(Photos Courtesy of Ataricade (www.ataricade.com))
The California Extreme(CAX) event has come and gone but with it are a ton of pics! Here we are reposting many pictures taken by user Ataricade (who runs an awesome Atari arcade related website). The event looks like it was a total success judging by not only the pictures taken but also the reports from those that made it there. I’ll try to provide a brief synopsis of the pictures by row, separating commentary for each picture by semicolons.
1) Before the storm a@ 9am and then after. Getting a look at the game floor, notable for inclusion of Midway’s The Grid; Primal Rage with a unique Addams Family pin that has been modified to accept input from a cycle. Very strange and requires a lot of effort to get the flippers powered up.
2. Several pins and what looks to be a Super Zaxxon cabinet; A huge row of pins manned by several players; People enjoying themselves with games like Venture and Frogger; another shot of the pins with some games that are a little hard to identify but on the right is supposed to be a prototype Atari game, I’m not sure of the name.
Hit the post break for more pics, with a few surprises and cool stuff inside.
3. Gravitar and a super rare Atari game Akka Arrk as well as a Blaster; More pins but looking carefully you’ll see one of Atari’s few pinball machines, Hercules, which to this day is the largest pin ever made. Across the isle is another shot of The Grid which is next to a couple of DDR systems; here’s a really interesting shot with a little bit of Atari’s Night Driver next to a rare Atari Fire Truck. This game has a cool cabinet and concept, one player sits in the cockpit, the other mans the steering wheel behind him and the players can control separate parts of the fire engine as it races along, which means teamwork is needed. Very cool. Also in a real treat fo Donkey Kong fans, every arcade game to use the DK name is here, including the just released Donkey Kong 2 that we reported about a little over a week ago. You’ll notice that someone made a cabinet just for DK2 and it looks pretty cool. Also to be seen in this pic is a Burgertime; a few not-so popular titles including Bagman (I never have been good at it), Bubbles, Inferno, and at the end Xevious(well Xevious was popular). I’m not really sure about the game between Xevious and Inferno, I’m not familiar with it.
4. Wow, talk about Atari heaven with these first two pics. 1st we have a number of rare Atari titles including two Major Havoc machines (this game rocks, it’s one of my favorite), Quantum a very rare vector game, a barely viewable Black Widow (it’s like Robotron but it’s a tad different and uses vectors), a Sega Tac/Scan and what I think is a Cinematronics Starhawk and then two Atari Asteroids Deluxe machines; the 2nd pic contains Atari Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back cabs, a Lunar Lander, Asteroids and then those two Asteroids Deluxe games again; people just having a good time playing games; more pinball goodness with a little tyke trying to play.
5. What’s an arcade event without a few fighters, right? Soulcalibur 2 and SVCChaos, with a guy playing Maximum Force; a number of what looks like unusual cabinets although these used to be common, cabarets were cheaper and a little easier to move around as they weren’t as large as your typical upright game. A few notable games including BattleZone, Tron, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Tempest and Centipede; an interesting bunch including TARG, upright BattleZone, Star Trek, Armor Attack and Speed Freak; Speed Freak again along with some very rare games including Warrior (considered the first 1-on-1 fighting game) and Barrier, all from Vectorbeam/Cinematronics.
6. A number of players enjoying some classics including Toobin’, Wizard of Wor, Sinistar, Robotron 2084, Maximum Force and Space War; The gentleman in the center of this picture (user krakboi on KLOV) brought all of the games in this picture, from Food Fight on the left to Gyruss, Galaga 3, Paperboy, Ice Cold Beer and Zeke’s Peke. The lucky guy also owns a Warlords Cocktail, which is personally one of my most wanted games; The Track & Field pic is cool, it features a little competition between two players. Apparently one of these guys owns the cab, has his own records on it, he went to lunch came back and someone with the initials BAK had beat those records. After finding BAK, these two went at it – pure arcade fun and rivalry at it’s finest; Here is what I am talking about when it comes to Warlords – this game is addictive and is IMHO the best multiplayer game ever. Every event these come to it seems like the same thing happens – people pack around them and even start betting on winners (I swear that is not why I want it though). There is nothing quite like a 4 player Warlords tournament. Also you can see an Atari Boxing game in the background.
7. The first pic below is a real gem. If you are not sure why, that’s OK, but it’s none other than Owen Rubin (creator of games such as Space Duel, Major Havoc, Skydiver, Reactor and many others), Al Alcorn (creator/co-creator of games like Pong, Breakout, the Atari 2600 and considered one of Atari’s founders) and Walter Day (considered the official score keeper of video games). As gamers we owe these guys a lot (and I couldn’t begin to count how many hours I’ve spent playing the Atari 2600); next is Scott Evans of the Atari Games Museum standing by some great Atari arcades including Star Wars (cockpit), I, Robot (the first game to use true 3D), RBI Baseball, what I think is a rare Red Baron cockpit game and in the background I think is the cabinet for Freeze, a game Atari Games never released and was powered by the Atari Jaguar.
Again thanks to Ataricade for the pictures, I hoped you enjoyed them!
