"It turned out it had been stood in a farmer's field for about six months..."
For Chris Jackson, five abandoned cocktail cabinets started his obsession with repairing and selling coin-ops.
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Chris Jackson got into arcade machines totally by accident. You know how it is - you see something (in his case a load of cocktail cabinets sitting unloved in someone's back garden), you ask out of curiosity how much it would be to buy one, and you end up going home with all five of the things. The original owner had intended to chuck them in a skip; now Chris had the coin-ops lined up in his garage, and no ideas. "I took them because I thought I might be able to do something with them, but I didn't know what." The answer, of course, was to get into the coin-op business, albeit it at the level of enthusiastic amateur. Chris was and is a printer by trade, and buying and supplying arcade games remains only a hobby, although one he admits he'd get a kick out of doing full time. "I don't really do it for profit, I just love it - going out and coming backl with a load of new games and testing them is one of the best things." Sitting in his house, packed with obscure coin-ops, it's easy to see what he means. But dedicated though he is, the lengths some people will go to get hold of their favourite games still amazes him. Chris takes a lot of international enquiries - his biggest customer is a collector in Germany, but he's had interest from America and elsewhere - with most people hearing of him through his website. If people want something, they're willing to pay for it. On Chris's site he currently has Star Wars top marque (the lit logo above the screen) for £50. Yes, £50 for an obsolete sign Chris's best discovery came when he saw a sign reading "Star Wars Machine For Sale, Not Working, £20". "I still didn't know much about arcade games at the time, but I knew enough to realise I'd struck lucky when the guy told me it was a complete, sit-down cockpit machine. After picking myself off the floor, I arranged for him to deliver it the next day - it arrived and I couldn't believe how big it was." Unfortunately, however the thing refused to work. "During the next day or so I set about finding what was wrong with it. It turned out it had been stood in a farmer's field for about six months, and was badly water damage at the bottom of the cabinet. The electronics were in a bad way too, but after checking the wiring and making sure that everything was connected properly, I turned the power on and stood well back. Risky, and not to be recommended, but I did it. A low humming noise rose from the depths of the machine, but no bangs or sparks. I remember thinking 'Good Start`." "But the monitor still wasn't working. I checked for other signs of life, opened up the coin mechanism and pressed the credit button. Nothing happened, and my heart sank. Then, just as I was losing hope `Red Five standing by` came from the speakers. Fantastic! I jumped into the cockpit and started blindly moving the controls around and firing. Sure enough the music started and nothing else. I played the game for the next two weeks with no picture on the screen, just happy to hear the sound come alive." It took Chris six months and the purchase of an upright, £150 Empire Strikes Back machine, to get the Star Wars coin-op back into working condition. By stripping out the entire sides of the upright and then transplanting them into the cockpit model, the larger machine was at last a going concern. "And the best thing was that when I'd finished I could swap the two PCB's around in the cockpit cabinet whenever I fancied! These days my house is full of coin-ops, but I still wish I had that Star Wars machine. For some reason I swapped it for a pinball table, and it's a decision I'll always regret."
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