I love a good road trip and taking a road trip with a friend is even better. Sure, the ride is long and painful on the knees, but the drive for arcade nirvana is always one worth sharing. This time I was headed down to St. Louis MO with Jeff R. We were bringing a Cinematronics Rip Off to Pat C’s place and picking up a HUO Pengo for Jeff. While I wasn’t picking up any games, I did get a great big box full of arcade paper, thanks to Pat. The box is full of fantastic bits of arcade history that I hope to share. Here’s the first piece:

If you are seeing this for the first time you’ve got to be saying what the heck is that? Apparently, All-Weather Amusements, Inc. thought that creating a giant enclosure to house a couple of arcade games was a good idea. Hmmm, extra locks and keys before getting to the coin box? I can’t imagine most Ops would care for that idea. I suppose the enclosure could be useful in a mall or other high traffic area that didn’t allow for constant, secure supervision. You wouldn’t have to worry about vandals getting into the back of the games. I’ve never seen one in the wild, so finding this flyer was fun. If you have ever seen the Video Outpost on location or even know of one still in use, add a comment, I’d like to hear your story.

EDIT: A Play Meter article about this bizarre product can be found here.

I recently discussed the very cool Space Wars flyer up at TAFA (check it out here) and since then have been lucky enough to get it translated. Lisa has a good friend that is part Japanese and she was nice enough (Thanks Kim!) to ask her Mom to do some translating. Here it is:

“It is about playing a space game. By pushing the optional button from 0 to 9, and combine with valiational button from 1 to 5 you can enjoy 50 kinds of space game. And the details follows. 100 yen for 90 seconds (2 people can play) and etc.”

Kim asked for a little more detail and got this:

“I try to translate as much as I can. As I don’t play video game it is sometimes not so easy to translate. It could be “lost translation” but I hope he can use my help. Quote – You can pick button #0 to #9, combine valiation button #1 to #5 and you can enjoy 50 kinds of space game. (how to play) 100 yen for 2 people – 1 play. Put a coin and select from 0 to 9 and you push the button. Next push the validation button from 1 to 5 to select the game. You gain the point by attacking the enemy’s ship or avoiding the collusion of the sun, stars and enemy’s space ship. By pushing spaceship-operating button, you can turn around to the right and left, go forward, fire missile and can emergency-escape. The rest of missile, playing time and score will be desplayed on the screen. By 100 yen you can play for 90 seconds (90 seconds x the number of coins). For beginners – button 0 to 2, semi-pros – 3 to 5 and pros – 6 to 9″

While I didn’t get any hidden clues about the licensing of this game to Taito, it is still a fun read and a fantastic looking flyer. Again, if anyone actually has the Japanese version of this game, drop me a line.

This one was news to me. I was browsing The Arcade Flyer Archive and saw a flyer for the Taito version of Space Wars! I had no idea Space Wars made it over to Japan as a license. Maybe I need to re-read the story about the games creator, perhaps I missed something? (Read Tim Skelly’s History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam over at dadgum) The license seems to have changed hands a few times so perhaps one of the final owners sold the rights to Taito?

Taito Space Wars flyer from TAFA

If anyone knows more about the Taito version of Space Wars, please share your comments, I’d love to hear them. If you haven’t been to The Arcade Flyer Archive, take a moment to check it out, great resource for collectors and enthusiasts alike. Happy gaming.

February 2, 2009 – Update
I was able to get this flyer translated. Read it.