With the site redesign, I've been updating road trip stories along with uploading high quality photos. Some of these stories are really good. There are near 50 road trip stories to choose from by clicking the menu link Trips + Archives.

The road trips are plenty, but I'll mention a few of my favorites:
• There's the 2 day Star Wars road trip that took me to an arcade auction and Mall of America.
• There's the 1000 pound monster Sega Rally Championship Deluxe that I pulled out of a guys mobile home kitchen.
• There's the Emergency Call Ambulance game I bought straight from a hospital bed, hours after a major surgery.
• Finally there's The Simpsons road trip that took me to Chicago to where I got to visit Medieval Times and swim in Lake Michigan. Have fun with some light reading and enjoy the photos!

Star Wars Road Trip

Sega Rally Deluxe Trip

Emergency Call Ambulance Trip

The Simpsons Road Trip

Covid-19, social distancing, and masks. This will be our kids school year this year, while other schools are going virtual and hybrid for fall 2020. At the very least, we can give our kids a proper send off and a whole lot of fun at the Vintage Vault Arcade. Because, its back to school time!

The Basement Arcade is being updated to a new site design which is responsive to smartphones as well as much easier to read.

All main pages as well as over 5 years of archived pages have been updated. This website has over 14 years of content, so some of the site will still have the old layout until we are able to complete all updates.

Straight from the Vintage Vault Arcade, a review & gameplay on one of my favorite games in the arcade, Star Wars!

Tapper arcade, made by Bally Midway in 1983. This game is now full on 37 years of vintage goodness. Originally sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, the arcade version features a Budweiser logo on the side art, tapper handles, and in game advertising.

I played one of these at the neighborhood malt shop, the place a group of us 12 year old boys would go to get ice cream. We'd ride our bikes up to the malt shop, get some ice cream and have a pocket full of quarters to play this and another arcade game. This bad boy was fun with its unique tapper handles, its cartoon characters and peppy background music.

I always wanted a Tapper, but then so does every collector out there. There was a cheap Tapper at the auction I went to in Minnesota but I only had room for one game for the trip back. I was already picking up my grail, a Star Wars at the time. You can read about the Star Wars road trip here:

The Tapper had to wait, and it did for another decade. Fast forward and I picked one up locally working, but needing a little TLC. CPO was trashed, monitor with severe burn-in, beat up T-molding, tarnished brass foot rest, and beat up cup holders. Good news was the side art was in amazing condition, a plus. This game was an arcade collection grail, and needed the royal treatment.

I made short work of the restoration. Put on a new control panel overlay and tapper handle stickers. Installed new t-molding. Found a colorful, bright, burn free monitor and installed. Shined up the dull brass footrest with some Brasso. Remove and repainted the cup holders with a nice brassy gold color. And finally, installed a freeplay ROM.

This Tapper now has a showcase spot right next to the entryway of the arcade. For me, this is in my top 5 collectable games with Star Wars, Q*bert, Tron and Space Ace. I'll be enjoying a cold one, and playing some Tapper in the Vintage Vault Arcade! [Play Youtube video below]

Vintage Vault Arcade Tour for 2020. The arcade is always changing, always getting tweaked.