As you can probably guess, a lot of old arcade cabinets from the 80s aren’t exactly in the best shape in 2016. That doesn’t mean they can’t be salvaged though, as long as you’re willing to put a little love, cash and elbow grease into it.
Tony Temple, whose arcade exploits we’ve covered before, has detailed the processes and work that went into restoring an old Atari Centipede machine that he got “from a container in the middle of nowhere”.
It was “a bit of a mess”, he says. While the cabinet was intact and contained all the necessary parts, it was “full of cobwebs and dead insects”, and “a light smattering of bird shit adorns its top and control panel”.
The parts and frame of the cabinet were also not great.
It’s amazing what some scrubbing, vacuuming, wood repair, replacement parts and even a good soak in a wash tub can do, though, because the final result looks like it just rolled off the factory floor.
Temple detailed the entire journey on his site, which is definitely worth a look if you want to see some of the more technical aspects of the restoration.