Sega Basketball and other mechanical coin-up memories...

[Level42]

Somewhere in a thread here, there was some discussion about a Basketball style game, where you had to push numbered butons to advance the ball towards the basket.

Today I was at a business selling jukeboxes, pinballs and coin-ops in Vlaardingen, Holland (http://www.jukeboxshop.nl, sorry all in Dutch, but click around) and there she was: right as it was in my memory like I used to play it with my brother a real Sega Basketball. I never could remember the name, so whe I got back I entered it in google and the first thing it came up with:

http://marvin3m.com/baseball/segabb.htm

!!! Hadn't found that before. Amazing to see it's from the mid 60's ! Older than I am, and so it was apparantly already over 10 years old when we used to play it...

Also be sure to check out the home of that site: Lots of fun to surf through:
http://marvin3m.com

There were also two other mechanical machines on this site I had in memory: the helicopter training game and the Bimbo Box (I didn't know it was called that way, but I remember clearly the machine with the monkey puppets moving and "making music", I was fasinated by it as a kid.
If I remember correctly, even the palm trees were swinging along !
For Dutchies, everybody knows the V&D's had one of these in a dodgy corner in the 70's....
http://marvin3m.com/coinop.htm

Back to the business I visited: stacks of machines there ! Most video's where generic cabs in rather bad state. But they also had some nicer dedicated cabs, like a Xybots, Area 51, Battle Shark, NBA. Advertised prices were very high to my taste but I guess negotiable...some things I noticed: an Atari Hercules pinball machine (HUGE !!!), Nintendo dual monitor cocktails (never seen those, nice !), and a wall-hanging German style video game. It appeared to be a Space Invader style game from the instructions, but there were no clear signs of a manufacturer or game name. I liked the last machine, but I have still lots of work on my first MAME cab to do....

Also, take a look at how people accomplish to transport video's and pinballs in tiny little cars like Smarts !!!! http://www.jukeboxshop.nl/transportperikelen.html

[Harpal]

who would have ever thought you would be able to get a pinball machine into a smart car......

i still cant believe it

[paigeoliver]

Don't buy a Hercules if you actually want to play it. Parts are almost impossible to get and the production run was really small. You were probably looking at one of the only ones in Europe.

With that said, I know where there are two of them sitting in a warehouse less than 20 minutes away. They are absolutely massive.

[Level42]

To Harpal: It IS amazing isn't it ! I wouldn't dare to do it though.. what if it would drop.... !

To Paigeoliver: I wouldn't dream of getting a Hercules ! I already have bearly room for the 3 cabs I currently own....
Also, from what I found on the net, it is very disappointing in game play. This one was absolutely not in playable condition though. I think you could be right about this being extremely rare. I only realised it was an Atari pinball until I checked out the info at home. I'm an Atari fan, this should be in some museum Guess this was one of the weirdo projects the Atari guys came up with after one of  their famous "Sessions" (drug-related probably).
I read it was the last pinall from Atari.

I recenlty discovered that there were even Atari Jukeboxes in the late 70's !!!
They're from France however, so probably some company they bought. French jukeboxes have a terrible reputation though...

[RayB]

To Paigeoliver: I wouldn't dream of getting a Hercules ! I already have bearly room for the 3 cabs I currently own....

I would use it as a bed!

[Level42]

Hahaha, it sure is big enough to have a party in it

However, it won't be too comfy with all the bumpers, and things....

Maybe I'll go back and take some pics there (secretly)

I want to know what the Sega Basketball would cost ( even though I don't have the space and time for it, just out of curiousity) and that wall-mount German video game is tempting (needs little space)....