Low Blow’s Arcade

Dedicated cab #3 has arrived.

Asteroids Deluxe. This game doesn’t get nearly as much love as the original Asteroids, mostly I think because it’s a harder game. I like it more than the original because of the blue filter on the display, the cabinet and control panel artwork are much cooler, and the cabinet design itself is better. Also, the blacklight 3d-looking asteroid field looks really cool in the Asteroids Deluxe cabinet too. The cab that I got has the original front glass configuration that has a problem with glare. It doesn’t cause a problem in my room, but I’ll probably convert it to the anti-glare version at some point. <-- Atari came out with a kit that angles the top of the front glass forward instead of back in order to reduce glare from overhead lighting. I got this one for $250. The side art is in "ok" condition, there's a spot missing at the top of the right hand side. The control panel has a ding in it(not bad, but will be replaced soon). One coin light is missing. And the display has a problem as seen here:

This is my first priority right now. The game is fully playable, but the banding in the image is not acceptable. This is my first vector game, so I’ve got a lot to learn…
And here’s a shot of the 3 dedicated cabs as they sit right now:

Here’s a shot of the 2 new games I recently picked up from CAX.

These are my first 2 dedicated cabinets.  Both in pretty good shape.  The MC needs some monitor adjustment(the image is shifted a bit to the right), but it’s not bad enough to effect gameplay.  The MC also has a switching power supply stubbed in, that I’ll eventually want to change back to original.  The Defender works great, the guy I bought it from got it as not working and put a bunch of work into fixing it up.  The wood and art on both cabs are pretty good.

Haven’t updated in a loooong time. Picked up a nice missile command and defender from CAX. CAX was amazing. My first attendance. Tons of Vids and Pins. Many for sale. Lots of rare games, and more than a few prototype games. Didn’t get any pictures of the event, too busy geeking out. I’ll post some pics of the missile command and defender cabs later. Arcade room is slowly starting to look like an arcade!

I’ve added a music player with some arcade game soundtracks to the “my arcade” and “arcade scores” pages. It will automatically cycle through all 200 songs in the playlist, or you can click on any song in the list to hear it.  BE CAREFUL, THE PLAYER STARTS AUTOMATICALLY WHEN YOU LOAD THE PAGE!  I’m trying to change this, but haven’t figured it out yet…

Basically destroyed the paint on the rear fender of my bike last weekend. While camping,  one of the “lick-n-stick” passenger seat  suction-cups melted onto the fender.  When I removed the passenger seat, a huge chunk of paint came with it.  I’ll post a pic later.  On the way up to the campsite, the compression release spark plugs I was using fell apart and melted.  Leaving me stranded just before Hopland.  Had to wait for replacement spark plugs.  It looks like these plugs(firestryke by spyke) don’t hold up too well.  I’ve been using ‘em for a year or so with no problems, but they should last longer than that…  The plugs, in case you’re wondering, have a sleeve that a normal spark-plug(for a v-10 ford) fits through.  the sleeve has a little button on it that you push in when starting the bike.  This relieves pressure in the cylinder so that the bike cranks over easy. the button pops out automatically once the bike is running.  It was the sleeve part that crapped out, allowing air into the cylinder and fowling the plugs.  Interestingly, both plugs failed…

Finally adjusted the coin mech. on my egret29 cab to accept quarters instead of yen.  I still don’t fully understand how all the adjustments on the coin mech. work, but it’s accepting quarters now so screw it…  Also got the monitor on the egret adjusted better(it was really dark before, and the control knobs didn’t have enough adjustment range to fix it).  Just tweaked some pots on the control board, helped quite a bit.  It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough that I think I can get away with not replacing the monitor for quite a while.

So I failed to post earlier about picking up yet another great Cave pcb.  This time it’s Cave’s only horizontal shooter: Progear No Arashi.  I normally don’t have the same passion for horizontal shooters that I do for vert’s.  But Progear is honestly one of my favorite Cave games yet.  It plays more like a vertical shooter layed on it’s side than it does a true hori, and that’s probably why I dig it so much.  I have not been able to stop playing this.  I’ve even set Ketsui and Galuda aside for now, to play Progear.  My best score so far is 4.2 million @ the beginning of stage 4.

There are a few other hori’s that I love too: In the Hunt is true greatness.  I recently picked up Last Resort for Neo-Geo as well, but haven’t put any time into it yet.  And still plan on picking up Pulstar and Blazing Star, both for the Neo…

Angus Young is around 4 months old now. Here are a few pics from the last week or so:

As always, click the pics for larger versions…

Road Gremlins. These are the little evil spirits that live on your bike. They love to ride. They are also responsible for most of your bike’s problems. Sometimes your turn signals refuse to work, or the battery goes dead, the clutch needs adjustment, the front tire slips and you take a face full of asphalt, or any of several hundred other things go wrong. These problems are caused by Evil Road Gremlins.
Road Gremlins can’t live in the presence of a bell. They get trapped in the hollow of the bell. Among other things their hearing is supersensitive. The constant ringing of the bell and the confined space drives them insane. They lose their grip and eventually fall to the roadway. (Have you ever wondered how potholes are formed?) The bell has served its purpose.

The best place to put these is as low to the ground as possible. Don’t give the Spirits a chance to get on your bike. On the front forks or the front part of the frame is a great place for a bell.

If you have picked up a bell of your own, the magic will work. But if your bell was given to you, the power has been doubled, and you know that somewhere you have a special friend helping to look after you.

Of course I don’t actually believe any of that crap. I assume very few people do. I have my bell because it reminds me that the person that gave it to me doesn’t want me to get hurt. It’s a reminder to stay wary on the road.