Thought it's about time to show you fellow collectors some of the work I've been doing in the last few years, I don't just post a load of rubbish, genuinely love these old games and collecting and working on these classic machines
So Operation Wolf is one of my earliest Memories of playing A Video Game in arcade, don't remember where I played it but wasn't in Leicester arcades as I remember most games in those and where they were in each arcade.
Used to love my C64 and remember having the Demo Of Op Wolf, 1st stage only. so when I upgraded to Atari ST I bought Op Wolf for it, one of the few games I did buy. Wasn't a bad Home computer conversion, Graphics pretty close, just music that doesn't match the Arcade. After that I had Amiga for few years, then life changes when you start working, don't have the time as your busy doing other things, passing driving test so going places with mates. I'd sold my Amiga and only had Game Gear left which then got stolen out car so didn't play any video games for a while, Golden Axe, Fatman and some others on brothers Sega Megadrive were last games I played
Started working for Computer company repairing Monitors, Computers, Printers etc, though i'd only ever played games on C64, ST and Amiga which I'd sold, never really seen a PC before and never used one, didn't even know what Hard Drive was but as they also built Computers downstairs it didn't take long to learn, I was soon working out using Dos so I could play Prince of Persia and other early games. Then saw lads down stairs playing games like Wolfenstein 3D was quite stunned when first saw Alone in the Dark, just my sort of game, had to build my own PC to play these, Wish I knew what year it was, so been trying to work it out from the games and when they were out, PC I started building was nearly best at the time with 486DX33 with 40mb HD and 2mb ram, 486DX266 had only just started to be used in the ones they built up for customers, Pentium 60 came out March 1993, though I probably hadn't heard about it here till 1994 with prices when new, X-Wing was 1993 and Alone in Dark was 1992, by time my PC built other lad had bought Alone In Dark 2, going on that it must of been 1993 when I built it I had to photocopy and make the Protection cards that came with it to answer the questions as it was disk version
Then my colleague at work was looking for stuff on Bulletin Boards one day, he found and downloaded C64 Emulator and some games, he also had a few games still and converted his to play, this was so cool, being able to play old C64 stuff I hadn't seen for years, I honestly thought some of the games couldn't be the ones I played as the graphics looked too poor, but the reality was that's how bad they did look. International Karate still looked and played great though, Bruce Lee wow hadn't seen that since playing on my mates Atari 800xl along with Track & Field Cart with Touch Pad Controller, still remember him buying that for £10 Game and proper Touch pad for playing it, I have one for my C64 now with Disk version. Also Goonies, Pengo and more
Next came Arcade Emulator, It was Dos Based one with early games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man Galaxian, all the really early ones, then it would get updated with later stuff from mid 80's, was amazing to see these old games again but the real arcade versions. As the PC was
upgraded more games kept being added, till we had ones lie Green Beret, 1942, Popeye, then when we got Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, POW and Operation Wolf, really amazing times, just couldn't believe all these old arcade games were playable on this PC, was such a brilliant time
Thats what started me off, wanted to hear that Operation Wolf Opening music again, so long since I'd heard it in Arcade. Atari ST and Amiga versions were good but not as the Arcade. I was playing OP wolf with Mouse, but it just doesn't cut it and playing without the Gun, well..... I was then planning to get proper Joysticks to hook up to PC was before the days of Ultimarc so you would have to hack keyboard or something but never got that far with it
Used to pick up loads of items cheap, got a Paddington Bear, seemed to be quite old, had makers name on it which turned out to be started by Jeremy Clarksons Mum, Looking for Info on it I found this site ebay, would of been 2000, wondered what the site was, then realising people are selling items on it, these Bears were on there and fetching £50-70, I get looking for other items like old Ghetto Blasters, BMX then I find Arcade Machines, you can't believe there are still ones around and people selling them, but this was mainly on Ebay.com, for the next 6 months or so I keep looking at things on there, said to my mate who downloaded all this stuff, If I see an Operation Wolf machine for sale over here I'm buying it
He would say similar things all the time but never did any of them, I'm different, so one night I'm looking on ebay UK and Can't believe it, Operation Wolf, there really is one on and it's in UK, Bridlington and ending the next morning, having had a few jars, I quickly sign up to ebay, not knowing how it works I put a bid on it, it was probably about £70 before, but after I bid it's £86, can't remember what max bid was and didn't understand how It worked, went bed, woke up next morning partly forgetting about it, then remembering something about ebay and bidding I better check what happened
OMG, I've won it, now what!! I sent guy a message and went work, had a look when home and he replied He did offer to deliver it in listing, we agreed on price and he arranged a night to drop it down
all way from Bridlington, he arrived with it on Trailer, I shown they were I need it to go, WOW I didn't realise just how big them look in your house, It's huge, he did say you couldn't of bought one much bigger. don't know how they managed it, but they got it through my porch door, front door through hall and into lounge.
