Merit Pit Boss Bartop? Value? Upgradeable?

Welp, they made different bartops. The earliest ones where in a larger cabinet and had the CRT200 boards. Later ones were in smaller, red cabinets and had the CRT250 boards.

Upgradeability: If it is an early model with the CRT200 board, you can yank that out and slap in a CRT250. They both have the same pinouts. Heck, the first Megatouchs also had the same pinouts!

Check to see which board is in it. If it's a 4-game Pit Boss board, then it's an older one. If it says (something)Star, then it's newer. You can also swap in dedicated Trivia Whiz, Phraze Craze, Tic-Tac-Trivia and other games. The last, most games was the SuperStar 30. The last button-model style, IIRC, was the MegaStar. Personally, I liked the SuperStar 30 because it had an Arkanoid and Space Invaders clone on it. I'm also pretty sure Merit had some dedicated, video pokers that used the CRT250. You could swap that in, too, as long as it has the 7-button set-up. If not, you can add a couple buttons since the harness is there for them. (I did that on an old Phraze Craze once to turn it into a Chicken Poker.)

Value? About 8 years ago, the smaller, red ones were fetching $300! Not bad, IMO. Today, they're probably worth $50. You can get a decent, older Megatouch for not much more.

Bill
 
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Yup, that's the last button model they made. I had a couple of them about 10 years ago. Actually, they're a fun machine and I loved mine.

As for boards... That machine uses the CRT250 boardset. I just saw some on eBay and the prices have really dropped from the $300+ they were fetching about 10 years ago! Lol!

That's probably a SuperStar 15 and that has a good selection of games. If you can find a SuperStar 30 board, that would give a lot more fun for the money. The fun part will be finding one where someone knows what it is. Most sellers only know it's a CRT250 and then guess as the game. The ROMs have a number on them, and it depends upon the numbers as to what game it is. I think Merit has a list of them on their website somewhere.

If it was me, I'd offer $100 and no more. It's great to have but for not much more than that, you can get an older Megatouch.

Bill
 
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