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Arcade Pickup - The Simpsons and NARC is BACK!

RetroRalph·video·5m 40s·analyzed·May 13, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

RetroRalph completes NARC restoration and acquires Simpsons arcade for dual-boot X-Men/Simpsons project.

Summary

RetroRalph documents two arcade acquisitions: the completion of a NARC cabinet with a restored 19-inch CRT display (sourced through Sharp Image Repair and delivered by community member Rudy), and the pickup of a discounted Simpsons arcade cabinet ($600) with minor issues including a dead CRT (revived with a tube rejuvenator), non-functional marquee, and missing leaf switch. He plans to dual-boot the Simpsons cabinet with both Simpsons and X-Men games using a PCB switcher provided by a friend.

Key Claims

  • 19-inch medium resolution CRTs for arcade cabinets are hard to come by these days

    medium confidence · Speaker notes difficulty sourcing the specific CRT for NARC restoration

  • The Simpsons cabinet was purchased for $600, well below typical market value

    high confidence · Speaker states 'There's no doubt I got a good deal on this The Simpsons cabinet at $600. They go for a lot more than that.'

  • A tube rejuvenator successfully cleared CRT shorts in The Simpsons cabinet

    high confidence · Speaker demonstrates using rejuvenator tool to restore dead CRT: 'As soon as I cleared the shorts I fired the CRT back up and it was up and running in no time'

  • NARC restoration took approximately 8 months from purchase to completion

    high confidence · Speaker states: 'I technically bought that like eight months ago. So it took about eight months to acquire all the parts to get it up and running.'

Notable Quotes

  • “This thing is honestly worth its weight in gold. If you're an arcade collector, you should definitely consider picking one of these up.”

    RetroRalph (Jon)@ 2:55 — Strong endorsement of tube rejuvenator tool as essential arcade restoration equipment

  • “These are hard to come by, and usually when you see them out in the wild, they have LCDs in them.”

    RetroRalph (Jon)@ 1:39 — Comment on scarcity of original 19-inch CRT displays in NARC cabinets

  • “I want this cabinet to have both The Simpsons and X-Men, and like I said, my buddy Nick gave me a PCB and a switcher, so in a later video, whatever direction I decide to go with the artwork, I am gonna make this dual boot.”

    RetroRalph (Jon)@ 3:28 — Statement of intent for dual-boot arcade cabinet modification project

Entities

RetroRalphpersonRexashowpersonSharp Image RepaircompanyRudypersonMark MillerpersonNickpersonChasing NostalgiaorganizationNARCgameThe SimpsonsgameX-Mengame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong peer-to-peer support network for arcade restoration, including cross-country parts sourcing and transportation

    high · Rexashow coordinating with Sharp Image Repair, Rudy transporting CRT from Vegas, Mark Miller sourcing cabinet, Nick providing PCB/switcher

  • $

    market_signal: Simpsons arcade cabinet market pricing appears elevated; $600 acquisition considered significant discount

    medium · Speaker notes 'There's no doubt I got a good deal on this The Simpsons cabinet at $600. They go for a lot more than that.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Tube rejuvenator technology proven effective for restoring arcade CRTs with shorts; presenter recommends as essential arcade restoration tool

    high · RetroRalph demonstrates successful CRT revival using rejuvenator, states 'This thing is honestly worth its weight in gold'

Topics

CRT display sourcing and restorationprimaryArcade cabinet acquisition and dealsprimaryDual-boot arcade cabinet modificationprimaryTube rejuvenator tool utilitysecondaryCommunity-driven arcade restoration supportsecondaryCabinet artwork replacement and customizationsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.88)— RetroRalph expresses enthusiasm and satisfaction throughout, highlighting successful restoration outcomes, community support, and excitement about upcoming projects. Positive tone when discussing both completed NARC and newly acquired Simpsons cabinet despite its minor issues.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.017

