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This is my only (extra) XYBOTS game, so it is the only one that will ever be available in Arcadia Auctions! The game is almost fully working (keep reading). The monitor has a great picture! The sound is amazing - I just love the soundtrack for Xybots - one of Atari's best soundtracks ever in my opinion. The sound effects are really good too. With the stereo effects, I've rarely played a videogame where the sounds make more of an impact than Xybots.
Also, this game has a lot of depth and is really fun to play. You are working your way through mazes and fighting enemies as you go. You can not only move in every direction, but you can rotate your view 90 degrees either direction. Really cool effect - almost like a first person shooter really - results in a 3-D effect when you play.
Plus games where you play cooperatively with another player are so fun. This is a game where you can play alone, or with another player, both working towards the same goal. Atari made a few games like this during the late 80s and they are really fun. Vindicators and Toobin are a couple examples of others.
The only thing not working right now is something that you can fix with just a little time and elbow grease. During the late 80s and early 90s, Atari used a strange type of joystick that they seemed to pioneer. I'm not sure what they thought was wrong with the standard joysticks of the time period, but they thought they needed their own design. If you watch my video above, you will see exactly what I'm talking about and what the problem is. But in case you can't watch that video, I will try to briefly summarize the issue here.
The issue is that the microswitches on their joysticks are actuated by moving an inner plastic cylinder that has a black rubber ring around it - the joystick moves this cylinder and it rubs up against the microswitches. The problem is that the rubber ring around the cylinder does not age well, at least after 35+ years. The rubber starts to break down and turn into a tar-like goop. So all you need to do is pull the broken down rubber off the cylinder and put a new black pinball flipper rubber around the cylinder, and you're back in business for another 35 years. I've had to do this on numerous Atari games, most recently a Cyberball game. It's something anyone can do - not rocket science. It just takes a little time and I don't have time right now - trying to get 75+ games ready and listed in this auction before the deadline. So I'm leaving this for you to do.
For what it's worth, all the switches are working on the game, so there is no real problem other than these rubber rings needing replaced on the two joysticks.
The cabinet is not bad on this, but it has some rough spots. There is a little chunk broken on the front that could be bent back down and glued. There is a little roughness on the bottom, and there may be some minor water damage on the bottom. Nothing bad....the game is still very solid. There are also just some areas where it's a little rough around the edges. But the main things are really nice.
The marquee is near perfect and looks great all lit up. The control panel is in great condition. The front artwork looks very good, as does the sideart on both sides. The coin door is pretty good and has new LED bulbs and two quarter coin mechs. The coin box is missing, but I should be able to find an atari coin box if you really want one. Just let me know when you plan pickup/shipping and I'll dig for one.
Once again, this is a really good game that they just didn't make enough of, and it's your last chance to get one from me anyway (at least until I'm dead and they auction off all my other stuff...then the last one will be available).
I know that in the pictures above, the monitor looks like it isn't displaying correctly. However, that is only because the shutter speed is too fast on my phone camera. So it captures the picture while the monitor is drawing the screen and looks like half the screen is missing. Watch the video included above and you will see that the monitor has a great picture.
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