Sinistar

Welcome to my Sinistar homepage.

My goal has been to accumulate as much information as I can about Sinistar. Take a look around, and tell me what you think. - Tyler Schoenke

News!!!

6/20/2008 - Someone sold a New-in-the-box Sinsitar. They were asking $2495. My friend, Warren, had contacted the guy about buying it, and he sold it to someone else before Warren got a chance to buy it. This was actually sold back around July 2007

12/17/2007 - Saw that Sinistar was referenced in a South Park episode: You Got F'd in the A**. Episode# 805. They go to an arcade called Flynn's Sinistarcade. Kevin Flynn being Jeff Bridges character in the movie Tron (1982).

10/29/2007 - Got information from the guy in Montreal Canada who I had listed as having a partial Duramold Sinistar. He said it was not a Sinistar, but a Duramold Blaster that was converted to a Sinistar. That reduces the total number of Duramold Sinistars back down to four. See the Duramold page for more details.

8/24/2007 - My friend, Warren, bought the Duramold Sinistar that was recently found. He gave me some pictures. I need to stop by his house when I get some time to check it out. I started a new job a few weeks ago, and have been very busy. The serial number on his is two digits lower than mine, so it is the second oldest one found. The Duramolds were the last ones off the Sinistar production line. Warren heard that Williams numbered their games sequentially and they all came off the same production line. That meant that a Blaster could be right after a Sinistar, right after a Defender, right after a pinball game and so on. He said that Jess Askey is putting together a database of Williams serial numbers to determine production runs of various games, prototypes, etc.

4/24/2007 - Finally getting around to some updates. I think it is easier to read text in columns that are not so wide, so I formatted this page into a table so I could set the column size. I also decided to spruce it up with some graphics since it was a little boring.

The exciting new news is that a third complete Duramold Sinistar has been found (the fourth is missing parts). There is discussion about this one on RGVAC.

12/31/06 - Happy New Year! I was just reinstalling Redhat 9 (Shrike) in VMware when I noticed that Sinistar was used for one of the installation photos (screenshot). The fortune cookie fortune is laying on the left side of the control panel of the standard wooden upright. The fortune says, "Success will be yours ... Happy Install"

12/21/06 - In response to my 5/19/04 request, Sam Dicker sent me the link for the Sheena Easton Video - Amost over you (Pulled from YouTube by Viacom) featuring Sinistar and Defender - Two of the games he worked on! At the end of the video she "breaks up" with Defender.

3/1/06 - Redesigned much of the website. I have a bunch of information to add, so it has been a bit slow. I am trying to better organize the information and format it better.

5/19/04 - Came across a Postscript copy of the Sinistar Side Art. Go to this site and do a search for Sinistar. I had to install Ghostscript 8.14 and GSview 4.6 to view the artwork. The rendering is very CPU intensive.

1/9/04 -There was an article in The Onion recently that referenced Sinistar. Pretty funny. Apparently, people who play Sinistar are destined for a life of crime.

Regarding the cocktail Sinistar, I emailed Noah Falstein. He said that he had some written notes about being asked by his managers to make a cocktail version for the "Japanese market only". Sam Dicker said that he didn't have any recollection of programming the screen flipping routine. I have a couple of leads on a cocktail Sinistar if anyone is interested.

Lead #1 - One guy in Canada has a cocktail Sinistar that he is willing to sell. It is a conversion, and was not produced by Williams. Email me if you want to get in contact with him.

Lead #2 - There is also report of one existing in Sacramento. The guy is a brother of someone who sold a Robotron in the San Francisco Chronical back in 1994 or 1995 in the sporting goods for sale classified section. The asking price for the Robotron was $800obo. If anyone cares to search through microfiche, you may be able to locate the rarest of all Sinistar models. FYI -The SF Chronical has an online search, but it does not include classifieds.
Lead #3 - A guy named John Price Harrod IV had a cocktail that looked like it was a Sinistar cocktail, but was converted into a Crazy Kong. I haven't been able to find any contact information on him. John, if you come across my page, please email me. I would like to find out more about this cocktail game.
Sinistar appeared in the Sheena Easton video "I'm almost over you". - If anyone has a copy of this video, please let me know.
My website sees about 30 to 50 visitors per day. On 1/7/2004, it jumped to 380 visitors, then went back to normal. Very strange.

