If a standing offer from years ago of 100k was never accepted I don’t like your chances today.

$100K...........?? Really??? Do you have any links to this offer? Was it posted on Pinside or anything?

John

I was offered $100k for mine several years ago.

Unlike some rarities it's actually a fun game, it's a real shame it was never made. I'd call it easily one of the best Data East games if it went into production.

Pretty sure it was here years ago. Not sure if it was an official thread or just randomly posted in one.

100k is a lot of coin.

I wonder if there's a chance it will be remade?
Probably challenging license wise.

I love the rare and different games, but like for people to at least get a chance to play them.

I agree with you, but I wonder why it’s a challenging license. If JJP could get WOZ, which is owned by MGM, why can’t someone get Kong, which is also owned by MGM? I’d love to see a mass produced Kong game.

I have to say, even though its a rare machine, I would have to call their bluff if someone offered me $100k for a KK. I can't see any single pin worth 100k.

I agree. I had a lot of rare pins at the time and when they came out to look at the KK, they were more interested in my other games but I had no interest in selling the games that wanted to buy. I think the original offer we just BS and what they really wanted was something else that I had at the time.

KKs are for like UAE collectors that don't care about the number, just the acquisition. 20mm apartments everywhere, 10 car garages with the most sough after vehicles in the world. If 100k is a concern, than KK is not attainable - there's never any FS ads on them - pay off the owners house - get a grail pin... maybe, Mr Dayhuff / Mr Tommy-dog - is there a number ?

Amazing Fantasy 9.0 - 9.6s are $2mm- $4mm comic books you can hang on your wall and stare at the front page - I can't see anyone paying that but they do - and they are easier to find than a KK.

Back when I was looking to buy a KK, there was only one marginally available and I worked the owner for YEARS trying to get a number out of him and to make him commit to it once he did put a number on it. Eventually we had a falling out over it that turned pretty ugly. I'm not into playing games, pinball yes but head games NO. A year later we got back together and he sold me a different one, one that I had not already seen in person until the day that I bought the game. Now I always loved the KK movie from 1976, not so much the original and certainly not any of the other remakes after the 1976 one. The fact that there were so few of the games made never really intrigued me that much, although it would be kinda cool that it was such a rare game but I was more after the theme then anything else, the rarity was just a bonus or icing on the cake if you will..., just like the Charlies Angels EM. Now back at that time in 2007 prices on games were pretty cheap or should I say there wasn't a frenzy of people buying games like they do now and especially for big money. Yes, the price was high for a game at that time but he knew I wanted it BAD and if I wanted it bad enough he knew I'd pay it and of course I didn't doubt for a minute that he had others ready to buy, especially over seas buyers which I know he dealt with a lot. I never once thought to myself back then that "hey, years from now that game will be worth way more then I paid for it", because back then and for many years later NOBODY gave that sorta thing a second thought and neither did I. It hasn't been until the last 8-9 years that people have been trying to buy the game from me and each time I've gotten a offer thrown at me it's always been for more money each time. Is there a number that I would sell it for?? Basically no. I don't NEED the money and if I did I'd sell off other things first then something that is so cool and rare and I also know I'll never get my hands on another one so replacing it later is not going to happen. Don't get me wrong the money would be nice but having the game is nicer at this point. Yes, someday they will all go in one big auction along with everything else but for right now I'm more then happy to keep it and the other games here for us all to enjoy.

John

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I've seen a Charlies Angels EM is it really that Rare?

Not sure if this King Kong is the one that came thru town 4-5 years back. I'm assuming so.

Coolest cabinet artwork ever.

The CA em. took me 12 years to find and I searched HARD. People here from RGP will remember. I've never once seen another one in person still to this day. All the shows, collections, warehouse raids, auctions, tips, leads and buying and selling over 680 games over the years....., not a single one. They are a unicorn for sure, more made then EM EK's and EM. Mata Hari's.......but yet harder to find. Probably because nobody cared about the CA games like they did the others so most of them got trashed.

John

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I've never understood why no one has tried to re-make, or at least homebrew this game. The demand is through the roof.

Eventually somebody will. It always seems to happen with anything rare or worth the big money, I've seen it happen more times with games, glasses, playfields, porcelain signs.... then I can count. You can't beat the original anything though, at least to a real purist.

John

We were lucky enough to play Johns before! Any hopefully again some day!!

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I'd love to make it to one of your next annual events, seeing that KK would be the highlight for me for sure. It's one I'd like to see.

