# Arcade Pickers - Episode 1: Flynn's Arcade

**Source:** RetroRalph  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-02-20  
**Duration:** 22m 25s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTGgpUagynk

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## Analysis

RetroRalph and Corey visit Flynn's garage in Phoenix, Arizona to scout and purchase arcade machines and parts. Flynn, a longtime arcade operator since the early 1980s, has accumulated 30-40+ cabinets in various conditions, including extensive Street Fighter inventory and rare marquees. The hosts negotiate purchases of several items including a Street Fighter II World Warrior cabinet ($600), a Dragon's Lair conversion ($350), and marquees ($160), discovering only about one-third of Flynn's collection during the visit.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Flynn has been running arcade business since early 1980s, placing machines on location — _Corey confirms Flynn's history: 'He's been doing arcades since, I think, the early 80s.'_
- [HIGH] Flynn has approximately 30-40 arcade cabinets in his garage in various conditions — _Corey: 'I knew this was the place. I was like, man, this guy's got at least 30 or 40 cabinets over here, all various conditions'_
- [HIGH] Flynn has a large trailer (approximately 30 feet by 10 feet) filled primarily with Street Fighter machines — _Corey describes: 'He actually has a trailer in the back, a pretty big trailer, like one of those, I don't know, it's probably 30 feet by 10 feet. It's full of Street Fighter stuff.'_
- [HIGH] Dragon's Lair generated over 34 million dollars in revenue — _RetroRalph states: 'This is Dragon's Lair, the game that generated over 34 million dollars of revenue.'_
- [HIGH] Street Fighter II World Warrior cabinet had a defective sound board affecting character voices and sound effects on one side — _RetroRalph diagnosed audio issue: 'I think it's an issue with one of the memory chips on it. So there's no character noises at all.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "He does put a London gold price on a lot of his stuff, but I think that's negotiable if we're coming in with money to spend, which we are."
> — **Corey**, ~2:30
> _Sets expectations about Flynn's pricing strategy and hints at negotiation room_

> "If this doesn't get your blood boiling, then you better check your pulse. This is awesome."
> — **RetroRalph**, ~6:00
> _Expresses enthusiasm upon seeing Flynn's collection scale_

> "This is like Street Fighter Heaven over here."
> — **RetroRalph**, ~13:30
> _Characterizes the density of Street Fighter machines in the trailer_

> "So this is like the honey hole of marquees."
> — **Corey**, ~22:00
> _Describes finding an exceptional collection of arcade marquees_

> "I think I overpaid, to your point, on the Street Fighter. But I love Street Fighter, and I'll be like, they bit the bullet on that one. I just had to do it."
> — **RetroRalph**, ~1:16:00
> _Reflects on purchase decision driven by personal collecting passion over profit margin_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Flynn | person | Phoenix, Arizona arcade operator and machine collector since early 1980s; owns 30-40+ arcade cabinets and extensive Street Fighter inventory in garage/trailer |
| RetroRalph | person | Host of Arcade Pickers series; arcade enthusiast and picker who scouts, purchases, and flips arcade machines |
| Corey | person | Co-host/scout for Arcade Pickers; arcade technician and restoration specialist who identifies picking opportunities and assists with negotiations |
| Phoenix, Arizona | location | Setting described as 'hot spot for video arcades and arcade parks' where the series is based |
| Flynn's house/garage | location | Private collection and storage facility in Phoenix containing 30-40+ arcade machines, thousands of marquees, CRTs, game boards, and parts |
| Street Fighter II World Warrior | game | Cabinet purchased from Flynn for $600 after negotiation; required control panel swap and board replacement due to sound defect |
| Dragon's Lair | game | Cinematronics laserdisc game; cabinet in Flynn's collection converted to Choplifter; purchased for $350 as restoration project |
| Street Fighter Alpha 3 | game | Cabinet in Flynn's Street Fighter trailer section |
| X-Men vs. Street Fighter | game | Arcade cabinet in Flynn's trailer; marquee bundled in final negotiation |
| Mortal Kombat | game | Multiple versions in Flynn's collection, including Mortal Kombat II and original Mortal Kombat marquees |
| Neo Geo MVS | game | RetroRalph notes these are becoming rarer and commanding higher prices; Flynn has single-slot Neo Geo cartridges available |
| Arcade Pickers | organization | YouTube series hosted by RetroRalph and Corey documenting arcade hunting, negotiation, and restoration in Phoenix, Arizona |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Arcade cabinet collecting and restoration, Negotiation tactics for vintage arcade purchases, Arcade marquee collecting and valuation
- **Secondary:** Street Fighter franchise and cabinet prevalence, Arcade operator history and business (1980s location-based model), Arcade cabinet restoration and repair (board swapping, control panel restoration)
- **Mentioned:** Collector psychology and passion-driven purchasing

