Latest Arcade Pickup - Galaxian in Mint Condition

This will make my second Galaxian cabinet, although the other one was in much worse condition and has a much different fate. This one it in mint condition, I just need to install a cap kit and it will be perfect!

Namco Museum Vol .3 - Arcade Mode

Reinforcing Gaplus Bezel Artwork

Awesome Galaga High Score!

I just had a awesome game of Galaga! My final score was 126,560! And I was on Level 18. That is a far cry from 20 Million of the world record, but it is only 4,330 points from the third highest score according to twin Galaxies! Woo Hoo!! I am going to have to start recording my sessions!

My Galaga, snuggled all nice and tight between my Neo·Geo and my Marvel Vs. Capcom (also runs Street Fighter Alpha)

Don't buy Galaga for the T-Mobile Sidekick!

When I got my Sidekick '08 back in June I was surprised that it didn't have Galaga for download. It was ridiculous because they had an excellent Galaga theme. So today when I saw it was released I downloaded it.

Boy was I disappointed:

Graphics

Above: Actual Screenshot

The graphics are the best feature of this conversion, they are pretty much pixel perfect. The color pallet on the other hand is a little off.

Sound

The sound is horrible it sounds nothing like the original arcade game. Also there is no explosion sound! The sidekick can play mp3s, so why didn't they use samples of the original game like you can in MAME?

Gameplay

This is the worst of the three, the game has tons of slowdown, the ship's projectiles move at a rate that is not the same ratio of ship/projectile speed of the original. It makes the game tedious and difficult because in Galaga you can only have 2 shots on the screen at a time. With the slow projectiles it leaves you very vulnerable to alien attack.

Final Thoughts

Overall this game is a disappointment. I am not just saying this as a Galaga fan. If I bought some other game and it was this bad of an arcade conversion I would want my money back. I know that it could have been so much better, The sidekick version of Ms. Pac-Man runs fine, granted it suffers from the same sound issues.

I cannot recommend this game to anyone as it is unplayable. Do not buy. Namco/T-mobile I want my money back!

Galaga Fixed!

My Craig's List was able to raise the money for a new monitor for my Galaga. I got it in the mail today and now it is in and up and running!

All that is left now is to get my Marvel Vs Capcom up and running.

Nice side by side shot with the Neo Geo.

Here is the old and new monitor side by side, note how the new one is much blacker.

Rear view of monitors. I hard already removed the driver board from the old monitor, I might still try and fix it.

Here is the cabinet empty waiting for the new monitor.

My Online Yardsale

In order to raise some money to replace the monitor in my Galaga and fix up the other cabinets I am holding an online yardsale!

Everything is posted on Craig's List and I will be adding more things as time goes by. I hope to sell everything, but we will see how that goes. Who doesn't want a Baldwin Funmachine???

• Retail Clothing Mannequin (female)
• Two Dish Network 311 Receivers plus dish and LNB
• Unicycle - SOLD
• Apple Macintosh Performa 575 (With Apple IIe card!)
• AD&D "DragonLance - Tales of the Lance" boxed set
• 1980s and 1990s Dirt Bike Magazines
• Organ - Baldwin Funmachine
• Mini Refrigerator - SOLD

Adjusting the convergence on my Galaga

I have been fixing up my Galaga Arcade Cabinet that I bought last week. When I first got Galaga it did not get past the "RAM OK" message, but I was able to pull every socketed chip from the board and clean them and get it working.

But then that presented another problem, the red green and blue beams in the monitor did not line up. On a more modern PC tube monitor you can adjust this via on screen menus. But on this 1981 15khz Galaga monitor it is done by adjusting the convergence rings on the yoke of the picture tube.

I discovered this while looking at the manual for the monitor in my Neo Geo MVS Arcade Cabinet I bought. The instructions for adjusting the convergence were quite vague. But I was able to figure out after messing with it for a few hours. I will post more detailed instructions later.

I finally got my Arcade Cabinets!

I haven't talked about this, but I was able to do a raid on a warehouse full of old Arcade Games! I was able to get 3 games at a really good price! My friends Patrick and Mike each got a game as well!

Here is what I picked up:

Galaga

This will work after I clean all of the contacts on the roms, currently the game is garbled.

Neo Geo MVS

This is awesome cause it plays multiple games in cartridge form. It currently has Bust A Move, Samurai Shodown III, and Spinmaster in it! It can hold up to 4 games at once.

Marvel Vs. Capcom

This cabinet suffers from a sucide battery. I will need to get the roms phoenixed to get it working again.