From: rhp@inel.gov (Robert Powell)
Subject: Re: Crazy Climber (buying)
Reply-To: rhp@inel.gov
Organization: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 20:36:14 GMT

Craig Groeschel wrote:
> Sigh, one of my favorites.  I can still hear "Baby Elephant Walk".
> I wish I could get one....

Keep watching the nets, and start asking around locally (Houston, I presume).   
I had been trying to find one since I got a real job, just over three years  
ago.

I started by checking with the owner of the arcade where I had worked.  He had  
sold the machine years ago, and didn't have any records of where it went.  Dead  
end.

I then began asking around at arcades and other places where video games tend  
to accumulate (fast-food restaurants, bars, etc...).  I found that there was  
one place here that serviced all the machines locally and bought/sold them.   
They sold a Crazy Climber a couple of years ago, and lost track of it.  They  
referred my to Mountain Coin, who handles Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and  
a few other large areas around here.  They have thousands of machines placed,  
and their entire stock is on a database.  They looked it up, not one Crazy  
Climber.  And they hadn't seen one in a while.  Another dead end.

In March of this year I saw a posting from Rick Schieve in which a friend of  
his was selling several machines, including a Crazy Climber.  I immediately  
followed up, and sent him a check for the machine.  I then arranged for  
shipping, and it arrived here last week.  It took so long because of the method  
in which I had it shipped.  The people specialize in video games, pinballs, and  
juke boxes.  They drive around the country, picking up machines in some places  
and dropping them off in other places.  They rarely make it to this part of the  
country, hence the long wait.  The advantages to this method are:

     1.  The special treatment they give to the machines, and
     2.  They charge much less than conventional shipping.

The game works great, after I fixed a few minor glitches.  It's in the original  
cabinet, so the paint's coming off in some places.

I've been told that finding some of these games, like Crazy Climber, is  
difficult because so many have been converted to more popular games, like the  
seemingly infinite variations on the fighting theme.  This will probably get  
worse in the future.  The original Crazy Climber is popular for conversion  
since it comes with a large solid cabinet, large monitor, and large power  
supply.  

So, keep looking.  Several people who have access to a LOT of machines know  
that I am (was) in the market, so if they run across anything they will let me  
know.  I, in turn, will post anything I find out to this newsgroup.

-=-=-=-=-=-=- Idaho National Engineering Laboratory -=-=-=-=-=-=-
Robert H. Powell    rhp@inel.gov (NeXT Mail OK)    (208) 525-5553
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Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade