It was during the summer of 1981.  While visiting family in Florida, I came across one of these machines at their local arcade.  Sure, I had seen regular upright cabinets all over the place, but I had never seen a cockpit version before that day.  In fact, it was the ONLY one I ever saw until I bought one ebay to start this whole project in 2006.  What a find!

I don't have a lot to say about my experience with this one as a kid, since I only had a single experience with the machine.  However, I did enjoy the game in standard upright cabinets throughout my youth.  The cockpit version was a cool take on an already cool game.  So, naturally, it should be preserved.  Now begins the project.

Fast forward to the year 2006.  The Missile Command cockpit, while not a favorite of mine since I had very limited experience with it during my youth, I still think the machine looks pretty cool.  Based on the fact that this machine is incredibly rare, it's prime for reproduction.  Given the fact that there are tons of MC boards available and the only few parts which are specific to this machine are easily reproduced, this project should be fairly easy.  

How rare is this machine?  Well, I cannot say with any certainty what the official count may be, but I've heard many rumors on this subject.  Most people who have any idea of this topic will claim either 99, 200 or 500 (or something very close to these numbers).  Given my personal experience of only seeing one of these out in the wild back in the day, I tend to believe the "100" figure the most.  How many remain today?  I would venture to guess somewhere in the region of maybe 20-30 of them at most.

Sadly, these machines, however many there were originally, fell prey to the same thing that killed off most classic machines from the day.  Conversions!  If not that, then ops going belly up and trashing their machines.  Quite frankly, this machine was a beast!  It's very heavy and very tall/awkward which makes things even worse.  Many of these were actually cut in half...on purpose!

I finally happened upon a Missile Command cockpit model sometime last year on ebay.  I paid just under $1K for the sucker.  It immediately became clear to me that this machine had some structural problems.  It was pulling apart....as in, the side were pulling outward away from the center of the machine.  That makes for a very unstable cabinet.  I was unhappy with this, but since I purchased it strictly to use as a sort of guide to make reproduction cabinets, I forgot about it.

This machine was Ser No. 007 which was widely talked about on the forums somewhat recently.  Long story short, the game was swiped, someone tried to sell it on ebay many months later, the proverbial terd hit the fan, everyone was up in arms.  In the end, I got my measurements from the machine in exchange to give up my claim to it's ownership.  Fair enough since I got what I originally wanted out of the machine.

A local collector and good friend was willing to help with the initial groundwork to spec. out the cabinet design.  He went out to the ebay sellers place on at least three different occasions and completely measured up the cabinet.

Here's the initial build layout for the Missile Command cockpit.  Ok, this is just cool!  You can open this photo up in a new window to get a larger view.  Naturally, the file isn't too detailed so as to protect the time investment over here at RAM Controls.  

The reproduction of the cabinet has made it a necessity to also reproduce various parts used on this machine as well.  Such as the special sized control panel which is different from the upright counterpart, the rear glass marquee, various metal parts and a few artwork items.  I may possibly need to reproduce the power supply block.  Everything else should be a piece of cake on this project.  In fact, the huge monitor should also be easy as there are several options available today which are very similar to the unit used in this machine.

Construction Progress

Updates

05/06/07 - This project BLOG has just been converted  from notes and pics taken awhile back and added to the website for reference.

10/10/07 - This is where we are now.

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