My Abomination, the Moon Patrol Cabaret

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:22 am

I miss the giant Omega Race screenie. :(

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:40 pm

Update! I bought two 13" monitors on November 4th. One showed up on Friday. The other one... well, the guy said it shipped on Friday.

Anyway, the first 13" monitor has a vertical mount and a shitload of Make Trax screenburn. I was prepared for the screenburn. But with a vertical mount, I'd have to do a ton of shit to use it. So let's "shelve" that monitor for now.

I have no idea what kind of mount the other one has, but I know it has no burn on the screen. So if worst comes to worst, I believe I can do a tube swap with the one I destroyed earlier in the thread by breaking the vacuum seal.

I'd ETA the game being playable by Thanksgiving.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:08 am

I have to get the other one tomorrow at the post office. I'll bet every single one of you that it's a vertical mount. The fucking guy I bought it from over KLOV shipped it a week late and didn't respond to the one question I sent him about it ("Hey, does it have a horizontal mount?") If there's a single pixel of burn on the thing I'm doing a chargeback, so I can ignore his posts.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:10 am

The new monitor arrived. It looked like someone did a "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats" to it, just looking at the box. But I was able to get it home and mount it. I mean hook it up to the cabinet. No... no, I mean "mount" it. :/

Don't judge me!

It's a beautiful picture. I hope to post a photo soon.

The current drama is that I am attempting to install the joystick to the control panel. The ball top of the joystick won't frigging unscrew. And I can't get the entire ball and shaft to come out when I disassembled the joystick from its mounting plate. Ngggh. I really don't want to use one of my shitty "Happ Ultimates" that are kicking around.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:38 am

What's KLOV? Context implies it's a store, but it could be a broadcast station or a bidding system like eBay.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:53 pm

www.klov.com/aboutus.php

js · Post by js » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:04 pm

I thought you were talking about the Christian radio station.

ALSO: Article in the D&C yesterday about Strong Museum's arcade exhibit!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:39 pm

I don't think I took the time yet to say that I really like Moon Patrol. I'd put it in my top 20 game list for sure, maybe top 10.

The grocery store my mom used to shop at had Moon Patrol and Zoo Keeper machines by the front door, so I used to play them about once a week. I can usually beat the first set of levels (A-Z) on one man, but it's been so long since I played regularly that the second round always kills me off rather quickly.

The one thing that sucks about MP is that the high score doesn't let you put in your initials.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:58 pm

Flack wrote:I don't think I took the time yet to say that I really like Moon Patrol. I'd put it in my top 20 game list for sure, maybe top 10.

I don't want to keep being the Anti-Flack, but playing Moon Patrol for the first time was one of the most saddening moments in my arcade career.

I walked in, saw this new game, and saw "Williams" on the marquee, and instantly got stoked, because they were just coming off Robotron, Stargate, and Joust, arguably three of the greatest arcade games in history, and I was a Williams junkie at that point.

And then...

WTF is this.

Pastel colors? Jumping over things? Annoying, poppy music???! WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!

It was all so... un-Williams... that I left the arcade within five minutes, wiping tears of disappointment away.

Well, not really, but it was pretty bad.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:29 pm

Flack wrote:The one thing that sucks about MP is that the high score doesn't let you put in your initials.

Oh - the high score save, I should say, does this!!!

Pretty cool. I'm going try to get the control panel set this weekend, to make sure everything is working, and then install the kit.

Pastel colors? Jumping over things? Annoying, poppy music???! WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!

It was all so... un-Williams... that I left the arcade within five minutes, wiping tears of disappointment away.

You were right, Ben! Moon Patrol was developed by Irem. It was just distributed by Williams.

Allow me to tell you why I thought it would be nice to have this game, though.

When we think of the moon, we think of a completely serene environment. Quiet. Motionless. Safe. Abandoned. And he we see that aliens - aliens to OUR solar system, to our moon - are coming.

Moon Patrol is a quest to reclaim the quiet serenity of the moon that looks down upon us. And for some reason, that speaks to me more than any quest for a sword or talisman or prize.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:44 am

Plus, it gives the moon the one thing it's missing in real life: parallax scrolling.

