So I put my Mr. Do's Wildride up for sale to fund the purchase of a Q*bert. Yes! Being that the Mr. Do game was in a Cliffhanger cabinet, several people were wanting it to buy it to do a restoration. I did sell the cabinet, but not without some kindergarten drama.

A collector named "KSKID" who is from an online arcade forum and also lives 6 hours away, somehow thought he had dibs on the game because he called "it". He then went into a mental breakdown when I sold it to a local friend and collector.

These are some of the messages this guy sent me:
• I don't think I could deal with you after what took place today don't think I could look you in the face
• If anything hope that you learned a lesson from all this and not to be so quick in the future to make deals until you have gotten all the responses off your ad, its not fair to everyone involved.
• this whole ordeal has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth
• No phone calls please, I'm through
• I hold grudges, so believe me when I say, I will remember you.

I can only guess someone needed their medication, badly. My game, my rules. I'm glad I didn't sell this to you.

I have started some restoration to my new Mario Bros arcade. I installed a new cap kit in the monitor which has given it more vibrant color and will also ensure continued operation as these 25 year old monitors tend to get flaky with time.

I ordered and installed new T-molding on the arcade in Nintendo white. Very nice. The old T-molding was a bit yellowed from time and smoke.

Eventually I want to replace the control panel overlay (where the joysticks are at) as there is some peeling there, and a freeplay kit would be nice.

Mario Bros. carries found memories as back in the day it was one of the few 2 player arcade games, along with Joust. That meant you and a friend, or in many cases my brother could do team play to clear each level. You can see pictures on the Mario Bros road trip page.

Today it was 70 degress outside. Just 3 days earlier I had to do a road trip in the cold and snow. Go figure. So I decide to open up the doors and fire up the arcades. I was doing minor maintennance on some of the arcades when my daughter and a friend asked to play a game. I told them to go ahead.

Within a couple of minutes a swarm of smurfs overran the arcade. By smurfs I mean there were now 15 neighborhood kids in the basement arcade hammering away at the games. At first I was a little shocked and nervous. Then I calmed down and enjoyed all these young apprentices enjoying the classics.

It's been a long time coming, but today I got to pick up a dedicated wide body Mario Bros arcade. I put so many quarters in this game as a kid that I could have bought a brand new one back in 1983.

This was on my top 5 list of wanted games to round out my collection. Last night it snowed, and when I say it snowed, I mean like it snowed 6-8 inches. This road trip took us to the magical land of Kansas City. It also ended in tragedy and triumph. Trust me, its an interesting story. You can read more about this road trip here.

Over the Christmas holidays I was approached by a family friend named Trey. He asked me if I still had my Contra and I said "yes". Jokingly, he asked if he could buy it from me. I told him I wasn't really selling at this time. He asked how much something like that would go for if I sold it and I told him I would want $300 for it. He told me he would buy it for that, but I wasn't selling. Flash forward a couple of weeks. I find a Mario Bros for sale on Craigslist but a I need the space for an extra arcade and the cash. I call Trey up and ask him if he still wants the Contra for $300 and he says "yes". So my Contra is now sold.

New Years Eve: I fired up all the games for some guests who came over to celebrate. Later that evening I was powering off all the games for the night. Here I am staring at a Rampage World Tour screen, in nostalgic all gray colors. Yep, game plays, only in gray.

Not too happy but I turn the thing off for the night, hoping it was a bad dream and when I turn it on the next day it will go away. Well, no such luck.

After some research it turns out that a 100 KOhm resistor on the monitor went bad causing the problem. His official name was R811, and I couldn't chuck him in the trash fast enough. After replacing it all the color came back, with the added bonus that the colors were a little brighter and more vibrant. Nice.

I'm digging the World Tour remake, but I can't wait to get me hands on an original Rampage arcade game.