Finally, the beginning of my humble game/music room

FuturePrimitive

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Finally, the beginning of my humble game/music room

Hello everyone! Typical KLOV lurker here... At long last, I've managed to make a proper introduction to my games, a few details about the good and bad, and how I managed to find them (Gotta love the internet!). Due to my excitement when seeing these games in person, their previous owners were satisfied believing that their games were going to a good home. Huge thanks go to my girlfriend who fully supports this hobby and was there every step of the way and the courteous previous owners that made this possible.

Please forgive the amateur photos, wall of words, and organization of this posting in advance. I will also summarize a bit to avoid the obligatory "cool story bro" :D

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FIRST UP: Asteroids Deluxe Cabaret
Asteroids Deluxe was my very first arcade game. It also happens to be one of the first video games in general to launch me into the video game hobby. I remember playing on the upright version when I was very young, but after hearing about a Cabaret version recently, I had to have it! On top of that, Asteroids Deluxe is one of my girlfriend's top 5.

This particular machine was found in beautiful Golden, CO, privately owned by a businessman who traveled a lot and had a passion for games like me. When this game was built, it had been in a bar, a laundromat, then spent a brief period at an arcade. However, this game is in top shape! It was not abused and only requires new buttons, a leaf switch, and a new power cord/plug.

I'm still trying to beat his high scores! I believe we own the "more difficult" PCB board. There is no DIP switch setting to change difficulty.

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NEXT: Moon Lander Cocktail
Oh my, the story behind this one! This is the truly uncommon clone of Lunar Rescue that occasionally pops up, but barely anyone knows what it is. It seems like it's dismissed as a shameless rip off of a great Taito game like Lunar Rescue mixed with a bit of Star Wars art, but in fact, Moon Lander is incredibly well designed!

Moon Lander popped up in Colorado Springs, CO and made my jaw drop... "What is THAT?!" I exclaimed, for good reason too. I immediately scoured Google to see if I could find anything out about it. Thanks to Jeffsgames, that Pinecone guy's website, and our wonderful KLOV, I found that this was one of my favorite Taito games: Lunar Rescue. What an unusual cocktail, and it looked nearly flawless!

The owners were having a moving sale on the upcoming weekend. They had mentioned that this was the last Moon Lander they had... -Wait! You guys had MORE of these?? Apparently this guy's father was an op in the area and kept SEVEN of these Moon Landers in rotation at different locations. My Moon Lander was kept in their nicely finished basement as entertainment for his grandchildren. For what this game was, it looked impeccable. They had multiple sets of keys, a manual for the game and Wells Gardner monitor respectively, QA checklists from an unknown New York manufacturer, and schematics.

It's possible that this game is an ambassador of its kind. A real survivor. I'm even suspecting that Moon Lander has some sort of tie to Centuri, or was designed in the style of Centuri. But, don't take MY word for it!

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Here's my ONLY upright: a Centuri Phoenix (I call her Phoe Phoe, because she's not exactly pretty aside from the marquee, sideart, and gameplay... and she's not exactly small), but I LOVE this game!

Phoe Phoe was brought home from Conifer, CO. A mountainous area where rich people are the norm. An airline pilot was selling a group of heavy hitting classics, but my main focus was his Phoenix. Without even asking for photos, I trucked on up there just to even get a glimpse of his collection.

He lived in an enormous home with almost observatory like windows to see the cosmos and a large space for his collection. As we drove up, we saw a black fox run around the truck with food in his mouth! I wish we had a camera! After watching the fox in awe and finally getting out, the owner came out of his balcony and shouted, "You like our fox??" "YOUR fox?! Like a pet??" "Nah, he's the neighborhood fox. Everyone feeds him. Come on in!"

He had some extraordinary games! Marble Madness, Tempest, Tron, Space Duel, and some non working ones as well. Phoenix was all ready to be moved out. We asked politely if we could play the working games as it was a rare treat, so we did. Last but not least, it was Phoenix to be played before we bought it. The stars opened up through the observatory window, then we heard the classical intro music from Phoenix's old speaker... It was surreal and ethereal to say the least! It sealed the deal for us to play Phoenix under the stars. Ironically, we picked up this Phoenix from a pilot.

Sadly enough, his wife wasn't a fan of the games and wanted them all gone. Their son liked them though! We all played together until it got late. Phoenix was a heavy monolith of a beast to move compared to our other games!

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Our most recent pick up: Lunar Rescue Cocktail! One of my "grails" as you could call it. I'd actually given up on finding one in Colorado, but then one appeared in Denver! I called 30 MINUTES after the ad was posted. It's a real privilege to see this game next to Moon Lander and I wouldn't have it any other way!

More on the story coming soon on my upcoming monitor tech help thread. The game seems to play perfectly, but after a few minutes of play, the whole screen slides, then overlaps horizontally. I can't remember which direction it was from the player one side, but I think it slides left. It's strange that the graphics still appear normal even after the screen slide. Also the display warps a bit when the screens change.

The monitor is a 14" Toei color monitor. It has a few adjustments like Vertical Hold and Horizontal Hold, but only Vertical Hold controls scrolling. Hopefully the pictures can give you monitor gurus a clue as to what could be wrong!

I'm sorry about the massive post, but I felt like these interesting games were worth sharing. Thank you very much for reading!
 

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Some more photos here.......filler
 

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attachment.php


Daddy like.
 
Filler.......................................SPAM... And a g-g-ghost fridge in my living room???? Nah...
 

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Thanks for the compliment Phet! Maybe you can take her out for a coffee sometime, for a small fee of a few quarters ;)

More of Phoenix and Lunar Rescue!
 

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And now... Our newest arrival! Drum roll please...
 

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I'm just happy you read it NERDtendo! As a fellow Colorado KLOVer, I have to give thanks for the compliments! If you're ever in the area, feel free to drop on in! :)

More Lunar Rescue gameplay and... monitor issues? Yikes! :(
 

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Thanks Chris! That definitely means a lot considering how heavily you lean towards the silver ball :D

I love pinball too, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for that league yet. I've been checking out a few Gorgar's around here though! Maybe, in time... Just want to keep it simple.

For right now, we're just going to work hard on fixing up these machines. Luckily, most of the cleaning up and maintenance is within my limited skill set. The Lunar Rescue monitor issue is another animal entirely.

Stay tuned for updates! We plan on making the room look really nice. I might even make a dedicated cabinet for the Vectrex, much like how Tighe made one for the Virtua Boy and the Donkey Kong Game Boy version.
 
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