Recent additions

Introduction

Sound has always been an important part of arcade games.  Electromechanical pinball machines were limited to bells and chimes, which were fine for the intended application - to indicate when targets were hit and game objectives were met.  But for other games, especially the EM "reality" games, the manufacturers were hard-pressed to come up with something to enhance the realism of the game.  So, some games of that era had tape players installed to play specially-recorded sound effects and/or background sounds and music to accompany the game play.  Needless to say, after thirty or more years, it's almost impossible to find one of these games with a fully functional sound system.  Even if the tape player and cartridge haven't already been "liberated" from the game, they are probably in very bad shape.  

One of my goals is to be able to archive all of the tape cartridges that were installed in these games.  I only have direct access to a handful of these games so the only way that this project will work is with the cooperation of other collectors/hobbyists.  I offer my sincere thanks to those that have already helped with this project.  I am posting high-resolution MP3 files of any tapes that I am able to archive, and for a fee I can make copies of these cartridges onto NOS 8-track cartridges.  Down the road, I'm planning on making a solid-state replacement for the entire tape player/cartridge system.  This will be either Flash ROM or EPROM based and has the obvious advantage of never wearing out or requiring any maintenance.

Here's a rundown of all of the games that use tape cartridges that I currently know about.  If you know of any others, I would appreciate hearing about them.

The Tape Player ID page can help you identify the different cartridge players used in these games.

Some of the tapes are simply used for background music and/or sound effects.  Others had audio tracks dedicated to particular game functions.  For example, the Wild Kingdom tape just has the same jungle sound effects on every track.  But the Haunted House gun game has four discrete audio tracks: one for the background and the other three for specific target sounds.  The charts below will indicate whether each tape has background sounds only.  It's much less critical to have the correct tape when it's only used for background sounds.  In some cases (particularly with Chicago Coin gun games), 8-track sound was a factory option.  So if you have one of those games and there is no sign of an original tape player, it may be able to accept almost any standard 8-track player.  Also, some Chicago Coin gun games offered an optional 8-track player but did not include a tape.  They expected the operator to supply a pre-recorded 8-track with whatever music they wished.  The flyer for Funland put it this way: "Musical background can be changed to fit the mood of its locale".  That's one way to solve the problem...  Games that had no factory-supplied tape will have "Customer-supplied" noted in the "Tape" column of the charts below.

note: Atari's Triple Hunt was a two-piece gun game with a black and white video screen and a separate pedestal for the rifle platform.  The operator could choose among three different game configurations:  Witch Hunt, Hit the Bear and Raccoon Hunt.  Each game had different targets and backgrounds.  The game had an 8-track player for sound effects, and two different 8-tracks were included: one tape for Witch Hunt and the other for Hit the Bear and Raccoon Hunt.  The 8-track sounds were simply for background sounds.  The rifle shot and target hit sounds were generated by the microprocessor controlling the game.

Here's a brief list of games that, as far as I know, never had a tape cartridge player installed at the factory.  An 8-track player was a factory option for some of the Chicago Coin games, so not every game that supported a tape player was actually shipped with one.  I'm providing the list below for two reasons.  First, to define which games are part of this project, and second to invite you to make any corrections or additions to this list by commenting here.

If you have a tape player and don't know what game it's from, or suspect that the player that you have is not the right one, check out the Tape Player ID page.

But it would be nice to have a selection of music that is more appropriate to the theme of the game.  Many of those games have circus or carnival themes, so below I have links to some MIDI files which might work.  I would appreciate your feedback on any of these.  You could of course make your own 8-track from these sound files if you have the necessary 8-track recording equipment, or I may make these tapes available through Pinball Pal.  If there's a consensus on which tunes are appropriate, I could set up a tape with all of the chosen tunes playing in sequence.

Here is a sampling of MIDI files that I have found, which I believe to  be in the public domain.  If you have any other MIDI or MP3 files that you think would fit this category that you are willing to share, please get in touch with me.

There are a bunch more old music MIDI files at http://mybonbon.com.  Happy hunting.

And thanks to Randy for these additional MIDI file links:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/carouselmusic/

Gun Games · Driving Games · Other Games · No Tape · Mysteries