Check Out Wilcox Arcade at Trends N Treasures in Murray, KY
Believe the hype: Wilcox Arcade has a physical presence in the world again – and I sure as heck ain’t backing down this time around.
On Saturday, April 13th, 2024, my grandparents brought to me from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, two of my most treasured arcade cabinets, which I subsequently placed by the entrance of Trends N Treasures in Murray, Kentucky, for the public to enjoy.
The games in question – Skycurser and Fun-E-Ball – have been foist back into the limelight for the first time since they sat at WK Cinemas in my hometown approximately two years ago. Fitting that such favorites of mine would welcome in a new era of Wilcox Arcade.
An unfortunate caveat over the weekend was that both machines were “dead on arrival.” In the case of Fun-E-Ball, I sleuthed a wire leading to the left coin switch that had come unsecured, a fairly trivial fix as far as this business goes.
Skycurser, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. The Airframe PC mounted to the side of the cabinet had seemingly gotten beaten to death in transit, seeing as how there was a nary a trace of activity on the monitor. If I’m being perfectly honest with you, this snafu sucked some of the wind out of my proverbial sails following my extensive pre-launch marketing.
The good news is I think I know how to bring my boy back to life (“think” being the operative word in the preceding clause). I read in an online forum that the Skycurser USB drive can self-boot from virtually any personal computer, so I’ll likely buy a burner unit I can jerry-rig to the JAMMA outputs via JPAC converter.
In the meantime, though, I’m absolutely stoked to have at least one title proudly waving the Wilcox Arcade flag after all this time. Because Fun-E-Ball will need to punch above its weight class until I fill out my line-up, I intend to spruce it up with a custom LED lighting solution.
Kids have historically adored Fun-E-Ball — especially when I dropped it at Brenda’s Snack Shack in Hopkinsville — which at least gives me some hope for the future. It’s only $0.50 per play for those interested.
I also take solace knowing the cabinet my buddy Adam Lamb is building for Alien Vs. Predator will be ready to deploy soon enough. To put it another way, I won’t let one piece of “dead wood” kneecap my progress while I’m cracking how to resurrect it.
So yeah, come on down to Trends N Treasures on South 12th Street in Murray, Kentucky, to play Fun-E-Ball right now. I’ll be there this weekend installing those aforementioned lights if you’d like to say hi.
Keep it real out there, gamers.