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Enthusiastic tone throughout; hosts express genuine excitement about collection quality, successful negotiations, and acquisition opportunities. Minor tension around Flynn's 'top dollar' pricing and RetroRalph acknowledging overpaying on Street Fighter, but resolved amicably. Overall very satisfied with visit outcome and committed to returning.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Arcade operator consolidation: Flynn maintains extensive machine inventory (30-40+ cabinets) from multi-decade location arcade business; represents concentrated asset base from 1980s operator model (confidence: high) — Corey: 'He's been doing arcades since, I think, the early 80s... he's got at least 30 or 40 cabinets over here.' Collection started 1983.
- **[market_signal]** Neo Geo MVS cabinets and cartridges noted as increasing in rarity and value; multi-cart importers from China creating market pressure on original hardware pricing (confidence: medium) — RetroRalph: 'These are actually starting to go for a little bit more money now because they're getting a little bit more rare. There's a couple of companies that come out with these China multi-carts.'
- **[market_signal]** Arcade marquees have collector value and resale market; pricing ranges $10-65 depending on condition, rarity, artist recognition, and material (glass vs. plexiglass) (confidence: medium) — Negotiations on individual marquees: NBA Jam glass ($45), Mortal Kombat ($10-15 with damage), Hulk/Rampage ($45), bundle deal of 5 marquees for $150
- **[product_concern]** Street Fighter II World Warrior cabinet had defective sound memory chip affecting audio output; required board swap from backup unit to make functional (confidence: high) — RetroRalph diagnosed: 'I think it's an issue with one of the memory chips on it. So there's no character noises at all.' Required finding working backup World Warrior board from Flynn's inventory.

