Raids rarely go completely to plan, and this was no exception! I first got in contact with this Op over a year ago. He told me he had an OutRun machine and some boards. This particular Op is based in a popular seaside town several hours away. I had planned to visit a few Ops in the area, but unfortunately the dates clashed with his holiday. He told me he had to have a sort out, but thought he had got rid of most of his boards anyway. As a result this got put on the back burner.
Fast forward a year, and I called the owner of a local arcade which was closing down. He said he has an OutRun and some boards. I expressed my interest and agreed to have a look, and it soon transpired that there had been a mix up. I had called the wrong number and this wasn’t a local Op, but one who lived several hours away who I had been hoping to visit last year! Half term was approaching and the daughter was off school, and so I began thinking about going on another holiday / Raid, or HoliRaid as my wife now calls them. After all, if nothing comes of it, we still get to have a nice few days away.
Before my visit I had a few more chats with the Op. He said he had quite a few boards, more than he thought he had. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this and had to ask him to repeat it! Normally when Ops get back to me I hear the opposite, or worse still, they tell me that all their video games were skipped years ago. He said he didn’t have the time or inclination to test the boards and was just looking to clear them out, which was great news for me. The last Op I visited was still very passionate about his boards and ended up parting with very few! He also said he had cocktail cabinets, a green Neo Geo cab and two OutRun cabs. I was definitely starting to feel more excited about this Raid! He asked me about prices for the OutRun, and I explained it’s dependant on condition and difficult to gauge without seeing them, but I offered a couple of hundred quid to get the ball rolling.
It’s day one of our holiday, we’re in the caravan, and the Op phones me. He tells me that his son had put the feelers out on Facebook for the OutRun cabs and there has been incredible interest, with his phone constantly pinging with messages. He tells me a sale has been agreed, and it’s pretty much a done deal, with someone collecting the cabs that evening. However everything else is still up for grabs. I must admit I was more than a little disappointed as I had hoped to buy them, keeping one for myself and selling the other on. However I remained optimistic and headed down to see him that very afternoon. I thought if the other stuff ends up on a Facebook group, it will just become a bidding war.
I arrive at the unit and see these machines in the doorway.
It turns out they’re not OutRun after all, but OutRunners! The cabs look decent, although less desirable in my eyes. I have a quick look over of the machines. Apparently they have monitor faults. The steering on one machine feels clunky, and on the other the steering wheel is hanging loose on the shaft. They will be great projects for someone, but I’m starting to think I dodged a bullet with these.
Just inside the unit I notice a couple of control panels.
Next I spy this very clean looking Lordsvale Neo Geo MVS cab.
Apparently it had just come back off site. I ended up buying this one and found two carts in the bottom, Puzzled and Tecmo World Soccer ’96. Not the most exciting titles, but a nice bonus all the same.
A couple of Space Invader boards stacked between the fruit machines.
This Video Master cab was missing the monitor, although I did grab the Cyber Lip MVS cart and motherboard which was just sitting inside. Later on I also found 3 Count Bout and Windjammers carts.
Maximum Force. It had a monitor fault and was a bit pricey, so I ended up leaving it.
The workbench, complete with a random selection of PCB’s. There were some really good ones as well, including Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker and Time Pilot ’84.
The Op tried to sell me the Noddy car, but I had to decline as sadly I don’t have the space for another sit down driver.
Moving up the stairs, I could see a few cocktail cabs stashed away.
At the top of the stairs were these two Video World cabs.
I really like the look of these. Nice, small, compact cabs, but the Op was inclined to keep these, with intentions of putting them back on site.
The Op had begun pulling out boxes of PCB’s, and I was confronted with this lot!
Flicky, released on Sega System 1 hardware in 1984, was one of today’s top finds. Curiously the board had a hand written ‘Flicky 2’ label attached. I suspect the Op had multiple boards.
These Sega Mega-Play motherboards and carts were a cool find. They looked in almost brand new condition. I’ve picked up Sega Mega-Tech systems on previous Raids, but it’s the first time I’ve come across its successor, the Mega-Play. This system utilises a more traditional arcade operation than the Mega-Tech, with credits used to buy lives instead of time. Also it has four cart slots instead of eight.
In addition to the above titles, I also picked up Bio-Hazard Battle, Columns III: Revenge of Columns and GrandSlam: The Tennis Tournament ’92. I can’t wait to play Streets of Rage II in a cab. Or Street of Rage II as the label says.
Cocktail cabs quite literally stacked up to the ceiling.
They were mostly Taito Space Invaders, although I did see a couple of Zaccaria machines amongst them.
They looked nice and original and in great condition for their age. These were sited in all the local guest houses back in the day.
Boards could be found in just about every nook and cranny.
A couple of driving cab dashboards.
The pool table parts section, with various video game parts thrown in. Notice though that all these parts are sitting on cocktail cabs as well!
A random PCB in the corner, with an obligatory fruit machine reel sitting on top. Hang on, that looks like Konami GX400 hardware! Could it be Nemesis?
Sadly not, it was City Bomber, a vehicular combat game released in 1987. However I did manage to find a Salamander board which made up for the slight disappointment.
Here is a short walk through
video of the unit.
I started going through the boards. They were a good price, and the Op was throwing in extras, so I wasn’t too picky. There was a nice eclectic mix of eighties and nineties titles. The majority of the boards were original, although I did grab a couple of Bubble Bobble boots. The haul includes early obscure Sega titles (Flicky, My Hero, Ninja Princess, Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns), a few Sega System 16 boards (Altered Beast, Dynamite Düx), Sega System 18 (Moonwalker, D.D. Crew), Sega Mega-Play motherboards and carts, lots of great Konami boards (Circus Charlie, Salamander, Super Contra, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles), Capcom (1942, Commando, Final Fight, Street Fighter II), Irem (Hammerin’ Harry, Kung-Fu Master), Namco (Pac-Land, Rolling Thunder), SNK (Alpha Mission, Guerilla War, Ikari Warriors), Tehkan (Bomb Jack, Star Force), Toaplan (Demon’s World, Snow Bros) and loads more!
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