QBERT Arcade Restore

Life gave me a lemon, watch me make lemonade. In this video you can watch me make a series of mistakes including misidentification, painting with the wrong paint (twice), misidentify a monitor issue, and order wrong parts. But, in this case, it wasn't as much about the (long) journey as it was the destination. I am pleased with the final product, I hope you like it too.

[@MrSilverballmania]

I bought a Qbert at a auction for $5 yes $5 , but it was trashed as being in a barn and animals living in and on it . Me and my son built a new cab as the old one was swelled like wet paper that dried , and we powered it up before any work was done and behold it worked

[@TheGeekPub]

Old Q*Bert is the bomb! I think I'll go play it now!

[@Tarpo]

Only recently found this channel. I love these long form restorations, the Qbert, Tapper and Street Fighter 1 videos are fantastic. It’s great to see the progress over months and even years to get the machines up and running.

[@Glitch969]

That turned out REALLY well. I had my doubts. Very inspiring. Q*Bert is at the top of my list.

[@Glitch969]

P.S. I’m totally hooked on your channel. My wife “thanks” you. =…(

[@jabotheclown617]

Great work Mike! Looks awesome. 6 player X-Men I see 👀 😎

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you!

[@ArcadeFreak-gw5rp]

I absolutely love q bert, your cabinet came out beautifully. Great job on it.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you!

[@timothystevenhoward]

Gunner is so cute! What a good pup

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

We love this dog so much.

[@carlosfields9937]

Thanks for taking the time to share.

[@simonbinni5269]

I just found your channel. I noticed you have a MCA joystick. These joysticks are pretty common in Australia and considered to be a great hard wearing joystick. There old but they can take a beating.

[@redpill4643]

Excellent job, it looks amazing!

[@Karnage233]

This was such a blast to watch, turned out magnificent as well. Great job with this!

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you!

[@Karnage233]

@@ElectricStarshipArcade of course!

[@arcadeerik2603]

Great Job, Enjoyed the content. Please keep up the great work.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you!

[@DavAndFriends]

Just found your channel and I think what you’re doing here is awesome! My small suggestion would be to show the game in its spot on the floor after the restoration is finished. It would be a great ending to see it go full circle from being in bad shape, to being restored, to being played in the Starship. Either way keep up the good work and I appreciate you for putting out this extremely enjoyable content!

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you Michael! I appreciate the suggestion. I have a new video coming out this Saturday at noon and you will see the game on the floor. This Qbert is actually going into a new location. We unfortunately haven’t found a building yet.

[@nnaheim.]

MCA joysticks were on every arcade machine in the 80s and 90s in NZ, great stick

[@GrumpyOldGamer9221]

Brought back some memories, enjoyed the video!

[@TheChrisBeans]

Really enjoyed this one. Nice and chill, plenty of detail, and a great result. More like this would be super welcome! I’m assuming that Thomas was responsible for the cool side art, signed off as TK? He’s the best alright!

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

I’m really glad you liked it. Honestly, making old busted games look better again may be my favorite part. I typically have several projects(and videos) going at once. The good news is that I seem to have infinite amounts of these videos coming so stay tuned :)

[@LoicGuetat]

Amazing work!

[@BenCos2018]

nice that defn looks amazing haha

[@FelinoAnticomunista]

Cheers from Chile (new subscriber) Excellent job

[@verysharpeditingman]

Excellent video! Very inspiring. I have 3 original upright cabinets pacman and galaxian from Franlkin Park Illinois and from 1981....TEMPEST! I want the original Wizard of Wor, Gorf, Centipede , Millipede, Galaga, Zaxxon, QIX, TRON, Venture, Qbert, there's so many.....I want.

[@teflon5821]

fantastic job 👍👍🧑‍🎄 I'm a new Sub 👍👍

[@b.o.4492]

Just found you today and enjoyed the video. Subbed and liked.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you!

[@netizen_m3919]

The spray painted artwork on the side of the cabinet had a signature that said T.K. I'll bet Thomas did that artwork!

[@PristineTX]

If I see a Q*bert machine, I play it. If it doesn’t have a knocker, I stop playing it. Good job.

[@mrlox9576]

Ya can't play 'guess what cabinet is under all this paint' after putting Qbert in the title. Lol And Thomas, you may believe you're the best, but if you're responsible for that wiring, never rewire anything connected to mains again. 😉👍

[@MR-vg7yn]

Awesome result. This might be a stupid question, but wouldn't it be a lot easier to remove all electronics, the screen, etc. from the cabinet before working on it? I would imagine that sanding and painting an empty cabinet should be way simpler. Is there a reason you don't do that?

[@homeFall1]

My guess looking at their shop is that since these projects can drag out and they don't have room to swing a cat, it helps keep the parts for the game all together and in a smaller footprint.

