Some Antique Arcade Games
We were at an automotive museum today (Dear Park Winery, Escondido, CA) and in one corner were some very old arcade games. Drive Coast to Coast had a map of the USA with a few numeric displays and details, while the game itself was just moving a metal car left and right on a dial with a road painted on it. The road had some obstacles drawn, but I couldn't think of a mechanism for actually detecting the player's performance.
Next was this Steam Shovel game . On the back is a big scale saying "How many tons can you load in hopper?" The little labels at top left say: "Raise Shovel to Red Mark on boom to clear hopper. Empty Shovel by operating shovel lever to right." The rules at the bottom are: "Move Levers to Operate Steam Shovel. Empty each shovel of material into hopper. Material loaded into hopper registers on scale. When two or more play, highest number of tons registered on scale determines winner." For only 10 cents you can feel like you're working, I guess. ;-) The bars at top right give you a ranking of Beginner, Advanced, Qualified or Expert.
Here is an earlier game of this sort from Norwat in 1926:
https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/steam-shovel--norwat
OMG, here is someone who refurbished the exact model one of this machine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMguP3W064I
In between was "Amusing Quiz Educational Game" which its main screen broken. I thought I got a better shot of it, but did not.
Next to that was a very early pinball machine with a baseball theme. No trace of a logo, name or company name on this one. No bells or whistles, just bumpers ... wait a minute, there are no flippers?
It's hard to pass by relics like these and not picture how they were played.
Comments
Post a Comment