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. This is an exciting update and it's late at night so I gotta be quiet because the garage door is open, neighbors can hear me. Anyway, I'm trying to be respectful, so excuse me for the whispering. But anyways, there's some really cool updates. If you remember I got the NARC, it didn't have a 19-inch medium resolution CRT in it, which are actually kind of hard to come by these days. It had an LCD, but in Chasing Nostalgia, Rexashow hooked me up with Sharp Image Repair and they actually built me a 19-inch, but it was kind of held captive in Vegas because I didn't have any way to bring it back. So Rex of Show didn't have any plans to come out this way. And it just so happens that Rudy was in Vegas, so he actually drove it back for me, which is so cool. So tonight I put it in, and man, it looks amazing. NARC is now complete. It needed a CRT. But then when all this was happening, my buddy Mark Miller calls me up, and he's like, hey, dude, well, he didn't call me, but he messaged me on Facebook Messenger. And he goes, hey, there's this guy. I'm going to his house. He's selling some arcades, and he's got an X-Men. and the Simpsons and a bunch of other stuff. Do you want anything? And I was like, well, dude, if he's got the X-Men, I'll take it. He gets there and the X-Men was sold. But the Simpsons was still there. So I'm like, yeah, dude, let's do it. So we got a really good deal. And then Mark actually came over to deliver it here, which was super cool of him. I got to finally meet him in person. We've chatted online for a while now. But anyways so in this video I going to show you the NARC show you what it looks like with the CRT and then we take a quick look at the Simpsons Alright guys we going to check out how the 19 CRT looks now that it been replaced in the NARC And just from my immediate first reaction, this thing looks so crisp and so clean. So thanks to Sharp Image Repair again for just putting this together for me. Because like I said, these are hard to come by, and usually when John Youssi them out in the wild, they have LCDs in them. So I'm just super stoked to have one that's now complete. and you know if you're gonna blow people up with a rocket launcher and protect the city you might as well do it on a CRT right it looks so good whenever I play this game I think of the reaction that there must have been the arcade the first time someone blew up you know I mean like this wasn't the kind of thing you saw in the arcade back in that day this was really gruesome for you know ultra violent for its time but now it's tame but man it never gets old blowing these bad guys up with a rocket launcher and you can totally arrest them but why would you you know why would you do that when you could be like blow you blow them up right anyway let's go check out the simpsons when mark told me i was going to get a simpsons for 600 i was a little suspect that maybe something would be wrong so sure enough i fire up the crt and i got a whole lot of nothing that where this thing comes into play this is a tube rejuvenator i hooked it up to the crt and saw that there were some shorts As soon as I cleared the shorts I fired the CRT back up and it was up and running in no time This thing is honestly worth its weight in gold If you're an arcade collector, you should definitely consider picking one of these up. Okay, so there's no doubt I got a good deal on this Simpsons cab at $600. They go for a lot more than that. But this thing does have some issues. I was able to luckily save the CRT, so the CRT is fine. The marquee is not lit, but that's an easy fix. The side art, I'll probably want to replace it, but I am torn as to whether I want to leave it a Simpsons cab or make it an X-Men. It's originally a Simpsons, so that's probably what I should go with, but I definitely want to dual boot this cabinet. I want this cabinet to have both the Simpsons and X-Men, and like I said, my buddy Nick gave me a PCB and a switcher, so in a later video, whatever direction I decide to go with the artwork, I am gonna make this dual boot. And then under the control panel, I think it was, yeah, it was Marge. Marge wasn't working, because one of the actual leaf switches for Marge was completely missing. So I was like, hey, why doesn't Marge go up? Well, there's no leaf switch. And the front of the cabinet needs some Bondo work, but all like really basic and minimal things. So while it might look like a lot, these are really simple things and it shouldn't take me long. So I'm pretty excited. I think this is a good pickup. And while I wasn't looking for a Simpsons cab, 600 bucks. I mean couldn go wrong right Well that about wraps up this quick update video I really excited that I got a Simpsons and it was totally unexpected And as far as the NARC goes it looks really good So I super happy with the outcome on that one. And it took a long time. I technically bought that like eight months ago. So it took about eight months to acquire all the parts to get it up and running. I didn't even mention this, but the monitor bezel inside actually was something I had to find from someone in California that had turned their narc into a cat bed. Yeah. So anyways, needless to say, they weren't, they were fine parting with it. And luckily it didn't smell like cat pee. So we're all good. Anyway, if you liked this video, give me a thumbs up, consider subscribing to the channel, put your comments below. I want to hear from you. And are you excited about the whole dual, you know, dual boot idea with X-Men and Simpsons? I know I am. I just don't know. I feel kind of bad turning a Simpsons into an X-Men. So maybe I'll just re-skin it Simpsons with some new side artwork, preserve the panel, and just put the switcher in there and run both of them in a Simpsons cab. I don't know. If you have any ideas or you want to chime in on it, just let me know in the comments. And that's it for now. We will see you on the next one.