9/29/2003 - I realized that since my Duramold has the highest serial number I found to date, I may have the revision 4 ROMs that I wrote about on 7/13/03. Upon checking, it turns out that I do have that set. I read them in on my EPROM burner, and compared them to Revision 3. It turns out that they are identical to Revision 3, but they have different label numbers. Many people have Revision 2 ROMS with the Revision 3 updates to ROMS 8 and 11. Williams just renumbered the entire set and made that Revision 3, so there really isn't a Revision 4. I updated my Revisions page to reflect this new info. As far as I know, all Sinistar ROMS are red in color. The only other color was the redish-orange striped ROMS that provided the Revision 3 update to the Revision 2 set.

9/22/2003 - Check out Matt's site at Duramold.com. He just purchased an original Sinistar Duramold with a Blaster joystick. This Duramold Sinistar represents one of three known to exist.

7/13/2003 - I talked with the owner of the Revision 4 ROMS. He said that at default settings, the warriors appear more quickly and seem more aggressive than they do with the Revision 3 ROMS. Revision 4 warps straight up. Update: There is no revision 4, the roms are the same as Rev. 3, but they are just renumbered on the labels. I have this set in my Duramold, and dumped the EPROMs to confirm that they have the same checksum.

4/27/2003 - Midway now has the free Macromedia Flash version of Sinistar (Click on PLAY CLASSIC GAMES). Or you can still play it at Shockwave's (DEAD LINK) website.

4/22/2003 - I found out some information about the voice of Sinistar from Sam Dicker. Check out the General Info page.

3/4/2003 - Another revision of Sinistar has been located. It is Revision 4. The ROMS are numbered 16-3004-53 through -63. If you have this revision, please contact me!!! I would like to arrange to have the ROMS read so they can be distributed to the rest of the Sinistar owners.

2/26/2003 - I just became aware of the "ships" version of the control panel overlay (CPO). Most people have the "lines" version, but the prototype version has ships facing out from the joystick. Here is a picture. I heard about several of these. One guy bought a NOS control panel overlay that has the ships and replaced his control panel with that one. Someone else bought their machine with the ships overlay already installed. The "ships" version of the CPO seems to be found on the very early versions of the game. If you have this CPO, please email me.

