The Great Build – The Arcade Machine: Part II

Welcome back to the second part of the tale ‘The Great Build’; or ‘How Fen Spent His Child Bonds’. If you haven’t read the first part, go there first!

Part Two: Manchester – Keeping Clear

So I had just purchased a genuine arcade machine, for a mere £50. However, it was in Manchester – and we are not. We needed transport!

Fortunately Steve at the time worked at Volkswagen…we grabbed a van, and went off on a road trip in the case of White Van Men. We didn’t have to go near the centre of Manchester, but regardless, we were heavily armed, and we were still on edge.

We met a man who was bigger than all 3 of us put together, then we went to check out the machine. It was MASSIVE. And BRIGHT PINK.

So we put in it the van, and were gone in minutes. Thus ended our Manchester adventure.

We got it back to Cheltenham; unloaded; and Ross joined us to marvel in wonder.

With a little bit of fear, we turned it on – it booted up, and after some twiddling with knobs we got the picture on the screen. However, the buttons wouldn’t work, and putting money in did nothing. Then we tried to get in the house; but of it wouldn’t fit through the front door.

Even with the front panel taken off, it still wouldn’t fit. The decision was made to take it apart COMPLETELY. With the help of an axe, a massive screwdriver, super monkey-fingers and Unstoppable Man Force, the whole machine was carefully smashed to bits. We rejoiced!

The inside of the machine was filthier than anything I’ve EVER touched EVER – why are games so jubby? I was appalled to see that the game board, the heart-and-soul of the whole cabinet, was just rattling around inside, and had been all the way down the motorway – it had never been screwed down properly. The cables looked in bad shape, and would probably need replacing.

Interestingly, I then discovered that this particular board, the ST-V (which is actually almost identical to hardware that is inside a Sega Saturn) uses MASSIVE cartridges. That’s pretty cool, right? Another bonus was that someone had tried to play the thing so many times that there was over £7 inside. Result!

A decision was made, and after a few car trips, much swearing and some near death 50,000 volt TV-screen-in-back-of-head moments, the machine was transported back to my place, for reconstruction.