Cheetah
Stern Electronics, 1980A small club by the Pinside numbers, but a great game nonetheless!
I have been on the hunt for one for some time and recently scored a decent example.
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Not much out there in terms of aftermarket plastics, backglass, playfield, etc. Perhaps with some discussion more Cheetahs will be brought in from the wild and spark support for this elusive beast!
Quoted from TractorDoc:I have been on the hunt for one for some time and recently scored a decent example.
Nice, never seen one IRL. Looks like a fun game, that left upper flipper is placement is pretty unique.
Quoted from hocuslocus:Nice, never seen one IRL. Looks like a fun game, that left upper flipper is placement is pretty unique.
The best of the classics hands down. A pure shooters pinball that is finally getting the credit it deserves.
I was able to grab a second Cheetah playfield. . . the art on this one is a little better preserved than the one in the game. Between the two I have a nearly complete set of plastics, only the two thin guides that end at the flippers are chipped near the flipper area. Thinking/hoping I can contact CPR to see if they are interested in using them to make repros. 
5J5A0071 (resized).JPG5J5A0072 (resized).JPGQuoted from TractorDoc:I was able to grab a second Cheetah playfield. . . the art on this one is a little better preserved than the one in the game. Between the two I have a nearly complete set of plastics, only the two thin guides that end at the flippers are chipped near the flipper area. Thinking/hoping I can contact CPR to see if they are interested in using them to make repros. [quoted image][quoted image]
That's a nice looking play field. And nice looking plastics, too.
The Cheetah I got years ago had a rough playfield. Found a much better one on Ebay and touched it up and cleared it. It has the prototype blue cabinet and sound ROMs. Underrated Classic Stern for sure.
If you zoom in on my last picture, you can see what I did with the return plastics. I made clear ones with the correct tip. Put the bell spacers underneath where the green plastic ones went. Then spacers above the clear piece and the broken green above. Have to use longer screws but not too long. I did the same to my Galaxy that has that same design.
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Quoted from schudel5:The Cheetah I got years ago had a rough playfield.
Beautiful work schudel5 !
I was wondering about the blue vs. black cabinet. I think both look great!
Quoted from schudel5:The Cheetah I got years ago had a rough playfield. Found a much better one on Ebay and touched it up and cleared it. It has the prototype blue cabinet and sound ROMs. Underrated Classic Stern for sure.
If you zoom in on my last picture, you can see what I did with the return plastics. I made clear ones with the correct tip. Put the bell spacers underneath where the green plastic ones went. Then spacers above the clear piece and the broken green above. Have to use longer screws but not too long. I did the same to my Galaxy that has that same design.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
That back glass just sort of pours onto the play field. It is hard to see where the glass stops and the play field starts. Beautiful !
Quoted from schudel5:The Cheetah I got years ago had a rough playfield. Found a much better one on Ebay and touched it up and cleared it. It has the prototype blue cabinet and sound ROMs. Underrated Classic Stern for sure.
If you zoom in on my last picture, you can see what I did with the return plastics. I made clear ones with the correct tip. Put the bell spacers underneath where the green plastic ones went. Then spacers above the clear piece and the broken green above. Have to use longer screws but not too long. I did the same to my Galaxy that has that same design.
Beautiful work. I think I am fortunate enough to have a playfield which needs a bit more work than yours, but should be restorable. Getting it cleared is my dream, but seems so far away with all the work to do.
Really clean underside, but somebody replaced the original flipper mechs with Sys80 which are apparently very good, but I am concerned will ruin game play due to clightly different functionality. ATM, waiting to replace these with weaker coils to test this, as I had the original before and just love the gameplay with original.
I always thought the black was the prototype cabinet? I was wondering if there are any black prototype roms (with the great bass sound), with the bonus update that someone released a couple of years ago?
Thanks-
Quoted from koji:I always thought the black was the prototype cabinet? I was wondering if there are any black prototype roms (with the great bass sound), with the bonus update that someone released a couple of years ago?
I'd be curious to know which is which. . . black vs. blue. . . more from a historical standpoint as I think both look great.
I've only played my game so I have nothing to compare to, but it has an acoustically appealing base tone to the spinner above the left upper flipper and the furthest right spinner (spinner in the horseshoe has a higher tone). Those spinners lose the base tone when the bonus lamp beneath them is lit (as a reward from scoring three stars of the same color on the drops I think).
I will have to get some gameplay video and dust off the you-tube account unless Pinside adds a way to load sound files. If mine does not have the "bass package" I'd really like to add the updated ROMs plus a modern speaker. . .
