Tony's Arcade

1972. Back when 15 cents got you one credit and a quarter got you two! Ever since I got Future Spa up and running and hooked on pinballs, I began to get the itch for EM — electro-mechanical games. Before games that were completely solid state burst on the scene around 1976, arcade games were mostly if not all electro-mechanical. Instead of bit shifters and adders, the brains of a game were coils, steppers, and bakelite contact boards. It’s amazing to think (nowadays, anyway) that a whole game could operate on different states of machinery.

I decided to be on the lookout for an EM rifle game. I remember playing those as a kid and (since I was 5 years old) not knowing what I was doing. Two Guys department store in New London had Haunted House, which I would have my dad help me play. That was an eerie game, with an 8-track player for sound effects!

A couple of months ago, I was looking through Craigslist and found a Chicago Coin Rodeo Shooting Gallery for sale. I drove up to the northwest corner of Connecticut to take a look. There it was, sitting in a barn and covered with dirt and dust. I asked the owner about the game and he said he has another one in his game room — the one in the barn was there for parts should the one in the game room break. He said all the parts should be inside the Rodeo, as he never had to open it. There was a EM Bally Freedom pinball next to it in worse shape, so I negotiated a good deal for the Rodeo and Freedom! When you have the arcade collecting bug… (The Bally Freedom was there for “extra parts” as well.)

I trucked the Rodeo and Freedom home and looked it over. There was graffiti carved on the gun (like, “1979 Coleen“) and on the back door, my name! I guess this game was meant for me… YEE-HAW, COLEEN!! I ordered This Old Pinball‘s #2 DVD, “Hardball in Detroit”. This particular DVD details restoration of EM games. After watching the DVD a few times, I got to work on the “best darn gun in the market”. The game was filthy (after all, it had been in a barn since 1988) and Mean Green cleaned it right up along with a shop vac. Next up, going through all the EM workings with a fine tooth comb and Mean Green!


Arcade Stats:
Manufacturer: Chicago Coin
Year Released: 1972
Cabinet: Upright
Type: Electro-Mechanical
Coin Counter: 119,725
Serial Number: None
Model: 404
Tony's First Quarter: Tony's Arcade
Tony's Arcade: Yes (April 2008)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Rodeo Shooting Gallery (1972). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.