Sinistar – 5 dozen emails later

When that Burgertime DECO machine just sort of ‘showed up’ at my place this summer I was in a bind. I was already out of room in my basement for any other arcade games. And then…I got that Tunnel Hunt and Red Baron for cheap and I thought the Red Baron might be the first game that I could make an equal offer for a Sinistar in trade. Since I was going to have to figure out how to get more games into the basement, I might as well explore trying to find a trade, right? (Says the crazy man…)

I searched for two months, the Red Baron didn’t pique the interest of the Sinistar owners, and I think most of the Red Baron owners already have the game in their arcades. But before it sold, I got wind of a Tron for a song and I knew one Sinistar owner in north western Minnesota who might be interested in a trade for that instead.

I sold the Red Baron outright, and since I was already committed to the Sinistar idea, planned to pick up the Tron in hopes of making that swap instead.

Trade the Tron for Sinistar at Chris’ party?

This was right around the time of Chris’ Halloween party in Chicago. I thought that would be perfect, I could bring the Tron with me and could double the value and making one trip. But alas, timing wasn’t on my side this time, and Jeff K. in Minnesota had plans that weekend and couldn’t get back with me until the following Monday when I returned.

Drat! I had driven to Chicago two weekends in a row and didn’t have any intentions of making the trip again.

So we kept talking. I was committed to finish up the Ms. Pac-man stencil restoration while the weather was warm. I picked up the Tron in the first part of Nov., and I saw right away how much more of a desirable game Tron is than Red Baron – word to the wise. Either way, reselling it wouldn’t have been an issue.

Drive! Drive! Drive! to Rockford, IL

If the trade was going to happen, it had to happen before the snow. Obviously, I didn’t want to travel in that, but again…also trying to clear out the garage and Tron was the last game in there that I wasn’t keeping, and in the way of my goal. We had the couple of days before Thanksgiving setup and ready to roll, and then my truck fell through.

But this weekend worked out fine and I got to see friends / drop off some items for repair so it was a worthwhile trip. Except for those White Castle breakfast sandwhiches Jeff K. came a really long way from Moorhead MN, huge thanks to him for making that trip. He’s a trooper, I think both of us were dreading doing more driving. That Sinistar has traveled quite a ways, originally from Devils Lake North Dakota.

Now…to power it up and see if it survived the trip. Anyone want to play some Sinistar this winter?

You're reading Wroooaaarrrr! Sinistar say, Get me Jacket. is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

First Atari arcade game in my collection

Kind of weird to think that Warlords is the first Atari game that will permanently be in my collection. Warlords has a nice blend of classic and mindblowing artwork. The cabinet has a largely orange, red and black color scheme, with some standard colored bars melding with a stylized knight and horse.

The game uses a black and white monitor that is mirrored with a color overlay and some textured terrain to give a very basic game some depth. This particular Warlords is in pretty decent condition, it only needed a cleaning with a magic eraser and some orange citrus, and will need a new front corner leg leveler – it had a small splint in its place.

This Warlords ownership history

This Warlords had quite the little back-story. Rich S. said that he bid and won the Warlords on eBay, only, it was out east. So he planned his whole vacation where he could swing back through and pick it up. They went to the east coast, MA, NY and came back to Pittsburg PA at 2:30 on a Friday to get it and the arcade shop was closed. A retail store of some sorts. So, did he stay over? No! He drove all the way back out to Pittsburgh to get it three weeks later. Wow. And he was willing to trade it to me. Make me that much more appreciative. At nearly 320lbs, I’m not looking forward to putting this in the basement.

Warlords is a much more engaging Atari’s Breakout

Ever played Breakout? You know the game, you have a paddle and bounce a ball around to break blocks. Warlords is like that, but instead of a dot, it’s a blazing fireball that you bounce and break the opposing King’s castles.

I played this game in person the first time at Troy Akey’s in 2008 and although I think the four player cocktail beats the upright in playability, I am still an artwork guy, and the cocktail artwork basically stinks in comparison to the upright. Chris was equally impressed with the upright, right after the party he traded a Pooyan for it.

But as I played this game again at Chris Moore’s party in October, I wasn’t as wowed as I was the year prior. So I have to guess that when I run out of room and have a tough decision to make, this game may be up for sale. But that is a long way into the future, and its still a really fun two player game.

“Castles and Kings” – The Warlords Prototype

I am doing some research right now for photos of the Warlords prototype, Castles and Kings. I don’t know that I’ll be able to turn up anything, but a photo or two would be nice. If you can help me out getting some photos of one of the two Castles and Kings cabinets, or even just of the one or two control panels that have floated around over the years, drop me a line.