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## Transcript

 Today we checked out some arcades over at Flynn's, a man whose retro pastime lives on in the heart of his garage. Were negotiations just right? Did we pick up some killer arcade treasures? Or just walk away empty handed? Find out right now on Arcade James Piekarz. Phoenix, Arizona. A hot spot for video arcades and arcade parks. We're going to hit the highways and find out where arcades are buried in people's houses and garages. What most people see as junk, we see as dollar signs. We'll buy anything if we think we can save it or sell it to someone looking for that lost arcade treasure. Everything we find holds a unique place in arcade history. And the people we meet, hearing their story, is part of why we do this. We make money telling the history of arcades. One pick at a time. Arcade James Piekarz. Alright, Corey, where are we going today? So we're going to Flynn's house. You remember Flynn, right? Yeah, so he's the guy in town here that used to, he ran an arcade business for a really long time, right? He put machines on location and stuff like that? He does. He's been doing arcades since, I think, the early 80s. I was over there a couple times because I had to pick up that confidential mission that was going to the dump, and then I was scoping out that killer instinct that you restored. Yep. So as soon as I went over there, I knew this was the place. I was like, man, this guy's got at least 30 or 40 cabins over here, all various conditions, but I think it's a good place we can go pick. Do you think this guy, Flynn, is like, I mean, do you think he's serious about negotiations and stuff like that? Because, I mean, I feel like, you know, I know he's got a lot of stuff, but I feel like he's always kind of demanding top dollar, and that's the one thing I'm worried about with him. He does put a London gold price on a lot of his stuff, but I think that's negotiable if we're coming in with money to spend, which we are. I want us to find some good pickups today. I want us to leave here with some stuff we feel good about. We've got to get some deals today. But we've got to make money. So we've got to get stuff cheap enough to where we can get it ready and move it on to a new home. Because people are looking for good stuff. So if we're going to get out there and find that dirty stuff buried in the boneyard, we've got to make sure we get it for the right price. Now you know if he has some Street Fighter stuff, I'm going to have a hard time. I'm going to have a hard time letting that go. Like, I gotta take my, you know, collector hat off and put on my, you know, picker hat, so. He actually has a trailer in the back, a pretty big trailer, like one of those, I don't know, it's probably 30 feet by 10 feet. Okay. It's full of Street Fighter stuff. Oh, no. Oh, dude, you're killing me. All right, well, I'm excited about that, then. We'll see if we can find it there. Because if I can get a couple good Street Fighter pickups, you know, I would love, I would love nothing more to find, like, Street Fighter. other Capcom games and I know he was big on Capcom because Capcom back in the day fighting games those used to draw money and I know that was his business so I'm expecting to see a lot of Capcom stuff and I love Capcom stuff and I think Capcom's easy for us to resell too just because they're all such iconic titles there's so many great Capcom games so so wait I always get confused you like playing Capcom or you like collecting Capcom Both. Both. I don't know. Sometimes I like the white one. Yeah, sometimes I like the blue one. This is it. All right. Look at this. He's got to be in here somewhere. There he is back there. Flynn. Wow. Hey, man. doing good to see you flynn what's going on man it's good to see you how are you I'm good how's it been going you're always working on something this is awesome so thank you so much for the confidential mission that thing turned out awesome and then he look you love your killer insurance right coming along I've been I've been sharing pictures with them every now and then so you see now that Wow well this is a lot to take in this is incredible Wow all right how How many years of all of this are we looking at right now? Like this is, what was the starting point? 1983. Holy crap, okay. So this is stuff, we have stuff dated back maybe that far. I was five years old. I was five years old. All right, well, let's, can you give us like a little, I feel like we almost need a walkthrough because it's overwhelming. There's so much stuff in here and I just walked through this little section. We're going to get the rockstar treatment, Flynn. Sure. Show us through this place, man. Let's go. I got to tell you right now, if this doesn't get your blood boiling, then you better check your pulse. This is awesome. Look at this. So it's all marquees and stuff. These are mines. It's just marquees. All right, we're going to have to come back to this. Is this working? Let's just plug it in for you and see what we got. Okay, gotcha. What's going on with this? Okay. Well, it's going to be normal. Robitron Raiden Street Fighter II Mortal Kombat Oh wow This is a Mortal combat one marquee in a mortal combat four cabinet okay look