Star Castle (Intro)
I read on rec.games.video.arcade.collecting that someone in Maine had to get rid of a few broken arcade games. One of them was, (dramatic pause) Star Castle. A few e-mails and a week later, Doug E. Fresh and I hopped into my brother’s pick-up truck and drove 4 hours to Maine. Seeing the Star Castle brought back all the memories of being a child again, hanging out with my 11-year old peers at Great Skate. I could almost smell the popcorn and hear “Down Under” in the distance. Even though it was broken, I didn’t need to turn it on to hear its sound effects. We loaded it up and headed back.
A couple months later, with purchases from eBay, Mouser Electronics, and *tons* of help from Mark Shostak [Cinelabs], I plugged it in. (Mind you, I had already “plugged it in” for the umpteenth time with all the troubleshooting I was doing…) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. A few crackles from the speaker. The hum of the picture tube. And there it was… something I hadn’t seen since 1982. The Star Castle, with its three counter-rotating shields, faded into view and quietly beckoned:
HIGH SCORE 0 PLAYER ONE 0 PLAYER TWO 0 © 1980 CINEMATRONICS |
I popped in a quarter, and played the crappiest game of Star Castle I could ever remember since I was 11 years old. It was great. I called Doug E. Fresh over and we relived our childhood. It’s amazing how a game that used simple vector graphics (read: lines) and a color plastic overlay on a black and white screen could provide so much fun. Oh yeah, and frustration and yelling and taunting. In between games, though, I did notice that some people had scratched their names and high scores into the black metal trim. There was a rusty, “TONY 20570″ scrawled by the One Player button. Could it have been me when I was 11? I don’t know. It might have been; I’m sure as a kid if I wrote my high score on any game, it would’ve been an outrageous one. My high score now is in the 7000s. Well, who knows. Maybe my score needs a handicap now.
Mark Shostak [Cinelabs] was highly invaluable for helping me restore Star Castle. He was very nice, repaired my sound card for a flat rate, and even guaranteed it. Not to mention all the helpful e-mails he sent answering my tech questions. If you have any Cinematronics game out there, and you need it repaired, e-mail Mark at sales@cinelabs.com.
Arcade Stats:
Manufacturer: Cinematronics
Year Released: 1980
Cabinet: Upright
Monitor: 19-inch Horizontal Vector
Coin Counter: 21106
Tony's First Quarter: Great Skate, Norwich, Connecticut