Aladdin's Castle cab

[ifkz]

I noticed a few members here fondly remember the Aladdin's Castle chain of arcades, so I thought it would be neat to show my MAME cab. I got this cab from Craig's List about 5 years ago now, right when I started collecting. It had a terrible game in it (Fighter's History) with a hacked up wiring job. I stole the monitor for my Centipede and I gave the board to a friend. Rather than throw it away, I decided it would be neat to make it into a MAME box. The tags on the back say it was originally a Final Blow cab made for the chain. I painted over the black with white latex paint, but I wanted to show everyone what the original side art looks like under the black paint. It looks very ugly, but at the same time, kinda neat.

 

[kerri369]

LOVE Aladdin's castle! my journey came from there!

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Here's mine (old pic):

 

[thebman80]

I never knew they had those.

 

[gutsman004]

Loved Aladdin's Castle!! Seemed like whereever there was a mall,there was an AC.

 

[Pleiades10]

I'd love to have an Aladdin's Castle cab! There was an Aladdin's in Virginia I remember fondly.

Kyle

 

[1badv6]

worked at Aladdin's Castle back in the late 80's. Eastland Mall Columbus OH

 

[yaggy]

I almost forgot about those cabinets.
The idea, of course, was that stores could
swap boards and panels with other locations
to vary their selection. Much cheaper than moving
entire machines. The mirror-glass marquee with
chase lights was pretty tacky. Great candidate
for Mamerizing.

 

[AlkalineJay]

worked at Aladdin's Castle back in the late 80's. Eastland Mall Columbus OH

I used to live in columbus and went to that arcade many a time as a kid. Good chance we crossed paths at some point!

 

[conroyva]

Both malls that I worked in while in college had arcades. Aladdin's Castle in one and a Tilt in the other. Aladdin's was always busier and their games were always cleaner. And I liked to collect their tokens too.

-C

 

[treborlicec]

That's it. I must have one. I was at aladdin's castle all the time when it was in my local mall.

 

[lostarcade]

I worked at the one in the Manassas Mall in Manassas, VA.

 

[thebman80]

Anyone actually have any pictures of their Aladdin's Castle in its former glory? I swore I did but don't know what happened to the 35mm film back in the day.

 

[ifkz]

Here's mine (old pic):


Thanks for posting this, I must admit I wondered what mine would have looked like with restored sides. My art was torn near the control panel and the cab needed a lot of bondo (the white blobs in my original picture). I remember my bezel was this awful two color piece of cardboard with circles around the edges (think of a pinball backbox, only much, much worse).

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Mine still has that bezel. One side is yellow the other is red. I kept mine in there just flipped it around. Mine had a Neo-geo installed originally (Fatal Fury 2 to be exact). I bought it from the local Aladdin's in '98 for $100. They wouldn't let me keep the Puzzle Bobble that was in it but they gave me a choice of carts and they sent them to me from the corporate office. I've since put a Hyper Neo-geo in it. I still need to fix the side art a bit. Once it starts peeling it comes off in chunks. I'm goint to touch it up by hand and then seal it somehow.

At one point I was trying to sell it with a bad monitor for $50 to make room but I got no takers and I decided that I like the cab too much.

 

[Tronic]

It's too bad that art isn't scanned somewhere so Rich at Thisoldgame could make repros. I would buy a set for a JAMMA cab.

 

[thebman80]

Not seeing it.

Here's mine (old pic):


Thanks for posting this, I must admit I wondered what mine would have looked like with restored sides. My art was torn near the control panel and the cab needed a lot of bondo (the white blobs in my original picture). I remember my bezel was this awful two color piece of cardboard with circles around the edges (think of a pinball backbox, only much, much worse).

 

[Schusler]

I wanna bump this up.... I saw two of these cabs last weekend at Star World's arcade. Very cool! Haven't seen one, well... since Aladdin's Castle were still open.... I love the strobing marquee lights!

I remember the last one I saw had a Rambo III kit in there. And the owner of these cabs said the cabs housed Taito kits for the A.C. chain back then - some sort of deal. Was this true because I do remember the only other one I saw had a Crime City (Taito) in there?

 

[Atari Force]

That maybe true. When AC first got those cabs in my area, they had Rambo III and Ring Rage, both by Taito. Later on they got converted to other jamma games like Fighter and Attacker and High Impact Football as a 4 player with add on control panels for players 1 and 4.

Brian

 

[rikitheshadow]

My converted Sunset Riders 4 player cabinet, originally TMNT, has a metal plate riveted in the side that says Aladdins Castle. Used to have one in my mall too here at willowbrook.