by Midway, 1981
STATUS: No Longer In the Collection
Post from old site last updated 2/28/2004
View my Kick Restoration Photos Here
Description of game:
Nice dedicated cabinet with one of the earlier versions of this game. It was later renamed Kickman to capitalize on the Pac-Man craze that was sweeping the country. It was a nice game with great stereo music. You control a clown on a unicycle who had to either catch or pop balloons with his head. If you missed catching a balloon that was falling, you could Kick the balloon back up in the air to try again.
How I got it:
Got this game way back when I bought my Joust. It was totally dead, and I haven’t messed with it in over six years (too busy with other projects). Was going to make it into a MAME cabinet, but I decided it was in too good of shape to ruin. I’ll get some other generic cab to mess with that project.
Repairs:
Not so fast! The game died again! This time I ended up replacing a fuse and installing a Bob Roberts power supply repair kit, and it is working great again. Hopefully for a while!
After numerous attempts at getting this machine running spanning six years, I finally had it working great! When I originally got the machine, the monitor was destroyed. I first gutted the cabinet to clean it inside and out, replaced the monitor, replaced a capacitor that was known to be installed backwards on early PCB’s, and made a new video cable. Check out the pictures I took as I worked on this machine by clicking the link at the top of the page.
I put on some new T-Molding and the game looked great. I really like how the monitor is mounted flat and reflected in the mirror. I’m glad I did not have to reverse any yoke wires to get it to produce a mirror image. It did it automatically from the PCB signal.
What it still needed when I sold it:
This cabinet could use some touch up in the painted areas. I think it could also use a nice set of NOS or reproduced cardboard bezels that are around the monitor. The original ones are a bit stained from being unprotected printed cardboard. They did not have a finish that could hold up to 22 years of dust!
Who has it now:
Sold this to Chris White from Tennessee. He came all the way up here for a bootleg Donkey Kong Jr. I sold him on ebay. His wife loves this game, so I’m glad it helped make the trip worthwhile!
Final Thoughts:
A great addition to anyone’s gameroon. The kids loved the clown theme. They did have some problems using the one axis trackball because it pinched their fingers in the control panel! Decided that wouldn’t do, so it had to give up a spot in the arcade.
Links:
KLOV Kick Page - Note the picture is of this actual cabinet!
Screen Shots:
