Tony's Arcade

This has got to be the nastiest game I have ever cleaned.

I can only imagine how many Pabst Blue Ribbons and Rheingolds were accidentally knocked over and poured into Football’s trak-balls and offense/defense play charts. What makes me say this, you might ask? Well, my first tip off was the grime on the play charts as they were coated in some kind of yellowy film. Upon removing the monitor bezel, the back of the cardboard audience shroud had liquid stains. Once I opened the control panels and removed the trak-balls, I could see what these machines endured 25-30 years ago. Each trak-ball had a generous amount of black plastic chaff (from the trak-ball), hand grease, and beer residue on the bottom of the trak-ball harness. Fantastic! I broke out the Mean Green de-greaser and went to work.

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OK, ok, ok… I have been asked to provide some updates on the Warehouse Raid. Here we go…

As part of the warehouse raid, I was able to get my hands on a game I first saw back in 2001. The Pole Position cockpit! In the last (and first) warehouse raid I participated in 2001, I saw the fabled cockpit which I never saw as a kid. Cockpit style arcade games were stuff of legend in my part of the state because of cost and probably weight and coins per game (50 cents)! I, living in an apartment in 2001, had no room and there was no way I was going to get that thing up two flights of stairs! Instead, I settled on a Pole Position II upright which has been in my arcade until recently. When I saw the Pole Position cockpit in the 2008 warehouse raid, it was time to get my grubby hands on it and sell the upright!

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