The GHZ Forum

The webmaster at the always relevant arcadeflyers.com asked me if I knew the release date for this machine:

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/index.php?p ... edb&id=432

I've never seen it before, but I wonder if you goons have any info? I'm curious to know myself now.

I saw it on ebay a bunch of times while looking for the tiger games. In fact, here it is now. No info on it though.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've played this before. You roll a coin down a ramp and try to get it into slots lined up on the far side with different ticket values. I think Robotnik's slot was the highest, with some ridiculous number of tickets like 1 or 2 hundred. It was the easiest source of tickets I ever found in any arcade. The machine actually ran out while I was playing. I could be thinking of a completely different one though.

<img src="http://www.vimscape.com/temp/meleonmotora.jpg">

I've seen this too. It was always tucked away in the corner of the arcade where it would prolly get the least use. They had it for several years before it up and disappeared. I never asked what happened to it, and I won't get the chance; that arcade closed a few months ago along with a bunch of other stores in one of my local malls. (Took damn near the whole food court with it, so your only choices for food in that mall now are Chik-Fil-A, Applebee's, or - choke - K&W.)

AFAIK there's still one of those things up at an entertainment center or something at Niagra Falls, a buddy of mine was there and got some closer pictures of it. I'll dig up the topic in a sec.

And fuck you Cuckoo, the three kanker sores in my mouth made laughing at that pic a lot of fun :(

Edit: Pics here. According to him, music-wise it has the Sonic 3 title jingle and Sega chorus.

Sonic's arms aren't colored properly once on that entire flyer. Man, is that mildly annoying.

If i remember rightly, there's one in the trocadero in Piccadilly circus London.

Sigh, Sega World, how i miss thee...

Speaking of the Trocadero, it would seem it now has a sex museum called Amora...http://www.amoralondon.com/ I find this to be rather Kitsch.

I've played it. I'm almost certain it had "1991" somewhere on it. That seems kind of obvious given the artwork, but that's all I've got.

The flyer mentions Sonic 2, though, which wasn't released until quite late into 1992. I'm hesitant to accept a third-hand, probably hazy recollection of a Sonic 3 jingle, so I'm thinking maybe late '92, or anytime '93ish?

It could be it got re-issued with a new flyer but not a new cabinet, or by the time they made it Sonic 2 was in the works and they figured it was worth mentioning it was related to the latest thing. It's probably pre-Sonic 2 though, since you'd think they'd have put Tails on there if they had him.

I think they had one of these in Great Lakes Crossing (a mall in south-eastern Michigan) somewhere. I think I've even play this game, but I don't remember much about it. I think it actually came out somewhere between S&K and Sonic Adventure, though I'm not sure.

Someone who apparently encountered the machine very recently emailed me and says he also believes the sound effects were from Sonic 3.

It is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a new age book wrapped in dubious tortilla on the Taco Bell dollar menu.

I remember Sonic 1 sound effects, but be warned that this is just another hazily recollected memory. I think I would have noticed Sonic 3 effects given the artwork.

I'm with Silver, though. It's got to be pre-Sonic 2's release, or else Tails would be on it. Did those badniks appear in artwork much after Sonic 2?

I had an idea and searched around for the Sega phone number at the bottom. There's only a handful of hits, but all references are from 1993.

Wow. You're like Batman or Sherlock Holmes.

I've never seen this thing around here, ever. But I did see one Sonic the Fighters.

This link is to a patent issued in 2006 that cites work from the Sonic game. But it annoyingly has no date.

Searching for Sting International, who developed the game, indicates they existed after 1996, as they worked with Disney for a Toy Story game. Doesn't narrow anything down for Sonic, though.