from my
let's play ball roadtrip there was still a night driver waiting for me at sascha's place and because holidays are always a great time for roadtrips, i finally made an appointment to bring the game home.
here's what's coming up
a beautiful warm summer day - and
not a hell of a roadtrip monster ahead of me
since this is a trip for a real arcade b/w classic, i'm going to present it to you in true night driver style!
ladies and gentlemen, buckle up and start the engine
let's maneuver that racing car to the starting line
here we go, the avenue of trees leading out of my home town - isn't it just beautiful?
time to speed up on the motorway
it's a public holiday in germany, which means no trucks and pretty deserted highways - everyone's probably just lying outside in the sun!
the newly-constructed rhein-neckar soccer stadium
crossing the rhine river into the bordering German state of Rhineland-Palatinate
arriving at sascha's place, the night driver is still in the garage where i left it more than three months ago. sascha was kind enough to give it some protection and to lift it off the ground to prevent moisture from damaging the bottom. thx a lot!
this is probably the first time i'm having a real close look at the machine, because the last time it was just about loading and unloading - much more fun to do this when it's warm outside!
the cab is in pretty good condition - i wonder how this is going to look once i've cleaned it up and treated it with cockpit spray!
the coin insert label says "1 german mark" and there are stickers on the inside labelled in german, which means this cabinet must have been on location in germany originally. after a detour to the netherlands, its now back to its homeland. the routes that those cabinets sometimes take are a mystery ... but fun to explore.
sascha is inspecting the board - looks extremely clean except one minor burn mark at one of the connectors!
on the inside, the cabinet is
EXTREMELY clean. i would
not have expected that from a game which is missing the backdoor and which has been standing around for a couple of years!
we're doing some preliminary work on the cabinet before powering it up for the first time
in forever, like installing a plug, cleaning the edge connector and checking the fuses. sascha also suggests to exchange the "big blue" for a "big black", so here we go ...
start the countdown - time to plug in the game!
the white security switch is being pulled out
a short "crash sound" can be heard
ignition sequence started
and look what we've got on the screen
the picture is shaky, a little bit out of focus and distorted, but HEY, this game is almost 35 years old and hasn't been turned on for a looong time. i would have expected it to be dead, so this is
golden!!! btw, before you ask: playing around with the monitor's potis brought some improvement, but it's still far from perfect. nervertheless, i'm thrilled
time to head home with the night driver in the back of my car
tunnel ahead
weeeaaahhhh - winding roads
here's how it always ends
one country, two counties, 457 kilometers, 8 hours 44 minutes on the road - this roadtrip is OFFICIALLY OVER! 
