My newest pickup- Taito Stratovox Upright

SpookySpaceKook

New member
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
246
Reaction score
4
Location
Manistee, Michigan
Heres my newest pickup- Taito Stratovox Upright! You may ask what possessed me to drive 12 hours round trip way up into Michigans upper pennisula and spend $500.00 on this beat up looking Stratovox when most collectors would only pay a couple hundred dollars at best for this game? I asked myself this same question on the way up there but as I was loading the game into the back of my SUV it all came to me crystal clear:
1. I got to get away from my wife for a couple days.
2. The leaves on the trees in upper Michigan were pretty.
3. The game still works great, just needs some TLC on the cabinet.
4. The lower coin door is still present.
5. The game is historically significant because it was the first production game with speech.
6. I played the game when it was still new in the fall of 1980.
7. Stratovox is in the 1st generation type Taito cabinet which I love.
8. Any of the 1st generation Taito cabinets are pretty scarce and hard to find, even though Stratovox is easier to find then the other ones like Lunar Rescue, Crazy Climber, Lock N Chase, Polaris, Moon Shutttle, Colony 7, and Zarzon.
9. The guy had the Stratovox for sale on craigs list for most of the summer with no takers and I felt sorry for the poor game!
All in all I am pretty happy I rescued the game and I think it will be a great addition to my collection.
 

Attachments

  • stratovox.jpg
    stratovox.jpg
    51.1 KB · Views: 78
It's a good looking game.

I had one a few years back that I sold for a decent profit and then I missed it ever since.
I finally found another one nearby and I don't think I'll ditch it.

Oh- BTW- Stratovox is an good candidate for putting a 4116 to 4164 RAM update on.
It's not an EXCELLENT candidate because there are 16 soldered RAM chips that you need to pop sockets in for.

A couple of trace cuts and one jumper and you're back in business and running cool.
I'll put some pics somewhere of the cuts to make.

You don't need to modify the power supply either. The -5V won't be used by anything and the +12V will only be going to the amp chips.

Kerry
 
First game I bought about 20 years ago was a Stratovox. Those early cabs really are great. Nice pick up.
 
Back
Top Bottom