You're reading New King of the Castle? Warlords has arrived. is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Red Baron one of the last ‘for sale’ games

Got some space back in the garage, although I can’t really tell with the new Tron and Xevious from the weekend. This seems to happen when I clear space, then I find a deal or two on some other games. Maybe I see what I want to. But I am finally at the point where I’m considering lending the Hyperball out for the winter to a friend so I can park in the garage. I figure I have five weeks before I should expect some snow, or frost weather at least.

Space Fury Cocktail

The buyer is an operator, and we were talking about my note in the eBay listing about originally wanting to trade the Red Baron for a Sinistar or a Galaga cocktail he proceeded to list off a number of cocktails that he has. He didn’t have a Galaga, but he did have a Space Fury. I asked for some photos….the cocktail is amazing…spotless. He had a good deal of money into the Space Fury so we didn’t strike a deal, but I guess its working and the general consensus is that Space Fury is a fun vector and rare. Here are some of those photos.

Hopefully now I can finish up my second Ms. Pac-man stencil job this week and then finish up the Tehkan Mr. Do! (48-1) and DECO Burgertime in the garage and move them into the basement for the winter.

You're reading Adios Red Baron is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Xevious – Awesome cabinet artwork, questionable gameplay

When I first got into collecting, most of my friends started to recollect the games they loved growing up. One of my high school buddies really loved Xevious, which was originally why I picked up an empty cabinet from Tim back in 2007. Soon after, I realized that an Xevious would bring $300 max to the right buyer, probably $200 for a fair one any other day. Piecing one together would cost at least 75% of that amount, so I gave up and sold the cabinet.

But when I saw another Xevious, come up for sale in Lafayette that compulsive reaction kicked in and I knew this was a deal I had to at least attempt. I have not seen an Xevious come up in Indianapolis since 2006, and the only other one I know of is in great shape owned by Ted D. out on the west side. Here’s a photo of his, the glass is flaking….

The owner didn’t want to part out and Mame a classic game, so they offered to trade the Xevious as is (with a ROM error) for a Jamma style cabinet with a large control panel to accommodate a bunch of different games.

Trying to source a Jamma cabinet around Indianapolis

I looked for three weeks, and had a hard time finding a larger Jamma cabinet, with coin door, for a cheap price. Finding an empty arcade cabinet when you really need one can be truly challenging. Not to mention, I wanted it cheap, because this wasn’t a ‘must have’. But at the same time I discovered the Tron south of Indianapolis in Bloomington, I was also able to pick up a Pit Fighter cabinet and distribute transportation costs. Cabinet was perfect for Mame, with a slide out drawer already built in and the large metal frame for mounting is always a plus.

Today I went and picked up the Xevious. I think on paper this was a good deal, but certainly after I saw the game in person…I don’t know what will be its fate. The cabinet has absorbed some moisture all around the borders on at least one side. I knew there were a couple of corners with missing chunks but the edges are really ratty. I made some image adjustments to the second photo to show some of the swelling.

The original idea was to keep Xevious in the garage permanently, get it running, see what it was like to play in person (try to ignore the annoying music), and entice my friend for a visit to see if some of his enthusiasm for the game would rub off. It is truly a beautiful cabinet, so much artwork, similar in that respect to Tron. I thought maybe I’d missed something in the gameplay on a multigame setup or on my Jakks stick.

I suppose if someone came along and needed all of the guts for an Xevious for a fair price I probably would have to snatch that up.

Xevious lovers – Why?

For those of you who love the game, can you articulate why beyond nostalgia? The scrolling background in the game never changes, does it? Do the enemies ever change, and their attack formation?

You're reading Traded empty Jamma cabinet for a complete Atari Xevious is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

DECO Manhattan as a conversion golf game

Burgertime is a pretty cool game, but to have a working multi-DECO using Dave Widel’s kit would make the game worthwhile and earn it a spot in the gameroom. Here is a screenshot of some of the games the kit plays, I am looking forward to Ice Cream Factory and Bump n’ Jump in particular;

But not worthwhile in that default DECO woodgrain cabinet. I saw this as an opportunity and started to get excited about making a custom artwork package top to bottom. I did my research on other DECO cabinets and found that there was a couple pieces of generic sideart used, and there were also one or two other cabinets designs that actually had color.

