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.

On the drive out to visit James’ place, Jeff filled me in on some of the details. Not only did James like vector games, but he has a bunch of super rare titles in his lineup. Some of them I had never seen or played before. The kind of games that just can’t be played in MAME. Rather than ramble on about his stuff, I’ll just let the game list speak for itself:

Armor Attack, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Aztarac, Battlezone, Berzerk, Black Widow, Blaster, Bubbles, Computer Space (yellow), Crazy Climber (deluxe), Cyberball, Death Race, Defender, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Food Fight, Frogger, Galaga, Gravitar, Gyruss, I,Robot, Joust, Lunar Lander, Major Havoc, Missile Command, Moon Patrol, Quantum, Reactor, Robotron, Space Duel, Spy Hunter, Star Castle, Star Wars, Tempest, Tron, Wacko, Warrior, and Zookeeper. That is 40 amazing games in one space, including every Atari vector (right? I’m not missing any?). I was truly going to be in Arcade Nirvana.

We arrived at James’ house late morning, in a little subdivision with modest homes and well kept yards. His was a neat little house, hiding one of the most amazing game collections I will probably ever see. I couldn’t wait. James greeted us at the door and I liked him right away. Friendly, courteous and eager to talk shop. We wasted no time heading into the arcade and immersing ourselves in the sights and sounds of the glorious 80′s. The games were organized in long rows in the one main room, with a bar and access to the backyard close by. A handful of games were in an overflow area adjacent to the main space, with all possible floor space used up. Excellent. Not only were there a TON of amazing games, but every single game was WORKING. Let me repeat that so it sinks in. All 40 games were working. Enough babble, here are some pictures.

The Wacko, Food Fight, and Death Race were placed in the little overflow area near his hvac and water tank. I was so in awe of the rest of the collection, I forgot to go back and play Death Race! I have played Wacko and Food Fight before, but I really wanted to try Death Race. I guess I have an excuse to go back for another visit

Jeff and I stepped up and played Two Tigers for a bit as I had never seen or played a dedicated cab in person. The game has some amazing artwork, but the game play was a little lacking. I wanted the planes to react more like the ship in Time Pilot, but it just wasn’t happening. Maybe a little more play time and some strategy would have helped, I try not to judge any game on the first play. Still amazing to see one in person. I also gave the computer space a try, it felt odd playing that little bit of history! I like simple black and white games so I actually enjoyed this one. I can understand why it didn’t do well though, as it isn’t very engaging. The yellow example that James has is in beautiful shape and a real treat to see. Let’s not forget the Reactor, I, Robot and some MCR goodness. Moving on…

We played a little Crazy Climber in a beautiful Nichibutsu Deluxe cabinet, some Warrior with its stunning artwork and black light backdrop. Warrior game play was OK, just a little tricky to maneuver at first. That game is definitely about the wow factor, it is truly amazing to see all lit up in person. Then there was the Williams row with a couple of duramold cabinets, some Cinematronics vectors, a Berzerk with the bat stick, and a Tournament Cyberball 2072. I should have given that one a try, but just kept moving, we had so much to see!

On to the next row of games which included an Aztarac, Missile Command cockpit and the Atari vectors. I have to say that Aztarac was the standout game for me during this adventure. It was a blast to play and the funky bubble plexi bezel made it that much cooler. I’m told that it gets ridiculously hard at higher levels, but I thought it was just loads of fun to play. The MC cockpit was another surprise for me as I really enjoyed playing it wrapped inside the cab with the booming base. Much more fun than the upright. As for the Atari vectors, what can I say? Incredible to see them all lined up looking so pretty.

Whew! That is one heck of a collection and having them all working at the same time seems like a small miracle. How is it even possible? It turns out that James has a knack for fixing the games, both the electronics and the cosmetics. He’s a bio-medical engineer by trade and the electronics repair came easy, the restorations he just takes his time with. All his games were immaculate, and his dedication to the hobby really shows. Of course the only thing that could possibly match such an amazing collection is an equally impressive bank of electronic test equipment. Let’s check out his “work bench”. His work space is adjacent to the arcade, you actually walk through it to get to the game room. I suppose that makes game repair a little easier, having everything so close. It certainly was neat, well organized, and loaded with the kind of test equipment most of us can only drool over. So drool away…

At this point we had spent what seemed like only moments, but must have been a couple hours down in James’ basement arcade and workshop. I thought we were done, until I looked up and was reminded that James also liked Showbiz Pizza memorabilia, or more specifically the Rock-afire Explosion show. But what was the rest of that stuff up there?