Plugged it in and don't work, just jumbled up mess on screen, monitor eht cap sparking, I thought this hasn't been tested like the said, I was going to pay them £60 I think for delivering, he said he'd let me have it for the £86 I won it for, but I like to be fair even though not working, so I just gave them £100, oh well start at deep end no issue sorting monitor out as I fixed TV's for years, then I started looking on ebay for replacement pcb, was a few months when one came up won that for £27 + postage after a week waiting no sign, I phoned the seller up, which happend to be Arcade Warehouse
(didn't know about them then) they said it hadn't been posted yet, but promised it would be sorted straight away, next day it arrived in Pizza box, not best start but after fitting it in machine, plugged in and wow it works Monitor had to have Lopt replaced too, so ended up costing about same when fixed as the original price with delivery
I then found out it didn't have original Glass, had no artwork, must of been the only one without it I've seen, took me years of searching and asking to get that, ended up having to buy another machine in poor condition just for that, got it complete in the end and worked for long time without issues
That now leads me to this one that I've restored and why I wanted Op Wolf machine, so I was a bit reluctant to let the Full Size one go, It was my first Arcade Machine and reason I signed up to use ebay, first Item I won from ebay too
From the day I got Op Wolf it got me thinking It would be amazing to have Operation Thunderbolt to go with it, but there were other machines I'd like too so maybe I should get different game like Outrun, not another shooting game and the size of these cabs I thought maybe not. What I didn't know till years later they did this Single Site machine as Electrocoin call and Op Thunderbolt the Midi one. So that got me thinking, what if I sell the Full Size Wolf and get Smaller one I could squeeze in Op Thunderbolt Midi also, so that was the plan. Started to see odd ones coming up, seller in Derby
sold one which buyer didn't collect, it ended around £92, he also had Op Thunderbolt full size, so I offered them £200 for both
Spoke to them on the phone and happy with my offer, I collected Wolf straight away in my car and hired a van 2 days after to collect Thunderbolt. they also had an Outrun Mini when we collected machines and was listed on ebay couple of days later, that was about £400 and this was about 4 years ago
So then the mission started to get the old one out of Games Room down Garden, back into the house and to front of extension and get the Single Site Wolf in extension at back
only trouble was this smaller Wolf was litterally falling apart, it's all coming unglued.
Full size one had a few issues by now, so I sorted those out, had sound fault on pcb so I swapped it with one in this Mini and sold to Indy jones here for £350 I think, really was gutted to sell my first cab and first item from ebay but needs must, I believe he sold it to James so my original Op Wolf is now at Arcade Club
So then the restoration began on this new Op Wolf. First thing I did was test it. was working as they said but won't register shots, I find out the front tube of Gun is missing, so no lens which would explain the fault, typicaly I sold 2 complete guns over the past years, should never sell spares
The Op Thunderbolt came from the same seller, he said there were a few spare parts in the machine, so when I'd picked that up and got it back, had a look in the bottom of it, lots of stuff covered in dust but I couldn't believe my luck, not only a broken Thunderbolt gun in there for spares, there was a Namco Game PCB Steel Gunner 2 with conversion cable to play it in Thunderbolt cab, there is a flyer for this, and amazingly a complete Operation Wolf gun with front tube and lens, such a good job I bought this Thunderbolt as well. along with those some paperwork and faxes from Electrocoin, more Op Thunderbolt pcb aux boards.
