Super Punch Out arcade game

Welcome, Congrats on your game. I've never played Super Punch Out in
the Arcades but have a real nice Punch Out game and love it. Jeff
Kinder runs the Dragon's Lair Project and he has had a cabinet for a
LONG time but needs the PCB. Again, welcome to the obsession.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game 

mizpulp RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> Hello all, my first post
>
> I am glad to say I just purchased my first arcade game, my favorite of
> all time, Super Punch Out. I was addicted to this back when it first
> came out in 1985, used to skip school, had all the records, etc etc. I
> remember I could put Dragon Chan out in 15 seconds but need some fine
> tuning to be able to do that now (I think 33 sec is my best right
> now).

Congratulations. This was my favorite game when I was a kid (12/13
years old) too. I played it back in '87/'88 for about a year straight.
This statement sounds familiar - "used to skip school, had all the
records, etc etc" I was addicted to it as well, and used to swipe
change from my older brother, or scrounge up bottles for redemption
money in order to play. My brother got wise to that though eventually
when he noticed that all he had for change in his jar was pennies.

> I payed $1195 for it, it's in good condition, both monitors look good,
> etc. Only issue is the side art and the front says is from punch out
> (not super) but the guy said he was working on the art and promised he
> would get it for me. The audio has a slight hum when idle, not sure if
> this is a big deal or not. Did I overpayed by your all standards?
> (Just curious, I really don't care, I got it now!!)

I would say that you overpayed by RGVAC standards. That price would be
considered "retail" I suppose. You can try installing one of the
Nintendo/Sanyo audio amp rebuild kits from Bob Roberts, Zanen
Electronics or Arcade Shop but Nintendo machines tend to hum anyway. My
SPO machine does the same thing.

> Can the game be set to different difficulty levels?

Yes it can. If you don't have the SPO manual, I scanned one in
recently. It is available at http://www.crazykong.com/ and
http://arcarc.xmission.com/ - the manual shows the dipswitch settings
for adjusting the difficulty.

The difficulty can be set from 0 to 3 and the time can also be set from
0 to 3 (0 being the easiest and 3 being the hardest).

> I've been doing some searching on this board - there's a guy
> MaximRecoil who seems to be a bigger SPO nut than me (I never thought I
> would find someone like that). Props!!

SPO fans aren't all that common it seems.

> Maxim - where do you live? What are your record times on all the guys?

I live in Central Maine. The machine I played when I was a kid was set
to "0" on the "time" dipswitch setting, which is the slowest clock,
meaning you can get faster win times. I can't remember what my times
were back then. Since I have owned an SPO machine I've had it set
according to Twin Galaxies settings, which is "1" for difficulty and
time. So my times are not as fast as they used to be. With that in
mind, my current fastest times on my machine are:

Bear Hugger - 21" 24
Dragon Chan - 24" 93
Vodka Drunkenski - 41" 43
Great Tiger - 52" 60
Super Macho Man - 1' 15" 88

In addition to being set at 0 for time, the machine I played as a kid
was also a different revision than the one I have now, and the one that
is in MAME. There was a trick you could do with Great Tiger to knock
him out in just over 30 seconds which doesn't work on my machine or in
MAME. Another difference was that Super Macho Man's location was stated
to be "Venice Beach, CA" on the machine I played as a kid, and is only
stated to be "USA" on my machine and in MAME.

My highest score is pretty much only limited by how long I feel like
standing there and playing. I usually stop playing just before I roll
the score over at a million in order to leave a 9xx,xxx point score on
the machine.

> Also - just in case you sometime come across this - there was a guy I
> used to play this with for years in the late 80s (Montgomery Mall
> arcade, Bethesda, Maryland), he was my nemesis, his name was Homer.
> Don't know what happened to you, can't remember your last name, but if
> you are still around, and come across this message PLEASE reply, would
> love to hear from you again.

