Coin Slot Magazine - #090 - 1982 - August [International Arcade Museum]
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Bv Paul Olson
The year is 1978, you've got the day off of
work, and you promised your wife you would
go shopping with her. You get in your 13
mpg car and wonder when gas prices are
going to come down because nobody in
their right mind would buy one of those new little
foreign cars. As you head for town you have to stop and
wait in a construction zone. As you're waiting you
watch the big dozers and catapillars tearing up the
landscape, and you wonder what it would be like to
drive one of those big rigs. You are motioned on your
way, and a few miles later you hear, "Stop! Stop! A
dress sale!" You pull in and tell your wife you'll wait
outside. You look over the small shopping area of 4
stores; a dress shop, a barber shop, toy store, and ar
cade. As you walk to the arcade you think — wouldn't it
be nice to just play a game that would put you into a
fantasy world (remember Pacman, Defender, Asteroids
and the videos don't exist yet).
You look through the arcade at lots of pinballs, a new
Americoin
DOZER
TV game called Pong, and what's this — a bulldozer.
Hey, I was just thinking of what it would be like to drive
one of those. So in goes your quarter and away you go.
Americoin's DOZER is different, to say the least. The
color is lime green with black trim and safety stripes,
the slanted front is a solid glass sheet, and inside, on
vacuum molded plastic, is the complete mining scene
on the three walls of the machine. When you look at the
back inside wall of the machine, starting on the left, you
see a ton rating, a large plastic silo, and two smaller
plastic silos filled with small bits of plastic. Those two
small filled tubes represent the crusher and processor,
and the ore separator. As soon as you start the game, a
blower keeps the plastic pieces in those tubes swirling
around for the duration of the game. The large silo, on
the left, is your job to fill. In the bottom inside of the
machine is your Dozer and plastic sand for you to
move. Also, on this floor of the machine are two small
holes that you must push your sand to. The lower front
of the glass contains your instruments with a gauge for
temperature, hydraulic pressure, air pressure, oil, gen
erator, boiler, RPM and fuel. All these are static and do
not move except the gas gauge, which acts as your
timer. You start with a full tank of gas and play until you
hit empty.
So you put in your quarter, and you grab the two
handles on the front of the machine. Each handle
controls one tread of your dozer, and the left handle
has a trigger which lifts your dozer blade. Not so easy is
it. Remember, both handles have to be moved to go
straight forward or backward, and only one handle is
used to turn, which stops one track and keeps the other
moving. Just like the real thing. As you start pulling and
pushing your plastic sand into the holes the ton meter
registers your progresa Two tons and you light up
Peeble Pusher, 15 tons—Hopper Jockey, 30 tons-
Big Loader and, if all goes well, 50 tons—Dozer Master.
DOZER is big, being three feet deep, over three feet
wide, and over four feet high, and that all wood cabinet
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1982 Arcade Museum
© August
The International
is heavy. This size makes it a tough-to-sell home game
because you have to take the base off and turn the ma
chine sideways just to get it in most doors. In fact, this
also made it hard to move on arcade routes. Inside, the
machine is super simple with very few parts, and the
only trouble seems to come from the filters getting
dirty as they vacuum up the plastic dirt These filters
should be cleaned once in awhile. The machine is fun
to play, but after a few games you'll be surprised at how
good you can get at it, and it soon becomes boring to
play. Many of the large arcade dealers still stock and
sell these games to arcades. They are available to the
home market because videos have killed it for anything
other than a novelty item. Current price ranges I've
seen, as late as February 1982, price these machines
in the $500-$600 range.
THE COIN SLOT-47
http://www.arcade-museum.com/