Yesterday's acquisition - Genco Rifle Gallery

mnrocketry

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Yep, it's a 1954 vintage "Genco's Moving Target Rifle Gallery". I picked it up off of CraigsList for $100 from a guy in St. Paul, MN. It had been sitting in his garage for 10 years. He said that he had bought it, but then discovered it was too big to get into his basement. Of course, it "used to work". It's complete, and even had the schematics and original paperwork with it.
http://marvin3m.com/arcade/grifran.htm

He said that he had gotten easily 30 replies to his CL ad. Mostly, he said, suburban soccer moms who thought that it would be a fully working game that they could put right into their basement. When he called me, I evidently said the magic words: "It looks like it would be a neat project." He gave me his address, and I was at his door within an hour.

Even not working, this thing is just really, really cool. I've restored a couple EM pinball games in the past, but this will be my first EM gun game. My plan is to fix it up and give it to my father as a 60th birthday gift.

The cabinet's bottom panel will need to be replaced. That looks to be a PITA woodworking project as it interlocks into the sides of the cabinet.

As I get started on this, any suggestions, recommendations, pointers to resources, etc would be appreciated!

Alan
 

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To give you an idea, here's what 56-year-old game documentation looks like. (see 1st pic) Very yellow, brittle, creased, broken... I've scanned all of it and have started cleaning up the scans (2nd pic).
 

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that thing is awesome!

clean and grease !!!!

looks like it will be an easy stencil job

i like how the unit number is painted on"D 57"
 
So you're the son of a gun that got it! Just kidding; I was one of the "unlucky" responders to that CL ad. Glad you got it though, and enjoy!
 
Yeah, evidently some past operator wanted their inventory tag to be really easy to see! I've often seen that sort of thing on the back of a game, or inside the coin door, but never right on the front before.

I wouldn't re-stencil it. It's 56 years old; my opinion is that it shouldn't look new - it should look its age. I'm happy if it just looks nice. That said, when I repair the bottom of the cabinet, I will probably end up re-painting that black stripe around the very bottom edge.

As with many vintage items, the question is one of preservation versus restoration...

I will have to think about what to do with the targets. The turkeys and circle targets are in good shape. One duck has lost its head. Elmer Fudd, though, was hard on those wascally wabbits. Only one is fully intact.

Alan
 
Very cool looking game, congrats on the pickup. One complete rabbit is all you need to make the rest...

Good luck!
 
Well I'm no suburban soccer mom and while it breaks my heart that I wasn't quick enough on the email trigger to get it... I do admire your plans for it so CONGRATS on your victory sir!
 
I just had my first EM, Midway's Wild Kingdom dropped off at my place on Saturday. Mine isn't fully working either. I have a thread started in the help/repair section about it. Who sells new stylus boards for these babies?
 
Very cool looking game, congrats on the pickup. One complete rabbit is all you need to make the rest...
Good luck!

And I'm lucky that there is one complete rabbit! I'll have to remove "Bugs" so that I can scan him. The targets are held in place with rivets; that'll make things annoying.

Hmmm, I only need two rabbits, right? And then they'll take care of making the rest themselves? ;-)

Thanks!
 
Found something neat...

While searching this morning, I came across Google's archive of Billboard magazines. Including those from 1954 when this game came out. Found several interesting articles... Evidently that year was a bit of an "arms race" as four different companies were producing these types of shooting games, each coming out with new models every few months and all trying to out-do the other guys.

Attached are two different ads that Genco ran in Billboard promoting this game.
 

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What are the rabits made of? If you can scan one, I should be able to mill you some replacements.

Drop me a PM if you are interested.
 
I just got the same machine!

Resurrecting an old thread.
I picked up one of these about a month ago. My targets are a bit different-foxes instead of turkeys. Also, I have 4-1/2 rabbits : )
I need schematics though. If you'd like to cross reference with my machine let me know. It also looks like my instruction cards are a bit different.
Mine needs cleaning and a little attention to the steppers I think. It's partially working now.
 
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An acquaintance of an acquaintance heard that I work on arcade machines and has one of these Rifle Gallery machines (yes, the same one in this thread) that doesn't work. He wants me to look at and try to get it working, but I don't know the first thing about it. I've been examining the manual and the schematics that MnRocketry kindly posted, but there is a lot I don't understand about the principles of operation of this thing. Can someone post some pictures of the different parts and how things are generally supposed to work?

Max
 
Very cool...great gift for your pops. At the right price...can't beat it. EM is an addiction brother. Good luck with the restoration.

OHEMIO
 
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