There were a number of lesser known DECO games that were released the same time as Burgertime (1980-1983) that had pretty awesome fully cabinet artwork. Astro Fighter and Mole Hunter had full artwork packages specific to the game, and then there were degrees of non descrip cabinets. The really colorful, patterned Tomahawk 777, and the more simple pattern used on a game called Manhattan. Here are a couple of those flyers;

Flyers via Arcadeflyers.com

I’ve only seen a couple of brown Burgertime DECO cabinets in 4 years, and it wasn’t until recently that I saw a Burgertime inside the Manhattan cabinet. I would never have even thought to investigate further, until someone turned me onto that Tomahawk design on the BYOAC forums, and Mr. Bill in California sent me a washed out photo showing a Burgertime he owned;

This design in particular is stunning. I also thought the design for the more generic blue / orange cabinet was really awesome and simple, and could have been more signature like the Taito or Stern cabinets had they had the Data East logo on the side. I figured for sure my artwork would have a nod to this piece.

No custom DECO artwork design needed

The last week of August I was on Craigslist, surprise, and there was a conversion golf game listed in Ashland OH for $130. I actually have no idea why I clicked the ad, I normally don’t for a conversion, and Ashland is about 40 minutes south (max) of Cleveland OH. I was shocked at what I saw. There was this conversion golf game, in that Manhattan DECO cabinet that I would never have even known without the poking around I did the week prior.

I called the guy selling it immediately. He said he’d sell it to me for $105, but for me to travel nearly 9 hours round trip for this thing, I was talking about potentially a $175+ into just a cabinet.

I gave Greg a call over by Columbus to see if he could help me out and go pick it up, and maybe meet me halfway. He said that was no problem, so I got back with the seller. I told him he could keep the harness, marquee, game board and power supply if needed. I just wanted the cabinet and control panel, and would like the monitor if possible and gave him my price. He said ok. Awesome.

The arcade swap just east of Dayton

I met Greg and brought him something of value, and we made the swap around 9 am Saturday morning right by Springfield Ohio. I got to also meet Kyle Snyder, who writes for Gameroom Magazine and come to find out, has written for a couple of other gaming magazines in the past. He also has a crazy database of arcade conversions. An unusual passion that I would like to browse if I’m ever in the area.

Thanks to Greg for helping me out with the swap and picking up the game. Already the Burgertime pops that much more, and I think I’m going to even use the more generic DECO bezel because it more closely matches the color scheme.

Check out my progress on getting this multi DECO up and running on Coinopspace.

What is your favorite DECO cabinet design? Leave a note and why.

You're reading The New Blue & Orange Burgertime DECO Cabinet is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

More permanent home for Frenzy in Michigan

In August of 2007 I traded my Frenzy to Tim in Michigan for a handful of essentially empty cabinets. We met up in Fort Wayne, and he brought me a Tempest cabinet, Tetris Dynamo, Food Fight cabinet and Xevious cabinet. Supposedly Tim really loved Frenzy and wanted the game for this collection, and at the time I was optimistic about the other cabinets. I thought briefly about piecing together the Tempest, I like Tetris, and thought at the least I could uncover the Food Fight artwork, save a side and maybe the same with the Xevious (or piece it back together). Plus Tim brought along a lot of artwork from other cabinets so that I could scan them at the Pizza Hut with my laptop, which was a nice gesture that was surely an inconvenience for him.

Cost wise it was a wash, but I always find value in trading a game of great condition to someone who really likes it. I like to see the game get used and appreciated, and as long as I recover costs I’m good. In the end, I resold every game from this trade, the Tempest the day after I got back, the Tetris in a small bulk deal, and the Food Fight and Xevious individually. Tim got Mark Spaeth to stop by and install the upgraded Berzerk / Frenzy combo board in the machine which gave him a dual working game. The original boards had the typical acid damage, and even though I started to troubleshoot the board problems, I figured this was a better deal all the way around.

Frenzy got traded again

But, the Frenzy wasn’t loved as much as I thought. It might have gotten a cursory cleaning, but nothing in depth, and a couple months ago Tim traded the Frenzy for a Hogan’s Alley to Bill J. up in MI. Here is one quick ‘before’ photo and some photos of how the Frenzy looks now after a fresh coat of paint and a ton of other cosmetic attention;

I definitely think Bill got the better trade, this Frenzy’s sideart is in amazing condition. I was disappointed though, to see it traded away so soon, after all of the effort to make the trade in the first place. Transporting games is always a chore for me since I don’t own a vehicle myself, so I always have to use my local network to borrow. I had to call in a big favor to bring back those four cabinets, both a vehicle and a trailer, and I decided that was the last time I could ask those acquaintences for a favor.

So, I’m just glad now that it has landed in the hands of someone who really likes the two Stern games, and is giving it the restoration it deserves. I find the movement of games particularly interesting, how they end up in so many places over the course of their lives and a couple of us have wondered how the Frenzy ended up at the auction in the first place. Heck, some of those cabinets I got from Tim came from an old operator out of Illinois where he made a couple of trips to pick up something like 30 of them!

