Farewell Mr. Arcade ’99

Way back in 1999, a friend and I built an arcade cabinet as a summer project.

I ordered the joysticks and buttons from Happ Controls and used the circuit boards from a couple of cheap Playstation controllers. It used to sit in the corner of my room behind two bar stools. It housed all my consoles and had a slot in the front so that I could run controller cables to play Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Sega Bass Fishing.

It was awesome… but heavy… and difficult to move.

When I moved to Leederville (and later Sydney) it stayed at my parents’ house. My sister used it for a while, but it eventually fell into the category of simply “taking up space”. She asked it she could get rid of it and I said that was fine, but I wanted to keep the control panel (she also pulled out the light and speakers, seemed a shame to throw them out).

So now it’s gone… and I’m thinking of building a smaller tabletop cabinet or standalone arcade stick.

Here’s the last photo of it all in one piece:

mrarcadeblog

Sigh. I never did get a real arcade panel. It only ever lit up with the word “Arcade” (quickly printed out on paper as a placeholder title).

Rest In Pieces: Mr. Arcade ’99!

2 thoughts on “Farewell Mr. Arcade ’99”

  1. I felt terrible taking it apart, Nick. But, it had been “out the back” for long enough that it was getting water damage. So sad to see it go. Can’t wait to see Mr Arcade 2010 šŸ˜‰

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