Space Invaders (1978 Taito Corp., Licensed to Midway Mfg.)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: Well, it's another icon that needs no introduction, but I'll give
it a try. There's no doubt that Space Invaders revolutionized video games. It
introduced many new features back in it's day. It was one of the first games to
introduce sound variables, hi-score displays and so on. Sure, that stuff's been
pretty standard for decades now. But think back to 1978. Before that, there were
games like Pong and Sprint. Great games, of course. But Space Invaders just
introduced many new elements to video gaming. No wonder it was a huge success.
Before Pac-Man, this game was so incredibly popular that hundreds of millions of
them were sold worldwide. The game was even once rumored to cause a coin
shortage crisis in Japan.
Well, there. I tried to give this game a unique introduction. It just can't
be done. It's such an icon by today's standards that everyone has probably heard
everything there is to say about this game. But seeing as how I was born the
same year, this was one game I missed out on in the arcade. By the time I was
old enough to enjoy these games, even Pac-Man's time had come and gone, and I
was playing games like Pole Position and Spy Hunter. However I do remember
playing Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 and it was one of my favorites. I guess
now's a good time to mention that it was the first licensed game on the console
and the first to sell millions of copies. But again, you probably already knew
that. Moving on. The first time I remember seeing and playing Space Invaders in
the arcade was late in my teen years. It was the mid 90's by then and most of
the classics had been replaced with new games like Mortal Kombat and Outrunners.
But someone decided to put a classic Space Invaders in the lineup, out of the
blue and for a brief amount of time. I never knew before then that the game's
image was acually reflected onto a space themed backdrop. This really added
great charm to the game. Yeah, I sunk a few quarters in that game and did enjoy
it. But after that the game was removed from location and I moved on to newer
titles in the wild.
Like every story I put up here, lets fast forward twenty years to the
present. As an avid collector I am constantly scanning Craigslist for new
potential deals on arcade games. Not looking for anything in particular. This is
the story of just one of those occasions. Read on...
The Score: This one starts with an "almost had it" scenario. Someone had
listed a pretty nice Space Invaders on CL near Kansas City, not far from my
in-laws place. What really caught my attention with this one was not only how
nice it looked from the photos, but the seller had also installed Braze's
multigame kit. Basically it's a plug & play kit that attaches directly to
the main board and features eight games that run on the original hardware. Very
neat indeed. He had it priced well, but as usual we haggle and agree to an even
better price. I immediately reflected on the first time I saw this game in the
wild and it really brought back fond memories. Since this one was affordable I
felt I had to have it. The only detail left to work out was whether I could get
him to deliver this game to my in-law's home or see if he would be willing to
hang on to it until our next visit which was a few weeks off. Well, right when
we were ready to make it happen another buyer swopped in and made a higher
offer. Another one slips by but I'm ok with that, as I really wasn't looking for
a Space Invaders in particular. Though reliving those memories sure was
nice.
Now fast forward to a couple months later. On the other side of the state in
Saint Louis, a Super Auction was about to commence. Not only that, but it was
taking place the same day I was meeting with family in the area for our annual
Christmas gathering. With the auction scheduled to start at 10am and both myself
& my brother wanting to attend, we decide to go first thing in the morning
and meet with the family later in the afternoon. Now, we've been to several of
these auctions before. The quantity or quality of games is always hit or miss,
but for the most part they had been pretty consistent with auction times usually
ranging from 3 to 5 hours. Plenty of time right? Well not this time. This
particular auction was so crammed with stuff they couldn't even fit all of it in
the building. They had a huge turnout of bidders as well which slowed things
down even more than they already had been. The preview was unexpectedly extended
due to the delay so we had plenty of time to check out some games. This auction
featured a lot of junk, but some gems, including a few Space Invaders games. I
couldn't help but remember the last one that got away. Maybe I could make up for
that and win one here.