Frenzy refresh is finished

It sounds like Bill has finished working on it, patching holes, cleaning it out from top to bottom, repainting the orange on the cabinet as well as repainting the screened metal control panel. Read more about Bill Frenzy restoration at Chomping Quarters.com. Here is Part 1, it looks stupid awesome – brand new. Great job Bill.

You're reading A new, refreshed Stern Frenzy is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Waiting on Tunnel Hunt and Red Baron until Saturday

This was the toughest part. After I returned the email to say I wanted them, I obviously wanted to pick them up right away. After waiting most of Thursday, I got a response saying that it would be best to pick them up Saturday morning instead.

So, I thought the best plan of action would be to pay for the games on Thursday to help ensure that they’d still be there waiting for me on Saturday. I got to talk with the owner, get the story of how long he’d had them and where they came from. Both the Baron and Hunt looked complete, and the Baron in particular looked really good cosmetically.

All of my paranoia was for nothing, as we picked them up early Saturday morning without issue (Read 7:40!) I’ve had some pretty good luck with Craigslist this year. Read about my Mad Planets deal , or the three pinball machines I picked up (Galaxy, Flight 2000 and Hyperball) – $50 each .

Here are the photo albums showing the games as they sit right now, click the photos to enter the galleries.

Tunnel Hunt
Red Baron

It was a crazy 24 hours. Chris came down on Friday night, and brought with him my Tehkan Mr. Do!, a DECO Burgertime (Widel Multi Kit included ) and an empty Ms. Pac-man cabinet. The Uhaul trailer rental really came in handy, as we picked up these two games early in the morning ($39.75 total minus the quarter ), and then just before 10 am we went and picked up that Wild Fyre pinball machine for $50. My almost clean garage was now overflowing again. Add in full side panels from the busted up Red Baron cockpit, as well as a 30 gallon air compressor and I was back to narrow paths.

What will happen with the two arcade games?

I sold the Wild Fyre pinball last night, and Chris helped me move the HUO Pengo into the basement finally, so I did reclaim some garage space.

I played Tunnel Hunt for the first time briefly on Mame, it was about impossible to play with the keypad. I also had a touch of motion sickness after playing for just two minutes. The cabinet is truly unique, I love it. The artwork has a great design, coverage and color palette. Plus, the plastic shroud, you feel completely in the cabinet, like you are truly in a tunnel, hunched over with the flight stick.

I want to try to test the game, and if it’s not working get it working so I can play it and evaluate whether I want to keep it or not. I haven’t heard favorable things about the gameplay though, so I am doubtful it will make the cut. The face that the bottom of the cabinet is pretty beat doesn’t matter too much to me, but some collectors might want to look at possible woodwork repair.

The Red Baron I have almost zero interest in keeping. I would like to work out some sort of trade including the Baron for something I want, preferably a Sinistar UR or a Galaga cocktail. But as of right now, that isn’t looking likely so it will probably get sold.

If you have interest in the Red Baron, let me know. I am even debating on parting it out. Or if you know someone who might entertain the idea of a trade for a Sinistar, let me know.

You're reading Picked up Tunnel Hunt & Red Baron for $40 is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Classic Universal generic cabinet – Good tracing candidate

The original Mr. Do! cabinet was housed in that generic Universal cabinet with the red, yellow and orange stripes. I don’t want to spend a night scanning a cabinet, stitching the artwork just to get authentic stripe sizes. I am just going to flip the cabinet on its side and trace it instead.

Note: Before you think it. Mr. Do! isn’t exactly your regular cabinet with stenciled artwork. Mr. Do! was either printed on a vinyl and then laminated, or was printed right on the laminate and then some sort of glossy finish was applied. Tracing this cabinet for stencils wouldn’t technically be authentic, but we need to get the artwork digital regardless and someday (read middle of next year) I will figure out a solution for the glossy finish.

I had already talked about using vellum for tracing earlier in the year when I highlighted the Scramble stencil artwork. But, to do it again…start by flipping the cabinet on its side. This ‘tutorial’ is more of a demonstration, I am sure most people know how to trace.

The vellum sheets I got from Thisoldgame.com came with plenty of extra length. I cut down the vellum close to the height of the cabinet so that I could tape it down to anchor it to keep the tracing from moving.

The vellum is cloudy, but not so transparent so it is hard to see where you have drawn your lines. I was lucky to borrow a large drywaller piece of aluminum from work that we use to cut fabric and use that as my straight edge. I also used a small triangle for the smaller straight lines. Here you can see some of my progress on the stripes, as well as the logo. I will probably reference an already vectorized Universal logo for adding to this pattern at the Illustrator stage, so I wasn’t worried about minutia level detail on tracing the lettering. All corners on the lettering of the Universal logo have a small corner radius, probably 1/16″ or smaller.

