Casio Wall
| Wall | |
|---|---|
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| Katakana | 18吋ウォールタイプ |
| Rōmaji | JŪHACHI-INCHI WŌRU TAIPU |
| AKA | 18-inch Wall Type, Casio Wall, Casio Lava |
| Type | Mini upright / sitdown |
| Released | 1987 or earlier |
| Dimensions | 550 x 530 x 1180–1230 mm |
| Monitor | 18 in |
The Wall (18吋ウォールタイプ), officially advertised by Casio Game Co., Ltd. as the 18-inch Wall Type, is a compact Japanese universal arcade cabinet.
The cabinet is documented in Casio Game promotional material from 1987 or earlier.
It uses a narrow upright-style body with an 18-inch CRT and an adjustable overall height of 1,180–1,230 mm.
Design
The Wall Type occupies an unusual position between Casio's small mini-upright cabinets and its later sit-down machines.
Published dimensions are:
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Width | 530 mm |
| Depth | 550 mm |
| Height | 1,180–1,230 mm |
| Monitor | 18-inch CRT |
The cabinet uses:
- Tall side panels extending towards floor level
- Compact monitor enclosure
- Projecting front control panel
- Narrow cabinet footprint
- Adjustable overall height
- 18-inch CRT
Its relatively low height makes it smaller than a conventional full-height upright while remaining substantially taller than Casio's Mini Mini B.
Wall Type name
Casio's catalogue names the cabinet:
18吋ウォールタイプ
or:
18-inch Wall Type
The available promotional material does not explain the meaning of the Wall Type designation.
It may refer to the cabinet's relatively shallow footprint and suitability for installation close to a wall, but this is presently only an interpretation.
The reason for the name should therefore be treated as unknown.
Monitor
The cabinet is explicitly advertised with an:
18-inch CRT
The available Casio material does not identify:
- CRT manufacturer
- Tube model
- Monitor chassis
- Horizontal scan frequency
- Supported resolutions
These fields should remain blank until additional factory documentation is found.
Monitor orientation
No known Casio documentation establishes whether the Wall Type monitor could be installed in both horizontal and vertical orientation.
The `rotatable` and `rotate_mech` fields should therefore remain blank.
Wiring
The original wiring standard is presently unknown.
The available catalogue does not establish:
- JAMMA compatibility
- A Casio proprietary harness
- Game-specific wiring
- Connector type
The wiring field should therefore remain unspecified.
Original price
Casio advertised the cabinet in both empty and complete configurations.
| Configuration | Price |
|---|---|
| Empty cabinet | ¥40,000 |
| Complete cabinet | ¥110,000 |
The available catalogue does not fully specify which controls, power equipment or other internal hardware were included with the complete configuration.
Relationship to Tehkan Lava
The Wall Type has a strong visual resemblance to cabinets in Tehkan's Lava family.
Its closest visual counterpart appears to be the Tehkan Mini Lava rather than the larger original Lava or later New Lava.
Shared characteristics include:
- Narrow compact body
- Tall side panels extending towards the floor
- Raised monitor enclosure
- Projecting control-panel box
- Similar overall cabinet proportions
- Similar low upright / sit-down playing position
The Wall Type therefore can reasonably be described as a:
Lava-derived
or:
Lava-style
cabinet.
However, no presently known Casio or Tehkan documentation establishes a formal manufacturing, licensing or design relationship between the companies.
Comparison with Mini Lava
The Mini Lava provides the closest known visual comparison.
Both cabinets use full-height lateral panels which form much of the cabinet's supporting structure rather than the tubular metal legs used by some larger Lava models.
The two designs also share:
- Compact width
- Similar monitor position
- Similar control-panel projection
- Low overall height
- Side panels continuing below the main cabinet body
The similarities suggest that the Casio cabinet was strongly influenced by the Lava design language.
This does not establish whether the cabinet was:
- An authorised derivative
- An unlicensed copy
- Independently produced using a similar concept
- Based on shared third-party manufacturing
The exact relationship remains unresolved.
Comparison with SNK Lava
The SNK Lava uses a broadly similar compact cabinet structure.
A notable difference is the separate front-mounted metal footrest used on the SNK cabinet.
This feature is absent from both:
- Casio Wall Type
- Tehkan Mini Lava
The three cabinets nevertheless belong to the same broad visual family of compact Lava-style machines.
Tehkan warning against Lava imitations
In November 1982, Tehkan published a formal industry warning concerning unauthorised copies and modifications of the Lava cabinet.
The notice stated that Lava was an original product independently researched and developed by Tehkan and referred to its exhibition at the 20th Amusement Machine Show.
Tehkan warned against:
- Manufacturing imitations
- Selling imitations
- Modifying Lava cabinets for resale
- Exporting copied or closely resembling cabinets without permission
and stated that such activity could infringe the company's legal rights.
This provides useful historical context showing that Lava-style copying was a contemporary issue in the Japanese arcade industry.
However, the notice does not identify:
- Casio Game
- The Wall Type
- SNK
- Any other specific manufacturer
It therefore cannot be used as direct evidence that Casio's Wall Type was one of the cabinets Tehkan considered infringing.
Dating
The Wall Type is documented in Casio Game catalogue material from:
1987 or earlier
No exact release date has yet been established.
The design itself may originate earlier than the surviving catalogue, particularly given its visual similarity to early-1980s Lava-family cabinets, but this should not be used to assign an earlier date without documentary evidence.
Classification
The cabinet is difficult to classify using modern cabinet terminology.
Its:
- Narrow body
- 1,180–1,230 mm height
- Forward-mounted controls
- Low viewing position
place it somewhere between a mini upright and a compact sit-down cabinet.
Casio's own designation simply describes it as a:
Wall Type
rather than clearly categorising it as either a conventional upright or sit-down.
For the purposes of this wiki it is therefore best described as:
Mini upright / sitdown
Identification
Useful identifying characteristics include:
- 18吋ウォールタイプ designation
- Casio Game manufacture
- 18-inch CRT
- 530 mm width
- 550 mm depth
- 1,180–1,230 mm adjustable height
- Compact Lava-style body
- Tall lateral side panels
- Projecting control panel
- ¥40,000 empty-cabinet price
- ¥110,000 complete price
Evidence which would particularly improve this page includes:
- Dated Casio advertisement
- Operating manual
- Manufacturer plate
- Monitor manufacturer
- Monitor chassis
- Wiring diagram
- Weight
- Electrical specifications
- Surviving original cabinet photographs
Gallery
-
Casio Game 18-inch Wall Type -
Casio Game catalogue; the 18-inch Wall Type is shown in the centre of the top row -
Tehkan's November 1982 notice concerning unauthorised manufacture, modification, sale and export of Lava imitations
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