Log in

View Full Version : Arcade warehouse raid


SuperGunGuru
10-29-2004, 01:26 PM
Well, for my first thread, I thought I'd share the story of the arcade warehouse raid I went on back in August. The warehouse is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan and was the former home of Kalamazoo Amusements that went out of business back in 82. It was an awesome experience to be able to walk around and see all the stuff there. Some of it was sadly destroyed and other stuff was still nice enough to pull out. All in all I took out a Tempest cabinet, Pac-Man cabinet and an Asteroids. It was a great day and I wanted to share some of the crazy photos from that place. Enjoy!

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0282.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0283.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0284.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0288.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0291.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0295.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0296.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0298.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0304.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0313.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0324.JPG[/img]
Castelak
10-29-2004, 01:27 PM
What the heck?! Was this place abandoned and stuff was just being kept in there for random? Or were you allowed to go in there and take what you wanted. o.o... Or just you broke into a warehouse and took stuff. XD

Side note, I bet that was kinda creepy. It's like a retrogame graveyard! XD
rbudrick
10-29-2004, 01:33 PM
LOL I thought the police raided it by the title!

Yeah, so was it a free for all, or what? What did you leave there? You get everything you wanted?

-Rob
Flack
10-29-2004, 01:34 PM
Wow! Congratulations, and welcome to the board! That rotten Pac-Man picture actually made my stomach turn ... looks like you picked the better of the two. ;)

Don't forget to check out Arcade Alley ... it's our discussion board dedicated to arcade machines! I, and their fellow collectors, await you! :)
tholly
10-29-2004, 01:35 PM
from the one pic, it looks like a bunch of different ppl were there....so, im assuming you just didnt go and take

was this a sale by the owner, a free for all to clean it up, or was it condemened/abandoned and the city was offering free games for people to clean them out of there????
racecar
10-29-2004, 01:47 PM
holy crap ! that is one freaky looking place in the woods...as Flack said the pac man cab is a little disturbing !! oh also how many freebies were you manage to pac up( i see 3 on the truck , but didyou went back for seconds)
SuperGunGuru
10-29-2004, 02:02 PM
Sorry for any confusion with the phrase "arcade warehouse raid." LOL Ths was all a perfectly legal sale of old games that were heading for the wrecking. About a year ago, someone purchased the land the warehouse sits on and he was going to tear it down to build there (it's riverfront property). Two guys were in charge of running the sale for this new owner. I was talking to one of them and he told me how he found out about the place. He was talking to his dad one night and his dad tole me he knew a guy that just bought an old buidling filled with the type of machines he collects. So a deal was made between the new owner of the land and the two guys running the sale to sell what they could before tearing the place down (or before it collapsed on itself). All kinds of stuff was sold from that place including two sit-down Atari Stars Wars machines! The place was literally dangerous to walk around in. Some areas were off limits since they didn't want us to get hurt should the floor not hold our weight. In fact, my Asteroids and my friend's Galaxian came from the same room. Shortly after we pulled our games out of there, they made that room off limits because the floor looked to be caving in.
http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0320.JPG
That's a pic of that room after we had our two games out of there. You can see how that cabinet still inside is tipping to one side because the floor is so bad. It was a crazy place, but it was worth it. :-P I paid 15 for the Pac-Man, 10 for the Tempest (both empty cabs) and 100 for a complete (mostly) Asteroids.
ianoid
10-29-2004, 02:34 PM
Me likes this kind of picture laden post/story.
YoshiM
10-29-2004, 03:05 PM
Very cool pics! It looked as though some crypt was unearthed. So, did that Asteroids work at all? That would probably be the coolest feeling: finding a machine that's been literally neglected in an area of filth and decay and it powers back up.
MegaDrive20XX
10-29-2004, 03:08 PM
Those poor things :( I hope you can revive them to their original states
joshnickerson
10-29-2004, 04:03 PM
Awesome story. That building was way creepy... I'd be expecting a zombie infected with the T-virus to come lumbering out of the shadows if I'd been there... @_@
kai123
10-29-2004, 04:12 PM
Awesome story. That building was way creepy... I'd be expecting a zombie infected with the T-virus to come lumbering out of the shadows if I'd been there... @_@