Quoted from TractorDoc:I'd be curious to know which is which. . . black vs. blue. . . more from a historical standpoint as I think both look great.
I've only played my game so I have nothing to compare to, but it has an acoustically appealing base tone to the spinner above the left upper flipper and the furthest right spinner (spinner in the horseshoe has a higher tone). Those spinners lose the base tone when the bonus lamp beneath them is lit (as a reward from scoring three stars of the same color on the drops I think).
I will have to get some gameplay video and dust off the you-tube account unless Pinside adds a way to load sound files. If mine does not have the "base package" I'd really like to add the updated ROMs plus a modern speaker. . .
According to Dr. Dave, the blue cab used the prototype ROMs.
Quoted from TractorDoc:I'd be curious to know which is which. . . black vs. blue. . . more from a historical standpoint as I think both look great.
I've only played my game so I have nothing to compare to, but it has an acoustically appealing base tone to the spinner above the left upper flipper and the furthest right spinner (spinner in the horseshoe has a higher tone). Those spinners lose the base tone when the bonus lamp beneath them is lit (as a reward from scoring three stars of the same color on the drops I think).
I will have to get some gameplay video and dust off the you-tube account unless Pinside adds a way to load sound files. If mine does not have the "bass package" I'd really like to add the updated ROMs plus a modern speaker. . .
Interesting. Yeah, from other comments you are probably right then. I am on my second Cheetah now. Both were black cabs, one had a prototype ROM, the other has the higher pitched production ROM.
You can hear the difference here:
(Prototype)
(Production)
There is a really great ROM tweak that he speaks about in the second video, but it is only available with the Production ROM. Would love to combine the two.. maybe there is a patch to do this.
Thanks for linking those videos koji
After watching I can tell that I have the standard production sound package. I have not advanced in my pinball knowledge enough to know much about programming or how to burn new roms, I was able to find an older Pinside Thread that covers some of the topic though:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-cheetah-proto-roms-available
It looks the like blue cabinet rom files can be downloaded from the Pin-Mame website but I do not have an account to do so. . . even then I'd still have to hire someone to burn them for me.
Another thought I have is/are these the game roms on the MPU or are there separate roms on the sound card that get swapped out? I have an extra sound card that could be a donor if it was that easy.
I had remembered back to when I went thru my Nine Ball that there were replacement lamp boards available to use 555 twist sockets from www.Pinballreplacementparts.com .
Looks like they only offer the "grid" below the three bank drop targets for Cheetah:
https://pinballreplacementparts.com/products/stern-cheetah-replacement-lamp-boards-take-555-sockets
someone with a really nice playfield would have to send it to stu at cpr for scanning
Quoted from out_of_order:I hope someday CPR does playfields for this
Quoted from Cherries_Jubilee:someone with a really nice playfield would have to send it to stu at cpr for scanning
I wish someone could make this happen. It seems like most Cheetah playfields are worn and a CPR playfield would be a nice upgrade from the original. I sure could use one.
Quoted from koji:I was wondering if there are any black prototype roms (with the great bass sound), with the bonus update that someone released a couple of years ago?
Thanks-
Yes, there is.
Quoted from kickabit:I wish someone could make this happen. It seems like most Cheetah playfields are worn and a CPR playfield would be a nice upgrade from the original. I sure could use one.
I sent pictures of the plastics/playfield that I have to CPR and I'm waiting to hear back if they have any interest. . . fingers crossed!
Quoted from TractorDoc:I sent pictures of the plastics/playfield that I have to CPR and I'm waiting to hear back if they have any interest. . . fingers crossed!
THe populated play field I bought a few years ago, now that I understand more, can be restored easily enough. But I did not have all of the plastics and sold (regrettably now) the good ones I had. If CPR were to make plastics then I could restore my play field.
Quoted from TractorDoc:I sent pictures of the plastics/playfield that I have to CPR and I'm waiting to hear back if they have any interest. . . fingers crossed!
Pretty sure EVERY cheetah owner would order at least 1 set. Question is, how many are still around :/
Quoted from koji:Pretty sure EVERY cheetah owner would order at least 1 set. Question is, how many are still around :/
I’ve come across more trashed and parted out Cheetahs than working ones. There is a thread on the CPR Facebook page where someone asked if CPR would make a Big Game backglass. They responded saying they’ve only sold 2 plastic sets so far for Big Game and it wouldn’t be worth the time and materials. I’m hoping there’s more demand for Cheetah but I’m not getting my hopes up. I wish CPR had a different business model for more rare games. Maybe something like Kickstarter where they could be up front with how much money they need to produce something and the community could help fund it.
