Arcade Resources
My R-Type buttons stopped working.
The controls for the release of the protector for the R-Type ship had mysteriously stopped working. One day a couple of weeks back I turned the machine on and they weren’t working.
Justin took a look at them, it was weird, both black buttons just stopped making connections and closing the circuit. He was up late, so after he figured out what the problem was he just adjusted them and they were fine. I had a similar problem with the fire right after I got the game, I was surprised to have this happen all of a sudden, but just glad it works again.
Stripping the Pac-man cabinet
Even though it was very sad, tonight we stripped the old Pac-man cabinet I had sitting in the garage. Justin was down and he brought with him all of the guts from the Mr. Do I had bought last November.
Now, this Mr. Do was the most hideous thing you had ever seen. It was in an old Space Duel cabinet with chewed up sides, the joystick was sunken in, the monitor didn’t even have a frame so the chassis was attached directly to the wood, etc. etc. I ended up finding a buyer for the thing, a Mame guy, and for $15 I didn’t have to worry about it ever going in the basement.
So, I had some paint stripper, and although I went back and forth on what to do with the Pac-man cabinet, I decided a couple of things. I am tired of walking around it in the garage. It could be one of the most common cabinet, so to destroy the already partially destroyed artwork that had been painted over wouldn’t be as big of a deal. People were making new ones all the time. I also wanted the experience of how to strip one down, it should be a fun project, and I had already bought the stripping stuff.
Overall it took about two and half hours total to strip down to small bits of paint and primer.
Justin and I also got out the old monitor, and put it into a horizontal frame from another tube I had from the Robotron cabinet.
Working on Mr. Do! clown on bezel
Yesterday I worked a good deal on the clown from the bezel as well as the crazy looking winged guy. Still thinking they won’t be finished until next weekend.
April 19th, 2007
Someone wants the cab, for $15 I should hope so, it is a deal. I am so happy, and it is a load off. I had Justin strip all of the parts yesterday in prep for brining them down. I finally decided to put the parts in either the Robotron cabinet I have, or the empty Pac-man. I would strip the paint and clean either one of them before I did so, but either was a better option in terms of looks than the one we had.
Some History on Atari’s Agent X
I have met one owner of an Agent X arcade game, although I didn’t know anything about it when I met him, nor did I even see the game during my visit. It wasn’t until successive conversions later that I found out about Agent X’s rarity.
This is what Joe had to say about Agent X, recalling as best he could the history of the game off the top of his head and what he had to go through to find his;
“On the Cloak & Dagger, it gets a little collector/geeky/anal. When Atari originally developed the game, the name was Agent X. Then Hollywood made the movie Cloak & Dagger and asked Atari to make a game for it. Agent X was already a version of the game. Rumor has it that only 20 dedicated Agent X units were ever made and these were only made for field testing purposes, they were never meant for public release. Of those 20, 7 were Agent X, and the other 13 were Cloak & Dagger. Cloak & Dagger was released for general purchase in kit only form, for converting other games, specifically Williams games (Stargate, Defender, Robotron, Joust). So game play wise, Agent X and Cloak & Dagger are exactly the same, only difference is the title screen.”
“Cabinet wise, conversion units are cheap and relatively easy to find. They sell on ebay for less than $400. Dedicated units are close to impossible, as there were only 20 or so made, and the ones out there are typically in collectors hands that don’t want to sell them. The last one I heard selling was a Cloak & Dagger which sold for $3,000. An Agent X is even more rare. At one point someone offered me $10,000 for my Agent X. I’m sure that’s no longer a valid offer as that person has since got a dedicated Cloak & Dagger. But it was a nice offer to get. Certainly one of the most valuable in my collection.”
“Probably way more information than you wanted, but it’s one of my prize games, so I like talking about it! It was a pretty big search to find and get.”
So basically my interpretation of this information is that of the few Agent X’s that were produced, most of them are or at one time were owned by Atari employees. Now they made have made their hands into serious collectors who know their value, similar to Joe, but the only way you might get one is to start the way he did and track down some old Atari employees.
Why reproduce artwork for Agent X?
Well, for two main reasons. I like the two people I have met, so it is a good opportunity to show them some good will in networking. Also, because Agent X is so rare, hopefully it will mean I am one of the few people who have a copy of vector artwork for the Agent X kickplate, sideart, marquee, speaker overlays, control panel, or whatever else I decided to vectorize and prepare for reproduction.
Update – March 23, 2009
If you look below in the comments, one of the original creators that worked on Agent X left a comment, and basically confirmed all of the information that Joe shared about the game. I have no doubts that on his hunt Joe probably talked with Rusty about the history and that is where most of his ‘unconfirmed’ rumors came from.
Finished first piece of artwork for Mr. Do!
Finally getting a chance to post an image of the Wind Up Mr. Do character that I got to trace last week.
Weird looking guy, but hey, I like the game and it is the only real sideart I know of. Other characters are cooler looking, I may get to them next week.
Looking into Pengo PCB Repair
Was in communication today with a guy Alex Yeckley recommended that could possibly repair my Pengo board. In anticipation of that, I thought I would finally get those photos online tonight what I was seeing on screen.
