Archive for December, 2007
Got my Pengo High-Score Saver and Enhancement Pack
Pretty excited to come home last night after a long day and see that my Pengo High-Score Saver and Enhancement Pack from jrok had arrived.
This kit for Sega’s Pengo has a ton of goodies in it, if you are interested in buying one, here is the enhancement pack’s homepage. The main options that I wanted were;
- High Score Save – Even when game is turned off, of course I had to have this:)
- Change Music Type – Popcorn Pengo – I can’t stand the original music, Popcorn is what I have always played in Mame
- Freeplay – So I don’t have to coin up every time and increment that counter
I played Pengo last night in between studying. I had to set those high scores:) The Pengo enhancement pack is so simple,fast, and easy to install, as the instructions say (It’s also really affordable at under $50!);
- Step 1: Remove the CPU from the socket (Z-80 Processor)
- Step 2: With the CPU removed insert the Pengo e-pack board into the socket. Take note of the orientation and location of pin 1!
- Step 3: Insert the Pengo e-pack into the Processor Socket (Kit Fully Installed)
I always get nervous when working with these classic arcade games, mostly for the unknown. In the case of this enhancement install, there wasn’t a lot to double check. Make sure the direction of the board is correct (Just double check the direction of the half moon cutout on the Z-80 processor) and make sure it is pressed and secure and that none of the pins were bent on install. Reattach the harness connection in the right direction, and turn on the game. I watched the Pengo PCB in back just in case something happened and I could cut power as needed.
I wanted to see my Pengo scores come back up after I turned the game off. I was running out the door, so I didn’t have a lot of time. I waited about 30 seconds after my last game, turned the game off, waited 30 seconds, and turned Pengo back on. All I got was a flashing message saying something toe extent “Eprom reading high score tables”. The same message you get after each Pengo score is saved. I said a little prayer that it was new, or overheated, or I just did everything too quick, and hoped when I returned that my Pengo high score kit wasn’t broken already. When I got back, the game played fine, so I don’t know what the problem was, maybe I didn’t wait long enough for the next screen. Whatever.
Tonight I will be looking at the enhancement pack options more, to turn off “Game Select” and turn on Freeplay.
Thanks Jrok for making this Pengo high score saver enhancement kit, it really adds a lot of value to my game.
Videos of Funspot Arcade, NH
Unlike most classic arcade collectors, I don’t have fond childhood memories of visiting arcades. I have fragments of memories of playing games in Chucky Cheese and the random on location video game at the local store, but I don’t know that I ever visited a full fledged arcade.
Funspot is one of the few functioning arcades left in the United States, and some claim it is the world’s largest arcade of classic video games. Located in Weirs Beach, NH, I doubt I will ever take a vacation that far north and east, so watching the walk-through videos of this arcade are exciting on two levels.
The videos of Funspot arcade are extensive, at over 9 minutes each. In the few minutes I watched I didn’t see many “classic” arcade games by definition, but I am sure the classics are on the third level of the building, and I didn’t get a chance to watch that far. Whether you appreciate the earlier arcade games, the mid 90’s games, or today’s complex brand of interactive entertainment, these videos of Funspot should be enjoyable to all.
Cloverfield Commercial – Slusho!
When I saw the trailer for Cloverfield a number of months back, I was pretty excited about the movie. I knew that it was the brainchild of J. J. Abrams, who created Lost and was involved with Mission Impossible 3.
I don’t have time to research this a lot right now, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this video for “Slusho – Happy Expressions”. It’s this Japanese drink company and somehow it relates to the Cloverfield movie debuting on the 18th of January next year. It’s some sort of viral campaign for the movie, I think I read somewhere that there is a contest to make the best Slusho Commercial. Check it out. If you don’t say to yourself, “What the Hell?” then you may need to check yourself into a rehab program, you my friend are too far gone and things like this seem like everyday life. But I love random stuff, and this made me laugh out loud.
Visting PearsonVue Test Center Indianapolis
Last night was the night to finally get up to the northside and check out where I am going next week for my test. I know right where the Pyramids are, but I wasn’t sure where in the building I was going. But it is pretty easy. Suite 2080 on floor 8 is right off the elevator. One less thing I have to worry about on test day, where I am going. (Plus I got a Christmas gift that was only available on the northside.)