So James is an avid collector of Showbiz Pizza memorabilia, but not just any type of memorabilia. He collects Rock-afire Explosion stuff, that funky animatronics band that used to play at all the Showbiz Pizza resturaunts. For James, some of his fondest memories were playing the games and watching the shows at the famous Showbiz Pizza. I won’t get into too much detail about Showbiz Pizza and its history, if you’re a collector you know all about it. If you want more information, there is a great website called showbizpizza, check it out and you’ll get all the info you care to read. So when I asked what the labeled cases were on the top shelves, James said, “They’re the shows for the Rock-afire Explosion.” Hmm, I didn’t realize there were any DVD’s of the old show, let alone that many. I was wrong, they are actual show tapes for the animatronic sequences. Oh my.

Of course you can’t have all those animatronic show tapes without something to use them with. That’s right, he’s got some of the actual animatronics as well. James took us for a short drive to a storage unit that was packed full of characters from the famous show. It was a little eerie because they were lacking “skin” and looked more like the movie robots from I, Robot (how appropriate). He had signs, compressors and other accessories for the show, blips from my childhood memory. James explained that the character costumes were safely packed away, along with more parts. His ultimate goal? To expand his arcade with enough space to have a fully working Rock-afire Explosion show! Think he’s a little ambitious? Perhaps, but have you seen his game room? I would say that if anyone could pull it off, James certainly can.

And what good is a storage unit if you can’t tuck a few games into the corner? Hidden among the robots was a nice looking Atari X-O football and a cinematronics space wars, two great games waiting for a little TLC. We finished up at the storage unit and went back to the house. James mentioned he had another character in the garage, so we decided to take a look. Whoa! Not only did he have a wild Uncle Klunk animatronic, he also had a bunch of classic arcade projects that any avid collector would love to have.

So the projects consist of an EDOT, Tailgunner, Solar Quest, Tapper, Red Baron, Space Invaders, Space Invaders Deluxe, XO Football, Space Wars, Rip Off, Gyruss, Starhawk, Space Fury, and Qbert. 15 more impressive games for his list. I look forward to visiting again and really hope he can do the expansion to fit all of these games and the Rock-afire Explosion, what an amazing space that would be! I didn’t want to leave vector heaven, but it was time to get back on the road and head home. I had a great time, made some new friends and really enjoyed seeing and playing such a variety of classic games. I’m looking forward to the next road trip…maybe we’ll head West next time.

The first thing that grabs you is the blatant Star Wars X-Wing imagery plastered all over the control panel, bezel and marquee. Why not? If you’re going to make a bootleg game you might as well slap some artwork on it that people recognize. It would get a few tokens for the art at least, while the gamer attempts to figure out what, if anything, Astro Attack has to do with the iconic franchise we all know and love.

John was able to get the game working pretty fast, “I actually got it going late last night. One of the circuit boards wasn’t seated in the edge connector properly and then the vertical hold needed adjusting but then it popped right in. Not a game I’ve ever seen before. The marquee is interesting. Each letter has a separate bulb and they alternate turning on and off randomly making a kinda cool effect. I’ll try to get some video or something later today if I have time.” He did have some time and shared this video with the collecting community. Pretty interesting how the marquee lights flash on and off, probably with the use of “blinker” bulbs. Might be a little distracting during game play, but still cool. (refresh the page if you don’t see the video)

John determined that the game play is identical to Astro Fighter by Sega/Gremlin/DECO. Interesting to note that the SEGA/Gremlin version of the Astro Fighter flyer has some blatant rip-off going on as well, beam me up Scotty! The game was released by a bunch of sources, perhaps that made it ripe for bootlegging, who knows? The cabinet has a simple design with an odd upright coin box and single slot coin mechanism. Done cheaply to keep costs down I’d imagine. Maybe it’s the Star Wars artwork, but I like the cabinet and would have dropped in a token or two to give it a try.

