S.A.M.I by Midway "Worlds Greatest Arcade Machine".

[@StarGeezerTim]

I played the crap out of this game as a kid in the early 70's in Upstate New York. Came out years before Pong or Space Invaders, and planted the seed early for me to be a lifelong gamer. Damn near 60 now and still at it! Great memories, thanks for sharing.

[@timippolito1182]

Where in Upstate N.Y.?

[@StarGeezerTim]

@@timippolito1182 The part that isn't Downstate NY. 😉

[@timippolito1182]

@@StarGeezerTim I live right next to you..

[@StarGeezerTim]

@@timippolito1182 Oh, hi there! *waves*

[@thedbcooperforum]

Didn't recall the machine until I seen the misile lit up and it all came back..lol

[@chrisnizer1885]

Nothing else like those classic electromechanical games. The engineering that went into those machines is remarkable. Unless they're restored they're gone...forever. No way to MAME one of those. Thanks for saving that classic. I'd love to give it a go myself! Semper Fi.

[@RetroJack]

Best commentary ever!

[@SpikeColgate]

Amazing!! I briefly remember the remnants of these style arcade games as a youngster. They would tend to be in old arcades on piers on the coast etc and i'd find them mesmerising.. Cool stuff and thx for upload!

[@finstersrc30]

So glad it brought back memories. If the vid made you feel like when you were a kid then that is awesome! Thanks for the nice comment.

[@tonyritter2539]

that game looks pretty sweet. i love how the pre 80's stuff has such an interesting ingenuity.

[@1959blantz]

OMG!!! I remember playing this as a kid at the local Buckeye Mart. This and Sea Raider were always my favorite games at that time.

[@yawgnorw]

Holy crap!!! I remember playing this when I was a small kid!! Awesome!!

[@Datan0de]

Gorgeous! Thanks for the childhood flashback!

[@ToJuRacing]

Great old game. One of my fave EM's. EMs have such a charm to them. Gave you a sub. GREAT job on the resto! I will check out more of your vids. Thanks for posting!

[@plateshutoverlock]

8:15 you can see the splice in the film strip that the enemy aircraft is printed on. I'm surprised they don't use 2 or 3 film strips running side by side and at slightly different speeds to sort of randomize the game a bit, as after a while, a player would have the pattern memorized and win every time (if that matters?)

[@sailordude2094]

Nice game! Thanks for the detailed video, looks awesome.

[@ArcadeDude44]

Awesome EM game. Man, I miss these. I would LOVE to add one to my collection (besides my Space Odyessey Pin), but they're always so expensive (in CA, at least)! Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[@johnskoglund4280]

Just incredible!! Amazing to see analog and how truly beautiful and simple games were before video games..

[@turbopokey]

Wow, I vaguely remember games like this in a trip to the mall back in the 70s although the one I really remember was a burning high rise building and you were controlling a fire engine sprayer that squirted real water into various windows that would randomly show some backlit fire effects. I didn’t really get to play these games since we were poor and it was hard as heck trying to pry money out of dad. I’d just have to stand there and watch as he played.

[@RazorEdge2006]

This is an adaptation of Sega's "Missile" from 1969.

[@simonsworldsofweird]

Very nicely done video of this EM classic. I have one of these in my collection (that projector fan sure is noisy when machine is idle!). If you think about it, SAMI is like an early version of the video game "Missile Command" ...Thanks and have fun!

[@maintech777]

Very cool EM Arcade . I think i played that one once or twice in Milwaukee,Wi

[@DarkWizardPrince]

Very Cool. I wish I could play this.

[@NathanielPetty]

I played that game when I was 6 for a dime.

[@mariowario5945]

The planes flying is not a pleasing sight. It's actually downright terrifying.

[@danielklaric8837]

Lo jugué en la década del 70. Impresionante!!!

[@positivelycurvedpikachu]

Argentina?

[@ocsrc]

Those old brown PCB boards and old caps and resistors remind me of the 1970s 2 way radios that were crystal radios 1 crystal for TX, 1 for RX If we needed CTCSS that was another crystal for the TX and another for the RX I miss the tech I could work on

[@MaxxLegend]

Great electromechanic game! But probably on this machine the collision detection must be recalibrated!

[@deltonaustin7368]

I have a SAMI Em game, Can you tell me how to recalibrate the missle firing and airplane position, I cant seem to lead the missle and hit the planes. thanks for your help.

[@JinzoCrash]

It's always humbling when you see machines like this that can't be emulated on bootleg home-made arcade cabinets. It's like playing a rom of GORF, but not having the ranking lights on the side panel... just taken to an extreme.

