Rare u-235 meltdown info coming soon

Dochollywood

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I have a 100% complete dedicated u-235 meltdown if anyone needs anything(down to the coin door lock sticker pictures) let me know. I have full schematics and everything. Eventually I am going to do a full documentation of everything including backing up the roms since everything for this machine is non existent. Hope to have something to show soon. Detroit doc
 
I have a 100% complete dedicated u-235 meltdown if anyone needs anything(down to the coin door lock sticker pictures) let me know. I have full schematics and everything. Eventually I am going to do a full documentation of everything including backing up the roms since everything for this machine is non existent. Hope to have something to show soon. Detroit doc

this thing?

ice-u235-meltdown-arcade-game-prevent_1_9264a575704be4336e75ca3485e82a30.jpg


that's not even an arcade machine.. it's a redemption game, right?
 
That is it

That is the machine. I kind of look at it as kind of a half and half redemption/arcade game. Almost like an ice cold beer. You can ticket it but mine is setup to be played for high score and requires some major skill to reach the high levels. Is the picture that you have your personal machine or just a picture? If it is yours where are you located out of curiosity and what did you plan to do with the machine. Also if you need any info about it and I might be able to help, please let me know. Detroit Doc
 
Didn't see this until now, but I think yours would be the 4th one known to still exist?
 
That is the machine. I kind of look at it as kind of a half and half redemption/arcade game. Almost like an ice cold beer. You can ticket it but mine is setup to be played for high score and requires some major skill to reach the high levels. Is the picture that you have your personal machine or just a picture? If it is yours where are you located out of curiosity and what did you plan to do with the machine. Also if you need any info about it and I might be able to help, please let me know. Detroit Doc



Orange whip is looking for this complete could you contact him? I know he's always talked about it.

O wait, I read that as if anybody needed anything like you were parting it out.. sorry carry on lol
 
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Yes, such a simple, fun and addicting game. And yeah, more along the lines of an ICB than a video game.... But still super fun.

Actually, really wouldn't be too hard to make one from scratch... I'm sure an Arduino or RPi have more than enough power and IO to handle it.


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Any other Meltdown owners out there?

I have two of these machines, and I saw a third one this weekend in Ohio (in rough shape). Anyone working on these/do a serious restore?
 
Wow - I've never heard of the game or seen one of these, and I've worked at 5 nuclear stations in my life, and visited at least 5 more, so you'd think I'd know about it.

What is the concept? I'm intrigued, although full up, and probably not on my list of wants, I'd still like to know. How do you do better?
 
Wow - I've never heard of the game or seen one of these, and I've worked at 5 nuclear stations in my life, and visited at least 5 more, so you'd think I'd know about it.

What is the concept? I'm intrigued, although full up, and probably not on my list of wants, I'd still like to know. How do you do better?


That game looks pretty neat. When the San Onofre nuclear plant was decommissioned a while back, a few nuclear physicists I know lost their jobs. One relocated to Kansas, the other to Arizona. I remember receiving a pamphlet that was mailed out to all local residents explaining the decommissioning process and what was going on. The huge amount of money it takes for that apparently is set aside from the very beginning. Pretty interesting field.
 
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I remember playing that game as a kid and really enjoying it. It was kind of scary too when you failed haha.

If I recall correctly there was something floating inside the vertical tube and you control a sort of "box" or "sleeve" that went up and down in the tube to contain the floating element.
 
I have two of these machines, and I saw a third one this weekend in Ohio (in rough shape). Anyone working on these/do a serious restore?

I wonder what the total left in the world is. I know about the Ohio one, one has been there for at least 8 years... considering my first thread on this forum is about this game:
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=146437

Whereas there were 2 known at the time to exist by photo evidence on other websites. Then the one owned by DavidShoe in WA, dochollywood's, the one owned by the guy who called ICE, and your two... there would be at least 5 (or at most, not knowing how many changed hands) that still exists.
 
