CoinOpSpace, the forum for collectors to discuss all things coin operated (Arcade games, pinball machines and MAME to name a few), recently posted a new contest in the forum section. Start and complete a new arcade game restoration for your chance to win $150 (maybe more) in prizes from our favorite industry vendors. Check out the full story and the rules here:

COSP Contest

I’ve had a few projects that have been waiting for me to get motivated. I think now is the perfect opportunity. So if you’ve got a project you’ve been meaning to get to, dust it off and enter the COSP contest! Good luck!

Chat live with Steve Wiebe!

On April 15th 2009 Steve Wiebe will be on CoinOpSpace, participating in a live group chat event with Donkey Kong fans and general coin-op enthusiasts. Steve is the latest in a monthly series of live chat sessions that has seen the likes of Tim Skelly, Owen Rubin, Jeff Kulczycki and Brian Colin.

If you aren’t a Donkey Kong fan, and somehow have been living under a rock for the past two years, Steve Wiebe is one of the best Donkey Kong players in the world and starred in the movie King of Kong, a documentary about his quest for the top score. Steve has one of the only 1,000,000 point scores ever recorded in public, and is one heck of a nice guy to boot.

Coinopspace.com is a brand new website for arcade, pinball and console enthusiasts to connect and share stories. Coinopspace.com isn’t just a forum based website, but has every feature for sharing your collection and restoration hobby that you could possibly imagine. There are advanced customizable profiles, photo hosting, a live chat section, hosted blogs, videos and so much more. In the coming months we hope to connect collectors with more arcade game and pinball creators to ask those questions about your favorite games you’ve been dying to know.

To participate in the Steve Wiebe chat you need to sign up for the website and then you can RVSP for the Steve Wiebe chat through the Events page. While you are there take a look at the other planned events or even submit ideas for new ones.

More information about Steve Wiebe and the live chat can be found over at Rotheblog, Jeff’s personal blog about all things arcade.

Jump on CoinOpSpace, sign up for the event and join us for what should be a lively chat session with the King of Kong!

The Chicagoland Antique Advertising, Slot Machine & Jukebox Show, to be exact. This show has been running a long time, now in its 29th year. If you have never been and live in or around the Chicagoland area, its worth checking out. Friday they have the dealer preview which you can access for $50. It opens at 7:00am. Many game deals have been scored at this pre-show event. I attended the show back in Fall of 2008, you can check it out here.

Primarily the show highlights items for your game room. Signs, clocks, novelties, memorabilia, etc. There is also a spattering of arcade games and pinball machines. Kevin Steele of Game Room magazine was there last time if you care to rub elbows with some arcade celebrity types. The next show is running April 3 to April 5 at the Pheasant Run Resort. Call Kevin Greco at 815-353-1593 for more information or visit the website.

Smashing arcade cabinets is a very touchy subject for sure, at least amongst the hard-core collector. Let’s face it, if you collect for any length of time, it is almost unavoidable. Why do people smash arcade cabinets? There are a lot of reasons; running out of space, found a better cabinet, no time to restore, moving and can’t take it with, or just looking to part it out on Chase the Chuck Wagon for cash. Are these good reasons? Maybe, maybe not. I’m all for saving the classic arcade cabinets, but sometimes you can only do so much.

In the years I’ve been collecting I’ve only had to smash cabinets a handful of times. I have some criteria for smashing a cabinet and if the cab is still around by the time I make it to the end of my list, well, it meets Mr. Sledge. The first victim I’ll share was a Championship Sprint cabinet. This game was acquired in a trade and had Paperboy installed. The Championship Sprint parts were included. After having no luck selling the game (Paperboy), probably because of the cabinet color, I parted it out and quickly sold the guts. I then tried to sell it as Championship Sprint and had similar luck. Parted it and quickly sold the parts. I pulled the monitor for my shelf and then offered the cab up for free. No takers, so here we go.

I was able to get the majority of the game into one trash can, with only a few pieces left out side for pickup. I was sad to see it go, but with limited space in the game room I have to be picky about what stays. The parts were used to restore two other classics, a good death for sure.

Everyone loves a good warehouse raid so I thought I’d share the experience I had back in March of 2005. I got lucky and found a place very close (5 minutes) from my old house in the City of Chicago. The operator had moved into darts, pool tables and jukes exclusively and was eliminating all the junk that had been sitting around taking up space. She (yes she) had been systematically gutting and smashing cabs for months before I found the place. Why? She only had a tiny dumpster and wanted to maximize the amount of stuff she packed into it each week. I rushed over to the warehouse shortly after I got off the phone with the op, there was no time to waste. (more…)