The keychain

You may have read my post about my very short local road trip. If not, go ahead!

I asked the operator for keys to the cabinets I got from him. His health isn't very good, so he told me: Go down to the basement. On the right, you will see a long keychain hanging from the ceiling.


Wow! He wasn't exaggerating when he said it's a long keychain. It must be two meters long, or 6.5' for you Americans. Not only did it have many of the keys I needed for the cabinets. What I was looking at here was a piece of local arcade history.

Now it's in my garage!

A friend of mine recently said something like: I don't believe that there has ever been a Tron in Norway. Until I knew about your Robotron I didn't believe in that one either.
Well, here it was! The keychain documented what had once been. Hand written labels told the story about cabinets we can only dream about in this cold country nowadays. They were all there. Defender. Donkey Kong. Missile Command. Frogger. Tempest. And yes, Tron!
Worst of all, the operator said this was just one of his keychains. He had more of them!

This would make a nice desktop wallpaper!

You may doubt whether all of the cabinets were dedicated, and not just generic ones with bootleg boards. Well, after having picked up the cabinets that I did, I have no reason to doubt that most (if not all) of these were dedicated. I also got a bunch of the original boards from him that went with these titles, but that's another story.



So, what's the big deal? The chance that I will see these cabinets here in Norway the next 10 or 20 years is slim to none. Heck, I'd be surprised if I even find one of these titles. It may be bittersweet, but at least it brings me just a glimmer of hope to see what has once existed. Who knows, one of these days I'll find one in an old barn somewhere.

And you got to remember, this was just a small local operator in a town of 135 000 inhabitants. There were big players also here, with literally hundreds or thousands of games. Are the cabinets all gone? I hate to think so. I won't believe it! There must be more out there, and I will find it!