Restoring the classics…
Archive for April, 2008
WordPress Arcade Themes
Apr 21st
Jeff Rothe has some information on his website about the possibility of some arcade related Word Press themes. His initial post was in the form of a poll, asking which game based theme he should work on first. Today, he posted some images of a work in progress Donkey Kong theme. Check them out and let him know what you think.
Donkey Kong – High Score Kit Installed
Apr 18th
Anyone familiar with Donkey Kong knows that one of the most frustrating things about the game is its inability to save high scores on power down. Powering off the machine results in all 5 top scores being erased and the high score resetting to a measly 7,650 points. Fortunately, a high score kit is available to remedy this frustrating problem.
The Donkey Kong High Score Save kit was developed by Scott Brasington of Braze Technologies. The kit is fairly simple to install and permanently remembers the top 5 scores and initials. The kit also adds some extra features, such as deluxe free play, the ability to play game sounds while in attract mode, a self test on powerup and on-screen settings (no more dip switches!). Unfortunately, Scott has exited the arcade business but his kits are still available at Mikes Arcade and Arcade Shop. Mine arrived in the mail yesterday.
Missile Command Pictures
Apr 17th
As promised yesterday, I was able to grab a few pictures of the new Missile Command cabinet for your viewing pleasure. I’m still surprised at the conditional of the cabinet. Keep in mind when looking at the pictures that I haven’t done any cleanup on the machine, the pictures show the actual condition of the cabinet when I took possession of it.
The cabinet has a serial number of 13473. There are two coin door counters, one for each side. The left hand coin counter shows 34,493 plays while the right shows 14,398. Keep in mind that these are not always accurate. The cabinet currently only has one of four leg levelers on it, so if it looks crooked in the pictures, there is nothing physically wrong with the cabinet.
The lower left corner has some small damage but not near as much as the Dig Dug corner. Fortunately, if I decide to fix it and butcher the side art, reproduction side art is widely available for Missile Command cabinets. The coin door has a pretty cool “License On File” tag which will probably remain. The control panel is in great shape. There are three areas that have chipped away but touch up paint was applied and looks pretty good.
I was only able to spend about 5 minutes looking at the machine last night. The biggest challenge with this game is not going to be the cosmetic repairs, but getting it functional again. I tried to throw it into test mode last night with no luck. The screen just flashes a white/gray screen and a garbled tone is heard.
All of the pictures can be viewed by clicking on the “read the rest of this entry” link below. The photos are also located in the photo gallery.
Missile Command Arrives
Apr 16th
In case you haven’t guessed by the “teaser” image yesterday, Missile Command joined the expanding list of games in my collection today. Here’s the good news, the cabinet is probably in the best shape of any cabinet I’ve received to date. The front of the cabinet literally looks like it’s factory fresh. The sideart is in good shape, but has a few dings and scratches. One of the back corners has worn away a bit, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to repair. The machine is complete with no missing parts.
Now the bad news, the game in it’s present state is not working. Other than plugging the machine in, I haven’t run any tests on it. All I get is a flashing screen of multiple colors. I haven’t even thrown the game into test mode yet to see what it reports back. Hopefully tonight I’ll get a chance to dig a bit deeper and try to figure out the cause.
The image to the left is not my machine, but is a stock image from the Killer List of Video Games, where you can read some of the history of the Missile Command game. I should be able to get a few photographs of my cabinet later tonight. As usual, all images will be posted to the photo gallery and a dedicated category will be set up to track all of the progress on this machine.
A New Game Tomorrow?
Apr 15th
I just struck a deal to pick up another game tomorrow, probably my last until I catch up on some of my projects. The price was right and the cabinet appears to be in very good shape from the photographs I have seen. I have no idea if the game works or not. To test your arcade knowledge, the photo to the left is your clue.
I’ll post an update tomorrow.
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