New Addition to Waterborn's Arcade - Part II: The Descent

So as of my last blog, I had the new Sinistar cab in the house, sitting in the kitchen because my friend Brian was unable to come over the night that I brought it home to help me get it into my basement arcade. To get the cab into the arcade, it must be manouvered down a very tight and steep set of stairs. As mentioned previously, this is something that I have tried to do by myself once, just once. The episode nearly resulted in my untimely demise. Given that experience and the fact that I was nearly delirious with fatigue and a burgeoning sinus infection, I opted to head to bed and wait for Brian to come over the following day to lend a hand with getting the cab into the arcade.

Here is a short video of the game as it sat in the kitchen waiting to make its way down to the basement arcade.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYaUwNDAfk[/youtube]

So the next day my friend Brian arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon and we set to getting the beast into the basement. This is the seventh game in my arcade collection and probably about the 11th game that has been down the stairs to the basement (several have made the trip back up for sale or trade). I figured this time I would get some video of the fun, so here you go.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGHjcYXKw8E[/youtube]

Once we had the game at the bottom of the stairs, getting it in place was a breeze. We set the new Sinistar cab in line right between my two other Williams games, Robotron and Stargate. Here is a video of it in place. Notice my buddy Brian in the background taking a Donkey Kong break.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJpYoioFLeo[/youtube]

Finally, Sinistar was in place and it was time to play. My first attempt to record gameplay did not turn out so well as I could not even get past the first round.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEws0VZxy6s[/youtube]

I figured that my poor performance was a sign that I needed to get some more rest, so I put in one game of TRON with Brian and then headed back upstairs to crash, exhausted but happy about my new acquisition. The next day, I decided to record another game and did a little better. In the video below, you at least get to see a fully built Sinistar and I get to take it down and advance onto round 2.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpf93_dwnmQ[/youtube]

So that is the story of how Sinistar made its way into my personal home arcade. I am running out of room in my small basement, but have a few more cabs that are on my "must have" list, including Bosconian. As luck would have it, Brian has a Bosconian that may be coming up for sale soon. So stay tuned to this blog to find out if that game makes its way into Waterborn's Arcade.

On A Related Note

For anyone who has seen the movie The King of Kong, you are no doubt of familiar with Funspot and the American Classic Arcade Museum where the climactic scene was shot (the one where Billy Mitchell's friends pull out his infamous VHS copy of the high score that dethroned Steve Wiebe shortly after he set the new World Record. Well ACAM needs your help. Apparently classic arcade games don't pay for themselves and do not draw enough interest to raise sufficient money to keep this non-profit landmark in the black. ACAM is a certified 501c3 non-profit and the folks who run the show there are running a fundraiser to help keep the games playing. Please check out the preceding link and give what you can. Every little bit helps. Currently ACAM is the largest collection of classic era coin-op video games in the world. Help keep this treasure open and running.