Or a zombie Pacman Cab. LOL



Very cool pictures and a cool story to go with it.
autobotracing
10-29-2004, 04:31 PM
Awesome story. That building was way creepy... I'd be expecting a zombie infected with the T-virus to come lumbering out of the shadows if I'd been there... @_@

<arms nuclear device to prevent t-virus outbreak


Nice finds man I would love to explore a place like that
MarkM2112
10-29-2004, 04:57 PM
http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo/IMGA0282.JPG


Man, this picture reminds me of the "back door" of the bunker in "Return of the Jedi"... All we need are some speeder bikes! LOL
Ed Oscuro
10-29-2004, 06:11 PM
Surreal!

Feel bad for all the cabs you weren't able to pull..and sort of bad for the ones you didn't WANT to pull, too :P

There any quarters in that Brinks money changing machine? :P
sniperCCJVQ
10-29-2004, 08:52 PM
Me likes this kind of picture laden post/story.

Me too.

I remember reading about those "warehouse raid" in the arcade newsgroup and always tought it was way more "dangerous" and kinda like Indiana Jones adventure style compare to our little flea market/pawn shop story.

Very cool !

dangerous = warehouse that look likes haunted house or old farm in the middle of nowhere with guard dogs.
xertcev
10-29-2004, 11:09 PM
Cool find...Any more pictures?

I love old abandoned places, the arcade machines are just a bonus.
Whenever I see abandoned warehouses, I always
wonder what's inside... if it's the next "warehouse raid"

Is that a $1.60 minimum wage? ouch!
SuperGunGuru
10-30-2004, 01:01 AM
Cool find...Any more pictures?

I love old abandoned places, the arcade machines are just a bonus.
Whenever I see abandoned warehouses, I always
wonder what's inside... if it's the next "warehouse raid"

Is that a $1.60 minimum wage? ouch!

More pics can be seen here. http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/kzoo

Yeah that 1.60 minumum wage sign was pretty neat. I also like the sticker next to it. "I've been there have you?: The loading dock" LOL

The sad thing is there are still cabs in that place that can be saved. Yeah they need work, but when they are salvageable, it's worth it. The main reson I took that tempest cab was because this was supposed to be the last time there would be a sale there. A friend of mine who went with me last time still wants to save the last salvageable Pac-Man cabinet as well as a Frogger cabinet and maybe a Space Invaders. Last I knew, they were considering one last sale earlier this month but nothing yet. They also said this sale I went to was going to be in early May, so I'm hoping they're just behind in getting this last sale organized. Here's to hoping. If it goes down, I'll be sure to have more pics and probably some video from the place.
Videogamerdaryll
10-30-2004, 01:32 AM
Awesome....I'd be in my glory at a place like that..


Sort of reminds me of this place.../Browse Pictures
http://www.coinopwarehouse.com/


Something that may interset you too..
http://www.gameroommagazine.com/
Querjek
10-30-2004, 08:42 AM
Very cool, thanks for the story and pics! Do your machines work correctly?
Sanriostar
10-30-2004, 03:10 PM
'twas nice looking at the pics, but I had to fire up Photoshop on half of them and play with Curves to see just what the hell they were.

WannaNewArcadeGameWannaNewArcadeGameWannaNewArcade GameWannaNewArcadeGame!
:beaten:
youngamer
10-30-2004, 04:34 PM
That doesn't look like an arcade from the outside. I would be scared shit going in there and looking at those games. That Pac-Man cab was liik awhole load of termites had a feast. Pretty cool raid anyway 8-)
tholly
10-30-2004, 04:47 PM
That doesn't look like an arcade from the outside. I would be scared shit going in there and looking at those games. That Pac-Man cab was liik awhole load of termites had a feast. Pretty cool raid anyway 8-)



yea, its not suppose to look like an arcade because it wasnt an arcade
it was a warehouse where arcade games from an arcade were stored