Lost Treasures Found

I found a listing on Craig's List for some video games starting @ $25. Usually stuff like this is a scam for some fool that has some junk that he wants to peddle for $6000. In this singular instance, that was not the case. I had truly stumbled into the coolest thing I have ever stumbled into (perhaps except for JP). My three neighbors were up for the adventure, so we headed out to the rendezvous with Arcade Gary on a sunny Sunday AM in JP's minivan.

We got there and found a semi trailer half full of arcade machines, but no one ever showed up. I called Arcade Gary, and he informed me that the day before he had sold most of the gear to someone from OK City for $18k. I convinced him that we were serious buyers and were willing to drop all of $200 on some arcade cabinet. He agreed to meet us on a weekday evening...

I brought home a 10 x 6 ft trailer from work and we all piled into the xterra and journeyed out to "El Ranchero" to search for arcade machines. El Ranchero is an old mexican-looking structure (actually we found out that it has been nominated to be on the register of national historic places due to its old adobe construction and highway architecture) a few miles west of Lincoln on the south side of O-Street. The grass has been mowed regularly, but upon closer inspection, you can see that the semi-trailers that are parked there have been there for more than a few years. (After our adventure, I learned that El Ranchero was once a lively Mexican Restaurant, but was closed down due to a bordello on the second floor.)

Anyway... we met Arcade Gary and the guy that actually was responsible for the largest arcade game business in Nebraska (Father Time, white beard & all). He let us poke around El Ranchero and the 10 semi trailers parked there. Despite the OK guy buying $18k worth of machines, we found more than we needed to.

SD shot a video: http://vimeo.com/6351078, which shows some of what we found, but it doesn't come close to communicating the smell, odors, and gagging mold in the air associated with 10+ years of roof leaks. There was no electricity in the building and it was something straight out of a Rob Zombie film. Most of the ceiling was falling down, all of the floors were covered in a blanket of toxic mold, and everything in the place was fuzzy with rot, damp & decay. When I think about it, I think of HP Lovecraft's tales of nitre and decay and the Necronomicon. I found a huge Peavey mixer, tube amp, and concert speakers, but left them due to the extensive rot.

In the end, we came home with six arcade machines. JON got "Chinese Fighter" or some similar 1984 fighting game, CG got a sweet "Mortal Combat", and SD beat me to the discovery and got a super-cherry "Asteroids" cabinet from 1979 that looked like it was only a couple years old. I brought home "Dig Dug", "Pole Position", and "Omega Race". JP was thrilled!!!!!!!! to say the least. Our overfull garage was now truly overfilled with smelly moldy crap that she absolutely hates. Thank goodness for bleach & febreeze.