Tapper cabinet converted into police trainer

ultra7350

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I found this on Craigslist .
https://omaha.craigslist.org/clt/5648414461.html

"I have an original Tapper Arcade stand up cabinet by midway. Sadly it was converted to a police trainer in the 1980's. It has the original side art and original monitor bezel. The control panel was covered but is the original underneath i believe. It doesn't have a monitor, power supply or board. If you wanted to start a tapper restoration or need a solid cabinet this one has no water damage and a great coin door."
 
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Here is one of the pictures.
 

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I just picked up a tapper that was converted to a taito us classic. Drilled out the original panel to fit the roller and everything. What were these operators thinking?

 
Looks like he has a BurgerTime cab thats been converted to something like Arkanoid as well.
You can see you blue-yellow cab with the top cut for the chefs hat.
 
What were these operators thinking?

$$$

when a game was not making money at the end of its life cycle it got converted, they didn't know/care if later these game where going to be worth money.

conversion was cheaper vs buying a completely new game ;)
 
They were thinking - This game isn't making any money. I've got to do something
to keep my business running and feed my family.

JD

I just picked up a tapper that was converted to a taito us classic. Drilled out the original panel to fit the roller and everything. What were these operators thinking?
 
What were these operators thinking?

"Let me reuse this cabinet, that I own outright, which currently houses a game nobody gives two craps about and convert it into a new title whose earnings will keep my small family-owned business afloat."

Where were you in 1988 when nobody wanted to buy a Tapper machine? You could have SAVED it...!
 
FINALLY a good use for those stupid cup holders... (I've always wondered why someone hasn't made a "REAL CUP HOLDER" mod for this cabinet with cup holders that actually HOLD a beer, not encourage people to set one on it only to spill all over the control panel when cousin Freddy pops around the corner to see how your game is going...
 
"Let me reuse this cabinet, that I own outright, which currently houses a game nobody gives two craps about and convert it into a new title whose earnings will keep my small family-owned business afloat."

Where were you in 1988 when nobody wanted to buy a Tapper machine? You could have SAVED it...!
Well, I would of saved it if I could, unfortunately I wasn't born yet, haha.
 
"Let me reuse this cabinet, that I own outright, which currently houses a game nobody gives two craps about and convert it into a new title whose earnings will keep my small family-owned business afloat."

Where were you in 1988 when nobody wanted to buy a Tapper machine? You could have SAVED it...!

1988? Yaggy guessed my birth year!.. So I could of bought it, but I'm sure I was more into shitting my pants.
 
"Let me reuse this cabinet, that I own outright, which currently houses a game nobody gives two craps about and convert it into a new title whose earnings will keep my small family-owned business afloat."

Where were you in 1988 when nobody wanted to buy a Tapper machine? You could have SAVED it...!

This!
I've become numb to it over the last couple years. Getting to know a couple "old-time" operators who were/are trying to keep people employed, (and realizing that I was part of the problem in the 80's) has made me more understanding of how these "abominations" came to be.

I walked past Pac Man to play Golden-Axe.
I walked past Galaga to play Hard Drivin'.
I walked past Zookeeper to play Mortal Kombat.
(and I'll bet that many of you did too)

They were new, exciting, and different. Everyone was talking about them and playing them. If the Food Fight was raking in quarters, the OP wouldn't change it. In some cases, the games had already been pulled off route because of electrical/mechanical failure. Jammatizing it with Altered Beast was a way to get it out of the warehouse and back on the street.
 
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This thread got me thinking.
Is it me or are a lot of conversions done from rarer games?
For instance, I have four games that were converted at some stage in their life to something else. (not by me).

World Series Base Ball - Converted from Sega Champion Baseball
Tetris - Converted from Space Bugger
Arkanoid - Converted from Pengo
1942 - Converted from Q-bert

In the case with these four, "I think" all of them were rarer as the original than what they were converted to (with the exception of maybe Qbert).
I that the norm?
 
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