Jolt Country

Today a friend of mine and I attended what in the future I will refer to as "the saddest auction ever." If I ever say, "Hey, you remember the saddest auction ever?" there is no doubt I will be referring to this one.

30 or so arcade games, maybe half of them working. There were another 10 or so cranes that they couldn't give away. There were four sit-down racing games and four kiddie rides, all working, all of which went for $200 or less.

The auction was held in a closed down bingo parlor, and yes, the bingo equipment was for sale too (rest assured, everything reeked of smoke). Near the end of the auction they were selling chairs and trashcans. I actually bought 10 trashcans just because I felt so bad for the place, and two large black lights for $5.

I also got a pretty decent looking (and working) Zaxxon for $50 and a skill stop slot machine (with, apparently, the wrong key) for $100. The slot machine has an LCD screen and although the whole thing is in Japanese it stars a big-tittied female Tarzan character.

Saddest. Auction. Ever.

There is gonna be one tomorrow off I-25, apparently, in Wyoming. I later found out that it's not an auction as, to quote a guy:

It doesnt look like an auction. I dont even think that word was mentioned. Its a bunch of junk being sold at "first come first served".

Ah! Whoops.

The seller also wants people to call for directions and, I don't know, I'm not being anti-social, it's just, eh.

Even though I desperately need a horizontal JAMMA cab, and there is gonna be a Robocop there... which is, IIRC, a horizontal JAMMA.

See, I wouldn't consider at all, but I see where you put a "$50 Zaxxon" and I'm pulled back towards considering it. Argh!I really do enjoy "the hunt" of getting these things.

Also, I would say I am 65% likely, in the future, to pull the trigger on a redemption crane game, if one was cheap enough. This is a madness, a virus, and a sickness.

You know ... there was a time when I thought paying $50 for a Zaxxon, or any working game for that matter, was the deal of a lifetime. In reality I think it's just a reflection of the state of arcade games today. Let's face it, Zaxxon is on the 48-in-1 board -- there's really no reason to own it. If I weren't a collector I'd yank the working monitor out of it, sell the board and MAME the cabinet. Unfortunately I know me and I know I don't have the heart to do that. I've already been shuffling things around to make room for the game out in the arcade. It's about time for sale-o-rama round 2 to make some more room out there.

I saw a Soul Edge today with a 25" monitor go for $150. I should have snagged that, too. I'm just out of space for projects and time to work on them.

Switching gears, I thought about buying a crane at one point but again, they're just so friggin' big. I thought about dumping all my kids' toys in there and charging them a buck to pull them out one at a time. Then the idea flashed in my head of putting my kids in there and pulling them out with the crane when I wanted to see them ... I ended up passing on the crane. ;)

Crane game: what fun is that? I vote to make the toy bin part of the game a habitat for small rodents and replace the actual crane part with some sort of taser-like device. When the tip of the electrode is positioned over the creature the button is pressed and a quarter-second voltage is applied to said rodent. The skill part is maneuvering the electrode accurately. Much better than some stupid stuffed animal made in China.

$25 Zaxxon: Well it's a video game. Did anyone ever play Zaxxon for more than one minute thirty? The few times I have played the game I lasted about three walls. This deal sounds like a low priced aggravation machine.

The sad thing is how the earlier more primitive cabinets are fetching more money and the later more sophisticated games go for less mostly because of the gameplay.

Flack wrote:I actually bought 10 trashcans just because I felt so bad for the place,

Best pathos ever.