Arcade game restoration
I “rescued” two cabinets that I found on Craigslist today, a Double Dragon and a Driving Force.
Neither are games I’m particularly interested in, although I do have fond memories of playing the NES version of Double Dragon. The reason I nabbed them was because of the cabs they were in:
Prompted by someone requesting some artwork for Rampage World Tour, I decided to take a stab at scanning side art properly. I had attempted this once before, but my scanner failed halfway through one side, and I just kind of forgot about it.
Rampage World Tour is not a particularly collectable game at this point in time. It probably never will be – it was released in 1997, when arcades were already on their downward descent in popularity, and it wasn’t particularly groundbreaking. It is quite a fun party game, though – it’s a no-brainer to pick up, it’s very satisfying to bring down a building by punching and kicking it, and Cleveland happens to be one of the earlier cities you destroy. 🙂
(For background info, check out part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5)
Nearing the home stretch, I cleaned up the metal parts of the exterior. I sanded and re-painted the marquee brackets and the coin door with Rust-Oleum Hammered Black spray. I also decided to clean up and repaint the visible metal bolts, giving them a lemon juice bath to remove rust and debris, followed by sanding their hands and spraying the heads with satin black paint. I sprayed just the heads by pushing them through a piece of cardboard so they looked a little bit like mushrooms.
(For background info, check out part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4)
I was definitely intimidated by the side art. It’s basically a giant sticker for each side – a giant, expensive sticker. I don’t exactly have the best track record with stickers.
The only other side art I’ve applied was for a Donkey Kong cab that I partially restored last year, but DK’s art is just a small portion of the side of the cabinet. Getting an entire sticker lined up is another beast, not to mention the ridiculous amount of overlap.