The printed circuit board mounts on the side of the cabinet, in a cage that doesn’t look like it was meant to go there. You can see slots in the wood that would fit a larger pcb. So is this pcb a bootleg or an actual Astro Fighter pcb? Tough to tell, as Astro Fighter pcb images from the internet vary. The monitor is nicely mounted with the chassis positioned on the side of the cab for easy maintenance. Everything inside the cab looks original and the overall clean, unhacked look of the cabinet got me thinking. Maybe this generic cab would accept a number of different bootleg games. Just mount a new pcb and connect the harness to the existing cab harness with those molex connectors. No hacking or rewiring necessary, just a new control panel and some new artwork. That would make this a pretty sophisticated bootleg cab, as it was made specifically for that purpose, with multiple games in mind. A multi-bootleg? I suppose the millions of dollars being made in the 1980′s on coin-op would have brought out all the scammers!

Of course I’m just speculating about this cabinet and its origins. If you know any facts about this cabinet or have seen other games in this style of cabinet, I’d love to know about it or see some pictures. Use the contact joystick and drop me a line.

The artist that worked on this one made an effort to do some color and design matching for the layout so the cpo wouldn’t look out of place on the game. He(?) even worked up a cool looking Centipede to add to the CPO, an element that was missing from the original design. Good color, cool Centipede, mushrooms and horizontal stripes. What else could you possibly need? I’ve only been able to find a couple of hacked up versions of this overlay and I’m on the lookout for a nice example. Check out my Willis artwork page for more information about Willis and their history.

I would like to add one of these overlays to the Willis artwork archive. If you have a nice example of this control panel overlay for sale or trade, drop me a line!

So I did some digging through my archives to figure this out. I re-read my 2009 post about The Wico Willis partnership. If you check out the catalog pages in the old post you’ll see another centipede overlay clearly listed, and it has the exact same part number. Well, minus the “00″ at the end, but otherwise identical. So the same part number exists for two pieces of artwork, but why? Here are a couple examples I have of the overlay from the Wico Willis catalog. Some genius decided it was a good idea to trim off the top and bottom, so its impossible to read any identifying marks, but you get the idea. So what’s the scoop on these?

My guess is that sometime after the Wico Willis partnership dissolved, Wico decided to make their own control panel overlays (or maybe they had made them previously, I just don’t know). Wico would have used their own printing company, possibly a vendor they had been working with for awhile and that company just didn’t use 3M paper products. They whipped up their own artwork and just kept the catalog part number on the front. I mean if you’ve already sent out a couple thousand product catalogs with the numbers listed, why change them? Just replace the product with your own and keep selling. Seems reasonable to me.

If you know anything about the relationship between Wico and Willis, or any information about either company, I’d love to learn more. This piece of arcade artwork gets added to the growing archive. Game on!

The overlay’s are only 11 1/4″ tall x 10 7/8″ wide and at first I thought they must be for the Sente Arcade Computer I Deluxe, due to the narrow width. The standard Sente Arcade Computer I cabinet takes a much wider control panel, so it couldn’t be for that cabinet. Even the conversion kit artwork would have had a wider control panel to fit games like Pac-Man, Rally-X, or Bump N Jump. Checking over the flyer images from The Arcade Flyer Archive I was pretty sure the overlays wouldn’t fit either of those cabs, take a look.

What the heck, what cabinet were these for? The seller I purchased them from had two sets, I bought one set. Each set consisted of a CPO that fits over a trackball panel and the other CPO fits a standard button and joystick configuration. Then it clicked. I looked around the flyer archive a bit more until I found what I was looking for. An image of a Bally Sente cocktail table. Hadn’t realized they made a CT version, but it makes sense. Take a look at the Mini Golf flyer snippet, you can see the cocktail table in the lower right corner. So instead of a pair of CPO’s for replacement panels, I had two cocktail overlays, each one for a different control panel!

Below you can see various images of both overlays. They are in excellent condition, printed on heavy duty poly-carbonate with a plain paper backing. The top edges of each overlay has a slight bend, but I believe they were pre-scored to make it easier to install on the panels. The die-cuts are all missing, but they were likely cut out and not punched with tabs as the holes are clean. The backing has some minor peeling, but other wise excellent. I would grade these a 9/10. As for the aesthetics, while the green background, white stripes and gold metallic accent color scheme is OK, it is also very boring. A fun, multi-color overlay would have cost more money and these games were meant to be money savers for the op. Boring is cheap. I’ve never seen a Sente cocktail table in person and a little searching didn’t dig up any photos. If you happen to own a Sente cocktail cabinet, drop me a line, I’d love to see it. If you liked this installment of NOS arcade artwork, please visit my NOS artwork page, where you’ll find more information and a gallery of pieces in my collection. In the meantime, these funky CT CPO’s will make a nice addition to the archive.