I had the opportunity to add another game to the “arcade”. Obviously I jumped at the chance. The new addition….Dig Dug. This cabinet is probably in the least desireable shape of the 3 cabinets I own. As always, I will be setting up a dedicated page on this site detailing the restoration and work done to the cabinet. Photos will be added to the dedicated page and the photo gallery as work progresses.
The cabinet right now is filthy as it has years of dust accumulated on the inside and years of yellow tobacco smoke stains on the outside. The coin door needs to be sanded down and repainted. The control panel, monitor, bezel and marquee are all in decent shape and will look better after a thorough cleaning. The molding around the cabinet has seen better days and will need to be replaced.
The biggest challenge is going to be repairs to the woodwork on the left side of the cabinet. The left rear corner has a huge “chunk” taken out of it. This will obviously have to be fixed at some point. The problem lies with the side art, which may have to be destroyed in the repair process. New side art is rare and expensive, so I’ll have to do some creative thinking before tackling any repairs. At least the game is in 100% working condition.
I’m trying to obtain one more game, but if that doesn’t pan out, this will probably be my last project for several month (or at least until April when there is an arcade auction in St. Louis). I’ll be adding detailed pictures of the cabinet to the dedicated page and photo gallery later tonight.
I sure wish I had been in the arcade game collecting hobby when the previous owner bought this Dig Dug and the some 25 plus other machines he has in storage from the surrounding states. I wonder if he posted on klov, or other forums, and what his screen name was, or if he was completely clueless of value of some of these games and how to preserve them. Probably why his restaurant failed with the retro section in tow. He sure didn’t take good care of the cabinets, totally trashing the corner of this Dig Dug and smashing completely a Zaxxon and Q-Bert. Would explain a lot about his business sense.