Namco Consolette 18

Namco Consolette 18
Katakana	コンソレット18
Rōmaji	KONSORETTO18
AKA	Consolette
Type	Sitdown
Released	1987
Dimensions	732 x 580 x (1079, 1430 including marquee) mm
Wiring	JAMMA
Monitor	18 in 15/24 kHz
Rotatable	Yes
Weight	60 kg
Power Supply	AC 100V
Power	91 W

NAMCO launched their Consolette 18 cabinet in 1987, most probably in response to SEGA's 1986 City.

With the Consolette 18, NAMCO introduced a yet unseen design novelty by having the control panel box secured firmly at a small distance from the main chassis via two lateral curved chrome plated steel tubular "arms", which would internally route the wire harness connecting the joysticks and buttons.

NAMCO intentionally heavily slanted the corners of the back portion of the cabinet in order to have a unit easily secured in a room corner to save precious space, or have several aligned in a row at an angle against a wall, as well as to be able to stack several Consolette 18 cabs astutely as if they were octogons with published promo material (see below in Gallery) showing clusters of 2 up to 6 cabs joined via corner faces and or back to back & laterally, sometimes using as much as two spacers between each cab.

The cabinet has the coin slot placed on the frame at the right of the monitor, while on the left side is located a stereo jack connector for plugging in headphones, which was unusual at the time. 2 x 25 Watt speakers for FM Stereo are located above the monitor behind the cut out vents.

Consolette 18 control panels had Seimitsu LS-32 joysticks usually mounted stock with a round restrictor gate, and yellow 28mm custom made reed buttons for Namco by Seimitsu with Omron B2R reed long life switches, often found with PCB type solder connectors (see in Gallery).

Gallery

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  Cabinet stacking options in clusters of 2, 4 and 6 cabs in different configurations (via corner faces, back to back & laterally) eventually with up to 2 spacers. Fitting of a single cabinet in a corner and row of cabinets against a wall also shown.
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  peculiar geometry of the Consolette 18 back, permitting several compact stacking/linking options
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  Stock 2L6B 2 player control panel with Seimitsu LS-32 joysticks (round gate) & custom 28mm reed buttons (Omron B2R reed "long life" switches, PCB connector type)
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  original Seimitsu joystick & custom 28mm button replacement set for Namco Consolette 18 2L6B panel (28mm action buttons shown disassembled)
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  Launch price advertisement
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  Prabo & Pretz Nishizawa Minami Matsumoto shop (Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture: about june 1989).
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  Consolette 18 setup 2
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  Play City Carrot (Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo: about december 1988) 8 minute walk from JR Gotanda stop

Manuals & Paperwork

• Operator's Manual