The list encompasses pinball machines and arcade games from the late 1970′s to the early 1980′s. A couple of standouts would be the Berzerk UR at 14437 units produced from 11/12/80 until 8/4/81. Scramble UR is even more impressive at 13486 units produced, but from only 3/16/81 to 8/4/81. That’s a lot of machines to crank out in only 5 months! Page two is shorter and incomplete on the numbers, but still interesting.

The list ends with Orbitor, that wild moonscape pinball machine Stern produced in small numbers. I’ve always wondered what machines sold for from the factory to the distributor. Did a game like Berzerk sell for $2000? More? Less? At $2000 Stern would have sold over 28 million in Berzerk machines alone, that’s some crazy money in 1980. The production number sheet is a great piece of arcade history. There were also photos of games setup in a showroom, people playing the games and pictures of the inner workings and servicing the game. Take a look.

That is the majority of the unique items from the Stern employee find. I have many more press photos to highlight in my next post, but for now, I’ll be jetting off.

In a Rubbermaid tote full of parts, photos, flyers and documentation, I found an original 8.5″ x 11″ marker rendering mock-up of the 1963 Chicago Coin Las Vegas Shuffle game. The artwork is drawn on vellum and then glued back to back onto a piece of white filler paper to create a double sided flyer. This was probably done in house by the marketing department, or by the person handling the company advertising at the time. The mock up is very similar to the flyer that was eventually produced and gives a rare glimpse at the creative process behind the arcade flyers we love so much.

With an interesting color palette, nice shapes and clean perspective lines, the flyer is simple yet effective in its presentation of the product. The back of the flyer sets up the area for a product photo with plenty of space to provide the information about the game. Everything we’ve come to expect from an arcade flyer.

The final flyer has some variations in format, but kept the overall theme of the original design. You can see the side by side comparison with the original flyer below.

I’m glad I got the chance to discover and share this little piece of arcade history. Another thanks to Terry for saving the stuff all these years! If you have any additional information about this game, the marketing department at Chicago Coin Industries, or the Stern video game division, drop me a line. Special thanks to The Arcade Flyer Archive for the Las Vegas Shuffle game flyer pics.

I was contacted by Terry, a former employee of Stern’s video game division, about some old pictures and a Stern cabinet he had in storage. Could I help him determine the value? Was I interested? Of course! Getting a chance to talk to a former Stern employee and grabbing some arcade history is always of interest to me. Terry told me he saved the stuff from destruction when the division was closing down. Everything was being tossed into dumpsters and he meant everything! Heartbreaking to hear when you’re a die hard arcade collector, and sad to know that all the history and documentation about the company is gone forever. Here’s a glimpse of the small piece he was able to save.

Doesn’t look like much, does it? Where is all the Stern paperwork? I just see a bunch of black and white press photos for EM games, right? Well…Stern bought Chicago Coin back in the day and almost all the photos you see were of Chicago Coin products, many of them labeled “FILE COPY” on the back. Terry had saved a glimpse of the old Chicago Coin Industries facility that used to be located in Chicago. Not just press photos, but actual pictures of the CCI building with vintage cars parked outside.

There were also dozens of press photos, Stern flyers (sadly every single one had water damage), a few 8×10 negatives and a few other cool items. Some of the photos were staged to show game delivery, some showed stuff set up in show rooms, and in some pictures you caught a glimpse of the manufacturing going on in the background.

All of this paper work was an amazing find, but I wanted to see the cabinet! Terry opened up his storage unit and there it was, a beautiful looking Frenzy cabinet. Beautiful but unfortunately incomplete. It turned out that Terry lived in the neighborhood around the Stern facility back in the 80′s. One of his good friends happened to be the son of the owner of a cabinet manufacturer, the very manufacturer that was making all the video game cabinets for Stern. It was this relationship that helped Terry land his first accounting job at Stern. The cabinet manufacturer was eventually purchased by Stern, and when the company was closing down, Terry was able to grab an unused cabinet off the factory floor. He’s been dragging it around with him ever since, with the dream of one day turning it into a complete game.

The cabinet doesn’t have a serial number because it was never completed at the factory. Can this be considered NOS? I think so! It is not in perfect shape as it has some scratches, dings, and a couple extra holes drilled in the side where the drawer glide mounts – but this is still in great shape. The marquee is pristine with zero fade, huge bonus. Terry tells me he has the bezel for the game somewhere and will try to find it. This is one cabinet that is destined to be restored to it’s former glory. Not only did I get the paperwork and Frenzy cab, but Terry had some misc parts as well. Take a look.

