Oh, the humanity.....

[fergojisan]

This is just WRONG.

http://www.uwm.com/10.asx

I saw this infomercial on tv the other night and watched this part in open-mouthed horror. I don't know anything about fixing up games, but I know a lot of you do, and I'm sure some of you would have saved these. (I especially remember AlanD's post on refurbishing a, um, Q*Bert machine? Whatever it was, it was a beautiful job.)

The (small) consensus here about TNT seems to be that they have a lot of stuff, but they are very expensive. Oh well. x_x

[Arcade Antics]

Biggest. Dumbass. Ever.

[tholly]

hopefully they did that just for shock effect and hopefully that isnt there actual practice of destroying games that arent up to their "standards"

[DogP]

Yeah, I've seen that... I assume that they took all of the good parts out and threw junk in there, and the cabs probably had water damage or something... with how much restoration they do, I can't believe that they'd destroy something that could be restored.

DogP

[tholly]

Yeah, I've seen that... I assume that they took all of the good parts out and threw junk in there, and the cabs probably had water damage or something... with how much restoration they do, I can't believe that they'd destroy something that could be restored.

DogP


yea...when they break up on the ground, they didnt look too "complete" and they seemed to come apart really easily...like parts and screws were missing just to get that nice smashing effect

that place isnt too far from me...id love to take a trip there just to look around, not to buy...id rather just fix up my own

like with the help from ppl on here i got my $60 vigilante up and running with very little extra cost on needed replacement parts...and if i would have known about jumpering the sync wire i probably could have saved even more $$ on repairs

[Kid Ice]

I've seen this guy on TV before, and whenever I see it I think of one thing:

"Maury's wigs don't come off!"

This is one of those jokes you either get or you don't.

Anyway, I've been to TNT. My wife was going to buy me a game...any game. I just had to point.

Here's what I found:

-a cockpit Pole Position with a broken shifter

-a Robotron with severe monitor burn-in

-a Street Fighter II with buttons that didn't work

-a Gyruss with bad speakers and a goofed-up bezel

And those were the ones I actually thought about buying. All fixable problems, right? How hard can it be to fix buttons on a Street Fighter II? So I know I could've bought (pointed to) any of these and fixed them up, but it was just the principle of the whole thing...couldn't they have just made these simple repairs themselves instead of putting these busted machines on display?

I opted for a Slik Stick instead. 8-)

[AlanD]

Yeah the Ms. Pac was basically shock factor from the look since I don't think it was a Ms. Pac board coming out of that thing. They are way too valuable in any condition to do that to. The Black Knight however is a crime. I could have used some of the pieces tho it did look like the playfield, circuitry and a few other pieces were pulled. Mainly shock value but it does piss me off to see since I could use some Black Knight parts :)


Ps that was a Qbert I restored and pics are available on my website. Thanks for remembering. Very gratifying considering the time that took to do.

[Kid Ice]

@ Kid Ice - His showroom also doubles as an arcade for the room adjacent to it that he rents out (for kids b-day parties and whatnot). Maybe you just hit it at the 'wrong' time? I dunno...the games always seemed to be in good shape the few times I stopped down there.

Must have been a real 'wrong' time then. Every machine I was interested in had some kind of problem. And the Robotron w/ the bad monitor was $1800. Ouch.

[stargate]

the guy is a dick and has no respect for videogaming.

[chadtower]

He is not a dick, he's a well known vendor who respects his games and is quite generous on RGVAC. Those cabs were very likely empty shells that were water damaged.

[Arcade Antics]

The machines belonged to that guy to do whatever he wanted to. If he wants to throw them on a pile of TNT and detonate it, all the power to him. But that doesn't make it any less stupid. LOL

Empty shell or not, there were still many parts there that could have been used in the restoration of a machine for someone else. The Ms. Pac marquee, while not the greatest, is still better than nothing. Even that cab, even with water damage (though it's hard to tell from the video), could have been salvaged by someone who wanted to repair it. I've seen much worse machines completely restored.

*shrugs*

[stargate]

He is not a dick, he's a well known vendor who respects his games and is quite generous on RGVAC. Those cabs were very likely empty shells that were water damaged.

Umm, any person who deliberately destroys an arcade game is a dick IMO. Isn't the whole reason behind emulators like MAME to preserve these vintage games for future generations? He seems to be saying in that clip that he destroys any game that is not up to his standards. Why not just sell them for cheap or give them away for someone else to restore? There are plenty of loving homes that would be happy to take a machine in and restore it to it's former glory.

I just can't believe someone who allegedly "respects his games" would do such a thing. :(

[Jasoco]

It was for shock value. Don't worry. Leave the guy alone. The games were in such bad condition it would be a waste to even give them away. Hell, even I wouldn't try to dump them on someone else. Why not destroy them? It's not like they were hugely rare or anything.

Besides, you can TELL they parted them out and just dropped the bare essentials for making it look realistic. For all you know, that may have been a dead CRT and a board from something completely different.

[chadtower]

Dude, that sig banner is creepy.