…And you can’t have it! (not yet, anyway)

The second game I aquired (well, third, actually. But VARTH when I was in college doesn’t really count) was a Dualscreen Playchoice 10 by Nintendo. Made in 1986, this system was a step up from Nintendo’s VS. Unisystem in that not only could operators swap games easily, you add up to 10 games to play in one cabinet. Nintendo made dedicated versions of the dual-screen system playchoice 10 or operators could convert their old Punch Out cabinets. As part of the “Nintendo Generation” I grew up playing the NES console at home, but also pumped many-a-quarter into the Playchoice arcade machines that I would find in Pizza Huts, Aladdin’s Castles, and bowling alleys.

The playchoice in my current collection was on location at a laundry mat for its entire life. Apparantly my arcade cabinet is famous because it has been “signed” by both Emeinem and 50-cent who both gracefully carved their names into the sideart. Because of this, I had been looking for replacement sideart ever since I took this baby home and got it working. When one side showed up on eBay several months ago, I jumped at the opportunity picking up one piece of NOS right side artwork for about $55.

Months pass and the artwork continues to sit on a shelf waiting until I can find the time to restore my playchoice. Out of the blue on the KLOV forums a user posts one piece of NOS side art for sale at a reasonable price (I think it was $40 IIRC). What do you know? It was the other side I needed. While the left side on my machine wasn’t graffittied, it did have a couple rips and tears, so I figured “What the heck, when will I ever find another piece of NOS sideart again?” I shot off an email and it showed up on my doorstep the next week.

All I can say was it was meant to be. Not only do I now how a set of NOS sideart for a playchoice 10, but I do believe I have the matching individual pairs! Looking some writing/marks on the back along with some tape marks on the back I think this set was broken apart at one time, but the two pieces have now reunited.

I’ve had this set for a short while now, but was reminded about it again when reading a FS thread on KLOV. PC10 art seems to be in demand and popularity in this game is growing. PC10 almost has a cult following like NEO GEO. As far as I know, “Playchoice 10″ sideart is not currently available. I have contacted This Old Game to get an estimate on a per-set cost if this were to proceed. I intend to contact Jeff Rothe to see if scanning and vectoring this is even a possibility (it is not as clean cut as other artwork I have seen, especially with the drop shadow that fades out..ugh). Just wanted to let everyone know that there is a set out there and that there have been strides to get it repro’d for the masses. I’ll let you know what I find out.

Tags: Arcade - Playchoice 10, Artwork, NOS, Reproduction