My first arcade game! Picked up a Phoenix yesterday. Bootleg?

[Stormy151]

Soooo, a couple weeks ago got a Ms Pac Man cocktail at my work, and I got re-bitten by the arcade gaming bug. So my buddy and I went to an auction yesterday, and I wound up impulse buying a Phoenix. It worked, looked to be in decent shape (plywood is a little banged up at the bottom) and was $125, so what the hell, right?

Originally I thought it was a conversion, or a hack, but upon doing a little investigating at KLOV, I think maybe I have one of the bootlegs that were produced.  The screen at the bottom says, "G.G.I Corporation", and the marquee and side art are different then the Centuri version.

The BIGGIE is that the control panel has a 2-way joystick instead of the buttons on the Centuri version.

There's some rust on the coin door and the control panel- which needs to be re-stenciled.  There's some light scratches on the overlay- but that's really it.  No water damage, no graffiti, not even any operator stickers on the thing.  Really good shape (in my opinion, anyway).

Am I correct? Can anyone tell me a little more about this unit? I'd like to restore it, but I'm unsure whether to restore it as it is, or convert it into a Centuri style cabinet. Are the ROMs different between the two?

Thanks in advance for any info you guys can provide!

[RayB]

Yes it's a bootleg. But it's interesting that it has pretty cohesive art all around. Maybe it's generic "space" art though.

This site lists the bootlegs, including "GGI"
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=phoenix&page=detail&id=26878

[Stormy151]

Yes it's a bootleg. But it's interesting that it has pretty cohesive art all around. Maybe it's generic "space" art though.

I had thought that too, except the marquee and overlay art style and colors match, and are silkscreened.  Weird, no?  I think maybe the side art is generic, though.

[isucamper]

I like that cabinet a lot more than the real pheonix ones.