$. I seriously considered this, and almost bought it. The thing I didn’t like about this was that I would technically be altering this game from what it was intended to be (Ms. Pac / Galaga) to something a bit different. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. That’s when I started thinking maybe it would be cool to get another game someday.

Now, a few months later in October of 2006 the wife and I took the boat out yard sailing. By boat, I mean our car, and by sailing, I mean going to yard sales. We were heading to Starbucks for some overpriced coffee, and passed a flea market sign. It was being held at the former location of the Mystic Carousel & Fun Center in Mystic CT. We found the car mysteriously pulling into the parking lot, and were forced to stop. Here are some tokens from said fun center:

This flea market had been there for years, in the parking lot. This day however, they also had stuff for sale inside. They were closing the fun center, and everything was for sale. I spotted a Grayhound Skill Crane in the very back, and checked it out. The owner of the place said it worked but something was wrong with it. While trying to pry the bottom door open, he ripped it right off. He fired it up, and it worked but wouldn’t move in one direction. He had another one in the back in bad shape, and sold me both together for $100.

Here’s what it looked like when I got it home:

I used parts from the old one to fix this one up. That spare crane was in such bad shape I busted it up into pieces and tossed it (saving the good parts). Here’s some pictures of the working crane after I fixed it up:

Here’s a list of what I did to this puppy:

1. Repaired the carriage so the crane moved in all directions
2. Cleaned
3. Made a new bottom door
4. New locks
5. New Plexiglass for front and sides
6. Wheels
7. New t-molding
8. Painted the metal parts on the coin door
9. New coin return button
10. Fixed the coin lockout
11. New lightbulbs
12. Changed the Forward and Right buttons over to a joystick and drop button

That last part was my first time working with electronics. I found 2 schematics inside (that are now on my downloads page). One was for hooking it up to buttons, and the other to a joystick. These cranes were made both ways. After staring at these schematics for a long time, I figured out how to wire up a joystick. I bought the joystick and button from Happ, and installed them….only to find out AFTER that the joystick was in the way of the door. The door will only open a few inches now. I can open it enough to throw stuffed animals in there, but not enough to work on the crane assembly. When I need to do that, I have to take the joystick off. Original cranes that came with joysticks had a door that was a little shorter and cleared the joystick.

Working on this was loads of fun. After I was done, it felt good to have accomplished fixing this, but at the same time it felt a little crappy because I had nothing else to work on. This is the moment in which I became mentally ill and proceeded to buy every game I could find at a good price.

Someday I will be locked up in a padded room, loaded up on pills to stop this nonsense. Hopefully they will let me put a few arcade cabinets in there.