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4,440 machines: 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Manufacturers | Top 100 Videogames | Visit The International Arcade Museum for 13297 coin-operated listings. |
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4,440 machines: 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Manufacturers | Top 100 Videogames | Visit The International Arcade Museum for 13297 coin-operated listings. |
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Manufacturer:
Fun Games Inc. Year: 1976 Class: Wide Release Genre: Shooter Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Competitive Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player Controls:
Sound: Amplified Stereo (two channel) |
 Photo contributed by: Frantone Electronics
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BiPlane DescriptionThe game requires two players. Play consists of a black and a white biplane that is steered like a tank. The object was to shoot the other player without crashing into either the ground or the anti-aircraft fire at the top of the screen.Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationA short upright cabinet with woodgrain sides and front. The monitor bezel has some great artwork with a WWI battle scene on the bottom showing cannons, men, air explosions, etc... On the left side of the monitor are the words 'Action', 'Thrills', 'Fun' and on the right side are the words 'Bang', 'Boom', 'Pow'. Both sets of words are inside either cloud shapes or explosion shapes. All over the bezel are pictures of Biplanes engaged in dogfights. The marquee bezel has the game name in the center with two Biplanes, one on each side. Most of the monitor bezel and marquee are in red. The marquee is originally lit with a long incandecent lightbulb called a 'Lumaline' bulb that glows very nicely, however a bit warm. The control panel has silkscreened graphics which demostrate the controls function and game instructions.Cheats, Tricks and BugsIf after shooting down an enemy plane you are close enough to fly over to where the new enemy plane appears, most of the time you can shoot him down before he has a chance to take off. With the speed control at slow, you can just hang in the air for quite some time, rack up points and make your opponent angry.ConversionMostly the same board set, wiring harness and controls as Fun Games' Tanker.Game IntroductionA timed game. Two players shoot each other out of the sky as many times as possible before the game timer runs out. The left player flys the black BiPlane and the right player flys the white BiPlane. Very simple game play, but also very fun!Game PlayThe game screen has a long bar at the bottom with a divider in the middle. That is your takeoff runway. Running into the divider causes you to crash. You must gain speed prior to takeoff then pull the up/down control back to take off. Once in the air a player can slow down if necessary. Anti-aircraft fire rings the outer edges of the screen. If you fly into it, you are shot down and crash. The sounds of the Biplane falling out of the sky and crashing are great. Each player's Biplane has it's own speaker. Once you make it into the air, the object of the game is simple; shoot each other out of the sky before time runs out. Score is kept at the top of the screen. When time is about ready to run out, the scores begin to flash until the end of the game. Each score is the same color as it's Biplane; either black or white. The game is kind of like an air-based version of Space Wars, but this game came out two years before Space Wars and uses a raster monitor.MiscellaneousInstruction manual dated January 1976.VAPS Arcade CensusGAMES OWNED, WANTED, or FOR SALE BY MEMBERS OF THE VIDEO ARCADE PRESERVATION SOCIETYUncommon - There are 8 known instances of BiPlane owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 8 of them are original dedicated machines Wanted - There are 2 VAPS members currently looking for BiPlane. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operators might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalThis game uses a four-card, card-cage setup that operates without a CPU. The rack is powered by a +5VDC linear supply which can be easily subsituted with one of today's switching power supplies. The game has switches for 25/50 cent play, 50/60 Hz power, individual volume controls for each speaker, five pots for setting the pitch and tone of sound effects, a pot for setting the white Bi-plane's shot distance to be the same as the black, and a pot to adjust the length of the game.TriviaSupposedly, Fun Games (Oakland, CA) only produced three games: BiPlane, BiPlane 4, Tankers (Atari tank game).A fourth prototype game called Kong is reported to have been designed and built, but the only known boardset is believed to be owned by ElDorado games. The object was to fly your biplane around the Empire State Building shooting at King Kong (he is holding Fay Wray also) while avoiding his attempts to swat you out of the sky. The game used a CPU (2650?) and the animation was gorgeous! FixesThe +5 volt power supply had a massive heat problem. A fan would have helped here. The marquee is lit by a Lumiline bulb that is expensive and very unreliable.eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the BiPlane Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Fun Games Inc.. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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Manuals
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