Buying First House! Highest Priority: How Do I Get My Arcade Cabinet In The Basement

[Mr.Faxanadu]

Hey Everyone,

I'm in the process of buying my first house and am wondering how I'll be able to get my 1982 Xevious stand up arcade into the basement. Here's the beast:

http://image3.usedottawa.com/YOW6476723.2.jpg

The basement of this house has a narrow stairwell and has a tight 90 degree turn half way down. I just don't see it getting down there as is.

So I ask, is there a way to quickly disassemble one of these without having to cut wires or resolder anything etc. Can the 2 side panels be removed somehow so it can be brought down in pieces???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I searched the web and got lots about home MAME projects but nothing that helped.

[Gamereviewgod]

Quick question from experience: Are you SURE you want it in the basement? That's where mine is and I can assure you that once it's down there, you're probably never moving it again. In fact, short of sliding it around the basement, there's not a chance of that thing moving anywhere else. Getting it down the steps was hard enough, and we ended up putting a hole in the wall.

Can't help you with taking it apart, but wanted to give you the warning beforehand.

[shawnbo42]

In a nutshell, no, there is no way to disassemble a cabinet easily without basically destroying the cabinet. My advice is to find another place in the house to put it, like maybe in place of the fridge. It's about the same size, and besides, who really needs cold food?

Seriously, put it upstairs. It's going to be a big pain to get it down there (if you can), and if you can't, it's not much fun to drag it back upstairs (believe me on this one). Do you have any property, like where you could build a shed or something?

[hoaryhag]

It's possible it is not only screwed but glued into place. Do you really want to damage your cabinet in order to get it into the basement? Might as well build a new cabinet from scratch in the basement as disassemble and reassemble that thing. Not to mention getting it out again if you ever need to. I would keep it upstairs. I'm guessing it's an underground basement, otherwise you could get a contractor with a nice concrete saw and put a new door in to accommodate the cabinet.

[weirdguy]

This is exactly why I paid movers extra to move my cabs. I was sweating just watching the guys hauling my MVS cab...

Get a quote from a piano mover (there a couple of good ones in Ottawa). If they can't move it to the basement, don't even try.

[skaar]

Get a candy cab :D

I hear you on the tight stairwell - I had to take all my Ikea Billy bookcases apart to move them downstairs - and later UPSTAIRS when I changed my mind!!

Good luck!

Edit: Actually... do you have an available window you could remove? I might have to do that for drywall.

[weirdguy]

Get a candy cab :D

What he said...

[jcalder8]

Easy solution, don't buy the house gaming is more important.

[Mr.Faxanadu]

LOL

Well, this doesn't look good I guess :( It's pretty much the basement or nothing.... or I ditch the fiance and use her office room.... man, I've got some serious thinking to do!

I may have to look into selling it... I just don't see where I can put the thing.

At least my World Of Nintendo display case splits into 2 pieces! Although, I've read stories on here about people loosing a chunk of their collection due to basement flooding!

Any other idea's, let me know :)

[Mr.Faxanadu]

This is exactly why I paid movers extra to move my cabs. I was sweating just watching the guys hauling my MVS cab...

Get a quote from a piano mover (there a couple of good ones in Ottawa). If they can't move it to the basement, don't even try.

This is something I'll look into but I'm sure they'll say it's not doable cause of the size of it.

[GrandAmChandler]

Moving this to Arcade Alley.

-GAC-

[sisko]

LOL

Well, this doesn't look good I guess :( It's pretty much the basement or nothing.... or I ditch the fiance and use her office room.... man, I've got some serious thinking to do!

I may have to look into selling it... I just don't see where I can put the thing.

At least my World Of Nintendo display case splits into 2 pieces! Although, I've read stories on here about people loosing a chunk of their collection due to basement flooding!

Any other idea's, let me know :)

Most joking aside, why can't you put your fiance in the basement?

Assuming it's finished, it would make for a nice quiet office.

[jb143]

I guess I got lucky on my basement. The side door to the house goes straight to the basement door and the stairway is pretty wide and goes straight down to the basement. It still took a bit of work to get the cabinet down there but it wasn't too bad.