With less than a week left now until my test, I have a lot of mixed emotions. Questions about whether I am ready or not, but relief that I am done studying. It is challenging, and I appreciate the focus I have had to have in order to reach my goals, it emulates what I will need to do when I enroll in an MBA program and prepare me for that rigor. But I do like having a sense of finality, that I can move onto something new, and it will feel good to get back to some sort of normal life, even if it is only for a little while.
Arcade Game Buy of the Week: NIB Space Panic and Zero Hour
This could become a fun daily classic arcade topic if I could find a game a day.
Hats off to Richard Ford. This past week he scored two “New In Box” (NIB) Universal arcade games, Space Panic and Zero Hour. Where he manages to find NIB box arcade games over 25 years after they were released boggles my mind. I know he had told me in the past of a NIB Joust he got in a trade, and a NIB Rally X. Plus, he just bought the NIB Pengo Mountain Dew Pepsi Machine a couple of weeks ago. His collection is truly top notch, and although some of the games themselves might not be rare, he has a ton of classic games that are almost mint condition.
Here are the photos he posted, the Universal games look really nice;
The forum topic on Klov mostly discussed whether or not these two Universal games had sideart on them. There are photos on klov showing the classic games having sideart, but the images look like they were scanned from a catalog. Finding a Space Panic or Zero Hour with sideart is nearly impossible. Here is what Richard had to say;
Both the Space Panic and Zero Hour are in the Generic Universal Cabs like you see for Mr Do! The dedicated cabs were extremely rare and I have one the coolest ones for Cosmic Alien. Universal did some interesting things with their games, they seemed to have no rhyme or reason to what they put in what cab. You’ll see some cabs with Devil front kickplate art and then some with plain black, and the some like mine with universal artwork
Richard’s Space Panic and Zero Hour came with the Universal cab that has the red strips on the side, like Mr. Do! and Ladybug. Here is one image of the Space Panic that I took from Klov. You can see it had some cool sideart, which is news to me, because I personally hadn’t seen any of their classic games that had anything but a generic cab. I thought the minimal success of Universal were related to Mr. Do!, and that all of their other games saw minimal production quality.
I’ll update this topic as I see more photos once he gets them moved into his gameroom. You have to be careful with these old games and the weather conditions.
Contact buying rare white Mr. Do! this weekend…
I am waiting with bated breath to hear if this arcade deal actually happens. A contact of mine is supposed to be driving to Santa Maria, CA to buy the white Mr. Do! that was for sale.
Last I heard, the purchase was supposed to happen this weekend. That is when I last heard about the Mr. Do! deal back three weeks ago. But I haven’t heard anything more.
Either way, I could have full size scans of the rare white Mr. Do! sideart by the end of next week:) Check out my original post on the “White Mr. Do! with Sideart for Sale!” to learn a little more.
~Update 12/18/07 Sounds like things didn’t work out for a pickup of the Mr. Do! machine on the 16th of December. Things got pushed back until February of 2008.
Scanned Both Versions of Sega’s Pengo Marquee
Tonight I got around to finish scanning both of the Pengo Marquees that I have, version 1 where Pengo is standing, and version 2 where Pengo is pushing an ice block.
I’ll be checking the artwork off of Arcade Art Library against my scan to see how accurate it is. I plan on vectorizing both Sega marquee versions eventually, possibly over Christmas, but will probably only reproduce the Pengo standing version of the marquee.
The standing Pengo marquee version was given to me for free when I stopped to visit an arcade operator in Ohio. The marquee is pretty sad, you notice the brush stroke type section of the print that is missing. The back of the marquee has some residue on it, and it appears as if someone put some sort of cleaner on the marquee, wiped it away, and didn’t think that by putting it on the artwork side would wipe away some of the Pengo artwork.
The Pengo pushing the ice block version of the marquee is what was in my game. I think this is the less common version, so I found it interesting that my mostly HUO Pengo had this version and not the standing version.