Strategy X and The End pcbs that look NOS. Misc pcbs for Berzerk that also look brand new. Lots of IC’s, schematics, a couple NOS wico joysticks, a cool little plastic Stern paper clip thing, and dozens and dozens of brand new fuses. I’m glad Terry took the time to contact me and was kind enough to share his little piece of arcade history. Thanks Terry! I’ll be posting a follow up soon with more of the press photos, a cool hand drawn advertisement and an actual production number sheet from Stern! Stay tuned.

What a drive it would be, at just over 17 hours and about 1000 miles one way. Ouch. But now there were two games to pick up and the annual arcade road trip was starting to take shape. I was on winter break from school and Jeff took some vacation time. The trip to Georgia and back again was on!. The idea was to take our time on the way down and visit a few collectors in route. We’d meet up with Steve to grab the games and check out his collection, and then take a few short detours to see collectors on the way back, just to make it interesting. I was excited to squeeze in the trip before the year was up and this time we’d be bringing back some cool games. With the trailer secured I was ready to go.

My first stop would be in Indianapolis to pick up Jeff, finalize our plans, and get ready for the trip. Some of the stops weren’t confirmed so we’d be adjusting our plans along the way. Since we were heading through Kentucky, it made sense to stop in Louisville to visit Edward Lutz (ELutz on the forums). Edward does great work on MCR and Midway card style pcbs such as Gorf and Space Zap. He had a stack of MCR and midway pcbs repaired and ready for me to pickup which would save me a bunch on shipping costs. Plus it would be great to meet Edward in person and check out his repair shop. Whoa! What’s the first thing I’m greeted with? A beautiful condition Taito Space Dungeon, and that was just the beginning. His shop was packed with some amazing games!

Space Dungeon and a GDI Slither, two games you don’t see very often. Edward mentioned that he might even have an NOS cpo for that Slither, wow! We wandered around the first floor trying to take it all in. There were a lot of games packed into the space in various states of repair and condition. Some games would be fixed up and sold, some were part of his collection. The Space Dungeon and Slither were not for sale, believe me we asked. Multiple times

Then we see Vanguard, Pleiades, Dark Planet and a Reactor! Great stuff. Dark Planet is a bizarre Stern game where you look through the narrow plexi and the game is projected over a 3-D moonscape type surface. Interesting to look at, but I’ve heard the game play is lacking. Edward told us that he keeps a lot of the games around for his repair work. Instant test cab right there on the floor, all you need to do is play a little Tetris to maneuver the cabinet you need out into the open. Once that game is pulled out he likes to repair a stack of the same or similar boards to maximize his effort.

There was a nice looking Atari Subs, Atari Avalanche, Stern Frenzy, Mouse Trap, Space Encounters and a Stern Moon War. Moon War, what’s that? A game with a cool left right roller controller (think major havok) and arguably the best arcade flyer ever printed (think moon shot). Lots of Stern titles in his lineup which was nice to see. The part room on the main floor was stocked with commonly used repair parts, lots of electronic parts, and miscellaneous hardware. Easy access as it was right across from his primary work space. Of course I took more pictures of the Slither, just because I think its a great game. We kept going, there was plenty more to see.

When have you ever seen a Tora Tora by Game Plan? Amazing artwork, would have liked to play it. That was one thing about Edwards place, there were a ton of really amazing games but I don’t think many of them were fully working. Edward spends a lot of time fixing other peoples stuff and not a whole lot on his own. Too many projects and not enough time, the curse of the arcade collector! I’m not complaining, he did a great job fixing my stuff. He also had a bunch of pinball machines in the mix, including a nice Flight 2000. We saw a Juno First, Eliminator, Break Out, Sinistar, and peaking out from behind some other games, Bazooka. So many amazing arcade pieces in one place, just waiting to be brought back to life. That wasn’t even the end of it, there was a second floor to see! Not only did Edward have games, he had parts, lots of parts. Including some super rare NOS stuff, like the slither cpo and universal joystick assemblies. Take a peek…

We asked if the Dark Planet could be pulled out so better pics could be taken, and Edward graciously let us tetris some games to get a better look. There was so much to see I’m sure I missed something. I did go home with some cool bootleg artwork, but that’s for another post. We had spent a few hours hanging out in Edwards space, but it was time for lunch. The three of us were going to head over to Zanzabar to check the place out. The owner was also a fellow arcade collector and we knew he had games at the bar. Time for some food, beer and gaming before we continued our cross country quest. Stay tuned for part two.

