What the hell are you doing? I had the magic key. I got the cross. I was closing in on the barbarian!

I think if I had to pick the most difficult thing to date about this project, it would have to be the planning and organization.

I had initially hoped that I would be able to source the majority of what I needed locally, saving on part costs and shipping expenses.

Exactly the opposite was the case. I found that ordering internationally, with the Canadian dollar being as strong as it is, even with the added expense of shipping various duty charges was considerably less expensive. In some cases by a factor of 50%.


It could be that the local arcade suppliers simply don't want the hassle of a one off cash deal which will likely generate more headaches than the profit they're make. Coming from retail I totally understand that, but be up front about it. Don't pretend you're going to give me a quote when you have no intention. Don't blow me out of the water with your quoted costs if you just want me to fuck off. Just tell me you're not interested.


Andy from Ultimarc has been awesome. His customer service skills are legendary on the BYOAC forums and he's certainly proven that with my transactions.

Dave from Starbust has been incredibly patient with me as well. He fielded all of my questions and even pointed me in the right direction when I had made a poor choice on some parts.

Randy from Groovy released some new products just as I was in the finalizing stage of some of the cabinet parts.

One of the hardest things to source, unexpectedly, was the black melamine. You wouldn't think that black melamine would be a such a rare item since every book shelf and entertainment unit in my house is made from it. The responses from the various hardware stores went from:

'Ohh black, sorry we only carry white.'

'Ohhh black, yah that's a special order, did you try Home Depot or Rona?'

'Well I guess we can special order it, are you sure you want to?'

I've never met a group of businesses more dedicated to not wanting me to give them money. It took almost 2 weeks to source the melamine and it's going to be 2 weeks before it actually arrives.

With any luck I'll have my cost page up soon, as well as some photos of my house full of parts.