at all this stuff out here this is incredible Flynn is nuts look at all this look at all these CRTs Flynn where did all these come from holy crap man you pulled these all out of games so they're not working ones so they need minor repairs on all of So the games weren't working or the CRTs weren't working? CRTs weren't working. Okay. And there's like more CRTs back here just so you know Ralph. Oh my god. And game boards. This whole bucket right here is full of game boards. So Glenn really quick before we get to the Operation Wolf, are the game boards all tested or are they kind of just pick what you want? They're not tested. Okay. Alright. The thing that was so cool about this machine, the Dragon's Lair machine, I always loved that sort of like LED screen that was in the middle. Digital readout. It looks like, did they actually board over it and it's still there? Or do you think it's, like, completely gone? I really don't know. I didn't explore that. So maybe we'll take a look. So if we move that, it might still be there. It would be really cool if they just did that over it and, like, the LED screen is still there. That would be kind of neat. So, Flynn, where did you get this thing from? I didn't hear what the story was. It came from a friend of mine. Well, that's pretty cool in there. That's awesome. But there's more, right? A lot of cool stuff in there. I've got more stuff. All right. All right. Where are we looking next? There's a few items in this trailer here. Hey, we got some coin machines over here. Oh my gosh. We got the flat screen central. Back of the trailer here, we've got, this is like Flynn's Street Fighter section. It's actually all Street Fighter for the most part. You've got Street Fighter 2. This would have been World Warrior. At least that's the cabinet. That's the marquee for World Warrior. And then there's Street Fighter Alpha 3. The Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. Back there, he's got Street Fighter 2 Turbo. So this is like Street Fighter Heaven over here. then back here which you can't even see it there's an x-men versus street fighter which that looks awesome and then there's another there's a street fighter 2 champion edition hyper fighting which hyper fighting would have been like a kit like an e-prom kit that you put in a champion edition and then the arcade owner would switch out the marquee so this is really cool i'm yeah i got my eye on this section like this section there's something is happening in this section today regardless if you know flynn will work with me on the price i think we're gonna have something going on here Wow, so a ton of Street Fighter stuff in here. Yeah. I'm like... Yeah, we're definitely going to have to talk more about Street Fighter stuff. I see some stuff in here you might want. Okay. So, Flynn, what else do you have that you can show us? This is it, right? You don't have anything else? There's a few more around the corner here. Of course. All right. All right, show us that. Of course there's more. Let's take a look. I feel like I'm in an arcade playground here. This is crazy. This is incredible. All right, let's keep looking. So I just found the honey hole of marquees right here. Check this out. We've got Trojan We've got golden tea. We've got more golden tea Donkey Kong Mario Brothers final fight and keep in mind. These are on the plexi So these aren't just the prints some of them are like this NBA Jam one, which looks original to me. We've got Michael Jackson this one's hard to find we've got defender we've got NBA Showtime with NFL Blitz we've got a whole bunch look at this eat my shorts man we've got the Simpsons man this is a whole bunch of stuff this is on glass we've got Rampage on glass I'm gonna be careful with that one in fact I'm gonna put this one back in because it's glass I don't want to break that one but I can't help but notice this operation wolf I mean this there's just a ridiculous amount of marquees in here so we're gonna have to talk to Flynn and see what he wants to let these go for there's even more so we just went through that pile but there's more here like what else is in here yeah there's more there's a whole bunch more so we've got uh i don't know let me get through some of these so we've got defender oh nice we've got uh top gunner we've got uh my goodness dude there's just so many look at there's like at least 40 or 50 gold keys. We're going to need to find... Look at this one. There's a pit fighter. Oh, nice. So, dude, we're going to need to just find the ones we want. Look at that. There's a junior Pac-Man on glass. Nice. I can go further in here. Look at this. Let's see a little bit more. