I have always fancied the classic Taito cabinets, but I have never seen one in the flesh, and I had more or less written off owning one as pure fantasy thinking that all cabs are out of reach. Chatting with my friend Slowcade I mentioned this dream, and he made me aware that there actually existed one cab in Sweden. He had known about the cab for a couple of years, and he helped me obtain some contact details for the owner. The guy was reluctant to sell, and he had already declined several offers, but luckily he felt that the time was now ripe to let it move on. So in January the deal was struck. In this corner of the world it is not a good idea to do a roadtrip in January, so we settled on mid-March. By then the snow should be gone from the roads at least.
The day had finally come for my first roadtrip in quite a while. Spring has come early to Oslo this year, and we have already had one month of crisp cool spring with no snow. Perfect conditions. So I got up in the wee hours of the morning, went into the kitchen, made coffee, looked outside the window... and there was a blizzard!
Sulking, I went to pick up the rental van wading through sludgy snow blowing sideways while dreading the many hours of driving yet to come.
Still, a good coffee boost always helps the mood, so once I hit the road it wasn't too bad. I had brought quite a lot of CD's with local rock and punk to keep me company on my way east into the darkness of Mordor aka Sweden.
Crossing into Sweden, the snow had turned to icy rain which glazed the roads, so while the speed limit is really 90 KMH, the average traffic pace was about 70 KMH. Slowly this was turning into a race against time, since the rental van had to be back before midnight, or else I would have to pay for another day.
Five hours of driving later, dodging huge semi trailers, moose and crazy Swedish speedjunkies on the narrow roads, I made it to my destination. My GPS told me that I was somewhere outside Örebro, but it could just as well have said "The Middle of Nowhere". Because that was what it felt like.
After a lot of this landscape I pulled up in front of a barn. The seller came out to greet me, and luckily he was a really nice guy. With Swedes it is always a gamble whether we are able to understand each other. I usually understand the Swedes quite well, but the other way around it doesn't always work as well since I have a weird (but cool) Norwegian accent. He nodded his head when I spoke, so I guess he got most of what I said. He then gave the grand tour of the barn, where he had a Gauntlet II, an Afterburner turned into a Thunderblade and a lot of generic cabs.
And then there was the Taito.
The cab is originally a Stratovox cab, which differs from e.g. Jungle Hunt and Elevator Action in that the top is not slanting. Other than that and of course the side art, they are pretty similar, with that nice slender curve to them (sorry, porning out on you here
). This particular cab lacks the original bezel, marquee, CP and boards but it did have the Stratovox wiring intact in addition to JAMMA, making me think that I should try to obtain the rest of the kit over time so that I one day might restore it to host it's original game. The average shape of the cab seems very good. Admittedly very dirty, but dirt comes off, and there are no damages to the side art.
After the grand tour, cash swapped hands, hands were shook, and the cab was loaded into the van.
Driving on icy roads in a van that you're unfamiliar with is one thing. Driving on icy roads in the dark with no street lights is yet another. Heading back, I turned into being the guy you hate driving behind because he is slowing down traffic, but by this time with quite a lot of hours behind the wheel and overdosing on coffee I took no chances. So the hours piled up.
Since I am moving houses, my cabs are currently in storage at a local pinball club. The pinheads tend to take the piss at my arcade hobby, but they are good guys and allow me to hog some space in the storage part of the club. When I finally made it there, I managed to trigger the alarm unknowingly, so one of the leaders of the club turned up looking rather displeased. By this time it was very late, so the alarm had forced him to get out of bed. After promising an unknown number of pints and a lot of apologies, he helped me haul the cab in place and I could finally head for the city. I handed in the car ten minutes before deadline, and went home more tired than pleased.