My "nemesis" was a kid that was a year older than me by the name of
Lawton Mann. He was considered the best player in town on most any
machine that came into that general store where we all hung out after
school. At any given time there were about 5 machines in there, and he
always had the top score on all of them. When I first started playing,
I was already good at Punch-Out which I'd played for about a year in
'84/'85 across town. Lawton's score was about 275,000 on SPO and I told
my friends that I would beat his score eventually. They scoffed of
course, considering I'd just lost to the first guy. It took me a while;
it was a lot harder than Punch-Out. The morning after I beat his score
Lawton came up to me in the school yard and said "You beat my score!"
He stopped playing altogether after that, for several months. He did
start playing again and managed get up to number 2 before they took the
machine out of there and replaced it with something else. I had 375,000
or so and Lawton had 350,000 or so when that machine left.

> My next game on the list - of course, is Punch Out. Will write back
> once I got it.

Yeah, I have a Punch-Out boardset too that I swap in the machine every
now and then.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game 

Hey Maxim

Nice reply!

"according to Twin Galaxies" -- what does this mean?

I checked my machine - Super Macho Man is from "USA" - there are
different versions of this game? I mean there is one where he is from
California? Didn't know that.

What is the trick for Great Tiger? Let me try it out

How do you know the machine you played as a kid was set to "0" ? Is
there a way for me to check what my machine is set at without opening
the back and looking at the board?

Do you know any other SPO addicts? In fact do you know anyone else who
owns this machine?

Regarding side art (and front art, is it called front art?) - Is there
anywhere I could purchase this? BTW I just purchased the original SPO
flyer from Ebay today...

Great to meet you, if you are ever visiting Washington DC (I live 10
min outside the city), let me know!!

E-mail me your e-mail address if you get a chance.

Miz

MaximRecoil wrote:
> mizpulp.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hello all, my first post
> >
> > I am glad to say I just purchased my first arcade game, my favorite of
> > all time, Super Punch Out. I was addicted to this back when it first
> > came out in 1985, used to skip school, had all the records, etc etc. I
> > remember I could put Dragon Chan out in 15 seconds but need some fine
> > tuning to be able to do that now (I think 33 sec is my best right
> > now).
>
> Congratulations. This was my favorite game when I was a kid (12/13
> years old) too. I played it back in '87/'88 for about a year straight.
> This statement sounds familiar - "used to skip school, had all the
> records, etc etc" I was addicted to it as well, and used to swipe
> change from my older brother, or scrounge up bottles for redemption
> money in order to play. My brother got wise to that though eventually
> when he noticed that all he had for change in his jar was pennies.
>
> > I payed $1195 for it, it's in good condition, both monitors look good,
> > etc. Only issue is the side art and the front says is from punch out
> > (not super) but the guy said he was working on the art and promised he
> > would get it for me. The audio has a slight hum when idle, not sure if
> > this is a big deal or not. Did I overpayed by your all standards?
> > (Just curious, I really don't care, I got it now!!)
>
> I would say that you overpayed by RGVAC standards. That price would be
> considered "retail" I suppose. You can try installing one of the
> Nintendo/Sanyo audio amp rebuild kits from Bob Roberts, Zanen
> Electronics or Arcade Shop but Nintendo machines tend to hum anyway. My
> SPO machine does the same thing.
>
> > Can the game be set to different difficulty levels?
>
> Yes it can. If you don't have the SPO manual, I scanned one in
> recently. It is available at http://www.crazykong.com/ and
> http://arcarc.xmission.com/ - the manual shows the dipswitch settings
> for adjusting the difficulty.
>
> The difficulty can be set from 0 to 3 and the time can also be set from
> 0 to 3 (0 being the easiest and 3 being the hardest).
>
> > I've been doing some searching on this board - there's a guy
> > MaximRecoil who seems to be a bigger SPO nut than me (I never thought I
> > would find someone like that). Props!!
>
> SPO fans aren't all that common it seems.
>
> > Maxim - where do you live? What are your record times on all the guys?
>
> I live in Central Maine. The machine I played when I was a kid was set
> to "0" on the "time" dipswitch setting, which is the slowest clock,
> meaning you can get faster win times. I can't remember what my times
> were back then. Since I have owned an SPO machine I've had it set
> according to Twin Galaxies settings, which is "1" for difficulty and
> time. So my times are not as fast as they used to be. With that in
> mind, my current fastest times on my machine are:
>
> Bear Hugger - 21" 24
> Dragon Chan - 24" 93
> Vodka Drunkenski - 41" 43
> Great Tiger - 52" 60
> Super Macho Man - 1' 15" 88
>
> In addition to being set at 0 for time, the machine I played as a kid
> was also a different revision than the one I have now, and the one that
> is in MAME. There was a trick you could do with Great Tiger to knock
> him out in just over 30 seconds which doesn't work on my machine or in
> MAME. Another difference was that Super Macho Man's location was stated
> to be "Venice Beach, CA" on the machine I played as a kid, and is only
> stated to be "USA" on my machine and in MAME.
>
> My highest score is pretty much only limited by how long I feel like
> standing there and playing. I usually stop playing just before I roll
> the score over at a million in order to leave a 9xx,xxx point score on
> the machine.
>
> > Also - just in case you sometime come across this - there was a guy I
> > used to play this with for years in the late 80s (Montgomery Mall
> > arcade, Bethesda, Maryland), he was my nemesis, his name was Homer.
> > Don't know what happened to you, can't remember your last name, but if
> > you are still around, and come across this message PLEASE reply, would
> > love to hear from you again.
>
> My "nemesis" was a kid that was a year older than me by the name of
> Lawton Mann. He was considered the best player in town on most any
> machine that came into that general store where we all hung out after
> school. At any given time there were about 5 machines in there, and he
> always had the top score on all of them. When I first started playing,
> I was already good at Punch-Out which I'd played for about a year in
> '84/'85 across town. Lawton's score was about 275,000 on SPO and I told
> my friends that I would beat his score eventually. They scoffed of
> course, considering I'd just lost to the first guy. It took me a while;
> it was a lot harder than Punch-Out. The morning after I beat his score
> Lawton came up to me in the school yard and said "You beat my score!"
> He stopped playing altogether after that, for several months. He did
> start playing again and managed get up to number 2 before they took the
> machine out of there and replaced it with something else. I had 375,000
> or so and Lawton had 350,000 or so when that machine left.
>
> > My next game on the list - of course, is Punch Out. Will write back
> > once I got it.
>
> Yeah, I have a Punch-Out boardset too that I swap in the machine every
> now and then.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game 