Pinback, I don't mind you being the Anti-Flack. Just know that when we meet in real life, I plan on sucker punching you with a left jab and then smacking you in the face with a sandwich from Jack in the Box. Nothing personal. And if you wake up and find yourself trapped in a Moon Patrol cabinet ... well that just adds to the festivities.

Wow. Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, I was 8 or 9 at the most when Moon Patrol came out. I don't remember having any perception of the state of the arcade business at that time. I just remember thinking jumping over craters and shooting UFOs was kind of fun.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:55 am

Me, too, Flack.

(Both for the perception of the arcade industry, and wanting to sucker-murder Pinback when I next see him.)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:02 pm

Moon Patrol sucks.

I've come around on Jack in the Box, though. Bonus Jack? Delicious! Jumbo Jack w/Cheese? Fantastic!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:37 pm

Speaking of crappy arcade games, how on earth did Data East stay in business all those years? I just got the Data East anthology for the Wii which comes with 15 games and I'd say there are only two I'd play a second time.

BurgerTime
Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory
Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja
Burnin’ Rubber
Caveman Ninja
Crude Buster
Express Raider
Heavy Barrel
Lock ‘n’ Chase
Magical Drop III
Secret Agent
Side Pocket
Street Hoop
Super Real Darwin
Wizard Fire

The actual title is "Data East Arcade Classics" and I believe they have used the term "Arcade Classics" fairly liberally.

Also if you play long enough and unlock enough things you can view the marquees from the machines. Or, you know, you could just use Google.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 12:54 pm

Data East applied the first-and-last-quarter tactic of slipping their machines in between other, more playable games. People would drop quarters in them, just to try them out, realizing too late that the majority of the games suck more than a Dyson vacuum cleaner plugged into a 220 volt outlet. The customer would then quickly go away, vowing to never play that particular game ever again. But they had to drop at least one quarter in order to find that out.
If a particular arcade owner ever placed a row of D-E machines next to each other without some better games to break up the (suckiness), the arcade would quickly go out of business and turn into a used furniture dealership.

The only exceptions are:

Burgertime
Karate Champ
and maybe Popeye

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:49 pm

Popeye was from Nintendo. That leaves Burgertime (which is a good platform game) and Karate Champ, which is (in my opinion) a great game, and not on this compilation.

Burgertime is, but it looks oddly pixelated (like they scrunched the picture or something) and controlling it with the Wii controller is kind of difficult.

It's bad when you feel like you got ripped off after paying $20 for 15 games.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:36 pm

I felt the same way when I bought the Namco Museum for PS3 explicitly (expressly?) for the sole purpose of getting Bosconian. It wasn't available on the DLC version. Balls!

The other games are marginal.

THE
SAWBUCK OUT THE
WINDOW
AARDVARK

Can you use the Wiimotes' motion thing, or do you just turn them sideways and use the D pad and buttons? I bought the original Zelda for five bucks, dowloaded and then I hadda buy the arcade attachment because the sideways Wiimote thing just wasn't cutting it for me.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:55 am

It's set up for the sideways Wiimote, although it does support the retro Wii controller and also Gamecube controllers.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 9:08 am

Re: Moon Patrol

Why hasn't anyone ever made a version using the actual lunar rover and actual lunar landscapes?

Edit: i mean pictures of them not, you know, the REAL thing.

THE
MORE REALISTIC
FANTASY
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:27 pm

Christ! I have had a non-playable Moon Patrol cabaret downstairs for months now. Unacceptable! I got the arcade bug again after podcastin' with Flack, and lucky me, I had a game I never bothered to get working 100%.

Here's where we are:

- I have a cab.
- I have the PCBs installed in the cab.
- The monitor works correctly and is installed.

That's it! That's racist!

The biggest challenge in all this has been trying to adapt the Omega Race control panel for a different game. Christ, never again. I finally managed to get the joystick installed.

I didn't get the Omega Race bezel when I bought the cab. That's OK. I thought I would get some glass and then order the Moon Patrol graphic from Mame Marquees at a custom size. I ordered the glass just now from onedayglass.com. A piece of 17 3/4" x 14 3/4" glass cost only $18. (But $23 to ship.) At least it's on the way.

I guess Mame Marquees is called Game on Grafix - at the beginning of next month, I'll order the custom-printed artwork for the bezel. In the meantime, I am gonna wire up the control panel so, Christ, at least I can play the game.