For those Missile Command fans out there

[dahnz]

New Zealand had an interesting video game history and there's even an academic who's been writing about it. Due to severe import restrictions in the early 1980s (it used to be said that we were the most regulated economy outside the Sovet bloc), we didn't get many overseas cabs, just the boards, which I think usually came from Taito. Then there were a bunch of small operations around the country who put together cabs for the boards. As a result, you had rows of games that all looked identical, with only the marquees to tell them apart (and I think even some cab makers used a generic marquees too). I remember a couple of different button layouts for Defender, which usually used a Taito two-board licensed set-up.

As restrictions eased, we did start to see more imported cabs - I specifically remember Stargate, Joust, and Robotron. Here are two pictures showing some of these generic cabs, though the one of the cool local kid (apparently named Simon Warren) is later (1987). Somewhere I have a picture of a kid playing (I think) a Taito Defender. I'll see if I can dig it up and scan it.

PS. If you look closely at the Missile Command cab, you can see it was apparently in two parts (with the join just to the right of the Missile Command logo). Whether that was how it was made (for ease of overseas transportation) or whether the op did it, I don't know.

 

[ataritoobin]

I'm pretty sure I have a Japanese book with a pic of the Sega Missile Command cockpit.

 

[Hyde]

Man, look at that artwork on that Taito Defender! Looks better than the original if you ask me.

 

[ataritoobin]

Looks from the pictures that the cockpit Sega Missile Command is the same as the upright but with the back shell added, not totally dissimilar to the Radar Scope cockpit.