A long running Op in North Wales recently sent me some pictures of approximately twenty boards. “Let me know if they’re of interest,” he said. “Or they’re off to the tip.” Needless to say a date was promptly made for a visit!
The Op is located in a small town close to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest aqueduct in Great Britain
Anyone for Bara Brith? I had to Google it and apparently it’s a tea-flavoured fruit bread.
The Op is a family run business, and the operation has changed over the years, more towards fruit machines and pool tables.
I remember playing these down the local pub not so long ago.
Back in the day, the Op had a lot of arcade machines in pubs. He mentioned that as large dedicated machines became more common, it was increasingly difficult to move them through pub doorways, resulting in video games becoming a smaller part of the business.
The only machine the Op had left in the workshop was a modern cocktail cab, due to go back out on site. I often hear stories of Ops smashing up machines. I can see why they would have done this once machines stopped taking coin or required expensive repairs, especially with limited space and resale value. I think I have become desensitised to it, instead focusing on the positives of what’s being saved, but it did hurt a little when he mentioned OutRun as one of the cabs which got the hammer.
Here is the list of titles in the haul.
1. 1942 – Capcom – 1984
2. Arkanoid – Taito - 1986
3. Cabal – TAD Corporation - 1988
4. Choplifter – Sega - 1985
5. Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone – Technōs Japan – 1990
6. Dynamite Düx – Sega AM2 - 1988
7. Football Champ –Taito / Team Dogyan - 1990
8. Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Capcom – 1985
9. Golfing Greats – Konami - 1991
10. King of Boxer – Wood Place Inc. – 1985
11. Pit Fighter – Konami / Atari Games - 1990
12. Punk Shot – Konami - 1990
13. Rastan Saga – Taito – 1987
14. Splatterhouse – Namco – 1988
15. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Atari, Inc. – 1984
16. Tecmo World Cup ’90 – Tecmo – 1989
17. X-Multiply – Irem – 1989
Interestingly the board has a Legend of Hero Tonma original license seal and X-Multiply ROMs. This is most likely a factory conversion.
18. Unknown – Possible Capcom bootleg?
19. Unknown, possibly Pollux? – Dooyong
Splatterhouse is the highlight for me, absolutely awesome game and one you don’t see very often. I used to play it in a local Chinese takeaway of all places. I’ve been playing this a lot in MAME recently and plan on making a Splatterhouse themed cab.
I’m also really excited to play Dynamite Düx, a pretty obscure cute side scrolling beat-em-up, developed by Sega AM2. The main protagonists are pet ducks named Bin and Pin, who are trying to save their owner Lucy from the evil Sorcerer Achacha. This is the first time I’ve come across this board and was a real surprise as I thought it was Shinobi!
I also picked up these Konami guns. Hopefully they will be useful to someone.
The PCB stash loaded up. Mission
After the Raid we went for a walk along the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and enjoyed the views. Just don’t look down if you’re not a fan of heights!
The surrounding scenery was outstanding
Update
I have started going through the boards and testing them. To my surprise, Dynamite Düx, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Splatterhouse and X-Multiply are fully working. The boards must have been well looked after. The Ghosts ‘n Goblins board is immaculate. It even has the original cellophane on the dip switches!
The Return of the Jedi was working, minus the speech. A new TMS5220 speech chip has been fitted, rectifying the fault.
Further testing revealed that the up / down control wasn’t working. This was due to a bad capacitor.
The board cleaned up well and is in very good cosmetic condition, although it has slight signs of burns on the edge connector. Apparently Atari power boards measure voltage and jack up the power if it’s too low, so if there is a poor contact edge connector arcing can result. However the game plays perfectly and was left running for a couple of hours without issue.
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