Spy Agent or Bootleg Elevator Action cpo
I’ve always thought that this control panel overlay was the Willis version of Elevator Action. At least that’s what I had been told and never had any reason to doubt the claim. Until one day when the KLOV “machine of the day” was a Spy Agent. Whoa, that’s the Willis EA overlay, what gives?
After some more investigating, it appears as if the overlay is a bootleg for Elevator Action. The first picture is an overlay I found available at QuarterArcade and the second a copy I own. The QA copy has some text on the middle right that I can’t quite make out, unfortunately, as it might shed some light on the true manufacturer of the kit. The cabinet picture is from KLOV and shows the overlay installed on a Taito cabinet control panel. According to KLOV, Spy Agent made by Taito, is a bootleg of Elevator Action. Huh? Elevator Action was made by Taito. Why would you bootleg your own game? Since Spy Agent was a bootleg and seems to have been a conversion kit, I’m guessing Willis had nothing to do with it. The overlay is missing all the tell tale signs. If you have any more information, post a comment.
Tags: bootleg, cpo, Elevator Action, Spy Agent, Taito, video game art
January 30th, 2010 at 3:46 am
AFAIK this is Spy Agent CPO. Its a confusing topic- AFAIK Spy Agent was indeed a ‘bootleg’ of Elevator Action.
I have such a board, it is has a single 56 pin (Non Jamma) connector, the pcb is blue. It looks and is wired completely different than the Taito SJ series boards. Mine has Jungle King roms on it, very bizzare- but it works.
My Elevator Action has a Willis overlay.
The Willis is very similar to the original Taito. The font for the button text is different, and there is no ‘Taito’ logo in the center between the player start buttons. I think the tint to the yellow is a bit off compared to the original Taito. I haven’t seen an original in a long time up close.
All in all- one cannot really tell its a Willis unless they look at it- very closely. It tricked me- the player start characters and the whole background- is practically identical. I thought mine was an original Taito mfr defect since the logo was missing- until I saw the ad from eldorado games. I’m no Willis expert but I am guessing this is sort of scarce as well?
From the few Willis overlays I’ve seen- I think this one and maybe Tron also- are probably the few that come closest- to what the mfr did originally…
The Spy Agent looks nice with the skyscraper view- I’d keep it and make a collection of all three EA game CPOs.
EA Willis/Wico overlay at Eldorado games:
http://www.eldoradogames.com/graphics.html
Willis overlay- installed
http://i856.photobucket.com/albums/ab127/blackhawksfan54/ElevatorAction/02afterjammarewireandcprebuild.jpg
February 16th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I purchased the overlay from Eldorado games and after closer inspections, I’m not convinced that it is a Willis/Wico overlay, for a number of reasons. I’ll be doing a post about it shortly. Thanks for the info.