mizp... DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> "according to Twin Galaxies" -- what does this mean?

Twin Galaxies is kind of like the Guiness Book, but for video games.
They have been keeping track of scores since the early 80's. If you
submit a score for an arcade game to them, the dip switches have to be
set a certain way. In the case of SPO, the switches should be set to
"1" for difficulty and time.

> I checked my machine - Super Macho Man is from "USA" - there are
> different versions of this game? I mean there is one where he is from
> California? Didn't know that.

There is at least one different revision, and that is the machine I
played as a kid. If you do a search of this newsgroup for Venice Beach,
you should find a thread where I talked to someone who owned that
version of SPO at one time.

> What is the trick for Great Tiger? Let me try it out

On the machine I played as a kid, when Great Tiger takes a couple steps
back at the 30 second mark and then comes in with his flurry of
punches, give him a right or left to the head or gut (in this case, it
is more convenient to hit him in the gut) to knock him down instantly,
as usual. Now, this is the part that doesn't work on my machine or in
MAME: when he gets up, hit him in the gut immediately and he goes back
down instantly and stays down, resulting in a KO time of a little over
30 seconds. On the machine I played as a kid it worked every time.

Now, what happens if you do that on the more common version is, he
takes the punch to the gut and will take 3 more just like it and still
have a good deal of energy left. What I did hundreds of times on the
machine in 1987 simply never works on the more common version of SPO,
regardless of the dipswitch settings.

There are 3 differences that I know of between the machine I played as
a kid and the more common version. I've mentioned two of them, i.e.
Super Macho Man's location and the Great Tiger thing. The third
difference was this: in the common version of SPO, after you beat the
2nd Super Macho Man it goes straight to Dragon Chan, skipping Bear
Hugger. After you beat the 3rd Super Macho Man, Bear Hugger is back and
this time he opens with his big ear boxing move.