The bidding finally started at 11:30, an hour and a half late. My brother and
nephew had their hearts set on a couple of nice Site 4 gun games, which also so
happens to be another favorite of mine. However Kevin was hosting for our family
this year and couldn't stick around. I told him I was going to stay for a bit
and would bid on one if they got to that particular row in time. Luckily they
had started on those games shortly after. The first one had some monitor issues
but was otherwise nice. I was going to bid up to $200 on this one. I was outbid
and I think it went for $300 before the hammer was thrown down. This turned out
to be a blessing in disguise, because the second game turned out to have a
beautiful picture. I decided I would go up to $250 on this one, but figured I'd
probably get outbid since the last one went for more and this one was in much
better shape. Well much to my suprise I was the winning bidder. Can't beat that.
Even though I would have liked to take this one home for myself, I was bidding
on my brother's behalf. So unless I won another game, I was probably coming home
empty handed.
Before I knew it, the clock was approaching 2:30 and the end of this auction
was nowhere in sight. My only chance was to bid on something and fast, continue
on to meet up with my family and come back for my purchases later in the
evening. My mind went back to Space Invaders. One had already come and gone, but
a nicer one was right around the corner. Or so I thought. I decided to wait a
little longer in hopes they would come to it soon. Well, when they got to the
next row, they decided to start on the opposite end this time around. So now I
was going to have to wait even longer until they finally got to the other end
where this game was placed. I decided I was going to plug this game in,
something I don't usually do during bidding time. But I had to. The game worked,
but I immediately noticed some resetting problems, minor sprite issues and water
damage on the backdrop. Otherwise the game was nice. However once I plugged the
game in potential bidders were lined up to play it. I could only hope they would
be scared away with the minor problems this one had presented to me. Finally it
was time to bid. Thinking again about how one of these got away recently, I
decided to gamble and bid a little higher than I normally would. In the end I
was the winner with a $225 bid. After fees and taxes, the total came closer to
the $300 range. I paid my bill and went to my family gathering with plans of
coming back to pick up later in the evening.
While celebrating with my family I had thought about the big risk I had taken
with this game. Yeah it was definitely repairable, but I wasn't quite sure what
kind of expense I would be looking at. The main problem for me personally was
the water stained backdrop. I was sure I could find a replacement, but also had
the thought that maybe I already had. You see, after my winning bid and before
leaving for Kevin's house, I couldnt help but notice yet another Space Invaders
game. This one was missing it's plexiglass bezel and was placed in "dead row".
But what I noticed was that it was otherwise complete, including another
boardset, power supply and a nice looking backdrop, stain free. When we left the
auction was still nowhere near finished. I just had a suspition that maybe when
we came back the auction would still be going on. My hope was that they would be
saving dead row for last, and maybe I could pick up that other SI for peanuts.
With visions of turning two games into one really nice game, that was my next
new plan. Well, by the time we got back around 7pm, they had just wrapped things
up. However I just had to look. Sure enough, dead row was indeed saved for last.
Since the auction ran so far behind already, by the time they got to most of
these games the crowd had died down and they simply "passed" on most of them,
including the SI. I immediately put myself in a frenzy trying to find someone in
charge. When I did, I mentioned I would be interested in it for the right price.
We haggle and agree to $40, which becomes $50 after fees & taxes. Well in
the end my total bill was $330 for these 2 Space Invaders games. Nice.
The Service: Well, first act of business was just getting these games home
safe & sound. A big ice storm was heading our way and with the added time it
took for negotiations with the second game I was taking another gamble on
getting home before the ice storm hit. We left Saint Louis after 9pm and by that
time the storm was already hitting just west of home. For the most part we
lucked out. But by the time we got off the interstate the ice was already with
us, and we were still 15 minutes from home. We finally arrive just before
midnight and scramble to get these games inside. By that time they were already
partially covered in a thin layer of ice. We broke out all of the box fans and
hairdryers we had in a rush to prevent any damage. Fortunately with the fast
work of my wife and daughter, we were able to remedy this pretty quickly before
turning in for the night.
