Are Bally Sente cabinets rare or desirable?

amsvette

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Are Bally Sente cabinets desirable or rare? This was a mini golf machine at one point in time, but is currently stripped. I picked it up a couple years ago to make a multi fighter using a Pandora's Box 3. I find the longer I'm in this hobby the more I feel like I need to save every cabinet and restore it to its former glory. I don't really want to restore this but I don't see Sente stuff come up that often. Is it worth trying to trade this for a more generic Dynamo cab and save this poor thing from being converted yet another time in its life?

I've included a picture of what the cabinet would have looked like, not what it currently looks like. It's just an empty cabinet with the front and rear doors, the main control panel, a Swiss cheesed mini golf control panel, and the "Sente" name badge from the coin door.

Thanks in advance!
 

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Yeaa... Flavor of the month...

It's cool due to being a card type swap system... But who is going to work om them?

I'm against games with customs... Not sure if those have any... But save thr games you actually want... Otherwise its just a money pit.
 
I've always been fond of the Immersion "Refrigerator" cabinet.

immersion.jpg


JD
 
My 2 cents -

I think these cabs are WAY underrated, even despite the recent surge of interest.

I picked up a SAC-1 with Gimme a Break in it a few months ago, in really good shape. I want to get most of the other games for it as well, as it is VERY easily convertible (as it's designed to be that way).

It's a very, very well-built cab. Heavy as f--k, but solid. On par with any Atari cab.

These cabs were designed by ex-Atari employees, and you can see hallmarks of Atari engineering when you look closely at them. The heatsinks used on the power boards are the same ones used on Amplifone vector monitor deflection boards. There are many other similarities on the PCB designs. You can see it was the same people, just through the designs.

Also, the way the entire guts (power and game board) are mounted on a single chassis, that can be removed from the FRONT of the cab, makes it really convenient. And the system is basically cartridge-based, where you just have to swap one pluggable ROM board to change games.

The sound and graphics are really good on these games. Definitely a step beyond other platforms at the time. I have a theory that these systems were meant to be a better version/competitor of Atari System 1, and designed by similar folks. So I basically think of them as Atari-derivative cabs, or spiritual successors. They're basically Atari.

I also have a plan to see if it would be possible to do a 'super Sente multi ROM board', which would have all Sente games on it, and some switchable system. Then you'd either need to swap CP's, or try to come up with some multi CP that would support all of them, which might not be too hard. But there's a lot of arcade in one cab, as there are about 20 games for the system.

So in short, I'd definitely recommend one, especially if you can get it cheap. I think if more people knew more about them, they'd be in more demand. They're just still under the radar at the moment.
 
I kind of think that the fact that it's still a working arcade game is good enough for that cab. At least it was saved from burn pile.

:eek:
 
Personally I like them and would save it, there are some pretty good Sente games like Snake Pit and Chicken Shift, I think the cartridges are reprogrammable for the rare ones though finding or making control panels might be a pain. That's probably the biggest reason why there hasn't been a multi-cart, most of the games have incompatible controls.
 
Waaay back years ago, I bet it was around 2000, there was a guy with a site where he built a SnaxNJackson. I think he converted a boardset and made a repro marquee in the big cabinet, very cool site. I wonder if he's on KLOV?
 
I think they're pretty cool and some of the games are quite fun.
And they're not common enough to be super cheap. Full kits are also quite uncommon.

I can see how people who have decent sized game rooms would want one because several games are fun at parties (Hat Trick, Mini Golf, heck even Trivial Pursuit!)
 
I missed out on a really minty cab from a local collector. It had a Mini Golf in it, but I was going to convert it to a Goalie Ghost, with a kit I have.

Oh well, you snooze, you lose. I procrastinated on picking it up, and I lost out.

Yes, they are very well designed cabinets.
 
Personally I like them and would save it, there are some pretty good Sente games like Snake Pit and Chicken Shift, I think the cartridges are reprogrammable for the rare ones though finding or making control panels might be a pain. That's probably the biggest reason why there hasn't been a multi-cart, most of the games have incompatible controls.

A multi-sente cart could be possible! just FPGA that sucker!

Easy as 1-2-3. Everyone is doing it these days! :)

But like you said, the CP would be an issue to play each game... SO WHY NOT DESIGN a
CUSTOM bally sente CP that does it all! (exception of night stocker with driving wheel,
gas pedal?, and a light gun)... Oh the ideas!

ballysente-multi-CP.jpg


Obviously the 3D joysticks got flattened when superimposing the multi-CP over the
chicken shift CP, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA... it can be done! 1000's will show interest! :)
 
A multi-sente cart could be possible! just FPGA that sucker!

Easy as 1-2-3. Everyone is doing it these days! :)

But like you said, the CP would be an issue to play each game... SO WHY NOT DESIGN a
CUSTOM bally sente CP that does it all! (exception of night stocker with driving wheel,
gas pedal?, and a light gun)... Oh the ideas!



Obviously the 3D joysticks got flattened when superimposing the multi-CP over the
chicken shift CP, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA... it can be done! 1000's will show interest! :)

Can you stop stealing a picture of my dedicated Chicken Shift & making it look like dog shit...lol

I thought about doing a multi sente for a long time I won't say who they are but they claimed that they were making / had one on the back burner so I didn't pursue it. I was going to go as far as faithfully recreating the original 14-slot carts. I don't really think with the games a multi-sente panel works well IMO based on the game line up. Snake Pit is one joystick, one track ball & one button.. Chicken Shift has specific red/blue buttons only... kinda the allure of the game in a way (red button shifts red things, blue button shifts blue things). Hat Trick has 2 Joys with buttons, Goalie Ghost 2 track balls, Off the wall despite no one seeing the control panel ever had two spinners (as found on mad planets in the wico red case) along with 2 - two way joysticks etc.. The football game had larger trackballs etc.. the Wheel / Light gun from night stocker... having a multi sente PCB sure... but a multi panel that works with all those games nah.
 
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I sold two beautiful Sente kits last year, Snake Pit and Snacks'n Jaxson on eBay. Thinking I should have kept them. Either way, Goalie Ghost is my favorite of the bunch. Glad I have this kit. Hopefully soon to find a cab for it.
 
I played Snacks'n Jaxson at CAX a few years ago, and it was a surprisingly fun, and kind of a unique game. Worth having if you own a cab, IMO.
 
I've been collecting for a long time and the SAC cabs don't come up that often, the standard green ones a little more frequently. Some of the kits are easy to find, many of the kits are tough to nab...like chicken shift, and pricey if you do find them.

On a side note, Nolan designed these with the idea that Ops would rent the games and then just switch to the new flavor with a kit when the old game lost its earning power. It was a great idea and ahead of its time...renting games? Crazy.
 
I've been collecting for a long time and the SAC cabs don't come up that often, the standard green ones a little more frequently. Some of the kits are easy to find, many of the kits are tough to nab...like chicken shift, and pricey if you do find them.



I honestly don't think the kits would be that hard to duplicate. The skills exist within the community, and from what I've seen and know so far, it would be no harder than other repro efforts that have been done for other games.

Perhaps Takeman or GackAttack could make blank CP's. There are now multiple options for artwork. The ROM carts/boards look pretty straightforward to copy, with just ROMs, and maybe a GAL or two, I haven't sat down and dug into the details yet. But I'd say it's certainly within our pay grade as a group. It's more just a matter of finding the time, but I hope to get to it at some point, and see what we could organize.
 
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