I had a quick conversation with Stu from CPR today.
More or less he said that the plastics were not something he would take up but said that KevinCPR might be willing on his own time BUT he would need to have a complete set.
My two lane guides have breaks/chips where they meet the flippers so in order for the project to happen we would need to find someone with an unbroken set to help the cause. I would be willing to provide the rest of my playfield plastics if someone else can provide the lane guides. Any takers? 
An interesting side note, Stu said he would take a look at pictures of my playfields to see if the condition was good enough for a source image -- it sounded like those had more potential for creation than the plastics. I've since sent him better playfield pictures.
Waiting to see what he thinks.
Quoted from TractorDoc:I had a quick conversation with Stu from CPR today.
More or less he said that the plastics were not something he would take up but said that Kevincpr might be willing on his own time BUT he would need to have a complete set.
.
Very cool, thank you. If I had them I would. At one point, someone shared some scans of them in one of the Cheetah forums. If that is helpful, I could try to dig that up.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Wow. Just dreaming about playing this on a new PF.. would be amazing!
While I was out of town last week Stu at CPR messaged me back to say the artwork on the populated playfield looks complete enough to move forward. 
The next steps are for me to strip the playfield of everything except the inserts and ship to him for scanning. He will then ship it to Mike to create a CAD file. At that point Mike can sand the original playfield, correct inserts, print the new artwork/clearcoat. I imagine there would be some time to source/cut new playfields before a new supply would be available, but at least the artwork would be ready.
I have no problem sending what I have to Stu/Mike. . . I am just wondering if I should have the playfield sanded down to be reprinted. While my original has wood planking, ground in dirt, and several small defects it is still, well, original. I do not know if I have the talent to refurbish my original to a high level, but I do like the fact that it has survived all this time.
One idea is to send the loose playfield to Stu/Mike for the artwork process then perhaps pull the playfield with more wear from my game and send them that for printing. . . I suppose I will have some decisions to make.
In the meantime I will work on depopulating and post some pictures of the loose playfield along the way. Still needing a set of good lane guide plastics if anyone has any to spare for scanning. . . it would really be great if we could make that happen!
Quoted from TractorDoc:While I was out of town last week Stu at CPR messaged me back to say the artwork on the populated playfield looks complete enough to move forward. The next steps are for me to strip the playfield of everything except the inserts and ship to him for scanning. He will then ship it to Mike to create a CAD file. At that point Mike can sand the original playfield, correct inserts, print the new artwork/clearcoat. I imagine there would be some time to source/cut new playfields before a new supply would be available, but at least the artwork would be ready.
I have no problem sending what I have to Stu/Mike. . . I am just wondering if I should have the playfield sanded down to be reprinted. While my original has wood planking, ground in dirt, and several small defects it is still, well, original. I do not know if I have the talent to refurbish my original to a high level, but I do like the fact that it has survived all this time.
One idea is to send the loose playfield to Stu/Mike for the artwork process then perhaps pull the playfield with more wear from my game and send them that for printing. . . I suppose I will have some decisions to make.
In the meantime I will work on depopulating and post some pictures of the loose playfield along the way. Still needing a set of good lane guide plastics if anyone has any to spare for scanning. . . it would really be great if we could make that happen!
Looking forward to seeing the pics. If anyone is starting a CPR list, I'd def be in for a PF and Plastics if available.
Quoted from TractorDoc:Thanks for linking those videos koji
After watching I can tell that I have the standard production sound package. I have not advanced in my pinball knowledge enough to know much about programming or how to burn new roms, I was able to find an older Pinside Thread that covers some of the topic though:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-cheetah-proto-roms-available
It looks the like blue cabinet rom files can be downloaded from the Pin-Mame website but I do not have an account to do so. . . even then I'd still have to hire someone to burn them for me.
Another thought I have is/are these the game roms on the MPU or are there separate roms on the sound card that get swapped out? I have an extra sound card that could be a donor if it was that easy.
I think it is just the one rom? I could be mistaken tho. My goal is to try to patch the prototype rom with the bonus modification (or try to find someone else who has done this). After coming from the prototype, I have to say, the production rom just sounds_ wrong .
no, it's 3/4 of the roms modified.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q2-pYmMPkP13rLrhMg010msWmoyi6Wzo/view?usp=sharing
see if you can grab it. according to the date stamps it's over a year old for the proto version the other version was probably about 10 years ago
Even though I've never even seen a Cheetah in person, I've really fallen in love with this game from watching several videos. What great looking game & a great shooter all around. Seems like it would be pretty difficult to find one, perhaps even more difficult than finding a Quicksilver. I'll be keeping an eye out from now on though.
