Universal Magical Spot, with a nice midwest backstory

In August of 2017, a collector just outside of Cincinnati OH came across a complete Universal Magical Spot a couple of miles from his home. Here are some photos of the game and a little bit about its backstory.

The Magical Spot with (possibly) a single owner

When Adam picked up the game in Aug. he shared some photos of the cabinet on Klov, it was in excellent condition. Based on the backstory that was shared, it sounds like this game may have been purchased new and never changed hands:

This Magical Spot was in a family owned bar near my home on the eastside of Cincinnati. The parents who owned the bar had always desired to expand to other games, but that never came to be when the bar closed its doors in the 90s. Even after the parents passed, the son kept the game tucked away in storage.

Here is one of the original photos that Adam shared showing the front of the cabinet:

Universal Magical Spot - Front of Cabinet

Purchase in October

When Adam shared his pickup in Aug., a handful of collectors expressed interest in purchasing the game if he ever decided to sell – including myself. In Oct. I shot him a quick note to touch base, and we were able to work something out. I feel fortunate that Adam was willing to sell the game to me without having worked together in the past – thanks again!

From memory, Adam thought that the game had been up against a window – which explained the notable fade on one side of the cabinet that can be seen in the second photo below. For some collectors that may be bothersome, but I like the games in my collection to have some level of patina to show that they have a history. what struck me was how nice the back of the cabinet was, still a nice white color and the nameplate wasn’t gouged and scratched up.

Here are some more photos of the game:

Universal Magical Spot - Right SideUniversal Magical Spot - Left SideUniversal Magical Spot - Back of cabinetUniversal Magical Spot - Nameplate

Closing

For the original owner of the Magical Spot – I’d be interested to update the information to better capture the history of the game and the bar itself. If you see this post, please drop me a line.

I’m always interested to purchase more of these classic Universal games – a couple of ones that would be great to add would be Cosmic Monsters, Zero Hour or Space Panic. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or leave a comment below if you have a Universal game you would like to sell, regardless of where you are located.

Here are some similar arcade posts

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Comments
User Gravatar

Magical Spot.what a great game. hope you get to play it. It was my favorite game as a kid. My friends too, we were all obsessed. I was so good at it the “ghosts” (thats what we called them, what the ufo drops)would never get a chance to come down. They never had a chance to become scorpions. Eventually it gets too hard knocking them out as ghosts. If I remember, the would stay purple after about 5 boards, you did not have to shoot/hit twice to kill, but they would get really fast. Maybe you still had to hit them twice, not sure. I had 2 of these games in my neighborhood. One was at a record shop on my city bus connecting route from school, in downtown rochester ny, and the other at a 12 lane bowling alley that was near my house that was my “2nd home”. thay only had 2 arcade games, and this was one of them. Great sound affects, espically the 7 birds. Talk about the crap getting scared out of you. Watch out after about 5 boards the birds would come down in “V” formation. Incredibly hard to defeat. I’ve told my 9 kids about this game and they would love to play it. my kids are 18 to 2, all 2 years apart, 7 boys 2 girls. Time to teach them a real game. (no fort night for me)Any advice on how to play magical spot with my kids would be greatly appreciated. All we are doing is watching people play magical spot on youtube. How are these people on youtube playing magical spot? one guy has his little TV with the VCR built into it, sideways to give the game a better vertical look. Don’t ask me how he did it. I have zero computer skills. He’s the only one on youtube w/the sound affects. That was so cool to hear again after many years. The sound affects make the game. I’m almost 52 and havn’t played it in 35+ years. My household would definitely be a magical spot, if I could get this game going, hopefully you can help. I’d love to chat with you, if you want to call my ph# 585 473 7247 at work which is best time to reach me weekdays. or some advice through email, either way. thanks for reading this

Leave a comment

Your email address is never displayed and cannot be spammed. If your comments are excessively self-promotional you will be banned from commenting. Read our comment privacy policy.

(required)

(required)