Now, after a good night's sleep, I am very pleased with having picked up this cab. I have not quite yet decided on it's fate, but I have been entertaining the idea of obtaining the mentioned Stratovox kit for it. At the same time, and since these are somewhat generic, i.e. being used for several Taito games, I think it can be tolerable if I make a TAITO marquee for it, swap the joysticks and buttons on the JAMMA panel and make a CPO that is in keeping with the style of the cab. The plan then is to let it host Taito games as Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Wardner and New Zealand Story. Input on this is very welcome of course.
So, hope you enjoyed this little writeup even more than I enjoyed driving through the darkness that is Sweden to pick up this gem.
Cheers,
Arch
Arch2015-03-23 11:38:53
The day had finally come for my first roadtrip in quite a while. Spring has come early to Oslo this year, and we have already had one month of crisp cool spring with no snow. Perfect conditions. So I got up in the wee hours of the morning, went into the kitchen, made coffee, looked outside the window... and there was a blizzard!
Still, a good coffee boost always helps the mood, so once I hit the road it wasn't too bad. I had brought quite a lot of CD's with local rock and punk to keep me company on my way east into the darkness of Mordor aka Sweden.
Crossing into Sweden, the snow had turned to icy rain which glazed the roads, so while the speed limit is really 90 KMH, the average traffic pace was about 70 KMH. Slowly this was turning into a race against time, since the rental van had to be back before midnight, or else I would have to pay for another day.
Five hours of driving later, dodging huge semi trailers, moose and crazy Swedish speedjunkies on the narrow roads, I made it to my destination. My GPS told me that I was somewhere outside Örebro, but it could just as well have said "The Middle of Nowhere". Because that was what it felt like.
After a lot of this landscape I pulled up in front of a barn. The seller came out to greet me, and luckily he was a really nice guy. With Swedes it is always a gamble whether we are able to understand each other. I usually understand the Swedes quite well, but the other way around it doesn't always work as well since I have a weird (but cool) Norwegian accent. He nodded his head when I spoke, so I guess he got most of what I said. He then gave the grand tour of the barn, where he had a Gauntlet II, an Afterburner turned into a Thunderblade and a lot of generic cabs.
And then there was the Taito.
The cab is originally a Stratovox cab, which differs from e.g. Jungle Hunt and Elevator Action in that the top is not slanting. Other than that and of course the side art, they are pretty similar, with that nice slender curve to them (sorry, porning out on you here
After the grand tour, cash swapped hands, hands were shook, and the cab was loaded into the van.
Driving on icy roads in a van that you're unfamiliar with is one thing. Driving on icy roads in the dark with no street lights is yet another. Heading back, I turned into being the guy you hate driving behind because he is slowing down traffic, but by this time with quite a lot of hours behind the wheel and overdosing on coffee I took no chances. So the hours piled up.
Since I am moving houses, my cabs are currently in storage at a local pinball club. The pinheads tend to take the piss at my arcade hobby, but they are good guys and allow me to hog some space in the storage part of the club. When I finally made it there, I managed to trigger the alarm unknowingly, so one of the leaders of the club turned up looking rather displeased. By this time it was very late, so the alarm had forced him to get out of bed. After promising an unknown number of pints and a lot of apologies, he helped me haul the cab in place and I could finally head for the city. I handed in the car ten minutes before deadline, and went home more tired than pleased.
Now, after a good night's sleep, I am very pleased with having picked up this cab. I have not quite yet decided on it's fate, but I have been entertaining the idea of obtaining the mentioned Stratovox kit for it. At the same time, and since these are somewhat generic, i.e. being used for several Taito games, I think it can be tolerable if I make a TAITO marquee for it, swap the joysticks and buttons on the JAMMA panel and make a CPO that is in keeping with the style of the cab. The plan then is to let it host Taito games as Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Wardner and New Zealand Story. Input on this is very welcome of course.
So, hope you enjoyed this little writeup even more than I enjoyed driving through the darkness that is Sweden to pick up this gem.
Cheers,
Arch
Arch2015-03-23 11:38:53
