Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Heading Back to the Arcade Shop
Another synchronistic moment -- turns out that both Peter and I were both thinking about working on our respective arcade boxes this coming long weekend. One of the problems behind getting my project off the ground (other than a dead CPU -- which I intend to take care of, finally, tomorrow) turns out that arcade joysticks I bought are almost impossible to mount properly in wood (most often they are set into metal, which mine was designed for). So at lunchtime we decided to head back to the arcade shop after a several-month hiatus.

We got there, and saw the ever-helpful Dallas almost immediately. It took her a moment or two before she recognized us both, but within minutes she and Peter were fast at work figuring out which joystick would work best with the project (and in the end, there was no charge for her work -- gotta hand it to 'em).

I of course started to gravitate towards some of the machines stored in the place. The one that immediately caught my eye was a 70's-vintage mechanical baseball game in good working order, calling Line Drive. I remember playing this game as a very young kid in the early 70s -- and this was well before the advent of Pong or its electronic kin. I was given a free game for nostalgia purposes. I played it about as badly as I remember playing it as a kid -- the power behind the pitched ball varied, but it was never very strong, so it was hard to get any good wood out of it. But it was still very cool to play with once again. ;-) I asked about the game and it turned out to have come in just the day before -- and as it turns out this particular mechanical game is much sought after by collectors, and a buyer was already lined up for this unit, as well as a long list of buyers for machines of its kin. Ironic that in a few day’s time, it is likely to be the only form of professional baseball -- albeit a quarter at a time -- available anywhere.

I casually asked whether or not the articles I had written on building an arcade box had any impact on their business. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it had had a real impact -- they have had a number of customers looking for just a "box" + monitor who were planning on setting up a MAME arcade such as mine. They told me about one excruciating day where they ended up having to do a wholesale moving of old arcade boxes in their warehouse in order to find the bits and pieces they needed for a particular client wanting to build a MAME box, but in the end it was a good thing because it gave them a needed push to get things sorted out back there. They now set aside arcade boxes specifically for MAME-builder wannabes, and a shelf or two of their display case in the front window are now devoted to common objects a MAME builder will want – arcade buttons of various colours, one- and two-player buttons, coin slots, transparencies for the slots and more. In short, they’ve certainly done more business as a result of the articles, which has put them in touch with a new buying crowd. Cool.

I really have to make that book pitch, though I think I’ll wait until I’ve finished doing all of the work and written the whole series -- which is only another couple of articles. My current publisher has already turned down the idea, but I know who to contact next. (Sorry, not tellin'. ;-) The other main arcade project I’d like to tackle if I end up doing a book on the subject is creating a MAME arcade cabinet set into a cocktail cabinet. I asked Dallas about it, and they said they’d reserve a unit or two for me should they get any suitable units in.