Keep up your efforts with CPR
Quoted from HoakyPoaky:Even though I've never even seen a Cheetah in person, I've really fallen in love with this game from watching several videos. What great looking game & a great shooter all around. Seems like it would be pretty difficult to find one, perhaps even more difficult than finding a Quicksilver. I'll be keeping an eye out from now on though.
Keep up your efforts with CPR
I suspect there will be a Cheetah for sale soon at John's Jukes (flippers.com), near Vancouver, BC. He has been working on one for a long time. I'm curious to see what he prices his at. Maybe send him a message if you want it and are willing to pay store $ + shipping.
I traded my original Cheetah to Alex at Ice Box arcade in Seattle (Really didn't want to sell it, but he wanted it, and made me an offer I could not refuse), and as some kind of stroke of good fortune, a friend found me another Cheetah locally (I was telling everyone how sad I was), so here I am.. back in the game
I know of one other in BC at another collectors place.
Pretty odd how so many ended up in BC. I think for a while it was undervalued because of the left lane bonus exploit. Honestly, I think this has a lot to do with setup tho, as if you have snappy flippers and a good angle, you can make the shot very difficult to achieve. Still, the tournament rom 'fixes' this, and thus the game seems to be in crazy demand.
Even though I've been distracted by other projects I'm still working on the Cheetah Playfield project.
Several "Shop-Out" pictures of the tear down process.
5J5A0840 (resized).JPG5J5A0841 (resized).JPG5J5A0842 (resized).JPG5J5A0843 (resized).JPG5J5A0844 (resized).JPG5J5A0853 (resized).JPG5J5A0856 (resized).JPGQuoted from Methos:Is anybody working on a Pf protector or plastics for this game?
I do not have any information on the protector -- I am trying to put together a set of plastics to send to CPR for reproduction. I believe I have everything except one (the right) inlane guide plastic. Hoping someone out there has one that they would be willing to let us borrow to the cause to create the complete set.
Quoted from TractorDoc:I do not have any information on the protector -- I am trying to put together a set of plastics to send to CPR for reproduction. I believe I have everything except one (the right) inlane guide plastic. Hoping someone out there has one that they would be willing to let us borrow to the cause to create the complete set.
I was not aware that Cheetah has reached the $6500.00 level.
Quoted from cottonm4:I was not aware that Cheetah has reached the $6500.00 level.
Hope you are not quoting me thinking that is my game for sale! 
I would not pay that much. . . trying to decide if I would sell for that much though. 
Probably. Or not.
Quoted from TractorDoc:Hope you are not quoting me thinking that is my game for sale!
I would not pay that much. . . trying to decide if I would sell for that much though. Probably. Or not.
My humble apologies. I did not mean to imply that you were the seller.
It is something when you have to think if you would sell at that price. Is the game that good? Can I replace it? If you answered "yes" followed by "no", then you keep it. And hope that a $6500.00 price is not a price where two fools met
I have a Cheetah play field that needs restored. Couple of years ago I asked if Cheetah was worth restoring. Several said no. So I sold my plastics. If you are successful in getting some plastics made I may decide to bring it back to life. But Cheetah back glasses can be a challenge.
Quoted from cottonm4:I was not aware that Cheetah has reached the $6500.00 level
Rest easy, it hasn’t. I’d love to have one but I’d never pay anywhere close to that amount.
Some tuff news on the Cheetah playfield reproduction.
Just finished a phone conversation with Stuart and at this time he is a bit reluctant to take on the project. As it turns out he has just completed plastic sets for Dragonfist and Lectronamo and has sold just a few sets. At this time he has a Classic Stern phobia and does not want to start something new in the traditional way CPR does things.
He says there are ways to proceed, but that involves me committing to the production of 30 playfields -- a bit more than I am comfortable with (or more than I need!) He said something about collecting pre-orders, but with the reputation that has in the pinball world I'm nut sure it is such a good idea either. 
Prior to our talk I had finished stripping down the good playfield. Several pics mid harness removal and with everything clear.
Perhaps I can find someone willing to take on a playfield restoration or I can give it a go myself.
Another fun addition from the Cleveland Show -- a backup glass in case I do something dumb to the nice one. It is less than perfect/has some touched up areas. . . but I don't know when I'd see another one.
5J5A9992 (resized).JPGQuoted from TractorDoc:Some tuff news on the Cheetah playfield reproduction.
Just finished a phone conversation with Stuart and at this time he is a bit reluctant to take on the project. As it turns out he has just completed plastic sets for Dragonfist and Lectronamo and has sold just a few sets. At this time he has a Classic Stern phobia and does not want to start something new in the traditional way CPR does things.
