Various unlisted cabinets and others (pics/flyer)

[Tengu]

Promo pic for a small (undisclosed cab name) SNK sitdown cab which is nothing other than a Tehkan Lava clone, except for the very bottom of the case which doesn't feature the adjustable height tubular steel feet the original Lava sitdown models had. Specs are not given, ad is from mid 1983

[Tengu]

Speaking of which, the 1982 lava looking cab present on NAMCO Dig Dug promo material is really an official NAMCO cab but made by TEHKAN, and it's a "Lava , Namco Spec.".(added to wiki)
Compared to regular Lava and New Lava, the Namco speced lava has a monitor diag. 2" longer (20vs 18"), and the cab is a bit deeper (700mm vs 650-ish mm)

[aerobert]

Those Tehkan Lava are snazzy. I love the mid 80s cabinets. Allthough I would say that the early 90s like Aero City, Consolette, Canary, Pony etc are absolute perfection. 25 inch tube is the sweetspot.

[o1s1n]

Those Tehkan Lava are snazzy. I love the mid 80s cabinets. Allthough I would say that the early 90s like Aero City, Consolette, Canary, Pony etc are absolute perfection. 25 inch tube is the sweetspot.

100% agree with you there, I don't think that era of cabinets has ever been beaten for looks.

I do like the era of 29 inch cabinets after them too, but I think they're a bit samey and generic in comparison.

All the best came out in the early 90s, Jaleco Pony III, Domy Jr, Consolette, Canary, Capcom Cute, Status 25, the list goes on.

I'd take a row of them over E2s/Astros/Blasts any day of the week

[Tengu]

Big problem: n°1 expert in cocktail arcades in Japan asserts that the 20" Namco Lava aka Tehkan Lava Namco spec is really made by Tehkan just with Namco's custom specs ( as mentioned above), but Game Machine published an article claiming Tehkan/Tecmo was SUING Namco & Jaleco for cloning the LAVA cab design... :



so the question is:

-is the japanese expert wrong and the Namco lava isn't really from Tehkan but just a shameless clone?

-was there really a collab between Namco & Tehkan but either before or after Namco decided to have a clone made without Tehkan's permission?

[Tengu]

btw here's Jaleco "Lava" style cab (probable clone) just for comparison :

[aerobert]

Raba

[pubjoe]

This thread continues to be great

[Tengu]

SEGA 's character cabinets, for children...
https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/videogames/show/4348

Here are a couple of japanese ads (late 1982) not posted before for the SEGA ''Mini Upright Robot'' cab, supposedly it would attract children to a point that it would "double your profits" (claim very common in cab ads..) it also had its eyes flashing; 5th ad in the list says the cab is from "Takara Chemical" co., and the last ad claims the cab could be customized per request and puts metric specs for those interested & lists the cab as being sold in Japan also by "Takara" (first ads had it sold by "Esco Trading Co.").








just out of curiosity, here's an ad for namco's dig dug game on the "lava type" cab. doesn't mean that because it's coined a "lava type" in the ad that it's really a tehkan made cab, after all tehkan sued namco (see post above). If it's really a clone I'll have to modify the wiki entry, need to dig deeper! :

compare with tehkan's ''swimmer' game on a 'genuine lava cab (also coined "lava type" by the japanese advertisers) from the same year ('82). Not sure exactly what they mean in the beginning of the ad though:

[geotrig]

I have seen some of those Robo cabs before in some guise, think they're was a thread on vac about these so the customisable cab makes since as I think the ones these differed slight from the flyers

[Tengu]

I have seen some of those Robo cabs before in some guise, think they're was a thread on vac about these so the customisable cab makes since as I think the ones these differed slight from the flyers

I missed the thread on ukvac you mentioned though there was one not too long ago on the klov forum with a guy from Belgium who managed to get one of those mini upright robot https://forums.arcade-museum.com/thread ... et.528115/.
The control panel & joystick location is hilarious, imho a design goof considering the cab was meant for kids...

