time to inspect the radar scope cabinet a little bit closer. even if you don't know the game and are no expert in nintendo cabinets you can clearly see that something is not right with its assembly. all in all i would rate the cabinet to be in average condition, it has a few heavy battle damages, but the wood itself is solid, no water damage and nothing that can't be fixed, therefore the medium damage meter rating!
starting at the top, you can see the cracks in the radar scope marquee
this will have to be replaced!
now on to the control panel area - doesn't it look strange? as if pieces had been moved around ... (more on that later)
the control panel is missing two (rare) buttons and has some cracks as well (plus: one of the holes has been widened), meaning i'll probably have to replace this as well
control panel from the back: parts of the wiring is missing and one entire button assembly (unfortunately very difficult to find)
the coin door has been butchered as well (look at that silly lever on the coin insert plate)
check at how crudely the additional security look installation has been executed
coin mech is missing entirely, but at least the wooden coin box is there - puh!
let's turn out attention to the back and start with the serial plate: the cabinet is a very early model (only one slot on the coin door, monitor setup, etc.) which was manufactured in japan for the european market. the license plates i've seen so far said TRS-UP-US (for the American market), -UK (for Great Britain), -GM (for Germany), but mine says -HL. Was that made for the Dutch market?
the famous sanyo monitor in the box - another sign for a very early RS model
the bottom of the cab is a total mess (apart from the layers of dirt), it's a wonder that the game is still working!
hang in there, my dear pcb!
speaking of which, the pcb is not one of the usual 2- or 4-board pcb sets, but once again a very early 5-pcb-stack
i have to admit, i hadn't heard of a 5-pcb setup like that before either, until someone on a german forum offered up a 5er radar scope pcb for sale just a few weeks ago. i didn't grab it back then, because i didn't know that i would be picking up the entire cabinet shortly afterwards (and now it is sold unfortunately), but at least i now know what the fifth board is for!
in case you haven't spotted it or didn't know: hell yeah, it's radar scope WITH SPEECH!!!
time to inspect the sides! unfortunately, no sideart present on the left side, but that's the fate of almost all radar scope cabinets. however, there are no monitor bolts through the sides, another early model trademark!
a large chunk of wood missing on the right side (or is it left - it depends on how you see it). i wonder what happened here
but that's nothing compared to the cabinet's right sideart itself - check it out, seeing is believing
if you can't find the original artwork, you have to be creative and find a replacement which will make you happy
first course of action: remove that!!! i was lucky that noone saw me moving the cab around outside on the street, it would have been totally embarassing!
going once, going twice, ...
... gone for good - the radar scope girl is no more!!!
now let's see which hacking job has been done to the cabinet! after removing the control panel i finally understand the transformation process: the control panel pieces and the lower bezel pieces have been removed, swapped and reassembled!!! don't ask me why, but the red part belongs to the front (and turned around) and the black / white part belongs to where the red part is now. i've never seen anything like that before and the reasoning behind doing something like that eludes me ...
to fix those pieces to the cabinet, a few screws had been drilled through the sides. still shaking my head about that!
now the red pieces have to be removed, turned and re-installed, but i won't be doing that now, because the cab will have to get a full make-over first
here are the pieces i have removed (some of them are not original and will be tossed away)
and here's what's left of the marquee after removing it as well - definitely not salvagable
some good news at the end: the original light fixture is present behind the ex-marquee, i was expecting the worst!!!
all in all, the cabinet is going to need a lot of attention, but i'm already accumulating the missing pieces to the puzzle and i'm sure that radar scope will rise in full glory. my nintendo row has grown and once again my wish has been answered: first it worked with punch out, now with radar scope, so all i'm really missing now for my row is a sheriff, an r-type and an upright vs dualcab. have you heard that? HAVE YOU REALLY HEARD THAT?
