Games available only as conversion kits

Tornadoboy

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Future spy is the only full blown game I can think of that never had a dedicated cabinet, but I'm sure there are plenty of others, what are they?

I know there are a lot of mod kits, like Tempest Tubes for example, but I'm talking about games that are significantly different than what they converted from.
 
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JrPac started as a dedicated with about 500 units and then was only sold as a kit after that.
But technically it was a factory conversion since they used a mappy cabinet. They didnt even bother taking the mappy artwork off, just slapped the Jr art over it.
 
there were hundreds of games made as kits only for ops to convert existing or generic cabinets. many if not most JAMMA games never had a dedicated cabinet.
 
Future spy is the only full blown game I can think of that never had a dedicated cabinet, but I'm sure there are plenty of others, what are they?

Actually, wouldn't Future Spy in Bally / Midway's generic artwork cabinet count as "dedicated"?

In terms of other ones, Arkanoid and Tetris come to mind first...
 
Seems like 1986 on there were lots of kits. A resurgence in kits in 1990 or so when the Street Fighter II franchise came out. Lots of games got converted to SF II/variants of at that point.
 
Mystic Marathon from Williams only had 5 dedicated cabinets. They were the prototypes, the rest were kits. They actually had three kits. One for Defender cabinets, one for Joust/Robotron cabinets and one for Moon Patrol/Bubbles cabinets.

ken
 
I think Mr. Do was the first (or one of the first) conversion only games.
 
I believe DK3 was only a kit. Converted DK and DK Jr. cabs.

I think one of my favorites, Willow, was only a kit. I think a lot of JAMMA games from the late 80s to mid-90s were kits to install into Dynamo cabs and others alike. Easier and cost effective way for ops to get new games.

Same went for the Nintendo Vs. system games from the mid-80s. Sure there was a dedicated Vs. cab, but I bet there were far more Vs. kits sold to ops to install into existing cabs which explains how these kits are still being bought/sold/traded to this day.
 
Mr.Do was the first really blockbuster kit (1982), but kits date back to the '70s as well. Typically, those kits were bootleg Space Invaders, Breakout, or Video Poker games, recycling the older black & white monitor cabinets.

Kyle :cool:
 
Actually, wouldn't Future Spy in Bally / Midway's generic artwork cabinet count as "dedicated"?

I think the kits came with generic side art for the conversion, but I don't think any actual cabs were released with Future Spy in them originally, which is what I'm referring to.
 
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There were a TON of games produced in kit only form. An example would be the majority of the Capcom CPS1 games. You could trade in your old CPS1 board for a rebate towards the purchase of a new CPS1 game BITD.

Konami made a ton of kit only games like Rush N Attack, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Kicker, Super Basketball, etc. Sega with Shinobi, altered Beast, ESWAT, etc. The list goes on.

I remember the first game I saw ever converted. Had to be in like 82-83, somewhere around there. It was a Defender that was converted to a NOVA 2001. My dada put it in between 2 games at the arcade because he didn't want to apint out the Defender artwork!

-Mike
 
I think Mr. Do was the first (or one of the first) conversion only games.

No way... Mr. Do! has a kickass dedicated cab...

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I do believe the Thunder Jaws I have was only released as a kit from Atari. I bought it in a Taito cab; it is pretty easy to finish.
 
There was a Zoar for sale locally, so I looked it up. It was a kit only game from 1982. I had no idea they made kits that early.
 
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