Well “Weekend Pickup” is maybe stretching things a little in this case, but still.

I’ve been on the lookout for one of these cabinets for years. I regarded it as one of my “grail” arcade cabinets, but the potential cost has always been a hindrance to my acquiring one. Not to mention, the cabinet was never released over here on UK shores – so actually tracking one down at a good price, then factoring in shipping costs made getting one placed in Arcade Blogger towers a distant dream.

But as luck would have it, back in July this year, I came across one being advertised on Facebook and struck a deal with the seller! Arranging shipping was nerve wracking – I’ve never imported a cabinet from America before. The cost can be eye watering, and with the global logistics situation in turmoil at the moment, it took a good 3 months to finally arrive. But arrive it did!

The seller did a great job of securing and wrapping the cabinet to a pallet as required by the shipping company:

Time to unwrap!

Although it survived its journey across the Atlantic well, the Robotron didn’t escape some minor damage to the top of the cabinet:

As you’ll know with my previous acquisitions, actually getting the cabinet is the easy part. It was now time to sweet talk Mrs Arcade Blogger to help carry the thing up the stairs to the loft arcade:

So once indoors, I was able to take a closer look at the internals and figure out what needed doing before switching things on.

After checking all the connections, and reading up on the specs of the 13″ D7700 Wells Gardner monitor, I figured that converting the cabinet to 230V was going to be super easy. For starters, the monitor will take a range of voltages up to 240V without any conversion required. A real bonus.

After a final check that the switcher was pumping out the correct voltages, we were good to switch on:

By way of size comparison, here’s the cabaret next to my bigger European upright cousin:

Delighted to finally own one of these great cabinets – time to set some scores!

The cabinet plays great. A smaller screen takes some getting used to, but I prefer the playing position and looking down at the action.

So a few jobs to do – fix the damage around the marquee area, and I’d like to get the start buttons and marquee instructions lit up with LED lamps. I’ll update here when I do!

Thanks for reading – see you next time.

Tony