Thought I would share a story! As I had said in the memorial thread Chris had helped me out no end with trouble shooting many many mpu boards for me, within those emails he had mentioned he has an Ace sidewinder, my ears pricked up as I had not seen one since the 80's in an arcade I had worked in as a teenager. Anyway he said he had accidentaly necked the tube (means cracked the tv screen small end) Sidewinder is a video fruit for those not familiar. And is it was an odd size 16 inch Hantarex rather than the normal 19 inch one's he could not find a replacement! Well seeing this chance to help him for a change, so I set about searching for one posting on the many forums I use for my arcade obsession. I was delighted when I tracked one down in Italy of all places, the guy that replied was a guru on CRT tubes and knew what old TV's comtaind what tubes. So he had one tested and working, Chris was over the moon! The seller was spot on and packed the tube inside an old TV in a huge box with sponge etc, the cost was little shipping not so, as sidewinder was a memory for me also I paid some of the shipping which Chris protested about. This was in 2015 and I was delighted to help him out in a small way after all the help he had given to me and contiinued to give beyond that, Might be a bit of a boring read for others but I remember him sending me pics when he had the screen up and running in the machine, he had thought he would never find another, I'm like a dog with a bone with my OCD when I want something lol.
And later he was telling me he was building an MFME machine in a JPM Vogue cabinet, I think that was 2018? I had a couple of bits he needed a 10p and £1 hopper and some coin entry bits, I was never going to be able to give him any tech help lol. I wonder how far he got with that project?
Anyway sorry for ranting on! Just some of my memories
Thanks Ronnie