Once I get everything organized and I find some spare time I plan on making a game play video along with the thorough documentation for this game. I am sure that you could make one of your own with modern electronics if you really wanted too but it might be more complicated than it seems. To make your own you would need the modern electronics, a blower motor, a belt motor and lots of other odds and ends in order to make it function properly. Now if you wanted to go the full 9 and put in the neon bulbs it might get real pricey really quick.(there are two neon bulbs in this game. One on each side of the tube.This cabinet is very appealing in person)
It seems to be a fairly simple machine for the most part. It works as such. The game and music start off slow and your only goal is to keep your ball(radio active material?) which travels in a fish tank like tube in the "radiation shield" which is done by using the 1 way joystick as its only means of control(which controls the airflow). The radiation shield is a little box made of plexi and a few other material but it senses the ball by using optos similar to those used in pinball machines. The radiation shield box rides up and down on a belt similar to the up and down mechanics of ice cold beer.
The rounds are a decent length and you would have gotten a decent bang for your buck if this machine made it longer in the wild before being recalled. An average game for me is 10-15 rounds which takes about 5-10 minutes. As the rounds progresses the movement and intensity of the radiation shield increases and it gets really crazy, really quick. The part that is hard to describe in words is how the audio of this game is and how by the time you get into it, your heart is beating out of your chest and you may or may not have a bead of sweat running down your brow. The audio coincides with how far you are into the round and the speed of the game so it starts off nice and slow then in the higher rounds it speeds up and by the time you are done you feel like you were in a episode of 24 and just finished defusing a bomb to save the day. I'm telling you this is simple audio but in my option it is one of the best examples of how to make audio really contribute to the feel of a game. The audio also relates the the countdown timer and radiation level that you have been exposed to. If it gets to the the point where you lose the game there will be a large explosion noise as if the reactor had melted down (This is after all of the sirens and warning and whatever other mayham audio they may have slipped in there).
It can be a two player game which alternates players between rounds and starts fast and abrupt so you must pay attention when playing a two player game.
Other than the basic principals of the the game there are a few led displays and a backlit translight that help you along the way by showing you how little time you have remaining in the round and the score required for you to survive to the next round. The backlit section shows you the level of radiation exposure that you have encountered so far and how much more you can take until complete meltdown. In order to score points the ball must remain between the optos. Now when scoring points in the radiation shield it is not just points or no points. It is kind of like a metal detector sound and it scores as such. So a few random beeps then a slow constant beeping, then into a steady tone when you finally find the sweet spot. Last but not least(the one of two ways to score points)there is a random sound(bonus sound) that they call a bong sound. When the bong sound goes off there is a short period of time where a red bulb lights at the top of the tube and in order to get the bonus points you must shoot the ball to the top before the light turns off(micro switch sensor). The bonus sound goes off multiple times in each round but unless you are very familiar with the feel of the game I do not suggest going for it, especially if you are playing for high score. There are two difficulties with the bonus. One is it is difficult to drop your ball back down and recover your position in the "radiation shield" and two is that as the rounds progress the time in which the light is lit gets shorter to the point where it is nearly impossible to hit. Even though it might not make sense for scoring points later in the game it will give you that satisfactory feeling when you do finally hit it.(maybe some bragging rights as well)
Overall I think this is a great game and a lot of fun that does NOT seem to get old like so many do. This has been a game that has done great in individual and group settings. I hope that my description gave you an idea of how the game is played and that how in my opinion this could have been a true classic if only given the chance.

Feel free to ask any other questions and I will try my best to help, also if anyone else has one or needs info on one let me know. Unfortunately I do not have any spare parts but I might have a spare schematic laying around if needed. And the only thing on mine that isn't mint is the marquee so if there any U-235 meltdown marquees out there that may be for sale please PM me.

If you made it this far thank you for your interest and if you are ever in the Detroit area and want to play hit me up. Detroit Doc
 
And the only thing on mine that isn't mint is the marquee so if there any U-235 meltdown marquees out there that may be for sale please PM me.

The marquee I used to have I ended up selling to davidshoe, and he sent back to me a repro version. But of course the repro is not the same thick plastic as the original, if that makes any difference. Perhaps you can ask him if he still has extras or something.
 
I've played it at the NW Pinball and Arcade show a few years ago and it's super fun.
 
I don't get it what exactly is going on as far as game play?

Inside the cylindar there's a ping pong ball.

You have a joystick that controls the airflow, that floats the ping pong ball.

There's a little mechanism that goes up and down, and you try to float the ping pong ball so that it stays aligned with the mechanism. The longer you have it in that area, the more points you score.
 
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