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More info?)
I don't consider myself an expert, but there were many variations in the cabinets during
the time period you're talking about. There is a time-line type of webpage somewhere that
I remember seeing; I think it was on the marvin3m website.
The main difference is the depth of the lower cabinet box itself. The earliest of the
wedgeheads had a rather shallow cabinet. These had the "beehive" type shooter bezel,
and the thinner ball push-up shaft. The "neck", or pedestal was the indented type, and
the wedgehead had the slotted channel into the wood for the reverse type rear panel.
The next version of the the cabinet was somewhat deeper, had the larger front coin door
without a metal moulding around the perimeter. They still had the "beehive" style shooter
bezel, and the thin ball push-up shaft. The earliest of these still had the reverse style
rear panel on the wedgehead, and the pedestal which was indented in the center section.
Then, the "beehive" shooter rod bezel was replace with the oblong metal type, along with
a thicker ball push-up shaft. These games had the straight, non-indented pedestal, and had
the metal channel in the back of the head for the rear panel, which now had it's bended
edges turned inward. The multi-player games in this era had the same base cabinet, but
the size of the head varied quite a bit. The two player heads were usually smaller than
the four player heads, with different sized rear panels accordingly. The later style
cabinets were even deeper, and had the large, square front door with a grooved aluminum trim
around the perimeter of the coin door. The head style remained the same as the earlier
type. The multi-player games of this era also had the same base cabinet, but the size of
the heads varied a great deal. Again, the four-player heads were larger than the two-player
ones, but some of the four-player heads were much larger than others. For example, "Jet
Spin" has a much larger head than "Target Alpha". Because of the deep cabinet, shorter
legs were used on these games.
During this entire time span, the lockdown bar design also went through numerous changes.
There were five or so different types. The earliest had the cast metal end caps, and was
held on with long studs toward the center, which were secured with wing nuts. Then, the
same type bar was modified to lock down using a quick release lever inside the coin door
for easy removal. After that, the end cap type was replaced with a one piece bar with
the quick release pins underneath. This bar was then replaced in the early '70's with
a wider and lower version. The latest type used on the last of the wedgeheads had a
different type of locking tab, which is often referred to as the "shark fin" type.
I will quickly name an example game of all the major cabinet and trim variations in ascend-
ing chronological order: 1) "Show Boat" 2) "Sweet Hearts" 3) "North Star" 4) "Cross Town"
5) "High Hand" 6) "Sure Shot" 7) "Hit the Deck".
I hope this was helpful. My fingers (and brain) got a bit of a workout, but it was fun!
JR
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