This was the first cabinet I ever bought. Summer of '82, three in the morning, and I'm driving to Torrance to meet a guy named Vinny. Nobody called him by his last name. Around the distributor circuit he was known as "Vinny No-Receipts," which should tell you everything you need to know about the transaction. I had $2,400 in cash in a paper bag on the passenger seat and a handshake deal made over a payphone.
The cabinet was in the back of a box truck parked behind a warehouse. Vinny popped the doors open and there it was, wedged between two pinball machines and a stack of milk crates. The player 2 button was sticky — like someone had poured a soda directly into the control panel — and the whole thing smelled like twenty years of cigarette smoke compressed into particle board. I didn't care. I handed Vinny the bag, we loaded it into my truck, and I drove back to the Valley with the windows down and my heart pounding.
I plugged it in the next morning and the screen lit up and I heard that sound for the first time in my own place. That wakka-wakka. That little melody. I stood there alone in what was about to become Galaxy Zone Arcade, watching the demo loop play on repeat, and I knew this was going to work. The cabinet paid for itself in six weeks. Six weeks. Every quarter that dropped into that coin box was proof that I wasn't crazy for quitting my day job.
Forty years later, I can still hear that sound when the room gets quiet. Wakka-wakka. It's the sound of the best decision I ever made.
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VINNY'S AMUSEMENT SUPPLY
"No Questions, No Problems"
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Qty Item Price
--- ---- -----
1 Pac-Man Cabinet $2,400
1 "Handling Fee" $150
1 Delivery (self) $0
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Subtotal: $2,550
Cash Discount: -$150
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TOTAL: $2,400
* ALL SALES FINAL *
* NO REFUNDS *
* RECEIPT FOR PERSONAL RECORDS
ONLY — DO NOT PRESENT TO
TAX AUTHORITIES *
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"First rule of the arcade business: never ask Vinny where the cabinets come from." — Sal "Pixel" Martinez
_____ | _ | | |_| | - Sal "Pixel" Martinez | _ / Galaxy Zone Arcade |_| \_\ Est. 1982