Galaxian Video Game Review

It all started when I was bragging to Terry Rommel, a friend from work, about the Video Game Cabinet I wanted to build.  He said "Instead of building your own, why don't you use the arcade cabinet that my Grandfather has in his Garage?  I think it's a Galaga Machine."It sounded like a good idea.  If it was in good shape, it would have a marquee, side art, and a coin door.  These are all things I wanted for my project.  I told him I would give him $50.00 sight unseen for the cabinet.

We agreed to meet after work and drive the 40 miles to his Grandfathers farm in Hanover PA. As we pulled up in the driveway, I got the first look at his "Garage".  As you can see from the picture, the outside of the garage was surrounded by old gas pumps, piles of metal, and almost anything you could imagine."Uh-oh" was all that I thought as I climbed out of my van.  I approached the garage and met a nice old man who's biggest joy in life was going to auction.  

He looked mostly for metal items he could sell for scrap.He told me a story about how 15 years ago he was at an auction, and this "Pinball" machine was for sale.  There was no keys to the thing and the doors were locked.  The auctioneer convinced him that it was probably full of quarters.  So he bought it and dragged it home on the back of his old pickup truck.  After carefully cutting the lock on the back of the cabinet, he looked inside and found...  NOTHING BUT THE KEY.  

Being disappointed, he put the "pinball" cabinet in the back of his garage and left it.Finally he decided to invite me into his garage to see his "pinball" cabinet for the first time.  We wound around the drill press and lathe, past the mountain of chain to the back corner of a dirty, greasy garage.  There were broken windows all around.  He kept the Lightning Fighter 2 Hack garage door open year around so the cats and dogs could get out of the rain.  Not exactly a protective environment for a Video Game cabinet. There in the corner, covered with a heavy layer of Guano, (Bird Doo Doo for you unsophisticated types), was a GALAXIAN machine.  

It was greasy and grimy, and for fifty dollars, it was all mine!You can almost see the white layer covering the screen.I used my refrigerator cart and hauled it back to my van.  I thanked him, and stood for another 20 minutes while he told me the rest of his life's story.  He told me I would make a lot of money with his old "Pinball".  He just couldn't understand how I was going to make any money by keeping it at my house.To be continued..   My GREEN T-Molding has arrived!  I will now be able to replace the black non-original T-molding! I own a Galaxian Video Game.  I will tell you about the restoration project here. Here are some thumbnails.  I'll explain them later.