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Space Ace Space Ace - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

Space Ace - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

Description

You play Dexter (also known as SPACE ACE) trying to rescue Kimberly, your wanna-be girlfriend, from the evil Commander Borf who has his Infanto Ray that can turn you into a baby. Cartoon animation by Don Bluth of Disney fame.

Space Ace was produced by Cinematronics in 1984.

Cinematronics released 33 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1976. Cinematronics was based in United States.

Other machines made by Cinematronics during the time period Space Ace was produced include: Hovercraft, Brix, Cosmic Chasm, Dragon's Lair, Freeze, World Series Baseball, Express Delivery, Baseball The Season, Cerberus, and Mayhem 2002

Specs

Name Space Ace
Developer Cinematronics (United States)
Year 1984
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 9637
Class Wide Release
Genre Adventure
Conversion Class unique
External Device LDP - Pioneer LD-V1000 or Pioneer PR-7820
# Simultaneous Players 1
# Maximum Players 2
Game Play Alternating
Control Panel Layout Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls
  • Joystick: 8-way
  • Buttons: 1 - Fire/Energize
Sound Amplified Stereo (two channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard
Control Panel Space Ace Control Panel Image
Side Art Space Ace Side Art Image

Game Introduction

The score is displayed on a separate LED score PCB and not on the screen. The monitor only displays Laser Disc video and no RGB is sent from the Main PCB. Space Ace also has an extra PCB called an Annunciator board. This board flashes the three LED pushbuttons used to select skill level at the start of the game. The three levels are Cadet, Captain, and Space Ace. This game came dedicated in a cabinet different from Dragon's Lair that is similar to the SCION game by the same company and also in the exact cabinet as Dragon's Lair and as a Conversion kit for the Dragon's Lair game. The Pioneer PR-7820 laser disc player was also used.

In this animated laserdisc game, the player assumes the role of Space Ace, a heroic space warrior, armed with a blaster, who must stop the evil Commander Borf from conquering Earth with his Infanto Ray. As Ace begins his mission, he is zapped by The Infanto Ray and turned into a helpless little boy named Dexter and his beautiful girlfriend Kimberly is kidnapped. So the player must help Dexter regain his manhood, destroy The Infanto Ray and defeat Borf in order to rescue Kimberly and save the Earth.

Throughout his quest, Dexter will fly through the galaxy in his spaceship "Star Pac" battling enemy spaceships and manuevering his way through obstacles and he will find his way through planets and space stations while attempting to overcome obstacles as well as being confronted by various robots, alien creatures and even his Dark Side.

The joystick is used to give Dexter or Ace directions and the button is used to have Dexter or Ace fire his blaster and also occaisionally have Dexter transform into Ace if the word "Energize" appears on the screen.

The game ends after Ace completes his mission when he rescues Kimberly and defeats Borf.

Game Play

Before you begin the game, you get to select a level of difficulty: Cadet (easy), Captain (medium) and Space Ace (hard).

The object of the game is not only to rescue Kimberly, but also help Dexter regain his manhood by becoming Ace again, destroying the Infanto Ray, defeating Borf and saving the Earth.

As you journey through outer space on this perilous quest, you will encounter all kinds of dangers with enemy spaceships, alien creatures and other nemesis.

You make all the decisions on the game as you direct either Dexter or Ace with the joystick depending where you are at. The button does not only make Dexter or Ace fire his blaster, but it can also transform Dexter into Ace at certain parts of the game whenever the word "Energize" appears on the screen, but that is only if you choose to do so.

If you make it to the end of the game, Dexter will be Ace again for good, he and Kimberly will be reunited, Borf will be turned into a baby by his own weapon (now destroyed) and the Earth will be safe. Afterwards, the game ends.

Contrary to popular belief, both Dragon's Lair and Space Ace did contain diagonal movements. In some cases, these movements were simply the combination of two acceptable moves, while in other cases the diagonal move was distinct (for example, during the whirlpool segment in Dragon's Lair moving right or left is acceptable, moving diagonal up-right or up-left is acceptable, but simply moving up results in death). In all cases, the diagonal moves were optional, and there was always a 4-way alternative. The '91 re-release of Space Ace contained some diagonal moves that were required.

Space Ace KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.44 (9 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.29

Overall Like 3.88
Fun (Social) 2.25
Fun (Solo) 3.50
Collector Desire 3.67

Technical Rating: 3.91

Gameplay 3.38
Graphics 4.63
Originality 3.38
Sound/Music 4.25

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

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Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

For a complete set of strategies go to httpwww.loop.compaulsdarcadesawk.htm

Images

Trivia

Like IDragons LairI, the animation staff once again provided their own voices for their own characters, in order to keep the costs down. It included Don Bluth himself who did the voice of Commander Borf synthesized. The scantilyclad heroine Kimberly was named after one of the people of the animation staff whose name was Kimberly Coy.PDon Bluth left Disney to start his own animation studio in the early 80s. Since that time, it has been responsible for films such as The Secret Of NIMH, The Land Before Time, Anastasia, and Titan AE among many others.PISpace AceI was rereleased in 1991 as a conversion kit for IDragons Lair II Time WarpI.PThe rereleased version added some required diagonal movement to the game the original had some optional diagonal moves. The rereleased version will not run on the original hardware and vice versa.

Conversion

The PCB board is the same as IDragons LairI just a ROM and disk swap, of course to play the other game. The annunciator board is not required, although without it the selection of skill levels is not available it defaults to Cadet.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Space Ace Census

There are 15,176 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,629 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,346 machines (6,974 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 146 known instances of this machine owned by Space Ace collectors who are active members. Of these, 90 of them are original dedicated machines. 35 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 20 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 6 active VAPS members with a Space Ace machines for sale. There are 2 active VAPS members with a Space Ace circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 15 active VAPS members currently looking for Space Ace.

This game ranks a 42 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 28 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Fixes

The laserdisc player is a limitedlife device and should be treated as fragile at all times.PA kit is available by a company called HiTech MechanicalElectronic that allows the original Pioneer LDV1000 or PR7820 to be replaced with any one of the latest Sony LDP series laserdisc players. The LDP1200, LDP1450, LDP1500, LDP1550 and the LDP2000 are the most common compatable Sony LDP series laserdisc players. For more information on the laserdisc player conversion kit please visit httpwww.hitechmechanical.com

Manuals

Foto-Finder® (Books)

  1. The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 176; Color photo Price guide: No

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

  1. Enthusiast Page: Space Ace (dragons-lair-project.com) (http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/games/pages/sa.asp)
  2. 3D Model (External): Conversion (3e97926d0659b68d9938207d9cf379ee)

eBay Listings

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TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Space Ace

Ebay Compatible Application

New Wave Toys Space Ace x RepliCade 1:6 Scale Arcade

Auction ends in: 4 weeks, 11 hours

FixedPrice
$189.99

New Wave Toys Space Ace x RepliCade 1:6 Scale Arcade Conversion Kit Edition

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$189.99

SEALED New - New Wave Toys Space Ace x RepliCade 1:6 Scale Arcade

Auction ends in: 1 day, 5 minutes

Auction
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Space Ace arcade game control panel

Auction ends in: 1 week, 1 day

FixedPrice
$240.00

Auction Results

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Auctions Recap

Year Count Median $ Average $
2018 1 4,130.00 4,130.00
All Years 1 4,130.00 4,130.00

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