[@Datan0de]

Old comment and off topic, but MAME now emulates the ranking panel on the side. 😎

[@jamesavery3559]

very nice...played this when i was a kid

[@ScoutCrafter]

Outstanding! Thanks for posting!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@wirelessone2986]

Played this at the Adam's Roller rink in Charlotte michigan around 1977/78

[@MrPolycarpe13]

The real OG of Missile Command.

[@garrycowan4394]

Great idea to use the crate as a makeshift ramp 👏👏

[@magicmastera]

Ohh WOW, Thank you for this cool Video! Amazing that game, I really like to own this too. I watch it again and again Soo Great!

Thanks for recording it on your original 1970 home video recorder? lol

[@finstersrc30]

You are Welcome.

[@jeffbrown6406]

I bought this game at an aracde auction over the weekend. It was the last machine and no one but me bid on it. I got it for 2.00 It's all complete but doesn't work. Need to go through it all someday. Looks like it would be a cool machine to play.

[@JuanMendoza-qd5lm]

Did you ever fix it up?

[@Specter1065]

I played this at a bar when I was a kid!

[@brianmayHB]

I remember that awesome

[@finstersrc30]

It uses a solid state soundboard which was modern for an em.

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

I can't take my eyes.

[@ocsrc]

How does it do the missile?

[@TheLarryBrown]

Sequencing lights on a ramp. The black ramp is not visible to the player, but the lights shine through the viewscreen mirror and you see them.

[@pcaetano7527]

uses the pepper's ghost effect

[@henrybemis8913]

You live in a NYC brownstone? Awesome....

[@tarstarkusz]

Why don't the ships disappear when you hit them?

[@TheLarryBrown]

This game is not sophisticated enough to do that. Instead, you are distracted by the explosion graphic and then turn your attention to hitting the next target and you don't notice the plane continues flying on for just a tiny moment before it scrolls out of view. I have this game and play it all the time and never noticed that the planes remain visible after the explosion.

[@lowellriggsiam]

This is my idea of a game

[@-Jakob-]

Interesting... thankfully the digital ones made those high maintenance facade clockworks obsolete. They were very limited.

[@101Osprey101]

I am always watching for one of these or a similar type machine. GREAT find! Tell me, how does it create the sounds? I am hoping these do not use an 8-Track.

[@TheLarryBrown]

It's electronic sound. It has a sound card and an amplifier card. You see them at 2:33. On the right edge of the screen you see a tilt mechanism and an orange label. The amplifier card is under the orange label and the sound card is to the left of the label. The sound card has many blue canister electrolytic capacitors, and also many "tropical fish" capacitors (with color stripes, which denote their capacitance value).

[@101Osprey101]

@@TheLarryBrown Ah, ok. My Bally Target Zero is similar. The game is EM but the sounds are done with amplified circuits. I was guessing yours was similar and was curious. Thank you for the reply!

[@Rlotpir1972]

What's your score? All I see is the 2 minute timer.

[@finstersrc30]

Score is on the left . I have rolled it many times over the years. During the making of this video I was looking through the viewfinder of the camera almost impossible to play it that way. Might make an updated vid using a tripod.

[@rakka1dude184]

em could have gone further than this, i think it was just laziness of the industry that stopped more of these from coming out.

[@TheLarryBrown]

Do you think any EM could deliver the excitement of Robotron 2084, Defender, Missile Command, Donkey Kong, or even Pong and Space Invaders? No.

[@VivaToddVegas]

If I had a beauty like the woman in the jeans, I don't know that I'd spend much time playing arcade games. ;)

[@TheLarryBrown]

Well since that's never going to happen, enjoy the game.

[@scottl.1568]

Whut 😮

[@Trikipum]

Sega's is almost 10 years older and looks nicer...

[@positivelycurvedpikachu]

segas what?

[@TheLarryBrown]

It is not 10 years older. MISSILE is maybe one year older, if that. No EM machine can survive 10 years. More like 1 year if it's lucky. MISSILE does have several advantages: Nixie tube scoring, which is hella cool, score indicator and timer are in view of the player during play, and the launching missile features a super cool "jet flame" effect.

[@28russ]

Huh? What ya mean "No EM machine can survive 10 years. More like 1 year if it's lucky". Dunno much about stand up arcade machines like this, but I know there's still plenty of EM pinball machines that have lasted way more than 10 years and are still working with the original parts. Sure most of em need a bit of a maintenance and a clean up these days, but considering most EM's are at least 50 years old these days I'd say they're way past their warranty and planned obsolescence period by now. 🤷‍♂👍😂

[@GizmoBeach]

That’s a lot of technology for a repetitive nothing of a game.