Tiny Bubbles

pookdolie

Permanently Banned for excessive trolling.
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But ain't no Don Ho. This is about the Williams cabaret I just got for my collection. Grail time!

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Pretty clean inside, complete. Good, bright, original monitor. Original optical joystick. Trademark Williams cabaret sideart. :cool:

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No fatal damage or blemishes at all; it's a pretty nice machine. Some cosmetics could be touched up, but I'm leaving well enough alone at this point...

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Could use a couple of light bulbs. Love the backlit instructions on these Williams cabarets! Do any other Williams cabarets have these besides Robotron and Bubbles?

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Nice bezel...
 
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A couple of cig burns on the CP. Character! (BTW, the start buttons on the front of the CP are translucent, but not backlit; they are on Robotron.)

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From the back. No upgraded stuff here; original everything, including power supply.

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Lots of tags, most of them around 624404...

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...and here's the number stamped on the cab. So, some matches! (PCB is 624406.)

Only thing I can see wrong so far is the fact that the bubble won't move upward. It does in the demo, but not once coined up.
 
Nice score

Did you get this one shipped from the east coast? As someone from California bought the mini I was thinking about buying.. Glad you got it and not me, as I didnt need it :).

Reseat the connectors on the wigit pcb, check the spider on the optical stick..
Reseat the connectors on the stick.. Hopefully that will fix the missing direction..
 
Reseat the connectors on the wigit pcb, check the spider on the optical stick..

Thanks! Spider is good, flexible and springy. What's the wigit PCB, and where it be?

(And yes, this is probably the one you saw.) ;)
 
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Yep, that is a mini still on my want list! To my knowledge, only Robotron and Bubbles have the backlite bezel (I also own a Stargate mini).

Scott C.
 
Wigit

Wigit pcb is the small pcb next to the rom pcb.. Right below the CPU pcb :)

It controls all the movements.. Usually if your having directional issues, you start with the stick and work your way back to the wigit..

Doesn't hurt to double check your voltages too.. As that game was bounced around quite a bit from New England to you :) Those old ps usually need to be rebuilt by now, or toss in a new ps.. But if the old one works, keep it going!

Have fun with it.
 
Wigit pcb is the small pcb next to the rom pcb.. Right below the CPU pcb :)

Oh! That little one on the back door. I'll check it tonight - thanks!

Doesn't hurt to double check your voltages too.. As that game was bounced around quite a bit from New England to you :) Those old ps usually need to be rebuilt by now, or toss in a new ps.. But if the old one works, keep it going!

That'll be my next "to do" if things still act funny...

EDIT: Muhuahahaha! Took apart everything I could on the wigit PCB, put it back together, and now I can go up. :cool:
 
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Awesome! I'd love to have a Bubbles, as it was a game I played a lot BITD. Never saw a cabaret version. Nice grab! (jealous and envious at the same time)
 
This is the 3rd or 4th of these that I've seen.. I think Todd from TNT has one, Anthony from QuarterArcade has one, there was one for sale a year or two back alongside a set of Stargate and Robotron mini's and now this one from NY that was on Ebay. Nice to see that there are more of these than was previously thought.
 
That looks just awesome! Silly question: what's the gameplay like? Bubbles is the only Williams game that I never saw BITD. As far as I know, it was never in any arcade that I frequented.
 
That looks just awesome! Silly question: what's the gameplay like? Bubbles is the only Williams game that I never saw BITD. As far as I know, it was never in any arcade that I frequented.

The game play is kind of cool - I have this on one of those cheap multi-game bartops that were in the stores a few years back. You're a bubble and you run around grabbing things in the sink. As you do, you get bigger, which makes it easier to get some stuff, but of course makes it easier for the baddies to get you.

Neat graphics, and I think the gameplay is fun, though on the bartop I have the controls are so shoddy that you can't get that far (the squeaking from the joysticks is really annoying).
 
But ain't no Don Ho.
<snip>

Now I don't know much about the guy, but let's imagine: what would a Don Ho theamed game look like? Hula dancers? Cabinet pained with Leis? Or are they on the bezel? And what's the gameplay? I'm thinking rythm game with a microphone sticking out the front of the cab as your controller...
 
This is the 3rd or 4th of these that I've seen.. I think Todd from TNT has one, Anthony from QuarterArcade has one, there was one for sale a year or two back alongside a set of Stargate and Robotron mini's and now this one from NY that was on Ebay. Nice to see that there are more of these than was previously thought.

This was roughly my count, too. The one "alongside a set" was sold up in L.A. by what's-his-name (nice guy) and I couldn't buy it at the time. I'm sure there's a few more out there, but it's a lot harder to find than a Robotron mini.

That looks just awesome! Silly question: what's the gameplay like?

It's a lot of fun. The joystick is everything on this game, as it was designed to control the bubble within a slippery sink and a drain that wants to suck you in. That's exactly what it feels like. You end up making a lot of percise little movements, and you have a lot of "I don't beleive I survived" moments when you don't die.

I'm thinking rythm game with a microphone sticking out the front of the cab as your controller...

Thanks. Don Ho-inspired nightmares. That's just what I needed. :D
 
That ZK looks so out of place in your 'mini' lineup! Hint, Hint!!;)

It's true. The Food Fight and Warlords cocktails do as well; they are bastard children (albeit loved).

I justify them by using all three as a "point of reference". People recognise those machines; the minis are always "What the hell are those?"...and then they go into their stories about playing URs or CTs BIID. (Most mini owners can relate, I'm sure.)

But I've managed to fit 9 games in my bedroom...couldn't do that with cockpits.
 
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