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New addition to the home arcade - can't believe I bought this thing!

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arzoo:

The deal on craiglist was just too good to pass up. A 1980 Space Tactics for $150!

The entire game is fully functional and the cabinet is in very good condition - side art is almost perfect and the plexi windows have zero scratches. The only part that needs replacing is the yellow "shields" button - the cover is missing and it doesn't light up, but it's functional. There's also a lower piece of wood trim that's missing but easy to fix, and the dash board has a crack that was poorly repaired. If I had to place a guess, this game did not get much use and was warehoused for most of its lifetime. That might also explain all the mouse nesting and crap filling the bottom of the cab - my wife was a bit skived to bring it inside and immediately grabbed the shop-vac and spray cleaner.

As for the game play - let's just say this game was more of a novelty than a game you'd come back to again and again. It's basically a combination of Space Invaders, Missile Command, and Gorf in 3D. But that doesn't come close to explaining how the game plays - it is by far the most over engineered system I've ever seen or heard of. I can't imagine what the Japanese design guys were thinking - Hey, what should we do with all these electric motors, worm gears, chains, and metal parts? I know, let's use them to make a game - it'll be much easier to build a rotating monitor and moving mirror than program the software to do that!

So the monitor is mounted in a frame with the screen facing up. Above the monitor in the same frame is an angled, semi-transparent mirror. The mirror is hinged on the bottom and the top edge is attached to a worm gear and motor - so the angle can be changed up or down. Then the entire frame, monitor and mirror, is on a vertical axle with a motor/gear/chain at the bottom so it can be rotated left or right. Not done yet - behind the mirror there's two strips of yellow LEDs in a "V" shape. The LEDs are fixed (they don't move with the monitor and mirror) and they provide the 3D laser shots towards the enemies. A red LED at the convergence of the "V" is your targeting cursor. Add in some spacey backdrops and a couple of black lights and you've got a combo mechanical/video 3D shooter. Simple! Not!

You might be thinking - how fast can all this stuff move around. Not very. When you move the yoke (left/right and in/out), there's a distinct lag with the actual movement of the parts. So your targeting cursor is not all that accurate (at least without practice). It really feels like you're driving an actual spaceship - be it a slow sluggish and noisy one :).

Here's a video I made with the game open so you can see the guts all a movin;
http://www.youtube.com/v/vxq00qQNxdA&hl=en&fs=1&

And some stills of the exterior and controls...

Encryptor:

Still a pretty sweet deal and a slick piece of engineering. If you ever get totally sick of it you could always turn it into a driving cab.

Encryptor

CheffoJeffo:

So very, very cool.

Beretta:

never heard of this game, but it looks pretty awesome from a design standpoint.. how about a video of actually playing the thing?

Dizzle:

There was a game I remember my Dad used to play -- I used to watch him in awe when I was a little kid.   But I could never figure out what the game was.  One look at the dash on this and I knew right away this was it!

Awesome find!  I'm jealous.

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