It's not a general-purpose computer, but it does have two Motorola
MC68000 processors in it (main board and sound board) and was
built in 1987, so it's on-topic...
Went to the USAA arcade auction today... it's free to get in and free
to get a bidder number. Just had to pay the fairgrounds $4 to park.
Played a lot of pinball for free (gotta investigate the merchandise,
naturally ;-) and a few classic video games.
I saw stripped cocktail cabinets (no board, monitor or glass) go for
nearly $100. I saw some 1950s electo-mechanical games go for under $200.
Pac-Man fetched $600 or more. Space Invaders with some plexiglass
scratches went for about $200. A video bowling game went for $900!
Generally speaking, name-brand games (Defender, Dig-Dug, Frogger and
the like) went for $400-$600. They got to the Xenophobe and I walked
away with it for $200. Me and one other guy. It went $100-$150-$200
and they couldn't get another bid.
Works perfectly. I've seen just the game controllers sell on ePay
for $85 each.
Now to get it in my house from the porch. I had to disassemble it
to get it up the front stairs alone. I have to put the monitor
enclosure back on its stalk and put the controls back on the front,
plug in a few connectors and I'm back in business.
It's no $15 cocktail game, but I've wanted one for years.
If only there were some hacks for it. Oh yeah! That's right! It
came with full schematics in a pouch in the door. Just need a
memory map and I'm hacking away... I can use MAME to test the hacks
before burning EPROMs.
-ethan
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Received on Sat Sep 07 2002 - 16:29:00 BST