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My Most Epic Arcade Discovery!

RetroRalph·video·10m 24s·analyzed·Feb 26, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

RetroRalph finds rare Grid arcade boards and other vintage arcade parts in storage.

Summary

RetroRalph discovers a collection of rare arcade parts and boards during a second visit to Cole's arcade storage area, including Versus Nintendo marquee packs, a Versus Castlevania topper, multiple Killer Instinct PCBs, and most notably two working The Grid arcade boards—a rare 2000 Midway arcade game. Ralph commits to resurrecting The Grid as a restoration project and seeks community input on cabinet reconstruction.

Key Claims

  • The Grid was Midway's last arcade game, released in 2000

    high confidence · RetroRalph states this directly during his Game explanation

  • The Grid was designed by Ed Boon after Mortal Kombat series

    medium confidence · RetroRalph claims 'Ed Boon who did MK1 2 3 and 4 was put on this project'—plausible but not verified in content

  • The Grid supports up to six players via cabinet linking

    high confidence · RetroRalph describes multiplayer capability explicitly

  • The Grid is a rare arcade machine; Grid cabinets and parts are very difficult to find

    high confidence · RetroRalph emphasizes rarity multiple times and notes limited community awareness

  • Two working Grid boards were found in storage, with joystick and trackball parts also available

    high confidence · Direct discovery documented in video; parts confirmed as located

Notable Quotes

  • “This thing should not be sitting up here, that's for sure.”

    RetroRalph@ 5:46 — Emphasizes the value and importance of preserving rare arcade hardware

  • “The Grid is not sitting in a graveyard. I refuse.”

    RetroRalph@ 6:06 — Expresses determination to restore and preserve the discovered Grid boards

  • “these boards don't exist like you can't find them”

    RetroRalph@ 7:58 — Underscores extreme rarity of The Grid arcade boards in collector/operator market

  • “I never see Grid cabinets. I never see Grid parts. they're very rare if you ask me”

    RetroRalph@ 8:36 — Direct testimony from collector/content creator about Grid market scarcity

  • “this was so epic discovery without question”

    RetroRalph@ 8:31 — Ralph's assessment of discovery significance and emotional response

Entities

RetroRalphpersonColepersonThe GridgameEd BoonpersonMidwaycompanyVersus NintendoproductGalloping GhostorganizationKiller InstinctgameCastles and CoastersorganizationPinhead Companyperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: RetroRalph soliciting community input on restoration approach—original cabinet reproduction vs. custom dual-player cabinet design

    high · 'I want the comments to be blasted on this video. Tell me what you think we should do' and discussion of cabinet design options

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinhead Company (Twitter) runs Grid tournaments at private residence, representing niche community keeping game alive

    medium · 'there's a guy on twitter it's pinhead company and he's a big huge Grid fan he has Grid tournaments at his house'

  • $

    market_signal: The Grid arcade hardware is extremely rare in collector/operator market; boards do not regularly appear for sale

    high · Multiple emphatic statements: 'these boards don't exist like you can't find them', 'I never see Grid cabinets. I never see Grid parts', 'Grid parts they're very rare'

  • ?

    announcement: RetroRalph commits to resurrecting The Grid as arcade restoration/exhibit project at Castles and Coasters

    high · Explicit statements: 'We're bringing this thing back to life. There's no way...The Grid is not sitting in a graveyard. I refuse.' and 'I just need to convince Cole but I think he on board'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.031

