1972 Midway "Haunted House" Gun Game Project
I bought this Haunted House gun game off of eBay. When it arrived I found it to be in worse condition then it had been described or pictured on the auction. Surprise! Well, not really. Even though I had asked a bunch of questions and asked for additional pictures it was in worse condition then expected and in need of a ton of work. I kicked myself a little for being so naive and resolved myself to the fact that I would spend as much of my time as needed to bring this game back from the dead.
Besides the cabinet's finish being a total loss, the two vacuum formed three dimensional trees at the rear of the 3D playfield were broken off and mostly missing. My heart sank; where was I going to find something like this? Well, they be imposable to find so I decided to make them. Thankfully I have another Haunted House gun game in my personal collection and the trees in question are in good condition. To try to make a long story short:
- These trees are molded three dimensional plastic and I used them as a mold for the new trees I wanted to make.
- I sprayed the inside of the old plastic trees with cooking stray (Pam) and pressed "Crayola Model Magic" (a soft, squishy modeling material that dries very slowly to a solid and is very light in weight). I got this stuff at a local art supply store. Also look here: http://www.crayola.com/educators/techniques/ModelMagic.cfm
- I removed the mold right away and let the newly formed trees to set and dry for a few days.
- I found once dry that the Crayola Model Magic is easily broken so I cut a peace of Lexon plastic (the same stuff used for pinball playfield plastics) to the shape of the tree as a backing support and glued them together with 3M spray glue.
- I painted the newly molded trees with a flat black acrylic paint and then duplicated all the lines and patterns with Black light acrylic paint I got from Risk Reactor: http://riskreactor.com/Index.htm .
- They turned out so nice I decided to place them in the game I have in my collection and put the factory made ones I had used as their mold in this game.
Here's a few pics of the new trees installed in my collection game:
The new three dimensional hand painted trees in the background made out of Crayola Model Magic
Compared to the original factory made trees
The black light really glows and looks cool on the new trees. The camera has a hard time picking up this glow.
Here's just a small list of what else I've done:
- Everything has been taken apart, cleaned, adjusted, painted as needed and repaired or replaced as needed.
- I’ve stripped and repainted the entire cabinet (inside and out) with antique white to give it that aged look that us collectors love. The inside has been painted a nice satin black.
- Cabinet has been splatter painted with blood red paint under the stencils just like the original.
- I've hand traced and cut new stencils directly from the original cabinet artwork.
- I've exactly matched stenciled cabinet artwork with true to original colors.
- Targets have been cleaned and repainted with fresh black light paint as needed.
- Backglass has been sealed with Krylon Triple Thick to keep the paint nice till the end of time (or close enough for our needs).
- All mechanical, electronic, and relays have been gone over. I’ve cleaned, adjusted and repaired or replaced as needed. It works and sounds great!
- I’ve cleaned the heads on the 8-track player and installed a used original soundtrack tape that works great and sounds real spooky. New soundtrack tapes can be bought from pinballpal.com if ever needed.
- Coin door has been reconditioned
- New speaker
- New grounded electrical cord
- New arcade leveling feet
Here's a nice description right from marvin3m.com/arcade/haunted.htm :
"Two cats, a witch, and a grave robbing monster. Backlight lighting, 8-track player sound loop 2 minutes 42 seconds long, uses a special 4-channel 8-track player (one track is used for background "spooky" sounds, and three other tracks have sound effects for specific targets - the monster, the cats and the witch). Gun has recoil and there are two circuit boards in the back of the game for amplification and motor speed control. The target motor speed increases at 1000, 2000 and 3000 point levels making them harder to hit. Game gives 20 shots with unlimited time. If a certain score is reached, 10 more shots are awarded. Haunted House's theme is a good one, and the sound affects are very good…."
If you have any questions about this game please send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Dschulpius@wi.rr.com
You can see part of the broken trees laying on the deck
Backglass has been sealed with Krylon Triple Thick to keep the paint nice
Aint she a beaut'?
Coin door has been reconditioned and looks like new
Notice the red splatter paint? True to the original!
Nice lines
Access panel (under witch) lets you get to the all the adjustments for the gun easier
Now, this is cool!
Attention has even been paid to the back.
Also, there's a new grounded power cord added
Everything has been adjusted and is super clean
Circuit boards have been gone over and are in nice shape
BOO!
Looks real spooky with the black light on!
