OMG WTH is this? Anyone identify this thing?

[Spaced Ace]

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It looks like a science project gone wrong.

[M.Lanza]

That's an offical variation of the playchoice 10.
I've seen a couple of those.

[Spaced Ace]

Gimp, it doesnt even look right, maybe it the pic or something. 

[Circo]

I have seen that as well, in the wild so to speak.  Wouldnt want it but it is real

[ArtMAME]

They call that a Nintendo "Red Tent" cabinet.  It has a following.  I have seen a few at the Superauctions.

[Kevin Mullins]

They should have thrown in a side view of the cabinet..... would have explained a little more.

It's basically a two player cocktail cabinet ("Red Tent" as mentioned already) that runs the Nintendo VS. boards which would allow for two totally different games to be played on each side of the table OR would also allow a two player game with one person playing on each side.

The games could be changed by simply changing a ROM set on one side of the pcb or the other. So you would have two games per board, but could change one or the other or both of those games out if you wanted to. (that's what all those boxes are....VS PAKs... ROM sets)

[FrizzleFried]

Kevin is correct.  While I have seen Red Tents that have been converted to Playchoice-10 machines, they were originally Nintendo VS cabinets (VS Excitebike, VS Super Mario Bros, VS RBI Baseball, etc).  Ugly as sin,  but they have a following.  That is a good price for the cab and those games frankly.

Remember: Nintendo Playchoice = N.E.S. on timer.  No difference in gameplay, graphics, sound, etc.

Nintendo VS = An authentic Nintendo arcade system.  Graphics tend to be a TAD bit better than the N.E.S.,  gameplay is  different (SMB is much harder),  no timer,  and it's tweaked to be more "arcade like" (ie: you're not going to sit there and play any of the games for a long time unless you're good).