The next day was Sunday and so I had all day to survey my latest pickups. I
immediately began stripping out both games and picking out the best parts to put
back in the nicer of the two cabinets, which acually turned out to be the
cabinet from dead row that I haggled on at the last minute. However this cabinet
had a fried monitor, so I was literally swapping almost everything from one
cabinet to the other, as the complete game had a nice looking monitor in it
already. I then focused on the PCB boards. Each cabinet had a complete set. As I
mentioned before, the complete game had sprite issues. I cleaned all the rom
chips and reseated them which seemed to do the trick. But I also noticed some
missing sounds. SI boards have a unique setup where each sound is generated by
it's own component. Fortunately a site exists explaining exactly what to do when
certain sounds are missing. Each boardset consists of 2 boards and I was hoping
to piecemeal a good working set out of the two. Fortunately both main boards
tested good, but both sound boards had various problems. I put my focus on the
better of the two, which has all sounds except for the background "thumping"
sounds. Turns out the usual culprit is a 556 timer chip. What's even better is
the Radio Shack right by my house has this chip in stock for a mere $2.19. I
take a quick ride and make my purchase. Back home 15 minutes later, I break out
the soldering iron, remove the old part and install the replacement. I powered
on the game with my fingers crossed. I start a game and am gretted with full
sound. Success! By Sunday afternoon I have a complete and very nice Space
Invaders game put together with plenty of parts to spare from another game. This
had turned out to be a great score. The only other problem I had was occasional
resetting which turned out to be a flaky power supply. Another swap out from the
donor game solved that problem quickly.
I began selling extra parts to fellow forum members in need. So in this case,
an already dead game helps not only my game live on but several others as well.
With the sale of these parts my original investment of $330 was quickly knocked
down to a mere $200. I used some of those funds to add Braze's multigame kit to
my latest score. All in all I spent under $300 for a nice Multi-SI.
Unbeatable.
it a try. There's no doubt that Space Invaders revolutionized video games. It
introduced many new features back in it's day. It was one of the first games to
introduce sound variables, hi-score displays and so on. Sure, that stuff's been
pretty standard for decades now. But think back to 1978. Before that, there were
games like Pong and Sprint. Great games, of course. But Space Invaders just
introduced many new elements to video gaming. No wonder it was a huge success.
Before Pac-Man, this game was so incredibly popular that hundreds of millions of
them were sold worldwide. The game was even once rumored to cause a coin
shortage crisis in Japan.
Well, there. I tried to give this game a unique introduction. It just can't
be done. It's such an icon by today's standards that everyone has probably heard
everything there is to say about this game. But seeing as how I was born the
same year, this was one game I missed out on in the arcade. By the time I was
old enough to enjoy these games, even Pac-Man's time had come and gone, and I
was playing games like Pole Position and Spy Hunter. However I do remember
playing Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 and it was one of my favorites. I guess
now's a good time to mention that it was the first licensed game on the console
and the first to sell millions of copies. But again, you probably already knew
that. Moving on. The first time I remember seeing and playing Space Invaders in
the arcade was late in my teen years. It was the mid 90's by then and most of
the classics had been replaced with new games like Mortal Kombat and Outrunners.
But someone decided to put a classic Space Invaders in the lineup, out of the
blue and for a brief amount of time. I never knew before then that the game's
image was acually reflected onto a space themed backdrop. This really added
great charm to the game. Yeah, I sunk a few quarters in that game and did enjoy
it. But after that the game was removed from location and I moved on to newer
titles in the wild.
Like every story I put up here, lets fast forward twenty years to the
present. As an avid collector I am constantly scanning Craigslist for new
potential deals on arcade games. Not looking for anything in particular. This is
the story of just one of those occasions. Read on...
