Posted March 15, 2015 by FrizzleFried in Current Lineup 2926

Combat / Multi-Exidy

Manufactured by Exidy (c)1985

Condition When Purchased:	B-
Current Condition:	B-

It was mid-July 2013 when an ad posted on a neighboring craigslist caught my eye. I'd been collecting for nearly 7 years by now and had yet to come across an Exidy shooter… ANY Exidy shooter… so I was quite interested when I saw an Exidy Combat posted with the photo you see to the right attached. Sure, it was 6 hours away, way east of where I live, but the price was right and, well, it was an EXIDY SHOOTER!

So I contact the guy and make plans to head out the next day to go pick it up. The drive was 99% freeway so it wasn't too bad, however the weather wasn't the best having hit some rain on the way there. Luckily I'd brought both stretch wrap and a couple tarps. When I arrived in Idaho Falls (which was the first and last time I've been there) I was a bit surprised at how much of a dump the place was. Thus far, most places I've visited in Idaho have been pretty nice… not this place. It really didn't seem like a nice place to live. Moving past my initial thoughts of the place I arrived at the sellers place. The first think that caught my eye was the American flags … there must have been 4 or 5 of them. One in the yard, one in the window, one in his truck window, one in the window of the RV int he driveway, etc. The guy was patriotic, that's for sure. The next thing I notice are the "East County Hells Angels" stickers all over his truck, on his house window, on the RV. Uh…ok. Then I saw his motorcycle… a Harley… and the "beware of dog" signs posted on his fences and in his house window. I remember saying to myself "guess he's a biker". 🙂

I walk up to the house and knock. Inside I can hear multiple bid dogs barking. Taking note that the "beware of dogs" signs aren't for show I wait. And wait. Nothing. I knock again… the dogs bark even louder. I wait. I wait more. At this point I am starting to get a little pissy. I'd just drove 6 hours to get there and no one is home. I sure as hell ain't going to go poking around the back of the house. I figure I'd give it one more attempt before I make a phone call. I knock a third time. Inside, the dogs are going ape-shit. Still no answer. I make my way back to the truck and give the guy a ring. HE ANSWERS… [whew!] and tells me he had to take his daughter and her friends to a movie and that he was maybe 10 minutes out. I tell him not to worry, that I'd be waiting for him. I hang up and wait.

About 2 minutes later some long hair biker looking guy with a Willy Nelson beard comes over from across the street and a few doors down. He introduces himself and says he's a friend of the seller. Evidently he called the guy and asked him to open the garage for me to take a look at the game. He opens the garage and inside is Combat. We fire it up and she comes to life. Sure, there is some damage here and there… but nothing terrible. The cabinet also saw a little bit of water at some point as there is a little bit of swelling, but again, not bad. I agree to purchase and I wheel it out to the driveway where I start stretch-wraping it. About this time the seller pulls up. He's a younger looking guy without a beard but with hair down to his waist. Dude seemed like a nice enough guy. He helped me finish stretch wrapping and we loaded it up in the truck. Using straps and duct tape I wrapped up the game with the tarp as best as I could, paid the man, and headed for home.

When I got her home I verified she still worked, which she did, however I noticed there was some glitching going on with the high scores. Also, the game sometimes needed to be reboot after intial power up to get to the game. I checked the +5 and it was a bit low so I adjusted it up and the glitching went away. The game itself is quite difficult. It seems much more difficult than Crossbow, which is the only Exidy shooter I had experience with back in the day (well, I probably played Cheyenne as well but I don't remember exactly). Another thing I didn't really notice until I got the game home among my other games… the cabinet is a MASSIVE beast of a cabinet, easily towering over most my other games.

I am currently the #1 spot for Mike Doyles Exidy Collex'n multigame kit (the new version). I will be installing it the very day I receive it. Another "upgrade" I'm looking in to is that I would also love to acquire a gun with a pistol grip rather than the longer stock that I currently have. I have seen a user post a number of pistol grip guns on KLOV, it's just a matter of finding one for myself. The biggest pain in the ass about the game in the garagecade is the length of the gun and how far it sticks out from the cabinet. While the game Combat is fun, I am very much looking forward to playing some Crossbow and others as well. I will update this blog post when I finally receive the kit and have it installed. Thanks for reading!