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. Oh, yes. A Mortal Kombat. Nice. Mortal Kombat. It's a little bit chopped, so he might come down on the price on that. Hey, I saw a Neo Geo there. Yeah, that's a Neo Geo right there. Okay, see that? Because I've been looking for... Oh, it's a single slot Neo Geo. single slot neo geo but look at this too there's a centipede on glass nice there's a uh robotron uh there's more in here look at that there's a joust killer these are all original marquees too these aren't like reproductions look at that oh shut up it's a tapper oh dude this is beautiful so it's like this is like the honey hole of marquees yeah if i've ever seen it all right Well, let's pick some out, dude. We've got to pick some of these out. All right, hold on, Ralph. Look at this. I just found another honey hole of marquees right here. I don't know what the deal is with this, but I feel like somebody would want this. It's broken right here, but somebody might want this hanging in their game room. This thing is bad. I mean, it's a cool marquee. That's huge. Of course. It's a maximum force. Nice, dude. I a wild wild wild wild Alright what about today So I have a Neo Geo MVS at home. These are actually starting to go for a little bit more money now because they're getting a little bit more rare. There's a couple of companies that come out with these China multi-carts. But I don't necessarily collect these, but there are a lot of people looking for these. So I'm going to see what he's got here because I definitely want to get maybe a couple of these too. Oh look, Puzzle Bobble. Puzzle Bobble's a great game. There's a Bust a Move. Alright, we got some King of Fighters. Another Bust a Move. So there's a bunch of carts there. So I'm going to sift through these and see if I can find... So far we got this Mortal Kombat 2 manual for $20. And I'm going to go through and see if I can find more Street Fighter stuff in here. And then I'll see what they'll do on that. So I do like these, but I don't have the cabinet. These Marvel Super Heroes. I feel like this thing's... It's cool because I do the superhero business, but... It's pretty roached out. Five bucks? Uh, ten bucks. I like this thing, too. The only thing is that it's ripped right there, and it's folded right here. So there's a little bit of damage. I'm at... I'm at five bucks on this one. Uh, ten bucks. So you were at ten on this? Yes, sir. so this thing's basically barely hanging on but i think i can hang it in my game room all right so you got that california speed back there yes sir right yeah tell me where you got that thing from again all right and then there's no game board in this no monitor it's just the shell of a unit so you know we want to come here we appreciate you bringing us in we want to make some money on some of this stuff we want to fix it up and flip it i don't need the control panel i feel like i want to turn this into a Batman cuz I'm gonna have to put a PC in it I'm gonna have to put a flat screen in it and amp some speakers some artwork probably a seat with some Batman ears right here some neon lights so I'm gonna be into it a few hundred bucks what would you let it go for 200 bucks all right how about a hundred bucks how about 125 175 so you're at 175 that's a little that's your lowest 150 come on that's in the middle all right 175 I'll take it 175 thank you brother I'll put it to good use so you're at 20 apiece on these would you do 30 for both would you do a hundred for both the Capcom CPS to a board and the final flight marquee all right I'll do 110 Flynn what would you do for the Virtua Fighter marquee it's glass here can you you 25 bucks all right 25 bucks deal so earlier you know we were trying to negotiate a deal for the street fighter 2 in there the world warrior there's a couple things the control panel artwork was a little bit janky we did dig out of uh flynn's garage we actually found a street fighter 2 uh you know world warrior with the world warrior artwork only probably had a couple has a little bit of some issues here it was welded back on but i mean i can let that let that go but anyway so we know we have a good working control panel so let's go back inside because i found another i discovered another issue um you know flynn's in the garage trying to see if he can figure out a solution for it but what uh what happened is i went in and decided i would you know obviously play the game so all these are obviously wired for um you know for coins so if you listen here just like anyone that knows this game will know there's something wrong immediately when i press play not yet So you'll notice the plane's going to fly. There's no plane noise. And if you really listen closely during the gameplay, it's not playing certain character noises. Like round one fight isn't working. If I'm on the left side, I have no sound at all. I think if I move to the right side, it will. So it's an issue with one of the memory chips on it. So there's no character noises at all. So we talked to Flynn. He's going to see if he has another World Warrior board. And if he does, I think we're going to try to negotiate I think we're gonna try to go negotiate a deal on this because I do still want this and And maybe I can get him to throw in the artwork for the bezel. So Flynn says he found a board So let's see. We got a working World Warrior. This really legitimately is Flynn's arcade. There's like everything here Alright, that sounds good. Yeah, there we go. I can hear the I can hear the plane sounds and then let's see like when uh yeah yeah so so the other the other machine the uh all the sounds weren't coming from either care yeah so we're good so we're getting sounds from both so all right so we're ready to like work this deal out as long as you're cool with swapping this board out well i'll swap the board out