The Score: This one starts with an "almost had it" scenario. Someone had
listed a pretty nice Space Invaders on CL near Kansas City, not far from my
in-laws place. What really caught my attention with this one was not only how
nice it looked from the photos, but the seller had also installed Braze's
multigame kit. Basically it's a plug & play kit that attaches directly to
the main board and features eight games that run on the original hardware. Very
neat indeed. He had it priced well, but as usual we haggle and agree to an even
better price. I immediately reflected on the first time I saw this game in the
wild and it really brought back fond memories. Since this one was affordable I
felt I had to have it. The only detail left to work out was whether I could get
him to deliver this game to my in-law's home or see if he would be willing to
hang on to it until our next visit which was a few weeks off. Well, right when
we were ready to make it happen another buyer swopped in and made a higher
offer. Another one slips by but I'm ok with that, as I really wasn't looking for
a Space Invaders in particular. Though reliving those memories sure was
nice.
Now fast forward to a couple months later. On the other side of the state in
Saint Louis, a Super Auction was about to commence. Not only that, but it was
taking place the same day I was meeting with family in the area for our annual
Christmas gathering. With the auction scheduled to start at 10am and both myself
& my brother wanting to attend, we decide to go first thing in the morning
and meet with the family later in the afternoon. Now, we've been to several of
these auctions before. The quantity or quality of games is always hit or miss,
but for the most part they had been pretty consistent with auction times usually
ranging from 3 to 5 hours. Plenty of time right? Well not this time. This
particular auction was so crammed with stuff they couldn't even fit all of it in
the building. They had a huge turnout of bidders as well which slowed things
down even more than they already had been. The preview was unexpectedly extended
due to the delay so we had plenty of time to check out some games. This auction
featured a lot of junk, but some gems, including a few Space Invaders games. I
couldn't help but remember the last one that got away. Maybe I could make up for
that and win one here.
The bidding finally started at 11:30, an hour and a half late. My brother and
nephew had their hearts set on a couple of nice Site 4 gun games, which also so
happens to be another favorite of mine. However Kevin was hosting for our family
this year and couldn't stick around. I told him I was going to stay for a bit
and would bid on one if they got to that particular row in time. Luckily they
had started on those games shortly after. The first one had some monitor issues
but was otherwise nice. I was going to bid up to $200 on this one. I was outbid
and I think it went for $300 before the hammer was thrown down. This turned out
to be a blessing in disguise, because the second game turned out to have a
beautiful picture. I decided I would go up to $250 on this one, but figured I'd
probably get outbid since the last one went for more and this one was in much
better shape. Well much to my suprise I was the winning bidder. Can't beat that.
Even though I would have liked to take this one home for myself, I was bidding
on my brother's behalf. So unless I won another game, I was probably coming home
empty handed.
Before I knew it, the clock was approaching 2:30 and the end of this auction
was nowhere in sight. My only chance was to bid on something and fast, continue
on to meet up with my family and come back for my purchases later in the
evening. My mind went back to Space Invaders. One had already come and gone, but
a nicer one was right around the corner. Or so I thought. I decided to wait a
little longer in hopes they would come to it soon. Well, when they got to the
next row, they decided to start on the opposite end this time around. So now I
was going to have to wait even longer until they finally got to the other end
where this game was placed. I decided I was going to plug this game in,
something I don't usually do during bidding time. But I had to. The game worked,
but I immediately noticed some resetting problems, minor sprite issues and water
damage on the backdrop. Otherwise the game was nice. However once I plugged the
game in potential bidders were lined up to play it. I could only hope they would
be scared away with the minor problems this one had presented to me. Finally it
was time to bid. Thinking again about how one of these got away recently, I
decided to gamble and bid a little higher than I normally would. In the end I
was the winner with a $225 bid. After fees and taxes, the total came closer to
the $300 range. I paid my bill and went to my family gathering with plans of
coming back to pick up later in the evening.