Otoh, relating to the LAVA design & assumed cloning by Namco (& Jaleco)
The article posted above written in English in the "overseas" section, mentioning a trial, came later, the first official reaction from Tehkan is this, published in dec 1982 (so just a month after the release of Namco's so called "lava type" cab released with Dig Dug game) :


In a nutshell, it's a warning : Tehkan does not name any particular competing company, but they clearly state that they developed on their own -without any form of collaboration- two "lava" cabs a month ago and that they're -reading between the lines- aware other companies are CLONING said designs and selling them UNDER THE SAME LAVA NAME like the Namco "lava type" (what they mention in the text is : manufacturing, modifying, imitating and distributing lava cabs without consent, violating trademark & copyright laws) , which is illegal and will lead to a trial, pronto.
I'll dig in the docs for a bit more info then I'll modify the wiki. Can't do so without being completely sure there wasn't a prior collab/agreement that was dropped or anything fishy of the sort.
Oddly, the later overseas article doesn't mention SNK being sued despite the latter also imitating blatantly the lava cabs as well.
In the same issue where the official "word/warning from Tehkan" is published, an ad for a..clone of a lava cab is also published a couple pages after , for Nichibutsu. One could say it's a slap in the balls, really :

Two weeks later the same magazine publishes a lengthy article promoting the Namco "lava type" cab for dig dug ...

[Tengu]

More info concerning the character cabs (presumably by Takara Chem Co. ?) for SEGA. I don't think this has been discussed before :



prototype "character cabinets" showcased in a japanese early december '82 advert, some of which seem to have been dropped later , one thing is for sure, they're not on the famous color flyer on the flyer archive.


*For example what SEGA calls "monkey cabinet" (barely apish) is clearly the monkey-robot model "A" in the b&w late 1982 ad. The real ape cab here is model "D". Even then the proto robot ape drawing shows a bolder more squashed design vs the released version which has a smaller thinned down actual cabinet cavity.


*There's another robot cab, the dragon-robot : model "B". Never seen it, could be they ditched it in favor of the non robotic one.
"E" model is notably different from the dragon cab in the color flyer : I doubt it's just customization here but seems like just a proto design with a larger sized dragon lifting its right paw, looks a tad better than the final version imho (which looks far too tacky) .


*Seems the final "mini up robot" model that made it was the already released R2D2 looking one.
Speaking of which, @geotrig , check the robot in the klov forum post (wrench shaped hands protrude), same shape but different colors vs the model in japanese magazine ads , less like the design shown in the overseas SEGA flyer.

left to right: sega overseas flyer, model obtained by a collector in belgium, japanese promo pic.


*"C" model looks like a koala. he went straight from the drawing board to the garbage bin it seems:

By the middle of the month (dec 1982), Esco Trading had its ad modified and gone are the robo dragon, the koala & the ape (non robotic), the ad features only real photos of only 3 cabs with slimmed down features, which confirms the prototype nature of the ones presented 2 weeks earlier. Now the cabs look like the models on the SEGA overseas flyer except for the flagship robot (wannabe r2d2) which still differs in shape :

Was the ape cab design ditched because it resembled too much a gorilla (and thus to Nintendo's Donkey Kong)? Go figure.

[Tengu]

Japan BALLY (aka Japan Bally Electronics Co. aka Bally Japan Corporation) cocktail arcade for Invaders , 1979. Would be interesting to find a catalog for Bally's Japanese branch just to see the gear they offered. Cab is completely different than the only one from the same company for the game southern cross shown on klov flyer archive.
otoh so many cabs for invaders & clones already...

[aerobert]

Man if those robot cabinet eyes really were flashing it turns straight to this. Simpsons are spot on again.

[geotrig]

@tengu , yes that may be the thread i was thinking about , looks like you solved the mystery with the Japan flyer !

[cools]

Gotta assume the Lava is extremely rare. I'd love one.

[arcnl]

I remember rklok having some of the earlier mentioned cabs *YEARS* ago.
Noone wanted them since they weren't candies

[aerobert]

Gotta assume the Lava is extremely rare. I'd love one.

The design is great. Perfect blend of retro 70's early 80's wood look with the ergonomics of early 90s.

If I ever build a cabinet I'd go for this style. I think Sven666 have brand new 17" that would be perfect for it.

[geotrig]

really are funky , i also like the taito one with the wrap around metal thing. Yeah im great at describing things

TAITOMBjpg.jpg

[o1s1n]

really are funky , i also like the taito one with the wrap around metal thing. Yeah im great at describing things
TAITOMBjpg.jpg

Wow that really is out there! It's gone so far beyond being ugly it's become cool again.