Beyond that, go through and trace all of the artwork. I actually went ahead and generally etched in the shape of the cabinet so we know the general placement of the artwork on the side. Make sure before you untape to gently lift up a side to really see what you have drawn and what you might have missed.

Here is what my final looks like;

I can’t stress this enough, but just because I am doing the tracing of the Universal sideart patten does not mean this is reproduced. It is there in case it makes sense to make some stencils, but without the glossy finish figured out, having this artwork as vector is premature.

What’s next for vellum traced cabinet artwork?

At this point I would suggest making a note of the colors of each piece of artwork. Maybe write a little ‘R’ (Red) in each shape, or whatever color. This is good to reference back later if a project gets shuffled, or if artwork is made into a stencil it is easy to know which color is which.

Then a grid will be drawn, and those sections scanned to make it easier to piece back as one side of artwork. I’ll either do that myself or send it off to Rich to do himself. We’d all like to see this happen a little more often, and it is so easy that any collector can do it and expand the available library of arcade game stencils. It would only take a couple of hours, depending on artwork complexity, and certainly shouldn’t take many months to accomplish. Rich had already talked about this process for stencils for Stern’s Scramble at Coinopspace.com.

Got a stenciled cabinet? Help us out. Sinistar cockpit comes to mind

You're reading Tracing stenciled arcade artwork with vellum is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

DECO Burgertime sideart?

Don’t you mean the stenciled artwork with Peter Pepper? Nope. I’m talking about photos of the DECO Burgertime, the original Data East BT. I’ve seen plenty of photos of the cabinet with plain woodgrain, but I would really like to see closer detail of the generic decals that were used on the DECO cabinets. Here is the basic woodgrain DECO Burgertime that I am talking about;

Source: Tokens Only

Here is the ‘sideart’, which on the Burgertime is a blue, red, orange, yellow swirl pattern, and on the general DECO cabinet is it generic Data East artwork.

Source: Arcade Flyers

I know a guy by the handle of ‘Mr. Bill’ out in California has a number of these DECO cabinets. We were in touch, but now I haven’t heard back from him. He has a ‘different’ DECO cabinet than the one pictured here that doesn’t use the ugly woodgrain.

If you know of anyone who owns a DECO Burgertime, a contact that may be able to point me in the right direction, or someone who owns a DECO cabinet in general, let me know.

The goal is to make a custom artwork package to replace the woodgrain, and I’d like to do a tip of the hat to the original stuff. The more I can see of the artwork from photos, the better. I plan on printing sideart and kickplate that uses the style from the marquee as well as references the Midway Burgertime in some way.

You're reading Looking for photos of a DECO Burgertime is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

This was a solid Pac-man

Granted, it had some scratches right down the middle, but the paint job was solid, little to no fading, no flaking, I may not find another Pac-man cabinet with such solid original paint again at the same price I paid initially.

This Pac-man was a gift to myself on Memorial Day, 2006. I had just completed some contract work and had my eye on this Pac-man for sale at Wagner Gameworks in Greenfield. I had done three months of research, checking on auction values at USAmusements and calling around including to Wagner. I really was searching for a Ms. Pac, but Pac was just as iconic and this cabinet had been mistreated just enough to allow me to feel ok about turning it into a Mame cabinet.

I knew very little at the time, I had posted on RGVAC looking for a Pengo, Mr. Do! Or whatever else any established collector would be willing to sell to an unknown newbie. I was still on the fence, having considered just building the one big black Mame cabinet, but the thought of this ugly black thing in my basement was killing me. I wanted that iconic artwork. I figured I’d buy this one game, setup Mame, have all the games I wanted with the authentic controls and be done. The problem was, someone had done a real bang up job trying to touch up some scratches – by spray painting in solid blue and black all over the cabinet.

Well, 1500 posts and two in depth websites later, here I am. Certainly not one machine, and maybe a little overboard. But this is the hobby. It’s about the stories, meeting others, and of course playing those favorite games. Today I got to meet a ‘new’ to me collector, but someone who has owned a dozen or so games in the past. He just moved back to the Greenfield area from Chicago, and it’s always good to add another collector to the area. I’ll be curious to see the photos of the Pac-man once he has finished making it into a multi-game.

I got some space back temporarily in my garage, and more important and more prepared for my white Mr. Do! and it’s arrival in August.

You're reading Sold my Pac-man. Heading back to Greenfield, IN is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.