This post will be part of my efforts to inform the public about some vintage simulators that are relatively unknown. There is some debate over which motion simulator was actually the first one ever produced for the video arcade for use by the general public so I will cover a few of them that I know of that were made around the same period. Its no surprise that there is debate over this matter as there were quite a few small companies trying to produce something for the arcade scene that was new and different to help arcades recover after the big arcade crash.
The first one I would like to talk about is the Vertigo, made by Exidy in 1984. Most people don’t know that Exidy, manufacturer of games like Mouse Trap and Death Race, actually produced a full-sized simulator at one point. There is little known about this rare game, and I have not heard of an instance of this game existing today in the full-motion cabinet. These games were mostly placed on test location in the Southern California area, so if you lived around there during the mid 80’s, you may have encountered an Exidy Vertigo in an arcade. I know a person who trashed about 20 of these Vertigo machines in the 80s (ouch!), so there must have been at least around 20-30 of them produced, maybe a few more. Like most early simulators, they were around for a short period of time then disappeared due to failure of the machine or low earnings. The gameplay was a sort of a flying game with vector graphics.
If you have played or remember the Exidy Vertigo, feel free to leave your comments.
Also here is a picture and a link that gives more information about this rare, elusive game.
Matt really hates simulator cabinets, doesn’t he Sara? It’s funny to watch him go off when you mention Shirke Avenger 🙂
This one has yet to turn up in MAME, but I’m curious as to whether it was actually Owen’s vector version of Tunnel Hunt/Tube Chase, or if they just developed a different game and named it Vertigo. I’ve never actually seen a Vertigo in the wild, but I do know that they were once going to use Owen’s original Tube Chase, but passed on it.
I think its really funny to watch Matt go off about the cabinets too, I would like to know if that shrike avenger cabinet on ebay was painted with sega gray paint or if gray was the original color of the shrike avenger cabinet, the ebay cabinet looks like it was sprayed with gray to me, and that black was the original color of the cabinet as per the flyer for the game.
Next we have to wait for a vertigo cabinet to come up on ebay… if a shrike avenger can come up then this is next hehe!
I did the sound for this game. It was really cool hardware but the costs were so high that few arcades could afford it. Exidy determined that the game did best in high-traffic, low-repeat locations like theme parks. The idea with Fifty-50 was that Exidy retained part or all of the ownership of the game unit and was able to recoup their cost by sharing in the “take” from the coinbox. I vaguely remember hearing about troubles with managing/maintaining the hardware in the field. I believe Vertigo was updated and renamed Vortex and later Tail Gunner 2.
We had several Vertigos in various Aladdin’s Castle locations in the mid-80s. They were QUITE challenging to keep running. In addition to motion hardware made by people that really did not have the expertise in that area, the Vector graphics had a couple of modes where they overdrove the crap out of the W-G Vector monitors, resulting in frequent failures in that area in addition to the motion hardware.
That’s really cool SLEDGE, I am always interested in stories of how games worked and didn’t work. Its 2018 and no one has found this game yet, and if someone has found it they have not come forward in any way that I know about.
I remember a brief appearance of one of the motion cabinets at the Aladdin’s Castle at the Santa Rosa Mall in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. It was massive, and the only full motion sim we’d ever seen in there besides the original Afterburner sit-down cabinet. Blew everyone away, but I think it was around for barely a month.