Electro-mechanical arcade games. Anyone? Anyone?

[Zaxxon]

Does anyone know of any good sites devoted to electro-mech arcade games from the 60's-early 70's? I loved these as a kid and now it's impossible to find any info on them. Does anyone here own one? I'd like to get one but I never see them for sale. It's been so long I don't remember the names of the machines so I don't even know what to ask for.

[Raedon]

I remember my grandparents had this football game where you would set up these football players on a tin playing field then switch it on and bzzzzzzzzz the players go all over the place.. when the figure with the ball falls or goes out, you would set em up agian :)

That was like my fav. game there, must have been a hand-me-down that my Grandparents got for the much older grandkids (I'm the youngest of the grandkids.)

Well, one summer day I was playing it and the damn thing started sparking and caught fire! I freaked out and threw my glass of soda on it and this thing is plugged into the wall, it was like throwing gas on a fire.. :/ Luckly the girly screaming I was doing got my grandfather into the room and he unplugged it and got a fire extiguisher.. The hard wood floor had a black spot right up into the 80's when they moved.

[maxlords]

Does anyone know of any good sites devoted to electro-mech arcade games from the 60's-early 70's? I loved these as a kid and now it's impossible to find any info on them. Does anyone here own one? I'd like to get one but I never see them for sale. It's been so long I don't remember the names of the machines so I don't even know what to ask for.


Yup...I used to own a couple... I had a gun one that I think was called "Haunted" and a baseball one that I forget the name of. One of the companies that made them was Chicago Coin though. They're NOT cheap...figure for a not so nice, semi-working one, you'll be paying $400+ if you're lucky ;) I do have some manuals and parts order catalogs for the EM machines back in Oregon, but I won't be able to get to them for a WHILE...1-2 years probably.

[ventrra]

Does anyone here own one?
Yep. I own a Midway's Sea Devil machine myself. All the fun of shooting slides of ships combined with little blinking lights for torpedoes.
I have a web page for it at http://ventrra.q-cat.com/seadevil.html

[digitalpress]

Great story, Raedon! LOL

@me: +1

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Nice story and nice site!!!, i didn´t know about this machine

[Zaxxon]

Does anyone here own one?
Yep. I own a Midway's Sea Devil machine myself. All the fun of shooting slides of ships combined with little blinking lights for torpedoes.
I have a web page for it at http://ventrra.q-cat.com/seadevil.html

I was checking out your web site for this machine and I had an bit of deja vu. In an earlier thread about what was the very first video game you ever played was, I listed Sea Wolf but it may have been this game I was really thinking of. I just remember struggling to see through the machines periscope being too short at the time.

Do you know anything about a machine called Monster Gun? I read a description of it and I think it may be this game I remember fondly. It had a diorama of a small city built inside the glass and a gun to aim at targets ala Crossbow. When you started a game IIRC a 'War of the Worlds' -like narrator would come on and a black light would also come on and light up UFO's that would rise up in the background to shoot at. I read it was made by SEGA. Ring any bells?

[ventrra]

I was checking out your web site for this machine and I had an bit of deja vu. In an earlier thread about what was the very first video game you ever played was, I listed Sea Wolf but it may have been this game I was really thinking of. I just remember struggling to see through the machines periscope being too short at the time.


You know, I was greatly surprised when I saw my first Sea Wolf machine (really recently). The similarities between the Sea Wolf (digital) game and the Sea Devil (electro-mechanical) machine are unmistakable. It looks like Midway had lots of parts left from one & simply made a second game with it.


Do you know anything about a machine called Monster Gun? I read a description of it and I think it may be this game I remember fondly. It had a diorama of a small city built inside the glass and a gun to aim at targets ala Crossbow. When you started a game IIRC a 'War of the Worlds' -like narrator would come on and a black light would also come on and light up UFO's that would rise up in the background to shoot at. I read it was made by SEGA. Ring any bells?

Wish it did. Most of the places I visited as a kid consisted of pinball machines and early digital games. Oddly enough, it wasn't until the mid 1980s until I came accross my Sea Devil machine and I haven't seen many e.m. machines outside of it.