Elevator Action Photos

As promised yesterday, I’ve got a slew of photos today of my newly acquired Elevator Action game.   I’ll provide commentary as necessary: 

Outside of the control panel, the front of the cabinet is in decent shape.   There are two small holes in the upper right hand corner of the front panel.  If I decide to repaint the cabinet, they will get filled.  The sticker on the coin door should come off with a little “Goof Off”.  The sticker reads “Top Music & Amusement Co. Mobile, Alabama”.  The metal pieces surrounding the monitor bezel need to be sanded and repainted.  There are some noticeable rust spots that should come off relatively easy.   There is one small flaking area on the graphics of the bezel, but I should be able to seal that up to prevent it from spreading.   The marquee is decent but will be replaced if I can find a better looking one.  The coin door counters have the following play counts; 20,480 and 11,829.   That’s $8,077.25 worth of quarters!

The control panel is a mess.  The player 1 start button does not appear to function.  The joystick does not work in the up direction.  Hopefully it’s just a few loose wires but I haven’t investigated the issues at all.   It desperately needs a new control panel overlay.  Even an inkjet reproduction would look better than the one on the cabinet now.  All of the buttons will be replaced.

As you can see, the sides are relatively nice. There are a few scuffs and scratches but for a 26 year old cabinet, I think they’ve held up fairly well. Here’s the dilemma…unlike most cabinets that had a giant vinyl sticker on the side with silk screened side art, the Taito design is actually painted on the cabinet. Stencils sets are available at Game Stencils that would allow me to repaint the entire cabinet but I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble. That’s a decision I will deal with later.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m fairly postive this cabinet started life as a Jungle Hunt.  I base this on the cabinet color, which is not correct for a dedicated, original Elevator Action and the fact that a 15 page Jungle Hunt to Elevator Action conversion manual was included with the documentation.  Heck, an original Jungle Hunt manual was also thrown in for good measure.  The upper tag on the back door reads in part: “Subject to the condition that this game was converted without deviation from the instructions which accompanied the conversion kit…”  Maybe I’ll score a Jungle Hunt board at some point which is a plug and play swap with the Elevator Action board.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the cabinet.  I love the game but need to get the joystick working properly in order to really play it.  While the basement is undergoing construction, the game will be stored in a secure holding facility.  I’d welcome your thoughts on a decision on re-stenciling and repainting the cabinet.