Namco pole position cockpit

tatom

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Picked this up about a month ago and getting ready to get her up and running. It came with the NAMCO BOARD SET and a ATARI BOARD SET both need work. My question is has any one played the NAMCO version and is it basically the same as the ATARI?
 

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Namco version has different billboards, some I believe have the speech in Japanese. Gameplay is exactly the same. I'm particular to the Namco billboards myself, been after a Japanese PCB for a while... the Japanese cockpit is loads sexier than the American version. You are a lucky man.
 
Thanks for the picture. Pretty cool. Any back story on that one? I just wonder how the heck it made it here from Japan?
 
Pretty cool to see. I wonder if the shifter was always next to the seat. It looks like there is a spot for it on the dash.
 
Scratch that, not on the dash in the flyer. Is that a speaker to the right of the steering wheel?
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Wow, luck man is a understatement.....god dam %$#@! lucky man fits better, you have one very hard to find game and it looks like it's in really nice shape.

B.
 
How weird that this cabinet got brought up in another thread...and here it suddenly is!
 
I found it on Craigslist it was just listed a pole position I was shock in a good way when I saw it. It was sitting in a Barn covered in dust. The lady said that they had it for years and kids played it all the time. After the kids moved out it sat for a while and when she turned it on a few months ago it showed junk on the screen. They got it from someone they knew and she had no idea how it got to the U.S.. The Namco board displays ram 31 and a lady holding a flag and the Atari board blue blocks mixed in with numbers and letters. The slot to the right of the steering wheel is just a blank plate. The ATARI BOARDS AND THE NAMCO BOARDS LOOK THE SAME. The only difference is that the ROM CHIPS on the ATARI say Atari and the NAMCO ROM CHIP do not. Quarters do not fit in the coin slot it says 100 YEN on the slot.
 
That's awesome!

I saw that ad as well. No picture, right?

When I read it, I thought in the back of my mind, "hmmm, good price, what if that's a cockpit?" I never thought , "what if its a Namco cockpit"!

Nice score.
 
You lucky dog tatom! I would kill for a namco cockpit!

Actually the namco and atari PCBs are different, even though they play the same. Atari made their own PCB for their version. The namco PCB actually has four audio amps built onto the PCB whereas the atari PCB used the atari AR-II boards for audio amplification.

Also for anyone out there who wants the japanese billboards... it is possible to rom swap to the japanese namco version using an atari board. I have done this before. The biggest thing to watch out for when doing this is that one of the 2764 roms becomes a 2732 rom when going to the namco version.
 
The date on my camera was not set that why the pictures have a old date the pictures where taken less than a month ago.
 
Thanks for the picture. Pretty cool. Any back story on that one? I just wonder how the heck it made it here from Japan?

My guess is it was probably used in a trade show or something - Namco's US offices were in Sunnyvale, blocks away from Atari at the time (which would place it on the west coast). Maybe it was even used as reference for Atari. These would explain why it still has a 100 Yen mech in it/Japanese language instructions (since English Namco versions exist).

Also some operators would go to overseas trade shows and place orders there, bypassing the proper licensing channels in the U.S. If this were the case, it probably would have had a quarter mech in it long ago.

This looks like it's a fairly early cabinet, there's no carriage bolts on the rear bottom corner nor any to attach the rope hooks, like the flyer. Nice find!
 
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