Sharpshooter Prototype? Designed by Roger Sharp - TNT Amusements

Todd Tuckey

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Sharpshooter Prototype? Designed by Roger Sharp - TNT Amusements

We got in for an overhaul a possible prototype SHARPSHOOTER pinball machine. A collector bought it at the 2010 Allentown PA show and we took it back to TNT for repair/overhaul. The cabinet was stained black and appears professional but unfinished completely. The lightbox insert was handwired with things written on the back of the board, but because there was no allowance for the MILLION bulbs, we wondered if it came off of another Game Plan game with similar lightbulb features.
The backglass has Roger Sharp's signature on the top (we covered it with mylar)...who knows...was the glass brought to a show for signature?? Did a production Sharpshooter fall off a truck and someone made their own cabinet and moved everything over to it? The metal shielding int he head appears to have been used just this one time...no telltale signs of the staples pulled out and redone....and it looks like factory, so thats why I am still not really sure the cabinet WAS home made! What do YOU think? Todd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzCB2x0KTV4
 
I just went and looked at the Sharpshooter we have here in the shop (since I sold mine) to check out some stuff compared to your video:

1) At first I thought perhaps someone had painted an original cab black, but the original has red sprayed along the top inside, with overspray extending over halfway down and sometimes all the way to the bottom on the inside. Yours doesn't have that, so it wasn't painted over.

2) The wood on the inside is completely different than yours.

Other than that (and the notes) I would say you have one of two things:

a) The very first Sharpshooter (what's the serial number?) made to test the basic game function and later sold or given to someone.

b) A cabinet made specifically to install Sharpshooter parts into, possibly from a damaged cabinet. Someone could have made a cabinet, painted it black, drilled holes for the lights, and written on the backside of the board where the various lights and stuff went so they knew where to install it when they transferred it over....
 
The wood cabinet was stained with black stain...so you can see the woodgrain through the stain...we touched up the stain of course. There was no plate or serial number.

I was leaning toward #2 BECAUSE of the different lightboard inset in the head...but the cabinet is REALLY well made....its pretty professional...maybe Roger Sharp can shed some light! Todd
 
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