While celebrating with my family I had thought about the big risk I had taken
with this game. Yeah it was definitely repairable, but I wasn't quite sure what
kind of expense I would be looking at. The main problem for me personally was
the water stained backdrop. I was sure I could find a replacement, but also had
the thought that maybe I already had. You see, after my winning bid and before
leaving for Kevin's house, I couldnt help but notice yet another Space Invaders
game. This one was missing it's plexiglass bezel and was placed in "dead row".
But what I noticed was that it was otherwise complete, including another
boardset, power supply and a nice looking backdrop, stain free. When we left the
auction was still nowhere near finished. I just had a suspition that maybe when
we came back the auction would still be going on. My hope was that they would be
saving dead row for last, and maybe I could pick up that other SI for peanuts.
With visions of turning two games into one really nice game, that was my next
new plan. Well, by the time we got back around 7pm, they had just wrapped things
up. However I just had to look. Sure enough, dead row was indeed saved for last.
Since the auction ran so far behind already, by the time they got to most of
these games the crowd had died down and they simply "passed" on most of them,
including the SI. I immediately put myself in a frenzy trying to find someone in
charge. When I did, I mentioned I would be interested in it for the right price.
We haggle and agree to $40, which becomes $50 after fees & taxes. Well in
the end my total bill was $330 for these 2 Space Invaders games. Nice.
The Service: Well, first act of business was just getting these games home
safe & sound. A big ice storm was heading our way and with the added time it
took for negotiations with the second game I was taking another gamble on
getting home before the ice storm hit. We left Saint Louis after 9pm and by that
time the storm was already hitting just west of home. For the most part we
lucked out. But by the time we got off the interstate the ice was already with
us, and we were still 15 minutes from home. We finally arrive just before
midnight and scramble to get these games inside. By that time they were already
partially covered in a thin layer of ice. We broke out all of the box fans and
hairdryers we had in a rush to prevent any damage. Fortunately with the fast
work of my wife and daughter, we were able to remedy this pretty quickly before
turning in for the night.
The next day was Sunday and so I had all day to survey my latest pickups. I
immediately began stripping out both games and picking out the best parts to put
back in the nicer of the two cabinets, which acually turned out to be the
cabinet from dead row that I haggled on at the last minute. However this cabinet
had a fried monitor, so I was literally swapping almost everything from one
cabinet to the other, as the complete game had a nice looking monitor in it
already. I then focused on the PCB boards. Each cabinet had a complete set. As I
mentioned before, the complete game had sprite issues. I cleaned all the rom
chips and reseated them which seemed to do the trick. But I also noticed some
missing sounds. SI boards have a unique setup where each sound is generated by
it's own component. Fortunately a site exists explaining exactly what to do when
certain sounds are missing. Each boardset consists of 2 boards and I was hoping
to piecemeal a good working set out of the two. Fortunately both main boards
tested good, but both sound boards had various problems. I put my focus on the
better of the two, which has all sounds except for the background "thumping"
sounds. Turns out the usual culprit is a 556 timer chip. What's even better is
the Radio Shack right by my house has this chip in stock for a mere $2.19. I
take a quick ride and make my purchase. Back home 15 minutes later, I break out
the soldering iron, remove the old part and install the replacement. I powered
on the game with my fingers crossed. I start a game and am gretted with full
sound. Success! By Sunday afternoon I have a complete and very nice Space
Invaders game put together with plenty of parts to spare from another game. This
had turned out to be a great score. The only other problem I had was occasional
resetting which turned out to be a flaky power supply. Another swap out from the
donor game solved that problem quickly.
I began selling extra parts to fellow forum members in need. So in this case,
an already dead game helps not only my game live on but several others as well.
With the sale of these parts my original investment of $330 was quickly knocked
down to a mere $200. I used some of those funds to add Braze's multigame kit to
my latest score. All in all I spent under $300 for a nice Multi-SI.
Unbeatable.
