I am now the proud owner of a Street Fighter II: Champion Edition arcade cabinet. It was a big part of my life growing up. At school, we would go across the street to play on the machine at the local convenience store. At Christmas, SFII for the Genesis was at the top of my list when it was released, and of course I got it. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to own a Street Fighter II arcade machine. Even as recent as a few months ago I was considering purchasing one on eBay but I always figured it would be a hassle to order and get into my apartment.
Well, last Friday, I saw an email from a guy at my job saying “Free Street Fighter II machine”. I was skeptical, so I emailed him and asked if he meant the cabinet. He said yeah and if you want it, just come by and pick it up. I didn’t know where to put it but he said how about sticking it in your office? I was intrigued, so I scrambled and found a guy who had a truck in my building and along with another guy, we drove down to pick it up. It was a little tricky to get this beast into the back of the truck. We had to lean it up against the back and slide it horizontally on its back. It was raining a little bit, too, so we stopped at Home Depot before getting it so I could get a moving blanket.
It was all worth it. I was in awe when I realized that I got my dream machine for absolutely nothing. Here it is:
Unfortunately, it’s not working yet. Check out this video to see what it looks like when it’s powered up:
The next step is to diagnose what exactly is wrong with it. It could be a bad power supply, bad connectors, or even a bad PCB. It’s been nearly a week since I got the machine and I’m now a bit more familiar with how arcade machines work. The arcade board in the machine can actually be swapped for another game, so I am considering doing that to see if it would work. Either way, I’m gonna get this sucker working.
