So...tell me about my Cloak & Dagger...

Ex-Cloak & Dagger owner. Mine was in the Crystal Castles cabinet, and it was a game that had been in the same general area for around 17 years before I bought it - in fact, it may have been the same one I played in an arcade as a kid, but there was never a good way to prove that other than proximity. In any event, I'm going to be completely up front about the fact that I'm a Cloak & Dagger fan, which should help to make my bias clear.

This is a rare game regardless of which cabinet it's in. I've always heard that there were ones put in converted Williams cabinets, but have only ever seen them in the Crystal Castles cab. It looks as though you've found actual evidence of one that's a conversion. One thing that's really interesting about this one is that the sideart matches the silhouette of the Crystal Castles-style cabinet - note how it doesn't line up with the front edges of the cabinet, and the tracks that should be going up towards the top aren't there (or just aren't uncovered yet).

If I were in your shoes, I'd treat it as a long-term C&D project: you have a great opportunity here to bring back something truly unique. Robotron comes up for sale fairly regularly, but Cloak & Dagger doesn't and it's a really good game.

Also, can you take some photos of the underside of the control panel? I'd be interested to see what any drill or fill marks might look like.

Just my two cents, but this one looks like it really needs to be de-converted back into the conversion it originally was :)
 
Last edited:
That sounds convincing enough. If I can get Rich at ThisOldGame to cut me some Robotron-shaped C&D artwork, then I say this Cloak and Dagger project sounds like a fun challenge.
 
Ex-Cloak & Dagger owner. Mine was in the Crystal Castles cabinet, and it was a game that had been in the same general area for around 17 years before I bought it - in fact, it may have been the same one I played in an arcade as a kid, but there was never a good way to prove that other than proximity. In any event, I'm going to be completely up front about the fact that I'm a Cloak & Dagger fan, which should help to make my bias clear.

This is a rare game regardless of which cabinet it's in. I've always heard that there were ones put in converted Williams cabinets, but have only ever seen them in the Crystal Castles cab. It looks as though you've found actual evidence of one that's a conversion. One thing that's really interesting about this one is that the sideart matches the silhouette of the Crystal Castles-style cabinet - note how it doesn't line up with the front edges of the cabinet, and the tracks that should be going up towards the top aren't there (or just aren't uncovered yet).

If I were in your shoes, I'd treat it as a long-term C&D project: you have a great opportunity here to bring back something truly unique. Robotron comes up for sale fairly regularly, but Cloak & Dagger doesn't and it's a really good game.

Also, can you take some photos of the underside of the control panel? I'd be interested to see what any drill or fill marks might look like.

Just my two cents, but this one looks like it really needs to be de-converted back into the conversion it originally was :)
b1b3d0f6e3508ea0c6d0d1458fa4824a.jpg
1f5abe163f9b351d2ccc57d639985632.jpg
 
The side art is not going to be salvageable, as the citrustrip did damage some of the black areas of the art. The artwork also has pits and chips scattered all about. .

I think the partially salvaged artwork is pretty cool.

At least to people with some knowledge about it. The average passerby will just think it is ugly.
 
<photos snipped>

I should have phrased the following better:

casm said:
I've always heard that there were ones put in converted Williams cabinets, but have only ever seen them in the Crystal Castles cab.

A clearer way of stating that would have been:

casm said:
I've always heard that there were ones put in converted Williams cabinets, but have only ever seen those games in photos; all the ones I've seen in the flesh have been in the Crystal Castles cab.

Either way, that's a nice-looking machine.

It's interesting that the Williams sideart uses the same basic profile as the Crystal Castles cabinet, but eliminates the track loop at the top of the art. Would've thought that for the conversions Atari would have cranked out something closer to the silhouette of the Williams cabs - especially given that the artwork was already altered compared to the dedicated machines.
 
Last edited:
I guess I can chime in here...I did the large original agent x / cloak and dagger artwork project and own the original serial no. 1 cab that was actually used in movie for a few seconds...

They made 20 original test cabinets as has been documented and confirmed by Rusty Dawe himself...(game programmer) He actually signed my game which is housed in crystal castles style cab..I've also owned most of the kits and have compared the art and sizes etc..they basically shrunk down the original sidearm to fit the other williams cabs...the only art exactly to specs for crystal castles style cab is the art I reproduced from original films...all the other art was shrunk and has variations...to make them fit the specific cab it was designed for...

I guess since it was converted two times essentially its up to you do what you want to do..either choice would be ok in my book.....but the artwork while rare isn't impossible to find..there are kits out there...if it were an original photo crystal castles style cab I'd say buy one of the last remaining art packages I have to restore back.but since its has already been converted...converting it back would require some new sideart...new marquee and new cpo..I guess Rich could probably run those if he had time..but finding the originals for that specific kit wouldn't be easy..they are out there..but finding them new old stock these days is pretty hard.

I had a set of that conversion art but sold it here to another klover who used it to do his own restore on defender cab...the defender conversion is interesting one because its only kit that actually used some of the original kick plate art used on original proto cab for that kit...much smaller piece of art but kind of cool....the joust/robotron conversion was only one that did full overlay control panel version...much harder one to find...its closest to the original cpo you will find in any of the kits..
 
Being in the Coin-Op biz since 83/84 I've actually done several of these kits in both Atari and WMS cabs.

For the most part the WMS conversions were guts other than AC wiring and the sound board as mentioned.

Artwork was modified per cabinet as was the control panel.
 
It's a Cloak & Dagger, so converting it to another game (even Robotron) is a sin...

:D
 
I love this thread, but 8 years have passed. WE NEED CLOSURE! I love Robotron and think it and Sinistar are my 2 fave Williams games of all times... But I still hope the OP stuck with C&D. It's way more rare, usually more valuable, and way cooler that Atari (probably) bought a robotron and converted it.

Also, I'm traveling for a couple weeks but do have a trashed crystal castles and an extra PCB set and maybe even a PCB & repro art (have to look). I need some @lilypad19 love on the boards, but after that will be willing to sell the whole project package to some ambitious lucky gamer (My to do pile is too big.)
 
I would love to make a big on it when the time comes. I learned today after talking to Rich at this old game that agent x needs to go in crystal castles so I ordered his tempest art set to save that tempest with vector monitor. I would love a crystal castles cabinet project :)
 
Back
Top Bottom