On the machine I played as a kid, it didn't ever skip Bear Hugger from
the lineup. After you beat the 2nd Super Macho Man it went to the 3rd
Bear Hugger and he opened with his ear boxing move, just like the Bear
Hugger that follows the *3rd* Super Macho Man in the more common
version does. Here is the lineup from the machine I played as a kid,
and I'll put an asterisk next to the first Bear Hugger that does the
ear boxing thing as his first move:

1. BH
2. DC
3. VD
4. GT
5. SMM
6. BH-2
7. DC-2
8. VD-2
9. GT-2
10. SMM-2
11. BH-3*
12. DC-3
13. VD-3
14. SMM-3
15. BH-4
etc.

Now the more common version:

1. BH
2. DC
3. VD
4. GT
5. SMM
6. BH-2
7. DC-2
8. VD-2
9. GT-2
10. SMM-2
11. DC-3
12. VD-3
13. SMM-3
14. BH-3* (this is the 3rd BH but he is appearing in the 4th lineup
because they skip him in the 3rd lineup)
15. DC-4
etc.

Both versions eventually settle down to the same lineup, i.e. the same
as the initial lineup minus Great Tiger.

> How do you know the machine you played as a kid was set to "0" ? Is
> there a way for me to check what my machine is set at without opening
> the back and looking at the board?

If you are used to playing on "0" for time, you notice the difference
when you start playing on "1". You find yourself dangerously close to
running out of time more often, especially in the later stages of the
game when Dragon Chan or Super Macho Man sometimes aren't being
particularly cooperative.

You can also turn on the service switch located behind the coin door
and then turn the machine on. After it goes through a couple of
self-test screens it will show the dipswitch settings. Beside the words
"difficulty" and "time" there will be a number from 0 to 3 on the
screen.

> Do you know any other SPO addicts? In fact do you know anyone else who
> owns this machine?

I only know of Lawton Mann and I haven't seen him since about '89. I
don't know anyone else who owns an SPO machine. In fact, I don't know
anyone else in person that owns an arcade machine of any type, other
than a local arcade operator.

> Regarding side art (and front art, is it called front art?) - Is there
> anywhere I could purchase this? BTW I just purchased the original SPO
> flyer from Ebay today...

The side art for SPO is supplementary to the original Punch-Out side
art. It is a relatively small decal that says "Super" and it is placed
at an angle above the original Punch-Out art. The pair of "Super"
decals are included in the SPO "Nintendo-Pak" conversion kit and as far
as I know, they have never been reproduced. Like most SPO stuff,
originals are not easy to find. I have one (not two like I need) that
has never been applied. If I thought there was enough interest I would
look into having it reproduced with screen printing, but I don't think
there is. There just doesn't seem to be many SPO owners out there, at
least not ones that come here.

The only art on front would be the "marquee", sometimes called the
"header". SPO marquees are probably the easiest SPO part to find; I've
seen a few for sale in the last year or so.

> Great to meet you, if you are ever visiting Washington DC (I live 10
> min outside the city), let me know!!
>
> E-mail me your e-mail address if you get a chance.
>
> Miz

I was in Washington DC 11 or 12 years ago, but I don't travel much
these days.

My email address should be at the head of my messages.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game 

I'm gonna grab an SPO some day, if you reproduce the art I would buy a
set to get things going. By the way I'm originally from Maine and get
back there all the time. If you take visitors I'd love to check out
your SPO next time I'm home. I grew up in a town called Jefferson.
It's about 30 minutes from Augusta. Hit me up by email if you get a
chance.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game 

Riddler wrote:
> I'm gonna grab an SPO some day, if you reproduce the art I would buy a
> set to get things going. By the way I'm originally from Maine and get
> back there all the time. If you take visitors I'd love to check out
> your SPO next time I'm home. I grew up in a town called Jefferson.
> It's about 30 minutes from Augusta. Hit me up by email if you get a
> chance.

Never heard of Jefferson I don't think. That's not surprising since
there are a ton of towns in Maine that I've never heard of, and I've
lived here all my life. I grew up in, and still live in Dexter (you've
probably heard of the shoes). I'm about an hour from Augusta, but
probably in a different direction.

So yeah, let me know next time you're in Maine and you can stop by.
 >> Stay informed about: Super Punch Out arcade game