With the parts fitted I test Op Wolf and yep, it's working fine
So first Mission is the BIG Move around
Was looking ok at this point but cab is a bit loose
The Arcade Building nightmare below, wish machines hadn't been so cheap, I'd still have space now, so I have to move loads of this out to get Op Wolf Full Size
It's a Mirror at side, there is only one Op Wolf cab there, the left back is Chase HQ and Taller Mad Dog and that's the Compact model, in front right is Streets Penny Bowl
Forgot how big this cab was, in some ways pleased it's going
Not easy moving everything on your own
Wasn't a bad condition machine really, starting to get dark by the time I'd shifted all the stuff to get it out and down to the house, only to struggle getting it in side, mainly because of the height and having to raise it up to get over door frame, if only I'd known everything at the start, would of had doors like games room with Alloy trim at bottom only, far better.
The would with wheels on it inside was off the bottom of a Continental Circus Upright, the metal strips on inside is where the lean on seat can slide in and out
After trying everything only option left was to lay it down on side, which is fine if you have space and don't break your back lifting it back upright when inside, wasn't easy
After getting it inside, I thought we'd compare the size of these cabs
Quite a bit smaller in every way
Now the new mini one is really falling apart
When pulling it out car, I get to see the state the base is in, yep that's going to need replacing.
more work
Just a little bit of dust
Was just after getting out car
Insides falling apart too as well as mess with cables
All the parts that came out Op Thunderbolt cab, Steel Gunner 2 in Cardboard and foam, amazing to get the gun parts needed and other parts I needed for the next cab
Not bad to get the machine basically working though, after lens and gun barrel fitted anyway
Gave the monitor a clean
Now I have to dissasemble the whole cab. strip the cab down, strip the guns down and get all the metal to sand blasters and powder coaters. Other things need doing like work on cars so it was about 2 years before I get around to rebuilding this machine again, couldn't believe it was in bits so long, and when you can't play it you want to, when its working you don't play it
Luckily it comes apart without to much issue
Next Job while this goes to be painted was the Base
Bods2019-06-18 23:30:30
So Operation Wolf is one of my earliest Memories of playing A Video Game in arcade, don't remember where I played it but wasn't in Leicester arcades as I remember most games in those and where they were in each arcade.
Used to love my C64 and remember having the Demo Of Op Wolf, 1st stage only. so when I upgraded to Atari ST I bought Op Wolf for it, one of the few games I did buy. Wasn't a bad Home computer conversion, Graphics pretty close, just music that doesn't match the Arcade. After that I had Amiga for few years, then life changes when you start working, don't have the time as your busy doing other things, passing driving test so going places with mates. I'd sold my Amiga and only had Game Gear left which then got stolen out car so didn't play any video games for a while, Golden Axe, Fatman and some others on brothers Sega Megadrive were last games I played
Started working for Computer company repairing Monitors, Computers, Printers etc, though i'd only ever played games on C64, ST and Amiga which I'd sold, never really seen a PC before and never used one, didn't even know what Hard Drive was but as they also built Computers downstairs it didn't take long to learn, I was soon working out using Dos so I could play Prince of Persia and other early games. Then saw lads down stairs playing games like Wolfenstein 3D was quite stunned when first saw Alone in the Dark, just my sort of game, had to build my own PC to play these, Wish I knew what year it was, so been trying to work it out from the games and when they were out, PC I started building was nearly best at the time with 486DX33 with 40mb HD and 2mb ram, 486DX266 had only just started to be used in the ones they built up for customers, Pentium 60 came out March 1993, though I probably hadn't heard about it here till 1994 with prices when new, X-Wing was 1993 and Alone in Dark was 1992, by time my PC built other lad had bought Alone In Dark 2, going on that it must of been 1993 when I built it I had to photocopy and make the Protection cards that came with it to answer the questions as it was disk version
Then my colleague at work was looking for stuff on Bulletin Boards one day, he found and downloaded C64 Emulator and some games, he also had a few games still and converted his to play, this was so cool, being able to play old C64 stuff I hadn't seen for years, I honestly thought some of the games couldn't be the ones I played as the graphics looked too poor, but the reality was that's how bad they did look. International Karate still looked and played great though, Bruce Lee wow hadn't seen that since playing on my mates Atari 800xl along with Track & Field Cart with Touch Pad Controller, still remember him buying that for £10 Game and proper Touch pad for playing it, I have one for my C64 now with Disk version. Also Goonies, Pengo and more
Next came Arcade Emulator, It was Dos Based one with early games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man Galaxian, all the really early ones, then it would get updated with later stuff from mid 80's, was amazing to see these old games again but the real arcade versions. As the PC was