0:00
Alright, Cole, so thanks for letting me back in here. I just feel like when I was here the other day, I kind of, I don't know, like I obviously took some time to look at things, but we were so rushed filming that there's got to be more stuff back here. So you don't mind me just kind of fishing through it, right? No, man. No, check it out. Oh, gosh. It's a tight, tight squeeze over here. I know there's got to be some stuff over here. I mean, like I didn't even notice this. I didn't even notice this Naomi board last time, so I'll check that out. I'll just fish through this stuff for a little bit if that's cool. Alright, I'm going to hand this off to you, and I'll be back in a little bit. Okay, cool. Thanks, man. I really do appreciate you doing this. Yeah, right on. Let me know if you need anything. Okay, alright, cool. So much to look at.
0:39
Did you find anything? Dude. You've been, like, looking for hours. I know, I found some really cool stuff. I want to show this to you. Okay. Do you want to hold the camera for a second? Yeah. Like, you're going to think this is cool. These are versus Nintendo, like, packs, so when you get game upgrades for your Nintendo system, did you guys ever have the system where it's kind of like... Where it's, like, side by side, right? It's like one unit but it's got two? Yeah, you guys had that? I think we did for a little while. So I think this is like when you upgrade the game, they'd send you these and it would have your marquee in it. And it would have like, you know, it'd have like the chips in it. And this is super cool. Like someone, there's definitely a collector that would even just want this case. But let's see what else is in these because there's a couple more. Oh, this one feels heavy. Okay, so this one. Heavy's good, right? Yes, right. So this says Hogan's Alley. Oh my God, dude. This has the Hogan's Alley marquee. it's like a sheet of glass yeah but you want to know why it's cool look how it's cut see it's cut because you you must have had one of those yeah those and it has versus tennis in it too wow these are really cool man i mean there's definitely collectors i don't know how i didn't notice this stuff when we were here last time i guess just it doesn't really look like much right you were overwhelmed i get it you're kidding a candy store yeah oh dude okay one of my favorite games is castlevania so this is for versus castlevania and there's crazy psycho castlevania fans out there There's nothing in this one. No? Oh wait. What is that one on top? Actually, I don't know. Let's see. Dude, you have no idea. This is so neat. Okay, so... Oh, is that the topper? Yes! Look at this! That's the Versus Castlevania topper, dude! Now I want to see what's in that other box. Alright, so this one says Duck Hunt. I remember Duck Hunt being in one of those 2-in-1s. So it has a Versus Tennis marquee. It has a Duck Hunt marquee too. What? Yeah, they're glass. I gotta be careful. That's really cool. These are neat, man. I mean these are definitely like collectors would be wanting stuff like this that for sure And I think this was for a topper that you may or may not have had because there nothing else in here Or maybe it you know been sold off or whatever There some stuff up here I didn't look up there, and I'm wondering, like, could we maybe take a look? Well, those were, like, I think the majority of those were the monitoring hush. Yeah, I mean... Do you think it's not worth looking up there? I mean... Dude, we found stuff all throughout this thing. I don't know. Let's do that really quick. Do you mind? The only other spot I haven't looked is, like, over here. So Cole, I know I saw this when I was here last time. It's in a Thomas Wave system. There's actually a guy locally that's been telling me, he's like, hey, if you have an extra one, like, I don't know if you'd part ways with it, but. All right, there's this coin doors. Dude, come on. Did you like plant stuff in here from last time? I swear I didn't. I see a killer instinct back here and it says works, but is it a real killer instinct? Let's see. Ooh, it's, hold on. It's kind of crunchy. that is 1000% a Killer Instinct board holy yeah I know a lot of people looking for these it says it works how did I miss like all of this stuff alright everything else is just kind of like basic nothing crazy but that's a really good discovery and don't you guys actually have a Killer Instinct so you need this as a spare I think it needs help I'm not sure what we have going on with it I guess the only other thing is there's this stuff up here that's the only other thing I haven't looked at yeah because a lot of this looks like just monitor stuff Yeah, I mean it's all pretty much just
3:55
Monitors a bezel random trackball. I know I kind of can't get in there you wanna you wanna tag on it right here What's that one? There's no way this is what it says it is
4:07
