Defender Cocktail

Games Produced by Williams (c)1981

This Defender cocktail cabinet pretty much popped right in to my lap this morning.  I woke up around 7AM and after a little bit ended up checking out the local craigslist where I spied a Defender Cocktail cabinet having been listed 6 hours prior for,  get this,  a hundred bucks.  …and people say there aren't any deals to be gotten any more… well,  anyway,  OF COURSE I had to jump on that.  So I called the number listed (and for those of you out there who use Cl to pick up games,  USE THE PHONE when they list their number … not just email … it's worth it) and left a voicemail.  An hour later I get a phone call from the seller.  He tells me that there were "like 8" calls for the game already but that he liked the fact that I was a collector.  I was sitting there ready for him to mention the price had gone up,  but nope… he tells me I can come pick up the game later that morning after an appointment he had with an auto shop. I agree to wait for another call from him.

At this point everything SEEMED legit… though I acknowledged the possibility of this being a prank (it wouldn't be the first time a fellow arcade collector has screwed with another)… I figured it was probably a good 9/10 shot this was a legit deal.  Sure enough,  I get a phone call a coupe hours later.  The guy lives about 6 miles from my place.   I show up and he's a cool dude who's in to console gaming.  He has a couple other arcade games (Mortal Kombat being one) but was moving and was lightening his load.  I paid the man his $100,  we lifted the game in to the back of my Durango and off I went with my new project!  Woohoo!

SO… what I have here is a partially working Defender cocktail.  He'd told me it was working… but I didn't care one way or another for the price.  By the time I got it home it's mostly working.  First off,  the monitor will need to be recapped terribly.  I am willing to bet (but do not know at this time) it's got the original flyback on the (likely) G07 in it… and if it does,  it will need to be replaced as well.  When I power up I can hear the startup sound… I can then see the rug pattern come up but then it comes up to a RAM error.  At this point I have done exactly ZERO other than bring it in the house (the wife is in San Diego with her parents for 13 more days).  I may be able to re-seat the IC's and rectify the RAM error… especially if the guy was being honest and it worked at his place (and he didn't seem like the bullshitting type).

Watch for more updates soon.

UPDATE: This game was sold in the condition described above.

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