As far as basement flooding, one of the biggest(and cheapest) things you do to prevent it is to put long extensions on your gutters. Pipe the water out to the ditch if you can.

[Trebuken]

Probably not possible if the basement is finished, but it is concivable that you could remove the stairs and lower it down...

[Arcade Antics]

Did you already measure the stairwell?

Measure it, measure the game, and you'll have your answer. If it doesn't fit, sell it to someone else before you move, or put it on the main floor of the house. It's only about 300 lbs, hiring piano movers isn't going to make the game fit down the stairs. :)

[sniperCCJVQ]

First, check your stairs to the basement.

Usually, the same guys who can move fridge, can move arcade its kinda the same size, weight. Thats what i did with mine.

[channelmaniac]

If you are planning on putting ANYTHING in the basement like that then you want to do a few things FIRST.

1. Inspect for ANY water damage
2. Install a sump and a pump
3. Install a backup pump
4. Install a water alarm
5. Build a 6" platform to put the games on

If you do these things then you'll have years of enjoyment out of your games. If you don't, they will get screwed the first time you get a couple of inches of water in your basement.

[crazyjackcsa]

I'm looking at this the otherway.You may consider if it's worth it, but here are a few options:

If it's close (Within an inch) you could disassemble the door. Take the trim off and hack away at the frame. Slide it in and reassmble the door.

Are there windows in the basement? You could do the same thing. Taking a window out is really, really easy and you could have it all back in very shortly.

How about vertically, is there space to bring the whole thing down standing upright?

How badly does this thing need to be downstairs? I knew a guy that yanked out a staircase to put a big screen TV in his basment.

[blue lander]

I bought a townhouse last year and had to get my two arcade cabinets into my doorless and windowless basement too. The stairway was pretty narrow and had a 90 degree turn near the top, so I was in pretty much the same situation. Me and my Fiancée managed to move my Ms. Pacman cabinet downstairs by ourselves, but I needed a friend to help move my larger general purpose cab with a 25" monitor. Here's what I learned in the process:

1: Remove the handrails from your stairwell, it'll give you more maneuvering room and lessen the risk of damaging your walls. Make sure you remove the "arms" or whatever that hold the handrails into the wall, too, because if you bump into them with he cab you might end up bending them or pulling them out of the drywall.

2: If you're going to be moving the cabinet over any hardwood, put down cardboard. I ended up scratching the hell out of some of my hardwood floors. My fiancée still glares at the Ms. Pacman cab to this day.

3: You're probably going to dent your drywall too if you have to maneuver the cabinet around any corners, so be prepared to do some touchup work when you're done.

4: Make sure you have a good grip at the top and bottom of the cabinet. This might mean you have to leave the back of the cabinet off so you can grab it by the edges.

5: If your cabinet has a large monitor (it looks like it doesn't), then consider removing it before you move the cabinet. You can electrocute yourself if you aren't careful, though.

6: If the tight 90 degree turn in your stairwell is a little landing, then just stand the cabinet all the way up when you get it there. Then you and whoever's helping you move it can rotate the cabinet and pick it up again. Just make sure you have enough vertical clearance.

7: If there are any doorways in your basement, you may have to remove the doors from the hinges before you fit the cabinet through. Figure this out and remove the doors before you bring the cab downstairs so you have room to take the door down and move it.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

i've successfully moved a crappy, broken dynamo cabinet that i was sick of looking at into the basement in this exact same sort of situation. it took some finagling, some smashed fingers, some head scratching, but we eventually made it work. you probably won't be able to fit the machine and a dolly at the same time especially around the corner, so make sure you got a strong friend and be prepared to mess up the walls.

with that done, i doubt that will ever come out of the basement. if it does, it will not be in one piece.

[Flack]

Just to add to the dogpile ... when I took apart my Defender cabinet it was with a sledgehammer and it still took about 10 minutes. My cabinet was nailed and glued. Getting a cabinet apart would be tough and reassembling it would be tougher.