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    Leisure & Allied Industries "Skill Tester" (Type 2)

    Arcade Claw Machine Leisure & Allied Redemption Skilltester
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    No, you're not seeing double. My last machine restoration post was also about an LAI Skill Tester. ​​It's not often I get a double-up of machines, but while I was in the throes of finishing up repairs to the first LAI Skill Tester, I saw an ad on Facebook from someone who was giving another one away. Sweet! These machines aren't worth much, and there don't seem to be many people who have the desire or ability to fix them. But I'm a sucker for retro technology, so it's right up my alley! 
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    Leisure & Allied Industries "Skill Tester" (Type 1)

    Arcade Claw Machine Leisure & Allied Redemption Skilltester
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    Normally I start each blog entry with an image of the flyer for the game I'm going to be working on. Unfortunately, Leisure & Allied Industries (LAI) produced very few flyers for their games, particularly the simpler redemption games. However, there are few games that were as ubiquitous in Australian arcades as the classic skill tester claw machine by LAI. This particular example was one of the cabinets from our container-of-games pickup several years ago, and it was basically in working condition when I got it. However, it had never had a proper clean, and a few small issues were starting to appear, so it was time to give this machine a good going-over.
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    Ice Ball Alley Roller

    Alley Roller Arcade ICE Ice Ball Skee Ball
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    ​If you thought it was already ridiculous enough trying to move heavy, bulky pieces of coin-operated equipment around such as pinball machines, driving games, and videogame cabinets, you're in for a treat! But first, I'll have to explain what type of game I'm going to be talking about. If you saw the flyer above and thought this game was called a Skee-Ball machine, you'd be mistaken! And so was I when I first started researching it. Even though this is an "Ice Ball" machine made by     Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, ice ball isn't the correct term for it either. Skee-Ball actually refers to a very specific iteration of these machines, which were first manufactured by the Skee-Ball Alley Company at the start of the 20th Century (their website has a great page on their history).
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    Cyber Cycles

    1995 Arcade Cyber Cycles Namco
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    It's not often I work on arcade machines, but after grabbing this Cyber Cylces (Namco, 1995) as a part of a bulk arcade machine deal, I found that it was in need of a fair bit of work. So, I figured this blog post would be a good way to record the journey of learning about this game and board system. The pinball purists will have to forgive me, but even though I am a pinball die hard I still have a soft spot for video arcade games, particularly driving cabs. Cyber Cycles runs on Namco's Super System 22 hardware system, which I would say is a difficult system to repair due to a lack of schematics and general repair information. However, if I decided to sell this game, it would need to be in good working condition for the next owner, so I figure that posting some of my successes (and failures) during this repair may help out other Cyber Cycles owners in the future. Jump on, and let's ride...
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    Arcade Game Pickups: Container Load of Arcades!

    Arcade Cyber Cycles General Lighthouse Pickups Redemption Skilltester Victory Lap
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    Happy as a pig in shit!

    ​Last week, I was browsing Facebook marketplace for more projects to buy that I don't have time for (as you do). Most of the time this is an innocent way to waste some time in between meetings or during my lunch break. But last week was not so innocent. I actually found an interesting listing. It was a listing for a bulk lot of arcade cabinets which were in a storage container. The description didn't say much more than that, and there were no photos. The listing was local to me, so I contacted the seller, got his phone number, and gave him a call to get the down-low