Are Aladdin's Castle Property Numbers of any use?

JedahDoma

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Can an Aladdin's Castle arcade property number help me?

I got my hands on a Lucky & Wild machine today. I asked where the owner got it from, and he said a friend. He told me that friend got it from an Aladdin's Castle. Lo and behold I find a metal plate with the words "Aladdin's Castle Property Number: 97957" emblazoned on it.

Now I'm almost sure this was the same one I played when I was a kid as this wasn't a common machine and there was only one place that had it in town. That being said, is there any kind of database I could cross reference this property number that would have a record of where this machine was at during its' tenure at Aladdin's Castle?

I tried searching threads here and the internet, but came up with nothing. Any help would be appreciated as it would be cool if I could know with 100% certainty that this was the very machine I played as a kid.

**UPDATE**

Wow, well it was a long shot, but I contacted Namco Arcade via their contact page. I asked if they had the records to track down where my machine had been and what do you know, I got a response! Here's the official response from Namco on the history of my machine:

"Hello Brian

Thanks for the email. I always love getting fun things like this.

The Lucky & Wild you own was purchased by us in 1993 and was originally placed in an arcade in Portland, OR. In 1998, it was moved to an arcade in the Crossroads Shopping Center in Oklahoma City, OK. It stayed there for about a year until June of 1999 it was moved to a theater on Peustemon St in Wichita, KS. It was then sold in August of 1999 to an unknown buyer.

Hope that helps"

While it's not the one I played as a kid, it's still awesome to see where it's been!
 
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I have 2 or 3 games at my arcade that I left those plates on from an Aladdin's Castle owner a couple years ago-S.T.U.N. Runner, Xybots, Street Fighter II and a Karate Champ. Can post what number goes to what game tomorrow or Saturday.
 
Namco arcades may still have the sales records. Might be hard to find someone there willing to help. They used to list them for sale on their site using property numbers.
 
I wish I could find a complete game list from the one that was located in the granite run mall here in PA. Or at least a picture of the front of the structure so I can make an accurate model in sketchup. I already made one from memory not very accurate though still have to tweak it.
 
I wish I could find a complete game list from the one that was located in the granite run mall here in PA. Or at least a picture of the front of the structure so I can make an accurate model in sketchup. I already made one from memory not very accurate though still have to tweak it.

I've stood under that facade for many hours, handing out change. Maybe I can help :)
 
I have some weird Aladdin's castle tokens I found in some lots I bought. Anyone know what red Enamel Aladdin's castle tokens where used for? Also have some Aluminum ones maybe some other different colored enamel coated ones as well.


Edit here's a pic I swore I had a blue enamel token not sure where that got to...

DSCF3602.jpg
 
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Yay! I helped. I wonder if he's up to looking up a few that I have including a Property tag I found in the bottom of a machine I bought that also had its own tag.
 
Cool, I am doing the same thing, I just sent Namco arcade a little e-mail through their feedback system for my serial # 87638. I hope I get a response too! Thanks for the great idea!
 
Yay! I helped. I wonder if he's up to looking up a few that I have including a Property tag I found in the bottom of a machine I bought that also had its own tag.

Much appreciated. I figured it was a long shot, but it worked!

Cool, I am doing the same thing, I just sent Namco arcade a little e-mail through their feedback system for my serial # 87638. I hope I get a response too! Thanks for the great idea!

Awesome. Here's hoping more folks can get the low down on where their machines came from.
 
Got my reply today, very cool!

"Records are not too detailed on this game, but I can tell you that it was purchased in Dec of 1989 as a Final Blow (Taito) game. In Aug of 1993, it was converted to Fighters History (Data East), and was sold by us in Feb. of 1997. It was operated the entire time in Aladdin's Castle in the Sikes Senter Mall in Wichita Falls, TX."
 
Got my reply today, very cool!

"Records are not too detailed on this game, but I can tell you that it was purchased in Dec of 1989 as a Final Blow (Taito) game. In Aug of 1993, it was converted to Fighters History (Data East), and was sold by us in Feb. of 1997. It was operated the entire time in Aladdin's Castle in the Sikes Senter Mall in Wichita Falls, TX."

awesome. that's totaly cool that they still have documentation to follow the history of the games. did aladdin's castle ever destroy games like CEC did, or did they sell them all like time out tunnel?
 
awesome. that's totaly cool that they still have documentation to follow the history of the games. did aladdin's castle ever destroy games like CEC did, or did they sell them all like time out tunnel?


tons of games got ( scrapped was the term) destroyed by Namco.....mostly because managers were too lazy to fix them and would constantly call into tech for issues they could not repair.....
 
tons of games got ( scrapped was the term) destroyed by Namco.....mostly because managers were too lazy to fix them and would constantly call into tech for issues they could not repair.....

Not necessarily true. But in fact very few managers were trained to repair anything other than a coin mech. For example, I trained the manager of the one I worked at to fix games when I was 18. The district manager did almost all repairs in his district (SC, NC, and VA).

As for scrapping games. It did happen a lot but only with older cabinets that were in disrepair, unprofitable, or deemed too expensive to repair. Most games we were told to scrap were games that had been for sale for years and even at $100 didn't sell. So if they broke they got scrapped. They told us to pull the pcbs and monitors and send them in to the home office and sledge hammer everything else. Later on they had too many monitors at the home office so they would only take MED RES monitors and told us to trash the rest. Lots of monitors met their end this way.

The last game I had a part in disposing of was a Race Drivin' cockpit. Only problem was the brake pot was bad causing the brakes to be stuck on. They didn't want to fix it. It had been for sale at $200 for three years. All they wanted was the monitor back. I took the rest home where it sat for 10 years before I parted it out the rest of the way...
 
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Ok. Got a response today on a tag I found in the bottom of one of the cabs I bought from the former local Aladdin's Castle. I had assumed it was from one of my Virtua Fighters. I'm surprised so many of these tags are out there. It was company policy to pry them off during the sale and submit them with the payment to the home office. Much less interesting than the others so far but here:


Hi Jeremy-

I always like looking into the history of these old games. Unfortunately, I struck out on yours. The property tag number you gave me, 108367, actually belongs to a redemption game called Coin Circus Jr., which was sold out of the New Bern, NC location in Feb of 1998.

And you are correct, the property tags were supposed to be turned in with the game sale paperwork.



I don't remember that game at all and I was an arcade rat back then. Gonna look it up.
 
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