What is the going price for a CPS-1 Three Wonders PCB?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I'm just curious...what's the going price for a Capcom 1991 produced CPS-1 type PCB of "Three Wonders"?

I remember going to my local arcade in Modesto, CA (yep, same hometown of George Lucas of Star Wars fame) that had a Capcom Three Wonders in an upright arcade cabinet set at 1 token per credit.

I was blown away by the incredible hand-drawn artwork used to create both action-platformer game ""Midnight Wanders: Quest for the Chariot" and horizontal-oriented shmup "Chariot: Adventure thur the Sky". I've noticed that the Capcom artists freely used the same sprites small fry & end-stage bosses in both games found in Three Wonders. Even the BGM tunes are lavishly done, although it's only presented in "mono" and not in stereo.

The Three Wonders sprite-based engine looks surprisingly good for it's age in 2005 when it first appeared in arcades world-wide in 1991. You just don't see horizontal-based shmup engines with goregeous hand-drawn artwork anymore like that presented in the shmup game of "Chariot: Adventure thur the Sky".

The player controls consist of two 8-way joysticks with two buttons per player...which was pretty standard for arcade game titles back in the early 1990's.

I recall that the PC-based Ultracade arcade hardware (circa 2001) ran an emulated version of Three Wonders but doesn't look as good as running the original PCB on a Jamma Supergun or arcade cabinet setup.

It's refreshing to be able to play the Three Wonders PCB and fight the same end-stage bosses placed mid-stage in the higher stages...(reminds me of fighting the all the same end-stage bosses in the PCE classic shmup of Gunhed/Blazing Star on the very last stage).

Unfortunately, there's no back-up battery to save your high scores on the Three Wonders PCB itself...scores vanish upon powering-down the PCB for the night. Capcom could've easily added a "back-up" battery for high score saving though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MNK]

I'm just curious...what's the going price for a Capcom 1991 produced CPS-1 type PCB of "Three Wonders"?

An original board with suicide battery probably goes for around $200. Conversions (some other game without suicide battery converted into 3 Wonders) are alot more common and can be found at places like Exellentcom and Cosmic for around $80.

I had a conversion but sold it last month, graphics is indeed great but the gameplay just didn't 'click' with me.

[Palmer Eldritch]

The Saturn version is quite good actually. Even though I´ve never tried the arcade version, I´d venture that the Saturn version must be pretty close to spot on.

[gunbird18]

^^^^^What Palmer said. Great artwork and I loved the Astrology theme in the hori-shmup!

[ccovell]

Yeah, these were some of the most *memorable* games I played in the arcade, if not necessarily the best. I have these on "Arcade Gears" for the PS1, and they play very well too. The only downside is the music which loops too soon on the PS1.

[it290]

Great title. Midnight Wanderers, in my opinion, out-does Ghouls 'n' Ghosts at its own game, and the puzzler/Pengo clone is awesome too. I don't care for the shmup much, though.