Well it's been almost a year. Almost goodbye 2002 and hello 2003. I think we should end this year off on a high note.

I got and email from my friend Dave up in Maine the other day and the story he gave me was one of great tragedy and hope.

It started about 3 weeks ago. He and his friends frequented an S.S. 4 machine at a local gas station called Big Reds. They were the best players in the area. I know, I played them all once. Infact, that's how I met them.

The trouble started when they arrived at the Big Reds and found that the owner Norm was getting rid of the old machine. He said that he just wasn't bringing in the costumers with it anymore, so it was going to a junkyard to be destroyed.

My friends tried to buy the machine but Norm had already signed a form saying that the machine was to be destroyed.

When the crew came to pick it up Norm requested that they be careful in loading it onto the truck for Dave and the rest. The man said that the machine wasn't going to be wrecked for a day if they wanted to get one more game out of it.

That day they played for free and never once let go of the sticks. When they left they said goodbye to the loyal machine and went home.

The next day they came to watch the machine be destroyed. In all about 6 people watched as two big men with sledge hammers assaulted the hapless machine till there was nothing left.

The owner let them come in and pay their last respects to the fallen machine. That's when they saw it. In the wreckage was of all things the Motherboard and CPU of the game. They had made it through without a scratch. They gathered up the parts and left for home to figure out what to do.

They are now looking for a new machine to put the Motherboard and CPU in. I hear that an Arcade out in California has a copy of Amuasakas Revenge that needs the very thing that they have. They are currently negotiating to buy it.

Good Luck to Dave. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

Good Luck, Fight hard. John