upgraded more games kept being added, till we had ones lie Green Beret, 1942, Popeye, then when we got Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, POW and Operation Wolf, really amazing times, just couldn't believe all these old arcade games were playable on this PC, was such a brilliant time
Thats what started me off, wanted to hear that Operation Wolf Opening music again, so long since I'd heard it in Arcade. Atari ST and Amiga versions were good but not as the Arcade. I was playing OP wolf with Mouse, but it just doesn't cut it and playing without the Gun, well..... I was then planning to get proper Joysticks to hook up to PC was before the days of Ultimarc so you would have to hack keyboard or something but never got that far with it
Used to pick up loads of items cheap, got a Paddington Bear, seemed to be quite old, had makers name on it which turned out to be started by Jeremy Clarksons Mum, Looking for Info on it I found this site ebay, would of been 2000, wondered what the site was, then realising people are selling items on it, these Bears were on there and fetching £50-70, I get looking for other items like old Ghetto Blasters, BMX then I find Arcade Machines, you can't believe there are still ones around and people selling them, but this was mainly on Ebay.com, for the next 6 months or so I keep looking at things on there, said to my mate who downloaded all this stuff, If I see an Operation Wolf machine for sale over here I'm buying it
He would say similar things all the time but never did any of them, I'm different, so one night I'm looking on ebay UK and Can't believe it, Operation Wolf, there really is one on and it's in UK, Bridlington and ending the next morning, having had a few jars, I quickly sign up to ebay, not knowing how it works I put a bid on it, it was probably about £70 before, but after I bid it's £86, can't remember what max bid was and didn't understand how It worked, went bed, woke up next morning partly forgetting about it, then remembering something about ebay and bidding I better check what happened
OMG, I've won it, now what!! I sent guy a message and went work, had a look when home and he replied He did offer to deliver it in listing, we agreed on price and he arranged a night to drop it down
all way from Bridlington, he arrived with it on Trailer, I shown they were I need it to go, WOW I didn't realise just how big them look in your house, It's huge, he did say you couldn't of bought one much bigger. don't know how they managed it, but they got it through my porch door, front door through hall and into lounge.
Plugged it in and don't work, just jumbled up mess on screen, monitor eht cap sparking, I thought this hasn't been tested like the said, I was going to pay them £60 I think for delivering, he said he'd let me have it for the £86 I won it for, but I like to be fair even though not working, so I just gave them £100, oh well start at deep end no issue sorting monitor out as I fixed TV's for years, then I started looking on ebay for replacement pcb, was a few months when one came up won that for £27 + postage after a week waiting no sign, I phoned the seller up, which happend to be Arcade Warehouse
(didn't know about them then) they said it hadn't been posted yet, but promised it would be sorted straight away, next day it arrived in Pizza box, not best start but after fitting it in machine, plugged in and wow it works Monitor had to have Lopt replaced too, so ended up costing about same when fixed as the original price with delivery
I then found out it didn't have original Glass, had no artwork, must of been the only one without it I've seen, took me years of searching and asking to get that, ended up having to buy another machine in poor condition just for that, got it complete in the end and worked for long time without issues
That now leads me to this one that I've restored and why I wanted Op Wolf machine, so I was a bit reluctant to let the Full Size one go, It was my first Arcade Machine and reason I signed up to use ebay, first Item I won from ebay too
From the day I got Op Wolf it got me thinking It would be amazing to have Operation Thunderbolt to go with it, but there were other machines I'd like too so maybe I should get different game like Outrun, not another shooting game and the size of these cabs I thought maybe not. What I didn't know till years later they did this Single Site machine as Electrocoin call and Op Thunderbolt the Midi one. So that got me thinking, what if I sell the Full Size Wolf and get Smaller one I could squeeze in Op Thunderbolt Midi also, so that was the plan. Started to see odd ones coming up, seller in Derby
sold one which buyer didn't collect, it ended around £92, he also had Op Thunderbolt full size, so I offered them £200 for both
Spoke to them on the phone and happy with my offer, I collected Wolf straight away in my car and hired a van 2 days after to collect Thunderbolt. they also had an Outrun Mini when we collected machines and was listed on ebay couple of days later, that was about £400 and this was about 4 years ago
So then the mission started to get the old one out of Games Room down Garden, back into the house and to front of extension and get the Single Site Wolf in extension at back
only trouble was this smaller Wolf was litterally falling apart, it's all coming unglued.
