I bought this cabinet from a warehouse in Long Beach that had been sealed up for months. Nobody told me that part. The listing just said "classic shooter, working condition, needs TLC." TLC. That's one way to put it. I backed my truck up, loaded it in, drove it home, and opened the cabinet to check the boards. That's when the cockroaches came out.
Not a few. A colony. They had set up civilization in there. I'm not proud of the sound I made. My neighbor came outside thinking someone was being attacked. I spent the next week fumigating that thing, replacing wires they'd chewed through, scrubbing every surface with enough disinfectant to sterilize a hospital wing. The trackball was the worst — packed solid with what I can only describe as a geological record of arcade neglect. Candy residue, eraser shavings, and once, I swear to you, a dime. A dime inside the trackball mechanism. I still don't know how it got there.
But here's the thing — once I got it cleaned up, once I replaced the gnawed wiring harness and reseated the boards, that machine played like a dream. The gameplay was relentless. Wave after wave of bugs swarming down, and you're just spinning that trackball, firing as fast as your reflexes allow. Kids who sat down expecting a casual shooter would be white-knuckled by wave three.
There's a certain poetry in it, right? A game about shooting bugs that was literally infested with bugs. The universe has a sense of humor. I kept the exterminator's invoice taped inside the coin door for years. Felt like it was part of the machine's story.
The Invoice
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VALLEY PEST CONTROL SERVICES
18402 Sherman Way, Reseda, CA
License #PCO-7734 | (818) 555-0147
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CLIENT: Sal Martinez — Galaxy Zone Arcade
DATE: March 14, 1987
JOB #: VPC-1987-0312
SERVICES RENDERED:
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Cabinet fumigation (full interior) .. $45.00
Wire replacement — insect damage ... $32.00
Trackball mechanism cleaning ....... $15.00
General sanitation & degreasing .... $20.00
Follow-up inspection (1 week) ...... $10.00
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SUBTOTAL .......................... $122.00
TAX (6.5%) .......................... $7.93
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TOTAL ............................. $129.93
NOTE: Recommend sealing all cable entry
points. Heavy infestation — German cockroach.
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"People talk about debugging code. I debugged an actual arcade cabinet. With a can of Raid and a rosary." — Sal "Pixel" Martinez
_____ | _ | | |_| | - Sal "Pixel" Martinez | _ / Galaxy Zone Arcade |_| \_\ Est. 1982