Luckily, I have added another title to the collection. CONGO by Williams 1995.
*The purchase*
A big thankyou to my good mate Martyn who lives 5 mins around the corner. Martyn scourced this machine for me from his Japaneese delivered machines. Between Mark C and Martyn, I have been able to add some great titles to my collection at very good prices. But the fun here is in the purchase. Whilst the dollars are important, having fun whilst buying a machine, and enjoying the friendship and company of the people you buy machines from is just as much fun.
Buying a new pinny is like buying a car, you remember the people you have dealt with for a very long time with fond memories when the purchase experience is great.
The machine was too good to pass up. I always thought Congo was a Data East title for some reason but its a Williams title supporting the upgraded WPC 95 package.
*The Fun surprises*
The title/machine was built late 1995 and into 1996. There were 2129 machines made in total. What i liked about Congo, was the artwork on the playfield and translite and headbox sides. The dot-martrix displays of the ape espescially are crystal clear and exceptionally well done. The audio is t'riffic with many quotes from the movie, and many african animal noises added to the line up. The missions are many, and the aim of the game is to collect diamonds, and travel all over the African continent.
The bottom of the playfield near the flippers has a Indy Jones feel to it with the style and colours. As usual, the artwork for Williams is great. The machine has a third flipper which gets you into the mystery/mission hole. The machine has a large volcano on the top right, and is used to lock balls to get multi-ball. The other signifigant shot is to also get the ball up onto the Amy Gorilla which is top left on the playfield.
One of the biggest surprises on the game is the sunken 2nd under=playfield which has a angry gorilla which smashes/hits the ball from a left or right angle, hitting targets under the playfield. I note, that this is the exact same teardrop shaped playfield glass window used on Creature from the black Lagoon. It seems Williams may have been smart enough 4 yrs later to use the remaining Creature stock/blank playfields n teardrop glass to invent the fun and exciting Congo. Its a really nice touch.
The other fun thing is the many video modes on the game, including a river raft video mode I have found. There are others I havent seen yet but I am looking forward to finding more, including a few hidden features like "Midnight Madness Multiball" which this title has. I saw that on youtube and it was a real buzz.
*Whats next to do*
I will clean the machine, add a few LEDS and make sure everything is 100 percent. The machine is in very nice condition already. I will take some of my own photos this next 24 hrs, but have added the listing/sale photos for the interim. I will add a link to the I.P.D.B listing for anyone interested in checking it out. I will also add a copy of the factory promo brochure which gives some more info on this unusual and interesting title. Will add some more photos this next few days etc.
Thanks for reading. Link below for I.P.D.B Also, click on any of the photos and they shld double in size.
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=congo&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#3780