Heavy Metal Meltdown

This game uses the 68000-based "Sounds Deluxe" sound board. The only music in this game is a drum track and bass line, while the player is left to fill in the lead with guitar riffs by hitting shots. Every switch triggers part of a riff, so the duration of the ball sounds like an extended guitar solo. The underside of the playfield shows hand-written markings. These markings were screened onto the wood by the manufacturer, reportedly for the entire production run. Included in this listing are pictures of a Sample game having no cabinet serial number or factory-installed on/off switch (although, a switch was jury-rigged later). The cabinet art is generic and does not display the name of the game, unlike the art shown in the manufacturer's flyer. An Aladdin's Castle inventory tag is attached to the outside of the cabinet and inside is stapled a bar-coded tag having the number H03-00012. Its playfield has a factory-installed drop target mechanism mounted in front of the ramp, not found on production games, although the owner found it disabled (unsoldered coil wire) and not supported by the software in the game. Unfortunately, the ROM labels were bleached white with no legible text left on them and may have been doctored by an operator. The manual's switch matrix (page 2-27, column 2 row 8) shows an unmarked switch that the owner states was for the drop target switch. The plastic apron has a clear window through which the player could view a paper instruction card attached to its underside and which referenced this drop target, indicating that the lower of two left-side cabinet flipper buttons was used by the player to hold the drop target down. Production games have the instructions printed directly on the plastic apron and do not reference the drop target or the lower left-side button. Instead, printed elsewhere on the production apron is a note that the lower button operates lane change. Not shown here is a Sample game tagged H03-00007 having the same generic cabinet artwork. Its playfield does not have the drop target mechanism (having only the unterminated wires for one) although it does have the rectangular drop target hole plugged with a small block of wood. Stapled to its cabinet is a large red tag indicating "HOLD for investigation by F.C.C. Sample" and "This game is not to be removed from this department" and shows a date of 6/24/87.