	6/20/2008 - Someone sold a New-in-the-box Sinsitar. They were asking $2495. My friend, Warren, had contacted the guy about buying it, and he sold it to someone else before Warren got a chance to buy it. This was actually sold back around July 2007
	12/17/2007 - Saw that Sinistar was referenced in a South Park episode: You Got F'd in the A**. Episode# 805. They go to an arcade called Flynn's Sinistarcade. Kevin Flynn being Jeff Bridges character in the movie Tron (1982).
	10/29/2007 - Got information from the guy in Montreal Canada who I had listed as having a partial Duramold Sinistar. He said it was not a Sinistar, but a Duramold Blaster that was converted to a Sinistar. That reduces the total number of Duramold Sinistars back down to four. See the Duramold page for more details.
	8/24/2007 - My friend, Warren, bought the Duramold Sinistar that was recently found. He gave me some pictures. I need to stop by his house when I get some time to check it out. I started a new job a few weeks ago, and have been very busy. The serial number on his is two digits lower than mine, so it is the second oldest one found. The Duramolds were the last ones off the Sinistar production line. Warren heard that Williams numbered their games sequentially and they all came off the same production line. That meant that a Blaster could be right after a Sinistar, right after a Defender, right after a pinball game and so on. He said that Jess Askey is putting together a database of Williams serial numbers to determine production runs of various games, prototypes, etc.
	4/24/2007 - Finally getting around to some updates. I think it is easier to read text in columns that are not so wide, so I formatted this page into a table so I could set the column size. I also decided to spruce it up with some graphics since it was a little boring. The exciting new news is that a third complete Duramold Sinistar has been found (the fourth is missing parts). There is discussion about this one on RGVAC.
	12/31/06 - Happy New Year! I was just reinstalling Redhat 9 (Shrike) in VMware when I noticed that Sinistar was used for one of the installation photos (screenshot). The fortune cookie fortune is laying on the left side of the control panel of the standard wooden upright. The fortune says, "Success will be yours ... Happy Install"
	12/21/06 - In response to my 5/19/04 request, Sam Dicker sent me the link for the Sheena Easton Video - Amost over you (Pulled from YouTube by Viacom) featuring Sinistar and Defender - Two of the games he worked on! At the end of the video she "breaks up" with Defender.
	3/1/06 - Redesigned much of the website. I have a bunch of information to add, so it has been a bit slow. I am trying to better organize the information and format it better.
	5/19/04 - Came across a Postscript copy of the Sinistar Side Art. Go to this site and do a search for Sinistar. I had to install Ghostscript 8.14 and GSview 4.6 to view the artwork. The rendering is very CPU intensive.
	1/9/04 -There was an article in The Onion recently that referenced Sinistar. Pretty funny. Apparently, people who play Sinistar are destined for a life of crime. Regarding the cocktail Sinistar, I emailed Noah Falstein. He said that he had some written notes about being asked by his managers to make a cocktail version for the "Japanese market only". Sam Dicker said that he didn't have any recollection of programming the screen flipping routine. I have a couple of leads on a cocktail Sinistar if anyone is interested. Lead #1 - One guy in Canada has a cocktail Sinistar that he is willing to sell. It is a conversion, and was not produced by Williams. Email me if you want to get in contact with him. Lead #2 - There is also report of one existing in Sacramento. The guy is a brother of someone who sold a Robotron in the San Francisco Chronical back in 1994 or 1995 in the sporting goods for sale classified section. The asking price for the Robotron was $800obo. If anyone cares to search through microfiche, you may be able to locate the rarest of all Sinistar models. FYI -The SF Chronical has an online search, but it does not include classifieds. Lead #3 - A guy named John Price Harrod IV had a cocktail that looked like it was a Sinistar cocktail, but was converted into a Crazy Kong. I haven't been able to find any contact information on him. John, if you come across my page, please email me. I would like to find out more about this cocktail game. Sinistar appeared in the Sheena Easton video "I'm almost over you". - If anyone has a copy of this video, please let me know. My website sees about 30 to 50 visitors per day. On 1/7/2004, it jumped to 380 visitors, then went back to normal. Very strange.
	9/29/2003 - I realized that since my Duramold has the highest serial number I found to date, I may have the revision 4 ROMs that I wrote about on 7/13/03. Upon checking, it turns out that I do have that set. I read them in on my EPROM burner, and compared them to Revision 3. It turns out that they are identical to Revision 3, but they have different label numbers. Many people have Revision 2 ROMS with the Revision 3 updates to ROMS 8 and 11. Williams just renumbered the entire set and made that Revision 3, so there really isn't a Revision 4. I updated my Revisions page to reflect this new info. As far as I know, all Sinistar ROMS are red in color. The only other color was the redish-orange striped ROMS that provided the Revision 3 update to the Revision 2 set.
	9/22/2003 - Check out Matt's site at Duramold.com. He just purchased an original Sinistar Duramold with a Blaster joystick. This Duramold Sinistar represents one of three known to exist.
	7/13/2003 - I talked with the owner of the Revision 4 ROMS. He said that at default settings, the warriors appear more quickly and seem more aggressive than they do with the Revision 3 ROMS. Revision 4 warps straight up. Update: There is no revision 4, the roms are the same as Rev. 3, but they are just renumbered on the labels. I have this set in my Duramold, and dumped the EPROMs to confirm that they have the same checksum.
	4/27/2003 - Midway now has the free Macromedia Flash version of Sinistar (Click on PLAY CLASSIC GAMES). Or you can still play it at Shockwave's (DEAD LINK) website.
	4/22/2003 - I found out some information about the voice of Sinistar from Sam Dicker. Check out the General Info page.
	3/4/2003 - Another revision of Sinistar has been located. It is Revision 4. The ROMS are numbered 16-3004-53 through -63. If you have this revision, please contact me!!! I would like to arrange to have the ROMS read so they can be distributed to the rest of the Sinistar owners.
	2/26/2003 - I just became aware of the "ships" version of the control panel overlay (CPO). Most people have the "lines" version, but the prototype version has ships facing out from the joystick. Here is a picture. I heard about several of these. One guy bought a NOS control panel overlay that has the ships and replaced his control panel with that one. Someone else bought their machine with the ships overlay already installed. The "ships" version of the CPO seems to be found on the very early versions of the game. If you have this CPO, please email me.