New pcbs! Swords, wizards, and many corpses to come!

[celerystalker]

Picked up two new pcbs this week. I was planning on buying a Simpsons board, but on order to save some cash to help my sister, I opted for two less expensive boards that I'll probably play more alone anyway.

First off, Rastan. Rastan is one of my favorite arcade games, and it was about time I owned a board. When I was a kid, a local Grandpa Pigeon's store had a Rastan that I never played, but countless times held the controls, pretending I was playing along with the demo. They had a Rastan, and later a Time Soldiers, and both left life long impressions on me. I'd post pics, but who doesn't know Rastan by now? Sure, it's basically perfect on Taito Legends, but this was just one of those games that I just wanted a real board to play.

Secondly, and perhaps more interesting, is a Tecmo Knight pcb! It was a brand new old stock board at a great price, and it's a cool as hell beat 'em up. It lacks the finesse of Capcom's stuff, and in may ways is primitive compared to something even like POW, but Jesus, does it have style to burn. It's like if Golden Axe had a super angry cousin that just punches people in the face instead of saying hello. Ultra violent, pretty much every enemy dies in a puddle of blood, decapitated. Here are a few blurry pics:

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[Steve W]

When I first started thrift store shopping back around 2003 (it was right after going to the Austin Game Expo and subsequently joining Atari Age and reading about how many great finds people would get) I never found anything remotely interesting. As I was driving home from another fruitless hunt, I stopped at a total hole-in-the-wall thrift in a complex that used to only be strip joints and bars. I walked in, and the first thing I saw was a Rastan arcade cab with a $50 sign on it. Turns out the warehouse next door was an arcade cab rental company, and this Rastan had given up the ghost. I didn't have $50 to spend, so I sadly left it there. Plus, if the people who maintain arcade machines couldn't bring it back to life, there was little chance I could get it going again. The stop there was still worth it, because I bought my very first Vectrex for $5. That great visit kept me hitting the thrifts and flea markets for a decade or so onward. I've always regretted not buying that Rastan, I have great memories of it. I used to play it in the lobby of my local Minyard's Supermarket when I was a teenager. The music alone kept me going back to it, it was that good. Playing Rastan in emulation now makes me realize just how bad I was at it. I never managed to get too far with it, then and now.

[celerystalker]

When I first started thrift store shopping back around 2003 (it was right after going to the Austin Game Expo and subsequently joining Atari Age and reading about how many great finds people would get) I never found anything remotely interesting. As I was driving home from another fruitless hunt, I stopped at a total hole-in-the-wall thrift in a complex that used to only be strip joints and bars. I walked in, and the first thing I saw was a Rastan arcade cab with a $50 sign on it. Turns out the warehouse next door was an arcade cab rental company, and this Rastan had given up the ghost. I didn't have $50 to spend, so I sadly left it there. Plus, if the people who maintain arcade machines couldn't bring it back to life, there was little chance I could get it going again. The stop there was still worth it, because I bought my very first Vectrex for $5. That great visit kept me hitting the thrifts and flea markets for a decade or so onward. I've always regretted not buying that Rastan, I have great memories of it. I used to play it in the lobby of my local Minyard's Supermarket when I was a teenager. The music alone kept me going back to it, it was that good. Playing Rastan in emulation now makes me realize just how bad I was at it. I never managed to get too far with it, then and now.

That's awesome, though I'm sorry you missed out on the cabinet. I'm not particularly great at it, although on factory settings I made it through the first three stages on one credit tonight. It really captures the Conan feel. I used to suck at the bosses, but they're nothing to me now. It's jumps that get me usually, as the high jump always feels finnicky to me.