The Steampunk World
Saturday I ventured along with Singular, Monkey Boy, 3-Kidney Spahr, Kabuto, and E-D to an arcade game auction. Monkey Boy wants to turn his living room into a bar, much to 3-Kidney's chagrin. I wasn't there to buy anything, having learned my lesson about the inconvenience of arcade cabinets already. In fact, I'm trying to convince M.B. to take my Klax game, as it just doesn't go with our new place.
The games are all unlocked for inspection by would-be buyers, but an experienced one would bring their own extension cord. Once you get juice to a machine, though, you can play it all you want for free. I found a bunch of old-school games I used to play and discovered that they suck. Remember the Superman game, the one where player 2 is the red Superman? All that game consists of is kicking and punching. You just hold the joystick left and whenever a baddie gets near you, hit one of the buttons. I used to think that was fun! I used to pay hard-earned allowance money for it! But to maximize your auction experience you gotta go for the big quarter-sucking games, like sitdowns and four-player adventure games. This auction had 500 games but I'd say 70% of them weren't working and there were no sit-down ones. Pretty lame as far as auctions go, but heck, it was free. A full game of NBA jam costs $4 so if you look at it that way we were rakin' it in.
Monkey Boy was there for a Ms. Pac Man, which is considered a collector's item and therefore costs real dough (since you can get a crappy game for a few Jacksons). They musta had 10 copies of it (not to mention the old-school Pac-Man where he looks more like a sperm on the cabinet art, Super Pac Man, and Baby Pac Man), the working ones going for around $400 (much cheaper than ebay, though). M.B. found a sit-down cabinet in perfect condition... and couldn't get it to work. Oh, well, the best way to look at an auction is that if you don't buy anything, you come out ahead.
Later on I headed to the Rat Patrol Build Day, arriving on the embryonic form of Count Chopula. There were probably 20 people in attendance, but most of them were experienced Rats who were just there to lend a hand. The fella hosting it, Josh, had three types of welders but only activated one at a time, I dunno if they are unsafe to operate together or both of the fellas who could weld preferred the arc or what. It's very hard to have a chop session where you get to ride your creation at the end, but I managed it by coming with a solid plan in mind. It was a simple matter of grinding the parts I want to attach to fit the existing frame, grinding off the paint around the weld, and taking off any nearby meltable parts (which included the grease in the bottom bracket, lest it cook stenchily in the heat of the weld). Then I handed it over to Josh and John to slap it together.
Contrary to my example, not every Rat is a weirdo dork. Many of them really have their shit together, and have worked hard on the skills that allow you to build a bike. Josh had an aluminum diamond frame that he had built from scratch in 300 hours. Talk about precise work! They're pretty nice, too, pretty tolerant of the random dorks that have joined up and just do this as a hobby. Very willing to teach what they know to the amateur.
Chopper Bob was working on a sort of tall chopper, and Al the Pal had a beach cruiser he was chopping but was so overwhelmed by the ideas folks gave him that he went right back to the drawing board for more consideration. I think he and I are at the same stage, where we've built sloppy trashbikes and desire something a little more rideable. Rideability was definitely my goal, and the two impediments on a chopper are the reduced leg extension and the fact that you no longer rest your weight on your knees but right on your buttbone. So all I have to do to make the Count good for longer rides (like a whole Critical Mass where my body isn't crying out for mercy) is find a comfy seat and somehow extend the crankset further. The latter was accomplished but as always, pictures would explain it better than I ever could. I will post anything I get from the Rat Ride, Build Day, or of the Crimebike and Hammer to the ChicagoFreakBike page.
Gotta get the Count ready for the Halloween CM ride, as well as start on my costume. Time for another trip to the fabric store.
The games are all unlocked for inspection by would-be buyers, but an experienced one would bring their own extension cord. Once you get juice to a machine, though, you can play it all you want for free. I found a bunch of old-school games I used to play and discovered that they suck. Remember the Superman game, the one where player 2 is the red Superman? All that game consists of is kicking and punching. You just hold the joystick left and whenever a baddie gets near you, hit one of the buttons. I used to think that was fun! I used to pay hard-earned allowance money for it! But to maximize your auction experience you gotta go for the big quarter-sucking games, like sitdowns and four-player adventure games. This auction had 500 games but I'd say 70% of them weren't working and there were no sit-down ones. Pretty lame as far as auctions go, but heck, it was free. A full game of NBA jam costs $4 so if you look at it that way we were rakin' it in.
Monkey Boy was there for a Ms. Pac Man, which is considered a collector's item and therefore costs real dough (since you can get a crappy game for a few Jacksons). They musta had 10 copies of it (not to mention the old-school Pac-Man where he looks more like a sperm on the cabinet art, Super Pac Man, and Baby Pac Man), the working ones going for around $400 (much cheaper than ebay, though). M.B. found a sit-down cabinet in perfect condition... and couldn't get it to work. Oh, well, the best way to look at an auction is that if you don't buy anything, you come out ahead.
Later on I headed to the Rat Patrol Build Day, arriving on the embryonic form of Count Chopula. There were probably 20 people in attendance, but most of them were experienced Rats who were just there to lend a hand. The fella hosting it, Josh, had three types of welders but only activated one at a time, I dunno if they are unsafe to operate together or both of the fellas who could weld preferred the arc or what. It's very hard to have a chop session where you get to ride your creation at the end, but I managed it by coming with a solid plan in mind. It was a simple matter of grinding the parts I want to attach to fit the existing frame, grinding off the paint around the weld, and taking off any nearby meltable parts (which included the grease in the bottom bracket, lest it cook stenchily in the heat of the weld). Then I handed it over to Josh and John to slap it together.
Contrary to my example, not every Rat is a weirdo dork. Many of them really have their shit together, and have worked hard on the skills that allow you to build a bike. Josh had an aluminum diamond frame that he had built from scratch in 300 hours. Talk about precise work! They're pretty nice, too, pretty tolerant of the random dorks that have joined up and just do this as a hobby. Very willing to teach what they know to the amateur.
Chopper Bob was working on a sort of tall chopper, and Al the Pal had a beach cruiser he was chopping but was so overwhelmed by the ideas folks gave him that he went right back to the drawing board for more consideration. I think he and I are at the same stage, where we've built sloppy trashbikes and desire something a little more rideable. Rideability was definitely my goal, and the two impediments on a chopper are the reduced leg extension and the fact that you no longer rest your weight on your knees but right on your buttbone. So all I have to do to make the Count good for longer rides (like a whole Critical Mass where my body isn't crying out for mercy) is find a comfy seat and somehow extend the crankset further. The latter was accomplished but as always, pictures would explain it better than I ever could. I will post anything I get from the Rat Ride, Build Day, or of the Crimebike and Hammer to the ChicagoFreakBike page.
Gotta get the Count ready for the Halloween CM ride, as well as start on my costume. Time for another trip to the fabric store.
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