There's no way that is it Remember they're being a great. Oh, I remember, you know down in the main pit area Yeah, the two hockey table the air hockey tables are yeah on the left side right by the connect for I remember there being two grids back-to-back Shut up! I don't know why that sticks out in my mind, but I remember playing that grid. That game was so fun where you're in like the arena, right? Yeah, it's like a first person shooter. Yeah, I remember there was like a megaphone gun where if you shot it at the dude, it like shook him apart. Yeah, I got a chance to play the grid last year at Galloping Ghost and man, this game is awesome. It was developed by Midway and released in the year 2000. It was actually Midway's last arcade game. It's a third person shooter which consists of a super violent television game show hosted by a Smash TV like host, very reminiscent of the movie Running Man. One of the coolest things about it, though, is that local multiplayer is possible with up to six players by linking up multiple cabinets. Very innovative for its time. This should not be sitting in a graveyard We need to resurrect it As a matter of fact let make it a highlight of the castles and Coasters arcade I just need to convince Cole but I think he on board The one thing is I going to need the community help on this one It looks like there's two of them up here. I mean, I see one here. You would know better than me. Yeah, if we pull it down, let's just see. Let's see. Well, this is... And it says working on the tag, right? We'd have to test it, obviously, but it says working. Working? We're money. See that? I wonder why it says money. Does that mean that it's expensive? I don't know. Exactly. Keep this for value later on. Okay, hold on. This has a ton of cables hooked to it. That's good. That's a good thing. If the harness is still there, that means we could maybe... This thing should not be sitting up here, that's for sure. Okay, hold on. Okay, so this actually has... Dude. Dude, there's two. There's two of them. Shut up. Oh, is that the same one? Full stay working. Yeah, this is the grid, and then this one's the grid. Oh my God. All right, well, you know this means one thing. We're bringing this thing back to life. There's no way... We're gonna raise it from the graveyard? The grid is not sitting in a graveyard. I refuse. That's not happening. Okay. All right, last one. Okay, I'm going to put this down. I don't want to break this. Yeah, let's be very careful with that. That's no crunchy on that one. All right, so... Wait, actually, you know what? Hold on. I think... Because it had a pretty iconic, like, flight stick. Yeah, and we would need that. It had, like, a 49-way joystick. We have a bunch of joysticks.
6:29
Wait, was the trackball up there? Hold on. Well, you said a random trackball, right? Yeah, hold on. Yeah, okay, so that's probably likely the trackball. Yeah, I remember it being white. But there's no joysticks up there, it doesn't look like. Well, we got a whole bunch of them coming this way.
6:45
The likelihood of you guys having that is probably pretty slim, dude. This is it. Dude, I think this is it. Let me see it. Hold on. Tell me that's not the right one. No, I actually think that's actually it. Dude, what the hell, man? No way! This is so cool. Is there another one? or is it just this one hey if we have one that's great we just have to source another one by the way i'm basically just i'm basically just uh roping you into where we're storing this cabinet so you said it we got some big problems nothing's been sold yet you're not selling it you can't sell it i refuse you can't sell it well dude all right well okay so we need to put this in like some kind of first of all here take that back we need to contain ourselves And we need to basically preserve this somehow. So this can't stay in here, because sometimes you guys sell stuff out of here and stuff, or no? Well, yeah, they'll go looking for parts and cannibalize stuff We taking those boards we putting them into some sort of secured location Not not the vault not the roof and yeah i this is 100 100 my best discovery ever i mean to find these boards cole these boards don't exist like you can't find them this was so for those watching that are unfamiliar with it this was ed boone's game after so ed boone boone who did mk1 2 3 and 4 he was put on this project or went away from the Mortal Kombat series to do this. And this is an iconic game. It's this first time to see a first-person shooter with these kind of unique controls. And it was toward the tail end of arcade days, but I played this at Galloping Ghost. It's freaking amazing. I'm so, I'm mind-blown, mind-blown.
8:30
Mind-blown, dude. Okay, this to me falls under the epic discovery category without question. I never see grid cabinets. I never see grid parts. they're very rare if you ask me and i don't know how many of these cabinets were made there's a guy on twitter it's pinhead company and he's a big huge grid fan he has grid tournaments at his house other than him i don't know a lot of people trying to keep the grid alive so that's why i think this thing absolutely has to be resurrected but i don't know a whole lot about the grid i know we have a working piece well i think it's a working pcb so we have to test the pcb we have to see whether the joystick works and the trackball, which those are parts we should be able to find. But that's all we have. We don't have a cabinet. What should we do? Like, do we pay respects and reproduce the original cabinet? Do we try to find someone selling an empty cabinet? I mean, is there even anybody doing that? What should we do with this? I want the comments to be blasted on this video. Tell me what you think we should do, because I've thought about maybe recreating a cabinet where the two players are kind of facing each other. But, you know, it's obviously not original so I'm like torn on this one I don't know what to do so I need your help and comments and if you know a lot about the grid I've worked on the grid in the past at an arcade arcade operator put that below I need your help on it this is going to take the community to figure this one out anyways that's it for now guys if you enjoy the content give me a thumbs up consider subscribing to the channel and absolutely comment on this one and that's it we will see you on the next one
10:06
Thanks Bye