[@robdavis4777]

I stumbled upon your vids I’m local in Frisco and I can wait to come check out your place.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Come on by!

[@WizardKingCorey]

Fantastic

[@andyauthor2007]

Tiger Heli is a vertical SHMUP that uses an 8-way joystick so I don't know how you could have mistaken the joystick that was on it for a Q*Bert joystick. Still, it looks beautiful and you did a good job on it. I wish I had the space and the know-how to restore video game cabinets, I'd build my own arcade.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

The joysticks looked similar, had the ability to be 4 or 8 way, and a lot of time operators back then tended to use them every part they could to keep costs down when they converted a game.

[@GamingWithGardenGnomes]

The Fear from 1995. Wouldn't say its great but for a 90s horror it is. Has Wes Craven in it.

[@BenCos2018]

the supra max is an industrial key box btw

[@TheVideoGuyfromOhio]

Cute doggo

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Thank you! Gunner is my buddy

[@georgeshelton6281]

Did you notice that this was the very first time I've ever seen the Q'Bert video arcade game machine getting restored? Even though it was, however, still originally an old-timer tiger, HELI helicopter video game. The thing is: they just don't make video arcade game machines like they used to. It was also too bad that our video arcade game machines cabinets were made out of plywood and not Georgia Pacific fiberglass. That's what our new business buildings are made out of. 😳 😄 😀 😅 🤣 😆 😳

[@SeeBS2]

Qbert was a favorite game of mine. But I always thought it was difficult.

[@midwestboy9584]

worked for an arcade for 3 fun loving years and Q-Bert was my game ... I could literally drop in one quarter and play that thing for hours ... on the same quarter .... once you got the pattern down the game was a breeze ... also loved Track and Field and Dragon's Lair ... had to empty those two games out twice (sometimes 3) times a week ... everything else was done on Tuesday mornings .... fond memories ... thanks for the build

[@Undar8ed03]

Awesome restore brother. Which led do you use for the marquee light? I want to swap all of mine to leds

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

12 inch led under cabinet light from Home Depot. 1005 396 890 white. Just cut the plug off and wire it straight in. They have one with no plug but it’s like $14 more. No thanks, I have scissors.

[@Undar8ed03]

@@ElectricStarshipArcade hell yeah. We got snips and electrical tape for that. Lol. Just kidding, I see you do a lot of dedicated stuff. I would love to but the cabs in my area are so expensive so I get the ones I can and mainly focus on universals like Dynamo’s since I’m just using them in the house. Quick question though, ever ran across a sit down outrun 2?? Also I appreciate the light number. I want to switch all of mine over

[@operationrestore3308]

Nice work

[@michaelapplewhite4715]

that stick was in my original street fighter, and i have an original street fighter board with the pneumatics if your intrested

[@BEM684]

I finally found a context where I can say "those are some nice knockers" and not risk getting sued! 34:59

[@FRISSONhandle]

DJ QBERT😊

[@cackleberryfarm4598]

Got motion sick after the first 3 minutes. Bummer... wanted to see the restore.

[@markc1793]

Honestly, i'd be very tempted to recreate the "Thomas is the best" label and put it back after the restoration. I'm typing this just after the reveal of the label, so hopefully that's what ends up happening.

[@FranktheTank83]

Hey Mike. Was wondering if you remembered what you paid for that Qbert. Was just trying to get an idea for a fair price on a project Qbert cab

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

We only gave $250 for the cab. But it needed a lot of restoration. I think a fair price would depend on availability and condition.

[@johnjpegdevenney]

Thomas is the best

[@garyrose7962]

what type of paint do u use on these cabs

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

I use oil based enamel. That way I can apply side art without worrying about degassing. If the paint degasses once the side art is applied it can create bubbles underneath

[@rogerlong5585]

To the convenience store employee who had to listen to me playing Q*bert for three hours back in the 80s, my apologies. It was the one game I was really good at and that was the only time I was able to play that long on one quarter.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

@@rogerlong5585 don’t apologize. It was an honor

[@gideonwaxfarb]

I wonder if somebody like Thomas will ever see one of your videos in the future and pay you insane amounts of money to get the cab back.

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

You never know.

[@charlesmckee4719]

Now you be the funny arcade owner and get some qbert plushies or pocket sized figures and schedule the cleaning of the qbert

[@larswadefalk6423]

One may start to wonder when you find the odd stuff in it, whether homeless people has been living and sleeping in it.

[@Markokk888]

Thomas where are you?!

[@curtisnewton895]

why the mystery, the name of the game is written in the title of the fucking video

[@ElectricStarshipArcade]

Who hurt you….

[@score.datarot]

Are you okay dude he didn't clickbait or anything