Game Over, Defender

[Flack]

A couple of years ago, I got a Defender cabinet for free. Those of you who have read Invading Spaces know the whole story. For those who haven't, here's the really abbreviated version: someone abandoned this cabinet, and I picked it up. Here's a picture of "the good side":



This is the side I saw when I went to go pick it up; unfortunately, here's "the bad side":



That's not just paint missing friends; entire layers of plywood are missing from this weather-beaten cabinet.

There comes a time in every arcade collector's life when he has to do something unpleasant, and this was one of those times. I talked to a couple of local arcade collectors and they all agreed -- this cab was too far gone to be restored.

I spent the better part of Saturday stripping her of useful parts. I'd already pulled the monitor and marquee off a while back. On Saturday I pulled the control panel, coin door, coin box, boards, and power supply out too.





By the time I got done, there wasn't much left. Once every useful scrap was picked off, it was time get the cabinet to fit into my trash dumpster, and there's only one way to do that.



The cabinet put up a hell of a fight. The 30-year-old glue and nails showed no sign of letting go. It took several sledgehammer hits to break the sides off. I saved the cabinet's one good side and screwed it to the door of my arcade. The rest ... well, the rest went to that big arcade in the sky. Or, the dump.



Game over.

[jay]

Good use for the undamaged side of this cab - I bet it looks great on the door!

[nestlekwik]

Look at this guy.  He has so many arcade cabinets, now he's just throwing away the ones he doesn't want.   

I would have agreed as well that the cab was well beyond the point of restoration.  Are there any plans of piecing together a new cab or are you just going to sell off the board?

[Flack]

Sell, or more likely, trade. Arcade collectors tend to amass stuff they don't need, and hang onto it in case someone else does. It's kind of like a big, expensive version of "Go Fish".

[MixMasterLar]

I do that with PS1 games =D

[nestlekwik]

Sell, or more likely, trade. Arcade collectors tend to amass stuff they don't need, and hang onto it in case someone else does. It's kind of like a big, expensive version of "Go Fish".

That's something my friend would do a lot with auctions.  He'd purchase a lot of machines just because he wanted one.  He'd then patch up the ones he didn't want and sell/trade for ones he did want.  Understandably, that's how many respectable console collections get built up as well.

[Flack]

I think we've all done it with console stuff. A lot of people do it with arcade machines as well ... it just takes a little bit more money and storage space.