if you want but okay all right let's go figure it out let's go back to the trailer and figure it out what i would like to propose if if you're good with it what i would like to propose is we swap these control panels if you can come down 50 bucks on the cabinet price we'll swap these control panels I would give you this one back and then we could call it a deal at 600 yeah all right nice awesome but then yeah so we good So we be hauling this guy out of here All right So we back in here by the Dragon Lair Choplifter Convert Now, tell me again, you bought this thing and it was already like this, right? I did. Somebody previously converted the Dragon's Lair to Choplifter. So it was like back in the day, it was like, hey, let's not buy a new cabinet. Let's just throw another game board in it and throw a Choplifter on it. Right. but it looks like it's most of it's here the only thing that's different is this marquee the artwork the sticker the bottom is a little bit rotted out which can be bonded in and fixed so you said you're at four bills on this all right i know this doesn't look that impressive right now as a choplifter but this is an original dragon's lair cabinet we have to get this one this is dragon's lair the game that generated over 34 million dollars of revenue we got to return it back to its glory if we can get this at a good price it's going to be totally worth it 300 bucks. I'd do 350 in that scenario. 350? Yeah. So you're putting 50 bucks value on the CRT. Okay. So... I'll let you keep the nice store with the Cinematronics decal on it. The Cinematronics decal. Is it actually on there still? It is. Oh, that's actually cool. Okay. So you're at 350 on this? Yes. Keep the CRT? yes all right man i'm popping on this one all right all right so i found a couple more marquees i'm interested in there's wwf wrestle fest rampage defender we we're still gonna get we're gonna try to get this michael jackson's moonwalker we'll see and Robotron 2084. 30 bucks. Alright, Corey, what was that? You added that up. So we got 50 with these two. Then we got 45, so that's 95. Then we're at 40 right here, right? So that's 105, 115, 125, 135. And then what was this one? 25. So we're at 160 bucks. 160 bucks. Yep. I think people want to hang them on their gate. I think they're cool collectibles. I don't know that a lot of people have these cabinets laying around. I get where he's coming from on the Rampage, because the Rampage, that artist who did the Rampage stuff, he's pretty well known, but it is pretty beat up. I mean, out of all of these, I think I would be ready to pop with you on the Moonwalker one. Sure. What, 65 for WrestleFest, Rampage, and Moonwalker? Oh, you want Rampage too? I would like Rampage. Rampage was 45. Can you give us a deal if we bundle them all together? Cheaper than your full blown retail on them. We bought a bunch of stuff. Go ahead, $150. How about $140 so we feel like we're getting a deal? If you do the X-Men one, then we'll do it. I want the X-Men one. So $150 and you want the Children of the Atom one? Children of the Atom with it. Then we'll do $150. That's fine. Alright, $150, that's cool. The one you picked out earlier. Alright, alright. Yes. Now I hope you have a $10 bill, my friend. because I got one for you. I'm gonna go get it. Really appreciate you letting us come out and pick through everything, giving us rockstar treatment. Thank you very much. Anytime we come back in town, we'd love to come see you again. Okay, sounds good. Thanks Flynn, appreciate it buddy. Thank you so much. All right, thank you guys. All right, I guess that's a wrap. We gotta load the rest of this stuff and we're out of here, right? Yep. All right, let's do it. All right, man, we did good. But it's just crazy to think how much stuff we probably, how much stuff do you think we even went through? Probably only about a third of what he had. I know, there was PCBs everywhere. There was artwork everywhere. There was, you know, machines, parts, everything. There was just so much stuff. I just, we have to go back, I think. I think we have to go back. Yeah, and a lot of that stuff he kind of wanted top dollar for. I mean, some of the stuff he was going to want to go. We kind of knew that going in, though. We had to haggle him down a little bit on some of it, but, you know, it's nice that we'll have all this stuff, so if people want to buy it, it's available. And, you know, hopefully we'll get these cabinets fixed up and get them in someone's game room. Yeah, for sure. I think I overpaid, to your point, on the Street Fighter, but I love Street Fighter, and I'll be like, they bit the bullet on that one. I just had to do it. Yeah, I mean, if there was a Superman cabinet in there, it's hard to tell what I would have paid for it. Or like a Batman cabinet, I probably would have pulled me up on that. But I think we got some good stuff. So get this stuff home, get it cleaned up, get everything laid out, and figure out where we're going to go picking next. I know. All right. All right, man. Well, great job. What do you say? Let's go get some grub. Let's get some food. I'm so hungry, man. Starving. All right, let's do it. you

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e7964439-6d11-4c4e-9422-208537a6bcef*