We woke up Saturday morning to some wet snow, but still decided to take Jeff’s mini van instead of my SUV, it had more space. My youngest would stay with Jeff’s family and visit the Indy zoo, while I took my oldest along for the ride. Never too early to infect him with the collecting bug and I hoped he would enjoy the experience. The ride was easy and the school wasn’t that hard to find. It was huge and it was red.

The building had seen better days and was a little dangerous, but that just makes it more interesting. My son thought it was spooky and wanted to know if we’d see any ghosts. Ghosts of classics long past perhaps, but not much more. The hallways were dark and strewn with all types of debris. The place had definitely been picked over and according to one of the locals, collectors have been pulling games from this place for over 20 years. At one point it was packed solid, now all that remained were a few dozen conversions, cranes, EM games, and a small mix of more recent titles. Regardless of the selection, it was still fun to poke around. How often do you get such an opportunity?

The building had some amazing old woodwork, with gorgeous banisters and wainscoting on almost every wall. A matrix style phone could be seen in each classroom, with child height and wall length chalkboards everywhere. The place must have been amazing back in the day. Strewn about in the various rooms were remnants of a once thriving coin operated business. Empty boxes for long gone NIB games, conversions galore, bootleg artwork, and even custom made cabinets for some unknown bootleg game. The place was saturated with arcade history, it was awesome.

Weird poker games, burned out pinball shells, collapsing walls, broken SAMI EM glass, and plenty of dust. This place had it all. You could just taste the lead in the air from all that flaking paint. While games on the second floor would have to be hauled down the massive flight of stairs, at least there was a loading ramp off the back of the school to make it easy to pack up the vehicles. All purchases would be wheeled out the back after payment and quick inspection by the operator. People were orderly and Brent kept things moving along smoothly. We were lucky enough to get a short tour by Elutz who also knew the operator and had permission to wander freely. He showed me the “bootleg” room where they used to strip non-earning games and turn them into something else. It was an awful mess but it told an interesting story. How many games met their fate in this room? The piles of power supplies, kit boxes, and stacks of bootleg artwork speak volumes. This was all that remained after decades of collectors coming in and pulling the best parts.

There were a bunch of pong clone type games to be found, worthless really, unless you like that kind of stuff. A funky Allied Paddle Battle and a converted Paddle Battle stood prominently on the second floor. The shell of a Kee tank, a converted bi-plane and a more-or-less complete bi-plane could be seen. A few EM games missing parts, a row of EM pins, a pretty nice looking Bally Road Runner, more flaking paint and a couple of cute little DECO Astro Fighters rounded out the second floor. The DECO’s were the reason we made the trip in the first place. Three of the DECO’s were located on the second floor, one on the first. My Magliner with stair climbers made the descent down the massive flight of stairs quick and easy.

If the main structure wasn’t enough, there was also another building across the street that housed many of the pinball machines that were for sale. Not only did it have pins and more games, it also had a giant hole in the roof! Ugh, never good to see that as you know the games would be trashed. I know a few guys got some deals, including a sweet Taxi pinball that went for a great price. Jeff and I were out of space for the ride back so I didn’t spend much time in this space, plus Edward wanted to show me the cabinet building room and I was eager to get back on the road. The cabinet room was where they used to build and assemble cabinets for the conversion kits, bootleg or otherwise. There was still a nice pile of woodgrain laminate on one table, lots of wood debris, old tools, including a nice press brake. It reminded me a little of dptwiz’s old work space We wandered around in a few of the rooms snapping photos, what a crazy place. I could spend a ton of time here, but it was time to get moving. We still had to load up the Deco minis.

So how many DECO mini cabinets can you fit in a mini van? The answer is four. With the easily removable bases we were able to tetris the cabs into place with ease. The original three fit so well we decided to take the fourth one too! We weren’t sure if any of them would work and it would be better to have the whole bunch to mess with at once. One of the cabs had a bad base and it was left behind, I may go back for it one day. You can see the games packed in the van and then nicely cleaned up sitting in Jeff’s garage. Pretty cool little machines, much better than their tall, boxy cousin.

I loaded up one of the nice machines and the part machine into my 4 runner, packed up our gear, grabbed the kids and headed back home. Got back Saturday evening in plenty of time to unload our junk and move the game into the basement for cleaning. It was a great trip and I’m glad I got to experience the school house raid.