Story time if you'll indulge me.
A lot of people don't believe me when I say I used to own a Defender upright cabinet. Then I show them this.
Background : While I tried to go to DeVry Institute of Technology in the mid 1980s in Columbus Ohio, there was this company called The Game Exchange across the street. Somehow one of my roommates learned they dealt with coin up arcade games and in late 1986 was having a warehouse sale. And we all thought "Oh Boy!" But being poor college students, we couldn't afford much. I wanted a working Qbert upright. One roommate scored a complete Star Trek vectorscan game which needed work (he later got it fully working) and I... bought this incomplete Defender (no monitor and parts pilfered power supply but had complete documents) for $50.
We managed to get the things back to the apartment, quickly determined what we needed just to get things to turn on, and next week returned to the business to see if I could at least buy 2 parts - a rectifying bridge and a huge pop can capacitor. Cost was $21. That got the power supply working and verified the board at least worked because of the self test sound from the speaker. No display. We tried going back again but the owner was a jerk and chased us out and refused to let us buy anything more because we were "bothering his employees." I'm not sorry to know that business is long gone.
Being DeVry students, we tried rigging up a circuit to convert the signals to be usable through an RF modulator and it almost worked. Never quite finished that doohickey.
It was a huge load to lug back home via Uhaul truck when my attempt at a college education ultimately failed. The cabinet lived in the dining room until it was moved to the basement after which I got a rubber mallot and gently coerced the cabinet apart. The game computer was stored in my bedroom. That is until 1997.
WebTV happened. Sailor Moon happened. Anime North was about to happen. I needed money. Could I sell my Defender? There was a Usenet newsgroup for doing that and I posted a message. A fellow from Pittsburgh drove to my house and picked it up in person. Handed me $80 (I was asking $75 for it) and he got everything. Had a great time in Toronto a month or so later.
I redeemed that decision by buying Defender 2000 for my Atari Jaguar.
