Alpha Trading Co. Jamma Arcade Board

[rcantor77]

Now I know that there are many PC Engine Arcade boards that are widely available on eBay and Yahoo Japan Auctions, and I had assumed that these were the handiwork of some Chinese factory knocking out more unlicensed crap. But I now know that is not correct, but before I explain anymore i'll give some background...

A few years ago, a few friends and I very sadly helped the owner of one of London's oldest Amusement arcades, the Goodge Street Casino, to clear out the last of the cabinets so it could finally close its doors to the public. As part of this closure, the owner's collection of cabinets, boards and artwork were also saved... and the guy in question was the owner of Electrocoin Automatics, John Stergides, who were the largest distributer of all Amusement Arcade cabinets and games in the UK and across Europe... similar to Romstar in the US.

Among the collection many rare and prototype boards were found, including amongst other things an unreleased Bubble Bobble 2 PCB...
http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53192

And a wealth of Neo Geo MVS Prototypes that I currently have in my collection...
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?238655-MVS-Proto-carts-Part-II

Anyway, back to why I actually started this thread...

So within this collection was a fairly ordinary and common PC Engine Arcade Board, but it what the board was packaged with that was most interesting... it was another friend who got hold of it first so for the last couple of years I have been trying to get him to part with it and now I finally have...




So obviously we have all seen these boards, but this one was the first one I had ever seen boxed and marked Alpha Trading...




But this system also came included with an airmail letter which again was stamped by Alpha Trading...





The first letter dated February 17th 1989, is from NEC and addressed to Alpha Trading confirming that they have importer/distributer rights of all PC Engine systems in Korea...




And the other letter was the original order invoice placed by Electrocoin on April 6th 1989...

[Necromancer]

Neat stuff.  Thanks for sharing. 

Nice list of games.  I can make out Kung Fu, Space Harrier, Son Son II, Vigilante, R-Type I, Galaga '88, Victory Run, and Wonder Boy (presumably Bikkuriman), but what's the one third from the bottom?  It looks like Legend of Makae, so maybe Makyou Densetsu (Legendary Axe)?

[rcantor77]

Yeah it says Legend of Makae so I think you are probably right with Legendary Axe...

[esteban]

Ha! I was wondering about that title as well (Legend of Makae).

Ok, so you have to continue with the story... (I love this stuff!!!!!)

[SignOfZeta]

The letters are truely interesting, thanks for posting.

However, I think changing "someplace in China" to "someplace in Korea" is not exactly a revelation. The letter only says that they are the official distro for Korea, not that they are licensed to make their own peripherals and sell them to operators in the UK. "Unlicensed" still seems to apply. "Junk", I don't know about. Does it still work?

[SuperPlay]

Thanks for posting this, most interesting :-)

[xelement5x]

Very cool!

[esteban]

The letters are truely interesting, thanks for posting.

However, I think changing "someplace in China" to "someplace in Korea" is not exactly a revelation. The letter only says that they are the official distro for Korea, not that they are licensed to make their own peripherals and sell them to operators in the UK. "Unlicensed" still seems to apply. "Junk", I don't know about. Does it still work?

Agreed.

[Digi.k]

cool piece of history there.  slightly jealous too.

[guyjin]

I find it odd that the price of a thing that Koreans are selling to British is in USD. Otherwise awesome