I saw this on ebay. I think it was overpriced at $950 for the condition but I also knew if I fixed it up it would be worth a lot more, epsecially to me. I had to have it so I bought it eventhough it was quite expensive. Helicopter games were always considered...well...boring. But they are also so unusual and rare that they are still collectable. That's great but I dont collect items because they are collectable. I collect stuff I like. I liked this. It has a space theme and came out at a time when NASA and space was very prominent on the minds of Americans. It seemed like a piece of history and I felt that need to restore it. From the auction description it sounded like it worked 90% so the biggest problem was the graphics damage.

I was researching the game and found a link at marvin3m.com, turns out Clay has one of these that he already fixed up. One of the interesting things about this game is that it has NO sound. A 1968 game with no sound at all. It has transistors in the power supply but no sound. Clay created a sound file, a mix of music and NASA radio chatter. I thought this was a great idea so even before I received the game I ordered a CD of the Apollo 11 mission off of ebay for $8. I will...somehow....use it. At worst I can use a cassette player with an endless loop tape. I dont like using a cassette though so I will look into other options first. I know what you are thinking already, "Wait, he has a 1968 game and he is putting apollo 11 audio in it? Wasnt that 1969". Yes, it was July 16, 1969, well after this game was released. Lets just think of it as a game upgrade that should have been released but never was. I think it will really add to the game play to hear actual moon landing audio during play.

When it arrives I will start working on it.

  The game is in such disrepair that I decided to simply re-do everything. There is a point between cleaning & restoring and a point of rebuilding and this was clearly beyond the clean & restore point. I always prefer to keep a game as original as possible but this one was in such bad shape that it was not going to work to touch up the paint a little. It had to be repainted heavily.

This is on my list of upcomming projects so watch for it to be completed in the near future.