I recently acquired 30+ flyers for the collection, most of which are for games released in the U.S. in the mid to late 70's. Here's the first batch.
Bonus-21 (1980) - Kramer Manufacturing Challenger Bingo - Videotronics of Oregon, Inc. Firing Platoon - Leisure Entertainment Ltd. Grand Slam Cocktail Cabinet (1975) Westlake Systems, Inc. [Shows Solo Polo, Super Soccer and Twin Tennis] Hold & Draw (1979) - Mirco Games GmbH Hold and Draw (1979) - Mirco Games GmbH Miss America (1979) - A-1 Supply, Inc. Roverball (1977) - Rover Leisure Products Co. Survival (1975) - U.S. Billiards [Shows Blockade, Hockey, Survival and TV Tennis; Alternate flyer] Twenty One (1976) - Mirco Games GmbH [Also known as 21]
Here are links to various photographs, a pdf scan file all courtesy of Dan. These are available for downloading and hosting elsewhere on other various web sites etc. Grab them while they are online.
As for photos, these were cab promotional photos and probably also as photos when advertising flyers were printed. The flyers that Dan was able to get was likely promotional flyers that were stored in the promotional folders that were distributed by Sircoma and A-1 Supply to various vendors across N. America. If vendors couldn't attend trade shows, then an advertising package of flyers might be mailed to a vendors' shop. Consider this a significant find that was thankfully kept by a collector over the years because this stuff probably would have been discarded/lost over passage of time since these aren't flyers of popular coinop games.
Dan's purchase helps fill in some of the mysteries of this part of the coinop era scene that isn't popular, but still important regardless.
== Two are versions of video game 21; there is an amusement-only version and the other appears to have a coin tray. One of the photos is dated 1975.
*UPDATE* [old: Here's a pic of the Sircoma business letter.]
Removed link to photo [photo image already also deleted] since a pdf scan of the same business letter is better to work with and can be read easier as a PDF file scan.
Here is the Sircoma business letter to a business client as a PDF file. Sircoma is the parent company.
>I recently acquired 30+ flyers for the collection, most of which are for games released in >the U.S. in the mid to late 70's. Here's the first batch.
Another good update as usual. Looking forward to seeing second set.
>Hold and Draw (1979) - Mirco Games GmbH
That flyer covers the 'just-for-fun' segment and gambling version with the full size upright cab versions in different flavors. The N. American/Arizona distribution center must have had only the 'just-for-fun' upright cab model. No way the gambling tray version would be in N. America back then.
These are interesting finds. iirc someone had posted a sale in the past of a different Rover Leisure product, but no one knew anything about Rover Leisure Products Co. at the time. The Firing Platoon is an entire different thing in itself. Never heard of it before and no idea if Keith (who used to write for Game Room magazine) would know about this item. Anyway some unique finds there.
> Firing Platoon appears to a gambling machine disguised as a tank video game, remotely > switchable by the operator. I wonder if anyone was fooled by it?
In exact terms, it wasn't.
But in general, this was how a lot of gambling games "hid" from authorities in other countries.
The idea is that most people would be play the typical gambling title, then if any inspector decided to come into the venue, the operator would whack a switch to turn all of the gambling games into more-acceptable titles. Because at the point at which the venue is being raided, the focus is more on being able to maintain the existence of the venue at all, rather than some quarreling over whether a given title was functioning correctly.
>Firing Platoon appears to a gambling machine disguised as a tank video game, remotely >switchable by the operator. I wonder if anyone was fooled by it?
I doubt it unless it was either Mayberry's deputy sheriff Barney or Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau character.
Closeau: Do you have a leecense for your video game cab?
supposedly blind bartender: A leecense?
Closeau: Yes a leecense. And why is there a meenkee wandering around bar collecting coins from customers and going over to video game and putting coins in the cab for the customers?
bartender: I don't know, but he is not my monkey. Monkey does whatever it wants to do in the bar.
If only director/producer Blake Edwards were still around these days, he'd make something of it worth watching on the cinema screen.
> Firing Platoon appears to a gambling machine disguised as a tank video game, remotely > switchable by the operator. I wonder if anyone was fooled by it?
It's a fairly common technique.
Subsino's X-Plan from 2006 does the same (although it's broken in MAME at the moment) it switches between a god-awful shmup and a shmup themed poker game. (Given Subsino were otherwise a legitimate manufacturer of properly licensed gambling games, seeing such a feature in some of their titles so late on is confusing)
As Moogly says, such feature exist to pass on-site inspection checks, and get gambling boards through customs by making them look legitimate etc.
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