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EDIT: When I got this thing I thought it was a prototype. Over the course of this thread, it has come out that this is most likely some form of unauthorized bootleg or upgrade kit for Defender/Stargate -> Joust/Robotron circumventing Williams' special chip. It consists of three custom PCBs and a very convincing marquee.

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Just picked this up over the weekend!

It appears to be a Joust Prototype BOOTLEG in a Defender cabinet, based on defender hardware. The boards are a serial number match to the cabinet. It has both the Defender -> Stargate MPU daughter card upgrade, and the additional Joust Blitter board upgrade. It also has a Prototype BOOTLEG marquee. The rest of the cabinet is a standard defender, including a defender bezel that someone punched a hole through . The word "DEFENDER" has been blacked out on each side of the cabinet, though the rest of the artwork is still present and in good shape.

Here are some photos of the boards and interior:


It has some limited battery corrosion which I will take care of (yes I did remove the batteries), but it is fully functional. At least the boardset is. (Not the monitor yet, just a G07 out of Crystal Castles) Got it running late last night. Had some bad ROM and a couple bad connections. ROMIDENT puts it as a Joust White/Green Label ROM. (Special Thanks to the people who sat with me ripping ROMs, and dealing with the bad reads I got. I appreciate the late night help!)

As for artwork and the cabinet itself, shown below: production Joust marquee on top, proto marquee on the bottom. Interestingly, the joysticks installed on the cabinet are not defender joysticks, but are instead Wicos which are restricted by a slot cut into the wooden control panel. The wood on the control panel shows no indication of ever having been cut for Defender. Only Joust. Might be somewhat sacrilegious, but I like the Wicos on this one better than the sticks on my production Joust...



The list of questions I have about the cabinet is pretty extensive.

• Why a defender cabinet and defender board? Wouldn't Stargate MPUs have been available at the time of Joust's development? Stargate came out well ahead of Joust.
• What are the four carriage bolts visible coming in from the right side of the defender cabinet? Looks like something large had been mounted there in the past?
• The marquee looks like it was done with layered paper or something. It almost seems 3D, but the back is still laminated like a regular Joust marquee in white. Has another marquee turned up like this one?
• What was the purpose of this machine? I would guess development, but could it have been used for playtesting? Don't see why it would be necessary to do art on an internal development machine.
• How and why did this thing escape Williams and end up so far away? Are there any other Joust Prototype BOOTLEG cabs out there?
• The ROMs installed on the cabinet, despite being very proto-y (white label, red printed plain text) seem to be identical to the production ROMs (White/Green), rather than the earlier(?) ROM revisions. Was it used for a final checkout or something like that?

As far as restoring it, the cabinet seems to be in pretty good shape overall. The only problems are: The marquee light doesn't work, the original monitor is missing, the bezel is smashed, and the back vents are both broken.

I'll probably leave the rear vents as is, and find another defender bezel for the game. That's what it had, and what it should continue to have for the sake of preservation. I'll hopefully fix the marquee light tomorrow. Not sure if I want to keep that monitor in it. The heavy CC burn is a little offputting, and I might have a k4900 I can stick in. No working ones though. Lol. I played the game using a 13" K7000 sitting off to the side. I will probably leave the CPO as is, despite the missing spots and heavy cigarette damage.