Pick Date: 3/05/11    MORE WILLIAMS GAMES. There is no such thing as too many Williams games. This comes right on the heels of picking up a Sinistar. Narc was designed by the famous programmer Eugene Jarvis who made Robotron and Defender. Narc was also the first video game to use a 32bit processor commonly found in most home computers and laptops today. Williams had shut down their coin op unit during the video game crash of 1984 and had just started it back up again in 1988. Narc was their first entry back into the market. Was this game worth it and did it match the hype? My vote is a resounding YES!

Narc had the old Williams action and flair, along with the new developments of using digitized actors in the game. The game centered around a simple premise: Take out the drug dealers. Hence the catch phrase written all over the arcade game: "Say No To Drugs!".

It was a lackadaisical saturday morning and I was in middle of working out. I just happened to take a peak at Craigslist while taking a break. Listed was a Narc. What was so special about a Narc? I had been looking for a working one for several years now. Most Narcs are scrapped or parted out either because their rare medium resolution monitors fail or their monitor becomes a donor for some other medium resolution game. This Narc was real, it was working, and it was within my reach. There were no photos and I didn't bother asking. If you want a game bad enough you don't beat around the bush asking for photos while giving other people the opportunity to scoop up the game. The guy called me back and said his post had generated a lot of emails but he would give me the first shot. With that I grabbed my coat and ran out the door.

Now I drove into St. Louis and was heading for a bad area of town. However, I didn't let this stop me. When I pulled up to the house it was definitely in a bad neighborhood. I knocked on the door and was greated by a gentleman missing his 2 front teeth. The guy ended up being a really nice person. He turned on the game and it came right up. I noticed the picture was out of focus but that was an easy fix. Most non-techies are unaware how to adjust a monitor when the picture changes over time. I asked him why he was selling the game. He said that his brother had given this to him and he was getting ready to move so he was selling it. I asked him why he was moving and he said he didn't realize that he had moved into a really bad neighborhood and it was time to get out. That was a little amusing, because I knew that was a bad area right after showing up. I'm glad he was getting out of their though. Its almost amusing that I was picking up a Narc in probably what was a drug-infested neighborhood. I can confidently say that as a week later on the news there were 3 police officers shot trying to arrest someone only a few miles from that house.

I handed the guy cash and asked if he would help me load up which he replied "Yes". I didn't bring my trailer that day and was hoping it would fit inside my Durango. It was a really tight squeeze but it made it in. I do miss my van for game hauling, but the Durango is a much nicer ride. I get the game home and get it unloaded from the garage into the kitchen to give it a general cleaning as well as give the monitor a nice, sharp picture. I then move the game downstairs into its spot in the gameroom.

I noticed at that time the marquee light wasn't working. I took out the marquee glass and the light fixture was missing an FS-2 and the bulb. I got both a bulb and FS-2 and went to install them. I shouldn't have done this but the game was turned on at this time. When installing the bulb I didn't notice that at some point some non-technical person had left 2 bare, live AC wires dangling within 1 inch of each other. When I stuck my hand in there the 2 wires touched and there was a loud "POP" as well as a short fireworks display. The picture on the game was now blank. Nothing. My heart sank at that point. My new game might now be ruined all because of some ignorant person's handiwork inside the game I now own. I started to do some checking and noticed the main fuse inside the game was blown. That was a good sign. I fixed the dangling AC wires and put in a new fuse. Then I turned the game on and hoped that I would not see a small explosion again. Success! The game turned on, and the marquee light now lit up. Catastrophe has been averted. The game is now all well and earning its spot in my arcade.

I now have 4 Williams games in my line-up. I love Narc's 80's nostalgia with its anti-drug campaign splashed all over the cabinet.
BTW, Williams games still rule and Say No To Drugs! I'm now going to play some Narc and arrest some more drug dealers.

Click on images below to view image gallery