Manufacturer: Atari
Released: 1983
Designer: ?
Added to my collection: February 17, 2007
Cost to date : $381
Current Condition : Working 100%

Description

My Machine

Technical

Links

Description:

I'm not sure what it was about this game that really got me going...but I loved it from the first time I played it at River Town, a Chuck E. Cheese knock-off that was a couple of miles from my house. It has been on my must-have list ever since I started collecting.

The object of the game is relatively straightforward: guide your man (Charley Chuck according to the marquee) from the right side fo the screen to the left and eat the ice cream cone before it melts. Between you and your objective are a bunch of chefs that pop up out of little manholes that are scattered across the screen. There are piles of food--peas, bananas, watermelons, and tomatoes--around the screen as well. The chefs can throw these at Charley...but Charley can use the food to go on the offensive as well.

The game is simple but addictive. The graphics were nothing to write home about even in 1983--there isn't even a background on the screen. Still, it's loads of fun. Also, Food Fight is the first game that I remember that ever featured an instant-replay when you completed a screen in a particularly spectactular fashion. That was definitely a cool feature. It was a great reward for a job well-done.

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My Machine

One of the things that makes Food Fight such a cool collectible is the unique cabinet of the upright version of the game. The cabinet is distinctive, even when someone has converted it to something else because of its one-of-a-kind shape. And the side art is very cool, too.

Of course, I don't have the upright version. I have the cocktail version.

I had been looking for a Food Fight machine for a long time. I ran across an upright at an auciton (the same machine was there two times, in fact) but it wasn't in great shape and the bids went too high for my blood. I also ran across an upright that a collector was selling for $600. It was in pristine condition...but I just didn't have the money at the time, so I passed.

Since then, Food Fight machines have been scarce. The game was produced in relatively small numbers, so that's not surprising.

Then, when browsing RGVAC one day, I saw that Anthony at QuarterArcade was selling a cocktail Food Fight. He had just lowered the price to $340 because he wanted to get rid of it. He said the game was working (although the monitor could use recapping) and there were only a few cosmetic and mechanical flaws (stay tuned for a complete list).

I jumped at the chance to get the game for such a good price. And, what I didn't know at the time, was that there were only around 100 cocktail Food Fights produced. That makes this game officially the rarest one in my collection. And mine was apparently the 21st one off the assembly line!

I've got some cosmetic work to do on the cabinet--the CPOs are pretty torn up (don't know what I'll do about that). Parts-wise, the game needed a replacement centering bellows on one of the wacky gimble joysticks they used in this game. I found a source for this rather rare part, though. WizzesWorkshop has reproduction centering bellows that are actually better than the original ones. I also needed some coin door parts, which I was able to obtain from David Michel, a member of RGVAC. He had parts from a Centipede cocktail coin door that worked perfectly. The one remaining issue is the monitor, which has some distortion--it needs to be capped (which I'm no good at). It can wait, though.

Oh...and special thanks to Lloyd at Coin-Op Warehouse. Thanks to him and his son, Ben, I only had to go to Richmond to pick up the game instead of Philadelphia--they were nice enough to give it a ride on one of their trips down south.

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Food Fight Technical Info:

DIP switch settings:

Food Fight has one 8-switch bank on the main game board. (Bold settings are factory defaults.)

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More Food Fight Info:

• The Killer List of Video Games has information on Food Fight and pretty much every other game ever made.
• There is an online registry of Food Fight cocktail machines here.

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