He says there are ways to proceed, but that involves me committing to the production of 30 playfields -- a bit more than I am comfortable with (or more than I need!) He said something about collecting pre-orders, but with the reputation that has in the pinball world I'm nut sure it is such a good idea either.
Prior to our talk I had finished stripping down the good playfield. Several pics mid harness removal and with everything clear.
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Perhaps I can find someone willing to take on a playfield restoration or I can give it a go myself.
Another fun addition from the Cleveland Show -- a backup glass in case I do something dumb to the nice one. It is less than perfect/has some touched up areas. . . but I don't know when I'd see another one.[quoted image]
Repro glass tends to be pretty do-able with a few vendors.. just a long lead time, and various methods and price ranges.
Hard to say if we can drum up 30 Playfields.. I'd be in for 1.
I am positive there would be a lot of interest in the plastics were this a possibility. Almost every Cheetah I have seen or heard about has plastic issues,
Quoted from TractorDoc:Another fun addition from the Cleveland Show -- a backup glass in case I do something dumb to the nice one. It is less than perfect/has some touched up areas. . . but I don't know when I'd see another one.[quoted image]
You're still killing me with all the stuff you find.
So is CPR putting the effort to do Cheetah plastics and playfields on hold? Or is this altogether dead? Is Stu going to scan your playfield to maybe do this sometime in the future? I realize that classic sterns aren’t the most abundant games but hasn’t CPR done most of the popular stuff? Even if we could just get plastics I’d be happy.
Quoted from TractorDoc:Some tuff news on the Cheetah playfield reproduction.
Just finished a phone conversation with Stuart and at this time he is a bit reluctant to take on the project. As it turns out he has just completed plastic sets for Dragonfist and Lectronamo and has sold just a few sets. At this time he has a Classic Stern phobia and does not want to start something new in the traditional way CPR does things.
He says there are ways to proceed, but that involves me committing to the production of 30 playfields -- a bit more than I am comfortable with (or more than I need!) He said something about collecting pre-orders, but with the reputation that has in the pinball world I'm nut sure it is such a good idea either.
Prior to our talk I had finished stripping down the good playfield. Several pics mid harness removal and with everything clear.
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Perhaps I can find someone willing to take on a playfield restoration or I can give it a go myself.
Another fun addition from the Cleveland Show -- a backup glass in case I do something dumb to the nice one. It is less than perfect/has some touched up areas. . . but I don't know when I'd see another one.[quoted image]
Quoted from kickabit:So is CPR putting the effort to do Cheetah plastics and playfields on hold? Or is this altogether dead? Is Stu going to scan your playfield to maybe do this sometime in the future? I realize that classic sterns aren’t the most abundant games but hasn’t CPR done most of the popular stuff? Even if we could just get plastics I’d be happy.
When I last talked to Stu (three weeks back or so) he said he was hesitant to take on any more Classic Stern Stuff after creating plastics for Dragonfist and Lectronamo -- he said CPR had only sold a couple sets of one and none of the other. His effort and time in creating the art/files were not near being justified for the amount of sets sold. Personally those two titles would not have been my first choices to duplicate with only 300 or so Dragonfists made and Lectronamo usually selling as a sub $1K game (with about 50 in collections and 20 on wishlists here on Pinside). . . but what do I know. One could argue that Cheetah is a bit of an outlier as well but I would think more demand would be there (of course I'm biased! )
He said I had options of fronting the money to get the plastics/playfield art going but personally I don't have that kind of cash to throw at this sort of project at this time in my life. I don't plan on making a list/collecting deposits either as that does not have a good history here on Pinside. I may have one or two other avenues to look into with some local graphics/artwork people. . . I need to take the time to look into things a bit more. I did touch base with Outside Edge about a possible hardtop, but they said they have no intention of getting into Stern stuff as there is too much Williams/Bally material to cover first.
I'd be happy with a set of plastics as well. . . even just to have as spares!
If you Cheetah owners really want the plastics made you should start a Go-Fund-Me account to raise the funds that they need to do the artwork. Then send stu the funds and a set of plastics to work from and I bet they get them made.......
---*** CPR Plastics Update ***---
I received a message from CPR Stu today on the Cheetah plastics. Interest has rekindled on producing these and I will be sending him my set this week for scanning/reproductions.
One of my inlane guides (the right side) is chipped at the flipper end. Luckily the left side appears to be intact and is a mirror image of the right.
Fingers crossed these get made. . . I will be in for two sets if it happens!
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Ashland, OH
Surrey, BC