When Mrs. Aaron Spelling approached Joe Kaminkow about wanting a game for her husband-a check was written for $175,000 without an issue. Lethal Weapon 3 was on the line at the time. Aaron Spelling pinball

No, Copywrite is for 95 years (?), the original movie came out in 1933, so in 6 years the concept of King Kong will be in the public domain
As this machine is not based on the KK movie from the 70s, then in 6 years there will be no rights issue (except with Data East)

Items of this rarity and prestige are often things money can't buy. The owners usually have plenty of money already and can get more elsewhere if needed. Usually it takes a trade of some other nearly unobtanium item as well as some luck.

Thank you John, that's one kk you can knock off your list, no money will buy it so I'm guessing the others feel the same, they won't post for sale ads, they will entertain offers that cannot be brushed off, but just entertain. In my Opinion, 100k won't do it, maybe 10 bitcoins last year since a large group of overnight millionaires were buying up everything and renting out everything (watches, cars, homes, why not pinballs, then again prices did get pretty high last year...) may as well of gotten games like kk if they knew were to find em, if you have hundreds of coins, what's 5 here or 10 there.

well that sure was an interesting read. I had no idea Data East was commissioned to do that. I just read the info on IPDB.

DE did a handful of one-off re-themes.

https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&mfgid=98

Sort by production numbers and most of the titles with a quantity of 1 or 2 are those re-themes.

I don’t know what it would take these days to get one but I think a trade of another super rare game and cash would have to be in the mix plus all of this would happen quietly unless of course the day comes when there is an estate sale or auction. All of us are only caretakers of what is in our collections so one day it will all passes on!

Seeing this ad reminds of the time a local retailer had one for sale.

The Home Arcade, which was located in Lisle,
IL, had one on the showroom floor back in the day. It was shortly before they closed up shop around 2000 or so. They got the game from one of the DE team members. They also had an extra backglass for sale as well. The price was $3,995. Missing out on that one is one of my biggest regrets in this hobby.

True... everything gets passed down eventually.

Someone brought one to PAGG before the split with gspf. I remember playing it and getting my ass handed to me repeatedly! In a good way.
Such a stoker someone would bring such a rare game.

The original KK is an awesome movie. Especially the amount of work that went into it with the stop motion animation and considering when it was made. Sad thing is there is like no behind the scenes pictures of it being made. It was literally filmed in secret.

The 1976 KK effects were terrible. The monkey suit was not great. A lot of the budget went into the full scale Kong to go in the cage.

occasionally you get lucky and find one, just have to be persistent. On games like this, knowledge is power. Finding them is hard itself, getting the person to let it go is a whole different level.

I know where most of them are, and of the ones that i know of, none are for sale, they dont have price tags, about the only way to get one is to have something else that a current owner wants more, and usually, thats not cash

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Haven’t played it, but it sure doesn’t look like 6 figures. To each their own, and rarity is its own reward, but, are you $&@“‘!;/ kidding me? I mean, really? To each, their own, I guess. Carry on.

How many of these are there?

How many did HEP do? I remember reading when he was doing one years ago.

Hep did one I believe. 9 or so total were made.

I thought it interesting how several rare titles begin with the letter K. A letter that rarely is used.

King Kong
Kingpin
Krull

Kabuki to.

I have actually done three King Kongs. One in 2006,a couple around the same time in 2013 I think.
Each one was different.
Some had steel ramps others plastic
Some had longer flippers different wireforms.
I did a side by side YouTube documentation about ten years ago.
I still have it up there but it’s private.

I found my picture of the King Kong someone brought to Expo in 1991. We knew it was rare and took advantage of being able to play a bunch of games on it after the banquet. I enjoyed it and remember that king size side flipper and cool soundtrack.

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We have 5-6 companies making pins now that could pull this off....somebody get top men on it.....top men

I would be in.... heck there are a few guys that could do it on their own if they could get the parts fabricated. (No I'm not one of them)

the picture i posted was one of the HEP ones. Chris had done that one in 2013 i believe

man what an incredible machine.

Is that Rick Stetta, one of pinballs' greatest players at the time?

Someone did flash the ROMs- it's up on ipmd. Someone should really remake this. Only issue would be the rights to "King Kong" that no one seems to know who owns (https://comicbook.com/movies/news/wild-and-complicated-story-of-the-rights-to-king-kong/) - who owns the rights to old Data East properties though?

I don’t know about Data East, but as long as a game did not use any element from any of the movies (1933, 1976, or 2005), and at least on paper said the game was based on the novelisation, whoever (re) made this would be free and clear. That’s not to say Universal wouldn’t TRY to sue… but they don’t have much of a leg to stand on as far as character rights after the Donkey Kong thing.

Speaking of Rights. I remember when I first joined pinside. There was a guy or company making Predator I think. If I recall he had a working game, looked cool with UV stealth modes, took deposits then at the end said he had to shut down because he forgot to get license? If I recall it got ugly.

Hoooooooo boy. You’ll find it if you search - I don’t think we want to mar this Wanted thread with that trash !