Duramold Sinistar

Here are some comparison photos of two Duramold Sinistars. Mine is the one on the left. Matt's is on the right with the Blaster joystick. His must have been more of a prototype. My Duramold has serial number 624398. That is higher than the S/N for any of the wooden upright and cockpit versions, which means it was probably built after all other versions were released. It also has the Revision 3 ROM set with the final numbers, which further indicates it was built at the end of the run. There are only two complete and two partial Duramold Sinistars known to exist.

I live in Westminster, CO, which is a suburb of Denver. If you are in the Denver area and want to stop by to check out my Duramold Sinistar, let me know.

Mine - the jiggly one is an attempt to show the 3D shape of the cabinet.	Matt's	A Blaster
Sinistar Upright

If you are wondering, these Duramold Sinistars the actual games manufactured by Williams. They are not just a converted Blaster duramold. You can see that Blaster has two speaker holes and the Sinistars have one. It would be difficult to get rid of the hole if it was a Blaster conversion. Matt's Duramold Sinistar has the Blaster joystick, but that is probably because it was an early prototype. The Duramold Sinistar also differs by having different monitor bezel artwork, control panel artwork, and a different sized marquee. It looks like the wooden upright had at least two different marquees. The one in the picture has a blue background similar to the Duramold, and mine has an all black background.

Sinistar Duramold Q&A:

Q: Differences between Duramold parts and the wooden upright and Cockpit.

A: See the chart below

Q: Was there a Red Duramold Sinistar?

A: Probably not. Here is a quote from Williams Arcade Classics: "Sinistar also had a small number (under 500) of games in cylindrical black cabinets." 

I have been told about one other Duramold Sinistar.   From what I have been told, it is in a black cabinet also, but has a blaster joystick, which would make it an earlier prototype than mine.   That, or it could be a converted Blaster, but the person that I talked to said that it wasn't.  If you know of another Duramold Sinistar, please contact me. I am interested in finding out if there are others.  They are much more durable than the wooden versions, so if there are some more, I am sure that they have not been destroyed yet.  (UPDATE 9/22/2003: This machine was purchased by Matt who created a site for it at http://www.duramold.com (dead link))

I found someone else who said that they had played one when it came out.  They played it in Lexinton, KY, and it was a black Duramold.   Still no validation on the rumors of a red Duramold.

Q: What are the differences between the Blaster, Bubbles, and Sinistar Duramold cabinets?

	Sinistar	Bubbles	Blaster
Color	Black	Blue	Black
Speaker holes	1	1	2
Power cord	goes out a hole in the bottom of the cabinet	goes out a hole in the bottom of the cabinet	goes out a slot in the back door
Control panel	held on by those twisty things	held on by those twisty things	held on by bolts with lock nuts
Boards	on the back door	on the back door	in the middle of cabinet
Front Logo	No oval around Williams logo, The 'W' logo is only on the left side.	Same as Sinistar	The Williams logo is enclosed in an oval. The 'W' logo is on both sides of the Williams signature.
Duramold texture	Texture is smoother. Came from a different mold.	Same as Sinistar	Texture is rougher than on the Sinistar

Q: Who currently owns a Duramold Sinistar?

A: There are three complete machines known to exist:

• Matt in Tennessee (complete w/ Blaster joystick) - this one was more of a prototype because it had the Blaster joystick and pinball coinbox. http://www.duramold.com (website down)
• Me (Tyler) in Denver, Colorado (complete)
• Warren Connard in Denver, Colorado (complete) - this one was purchased from Kevin Ketchum in Michigan. Warren said Kevin found it when he drove by someone's house and they had it sitting out in the driveway. The original owner didn't realize he had anything special.

  Here are two incomplete machines that may be converted Blaster Duramolds.

• Paul Shaffelburg in Nova Scotia, Canada (missing CPO and bezel)
• Stephan in Ottawa, Canada (missing CPO) Update 10/29/2007 - Was told by the owner that this one was a converted Blaster. This may have been the same one that Paul Shaffelburg owned. His VAPS page no longer lists him as owning a Sinistar.

These duramold cabinets were designed to be multi-game machines, where you could just change out the boards, and play a different game.  I think they were quite a bit more expensive then the wooden uprights. 

Here are some pictures of the Duramold Blaster game.

http://www.erinet.com/jamesm/gamepages/blaster/blaster_right.htm
http://www.enteract.com/~jenison/mars/games/Blaster.html
http://home.inforamp.net/~xeno/videotopia/index5.html