Full size one had a few issues by now, so I sorted those out, had sound fault on pcb so I swapped it with one in this Mini and sold to Indy jones here for £350 I think, really was gutted to sell my first cab and first item from ebay but needs must, I believe he sold it to James so my original Op Wolf is now at Arcade Club
So then the restoration began on this new Op Wolf. First thing I did was test it. was working as they said but won't register shots, I find out the front tube of Gun is missing, so no lens which would explain the fault, typicaly I sold 2 complete guns over the past years, should never sell spares
The Op Thunderbolt came from the same seller, he said there were a few spare parts in the machine, so when I'd picked that up and got it back, had a look in the bottom of it, lots of stuff covered in dust but I couldn't believe my luck, not only a broken Thunderbolt gun in there for spares, there was a Namco Game PCB Steel Gunner 2 with conversion cable to play it in Thunderbolt cab, there is a flyer for this, and amazingly a complete Operation Wolf gun with front tube and lens, such a good job I bought this Thunderbolt as well. along with those some paperwork and faxes from Electrocoin, more Op Thunderbolt pcb aux boards.
With the parts fitted I test Op Wolf and yep, it's working fine
So first Mission is the BIG Move around
Was looking ok at this point but cab is a bit loose
The Arcade Building nightmare below, wish machines hadn't been so cheap, I'd still have space now, so I have to move loads of this out to get Op Wolf Full Size
It's a Mirror at side, there is only one Op Wolf cab there, the left back is Chase HQ and Taller Mad Dog and that's the Compact model, in front right is Streets Penny Bowl
Forgot how big this cab was, in some ways pleased it's going
Not easy moving everything on your own
Wasn't a bad condition machine really, starting to get dark by the time I'd shifted all the stuff to get it out and down to the house, only to struggle getting it in side, mainly because of the height and having to raise it up to get over door frame, if only I'd known everything at the start, would of had doors like games room with Alloy trim at bottom only, far better.
The would with wheels on it inside was off the bottom of a Continental Circus Upright, the metal strips on inside is where the lean on seat can slide in and out
After trying everything only option left was to lay it down on side, which is fine if you have space and don't break your back lifting it back upright when inside, wasn't easy
After getting it inside, I thought we'd compare the size of these cabs
Quite a bit smaller in every way
Now the new mini one is really falling apart
When pulling it out car, I get to see the state the base is in, yep that's going to need replacing.
Just a little bit of dust
Was just after getting out car
Insides falling apart too as well as mess with cables
All the parts that came out Op Thunderbolt cab, Steel Gunner 2 in Cardboard and foam, amazing to get the gun parts needed and other parts I needed for the next cab
Not bad to get the machine basically working though, after lens and gun barrel fitted anyway
Gave the monitor a clean
Now I have to dissasemble the whole cab. strip the cab down, strip the guns down and get all the metal to sand blasters and powder coaters. Other things need doing like work on cars so it was about 2 years before I get around to rebuilding this machine again, couldn't believe it was in bits so long, and when you can't play it you want to, when its working you don't play it
Luckily it comes apart without to much issue
Next Job while this goes to be painted was the Base
Bods2019-06-18 23:30:30
