As a collector, there is always an ebb and flow to your collection. Tastes change, opportunities arise, shit happens, etc. Having had the fortune to be able to own many many games during my relatively short time spent as a collector I have seen many games come and go. My actual basement arcade can only accomodate a moderate amount of games (per the wife) and therefore many times, if I want to add something to the collection, something else has to go.

Crazy Climber was one of the first games I owned once I actually considered myself a “collector” back in 2007. I had been working with someone who owned several non-working arcade games and was trading my services as a repair technician in exchange for some of the non-working games. I had noticed the crazy climber alone in the back by the exit door ever since I first started doing repairs there and always thought how lonely it looked sitting by itself separated from the rest of the other 20 games near the front of the business.

Being a younger collector, I can honestly say that I never ever played Crazy Climber in an actual arcade, so I really didn’t know what it was. As I grew more and more curious (or more and more obsessed if you’d rather) I did some investigation to learn that of the games I was asked to work on, this game was considered one of the more sought-after, and more valuable pieces there. I quickly decided that I HAD to have it.

Therefore, after I fixed enough games to earn my Playchoice 10 I set my sights on the Taito classic. When I ended up bringing the game home, there were a few things easily noticeable:

1. It was covered in dust and lint from being in a laundry for 20+ year
2. it smelled really good
3. One side was really faded and had scratches galore from the way it was positioned with one side to the wall for who knows how many years
4. It didn’t work

Well, technically it DID work – only the monitor didn’t. Crazy climber was one of the first, if not my very first G0-7 rebuilds. A regular old capkit didn’t do anything, so I had to add a new flyback and H.O.T.. Once I did that, the game was playable. Aside from the aforementioned sideart, the game’s only other issue was a missing joystick knob. Not too shabby!

The point of the game is to climb a building to get to the top of a building while dodging all assortment of falling objects, slamming windows, and gorillas (!). Anyhow, this game is really very fun and challenging to figure otu the right rhythm. However, the one main disappointment is that the game is really repettitive. Once you get to the top, you start back over at the bottom. The levels don’t change much except for the difficulty, and I am not a man of routine.

As I grew somewhat weary of a game that I’m not a huge fan of taking up valuable real estate where there could be a REALLY fun game, I decided to offer CC up for sale. Lo and behold, this game was so popular that I found someone online that was willing to pay the purchase price plus the cost of shipping! I ended up selling the game to a collector in Pennsylvania for $575 plus $50 for time and materials to pallet the game. Whoa! I just scored some major coin for a game that, aside from some minor labor, I got for free! If I wasn’t hooked into the hobby before, I was then.

Of the games that I have had come and go, this one is probably one of the ones that I miss the least. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great collector’s piece, just for some other collector. I’m glad to have helped it find it’s way into the home of someone who really enjoys it. (and I was none too sad about lining my pockets while I was at it )

Tags: Arcade, collection, crazy climber, taito