It started out with a call from my dad, he asked if I would "want a game console", naturally I said yes and then asked what it was. He said it was "Konami Jail Break" and I realized it wasn't a console but an arcade cabinet, so I asked how much it was and he said that it was in the trash. I thought he was lying since he is a notorious liar about things like this and just wanted to get me out that way to work on his rental house which just happened to be in the same neighborhood. But I figured if he was going to lie about it, he would have said it was Pac-Man or something he actually had heard of. So I left immediately for his location, and when I pulled up, there was actually a full size arcade cabinet sitting on the curb. I didn't even bother to inspect it, and loaded it into the truck as quickly as we could. A few minutes later I was home with this:
I immediately started looking it over (and posting about it on the forums here).  From my very limited knowledge of arcade cabinets, nothing was missing so I plugged it in. Much to my dismay, nothing happened. I check for loose connections and redid a couple connections that looked sketchy, but then noticed a switch on the back of the machine that was in the recess the back cover fits into and I realized that it was there to turn the machine off if the back was open. So I taped it down and tried turning it on again, still nothing, not a single light or beep. So I continued looking for more loose connections and testing wires for continuity when I spotted another switch on the coin door. It was the same type of switch that was on the back so I pressed it in, and heard the noise of CRT screen starting up right next to my head, which scared the daylights out of me because I wasn't expecting it and immediately let go of the switch. I soon realized what the noise was an pressed it in again and heard the machine start up and start playing. I twas truly music to my ears. I figured out the switch wasn't activating right because its bracket was bent to face down and it was moved from its original location, so it couldn't come into contact with the door. So I rebent the bracket and moved it back so the coin door would activate it.
Now that it was on, I tried for my first play and pressed the service switch for a free game and got to the "press start" screen, but the machine doesn't have a "start" button just two white and two red buttons, so I pressed each of them and nothing happened. So I pulled off the panel holding the buttons and joystick and found the very simple mechanical-like switches and realized the metal contact for one of the buttons was bent out of shape so that it was in constant contact. A quick rebend on that and all the buttons were working again. And suddenly the game was fully functional and I was playing away. I could have left it like this, pressing the service switch for a free game, but I wanted more, I wanted to use coins. But most of the coin mechanism was missing, there are two coin slots and both had different pieces missing, so I consolidated it all to one slot and was only missing a piece of track that carries the coin to the switch, so my dad made a replacement out of some aluminum siding while I worked on the electronics of the coin mechanism. The previous owner had tried to bypass the coin activated switch with the service switch to allow free play by pressing that switch, but they didn't do it right so the coin switch didn't work right and the service switch wasn't working properly either. They had wires that went to nothing and other wires that went in loops connected only to themselves. So after a bit of de-soldering and soldering, I had the switches connected like they should have been; so the coin switch works and the service switch works. With the piece my dad made, the coin went where it was supposed to and the game could be played the right way. The coin box is missing so he got an old plastic margarine tub to put inside to catch the quarters, but I told him that just wouldn't work and got a metal can, to give it that satisfying "ting" sound of dropping in a quarter.
Now that it was working, it was time for some cleaning, major cleaning. I scrubbed the whole thing down with soap and water, taking of decades of dirt and grime. And then removed the rusted speaker cover, brushed it down to bare metal and repainted it. Finally, I touched up the paint on the cabinet that had been scratched or discolored and repainted most of the rusty coin door. And soon I had this:

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But wait, there's more! I also had a nice little trade with Den68 (awesome trader BTW). I traded him an NES set-up for the following NES games.

All are games that I needed, so it helped me get to over 400 unique NES games! And all it cost me was an NES that was taking up space and $7.35 for shipping.