Bertolino (Italian) Gee Bee

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Not mine, but we saved this from a warehouse and I think it's a very rare cab (especially in the Bertolino version). Just wanted to share some pics.

The fun thing is that the new owner plugged it in, and it was working great right away, with an excellent picture :D
The cab is in fabulous condition condidering it's age. The sides are almost in perfect shape still. The only bad thing is that there is stuff scratched into the bezel and also some cigarette damage. I hope Rob can get it out with the Micro-Mesh set I suggested to him.

So, how special is this one. Well more special then you may think. First, this game was designed by Toru Iwatani, and then of course all you guys know that he was the man who would (a couple of years later) design Puckman

Now, of course I cannot be sure about this, but I have a feeling that Namco designed Gee Bee after they'd been sued by Atari, after Namco had illegally built Break-Out cabinets.
(see http://www.rotheblog.com/2009/11/arcade/rare-namco-breakout-flyer-hits-arcadeflyers-com/)

The big difference is that Gee Bee actually uses a microprocessor. The PCB already looks a bit like a Pac Man PCB (forgot to take a pic though)...

This game was licensed to Gremlin in the US AND to Bertolino in Europe.

Here's the Japanese cab:
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Note the orange CP and the typical (and highly sought-after) Japanese P1 and P2 buttons.

The Bertolino looks actually very much like an Atari Breakout when you compare them. Since Bertolino also built Atari cabs in license maybe they "borrowed" the P1 and P2 start buttons from them....

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The Bertolino logo is on the Marquee and on the CP. P1,P2 buttons ans serve button are clearly Atari style. The turning knob is much bigger than the original. Of course the "usual" shiny Euro coin door, but I haven't seen a single-mech one like this before..

The blue in the marquee looks a bit darker. I love it they still have the Japanese characters in there (at least, I think so !):

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The best part was when I got a call from Rob when he'd arrived home. He told me he put the plug in the wall-outlet, turned on the machine and.......it worked !!!!
Pretty unbelievable, some guys have all the luck ;)

He said the picture was still great. Hope he will make some pics of it working soon.

I played the game in Mame and it's definitely a fun alternative to Breakout, but of course it needs a real pot control to enjoy.
 
It is in amazing shape for a '78 machine.

The only thing that worried me a bit was that the dag "paint" on the CRT looked to be falling off. It's not the usual grey/black matt looking stuff but it was shiny and there was some of that stuff on the bottom of the cab and when I touched it (on the CRT) it stuck to my fingers .....felt/looked a bit like graphite I guess.
Still,the monitor worked fine...anyway to stop the process of the stuff falling off ?
 
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