This year I really feel like I went back in time and relived my early days of collecting. I bought games, traded games, fixed games, restored games, road tripped for games, went to the California Extreme Show, went to an operators warehouse to pick up games, and emptied out an old barn full of games. I added a lot of games to my collection. I added a lot of games to other peoples collections. And I enjoyed every precious second of it. All of these experiences are still out there waiting to be had. There are still lots of opportunities for new collectors to enjoy the thrills of collecting that a lot of people thought were long gone, and you don't have to have a tricked out Delorean to make it happen. All we have to do is go back.
I remember when just about every collector was on the same page and the hobby was truly about preserving classics. Things have changed. A lot of the new collectors have no loyalty at all to the games and only care about them until they become bored and want something new. If the game can't be sold in a couple days then it gets parted out. The amount of collectors truly dedicated to preserving the classics seems to be dwindling. The fast buck wins out over the thrill and satisfaction of bringing a game back from the grave and giving it a second chance. My mission this year was to resurrect as many games as I could and get them back in circulation. I was able to save a Star Wars, Space Duel, Space Invaders,Asteroids Deluxe, 3 Battlezones, and a Star Castle to name a few. All of these games had been sitting for many, many years just waiting for their chance. I was happy to give it to them. Some of the other games I am still working on will have to roll over into next years bounty due to time and weather restraints. Some needed extensive work and some didn't, but all of them gave me a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that I was able to give them a second chance to remind us of how great an era that really was. There is just nothing better in this hobby than putting the finishing touches on a long restoration, then coining up the machine and playing a game.
My mission for next year will be more of the same, only this time, instead of just saving games from being parted out and dumped in the landfills, I hope to encourage as many collectors as possible to do the same. Forget the fast buck and do something really rewarding. Preserve a classic coin operated piece of history. There are so many resources available to help people repair games. There are fellow collectors giving repair advice on forums, fellow collectors making tons of reproduction parts and artwork, and fellow collectors always willing to lend a helping hand. Make it a New Year's resolution to learn how to repair a monitor, or rebuild a power supply, or fix a broken cabinet or repair one game and find it a home. You are selling yourself short in this hobby if you settle for anything less. It's not too late to go back and start over. I spent this past year doing exactly that. It was fun reliving my glory days of collecting and it was nothing less than an amazing year in the hobby for me. After well over a decade of being in this hobby I was a little jaded and thought I had seen it all. I was wrong and it has never felt so good to be wrong.
The collector community has gone soft. Too many of us sit there in silence as the games get parted out for sheer greed or lack of patience. Too many collectors buy these parts and encourage it. We should be encouraging the new collectors to preserve games, not take the easy way out. It just feels like we need to go back. We need to go back and start over and when we get to that point in time where it became acceptable to gut cabinets for no other reason than greed or a lack of patience, we need to grab the steering wheel and veer hard left, or hard right, it doesn't matter. As long as we end up on a different road from the one we are on now. The New Year is coming. Buy a broken game and bring it back. To the future...
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
A New Hope
for an old Star Wars arcade game is what I had in mind when I picked up this classic vector . Vectors can elicit both extreme joy and dread in the hearts and minds of arcade collectors. Joy when they are working, and dread when they are not. I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with this one. With the deflection board missing and nothing but static coming from the speakers, this game looked like it had gone to the Dark Side. All I could do was try. But as master Yoda once said, "There is no try, only do...". I suppose this would be my test. Would I be able to control my fear and anger and save it, or would I give in and lose this machine to the Dark Side forever ? Unclear, the future was...
The first order of business was to make the game whole by filling the hole where the deflection board once was. Post a wanted ad I will. I figured the chances of finding a decent deflection board would be as likely and expensive as finding transport off Mos Eisley while avoiding any Imperial entanglements. Arcade karma was on my side though as a fellow collector that I had once tipped off about a $100 vector game in his neck of the solar system saw my wanted post and returned the favor. He had the deflection board I needed and a couple days later I had a complete ( but still non-working ) game. This was a known working deflection board ( I tested it in my Space Duel) so I set up the Star Wars monitor behind my Space Duel and used it as a test rig to see if the rest of the WG-K6100 was any good. For some reason the spot-killer LED came on when I put this deflection board in the Star Wars monitor. I changed out all the chassis transistors,metered them to make sure they were not grounded to the chassis yet I still had the same problem. I finally figured out that when the yoke was plugged in to the deflection board, one of the transistors would ground out to the chassis. After spending quite a bit of time going over and over this thing, I noticed that someone had inverted the red and yellow wires going to one of the chassis transistor sockets. After swapping them back to the correct positions, the spot killer was now off and I could hear deflection chatter. Finally a step in the right direction but still no picture on the screen. I re-capped the HV cage and soldered all the pins and still no picture. I was about to go back to the schematic when I heard the words of Obi-Wan in my head, " Use the brightness adjustment". I turned up the brightness and I had a beautiful color XY picture. The Force was strong with this one.
I now had a working monitor but the motherboard presented a whole new set of problems. I tested the motherboard using my own working Star Wars arcade game. There were matrix errors,a vram error, a non-volatile ram error,and a math ram error. Remember what I said about Star Wars arcade machines eliciting dread? I struggled to control my fears as I went about working on this motherboard. I replaced the flagged rams, reseated everything on the boards, cleaned the gold edges, and put the connector back on. I still was getting a math ram error, a bad vram, a non-volatile ram error, and the game would not save any changes to the option switches. The odds of the board having this many separate problems seemed odd and unlikely. The schematic showed that the LS138 at 2L could be the culprit of all of these problems. On a hunch I replaced it but still had the same problems. It was worth a try and the possibility that this board really did have 3 or more separate problems was becoming very real. I replaced the non-volatile ram at 1E and that fixed the option save issues. I swapped out the math ram at 5E and still showed a bad ram at 5E so now I know the issue was probably the socket. I replaced the socket and the matrix errors went away but still showed a bad ram at 5E. Using my meter and the schematics I started checking each pin from 5E to various places on the board until I found a dead trace. I soldered on a trace wire and now had a fully operational Star Wars motherboard. I really felt like hitting the cantina right about now but I still had work to do.
I put the monitor and motherboard back in the cabinet and powered on the game with my leads connected to check the +5 volts at the motherboard. With almost 6 volts at the motherboard I shut it down right away. Turned down the adjustment pot, started it up again and still had almost 6 volts. No wonder this motherboard had so many problems. I metered out all the resistors in the area of the AR-II board that could be the culprits and they all checked ok. I metered out the adjustment pot and it checked out ok. I decided to shotgun the rest of the AR-II with a rebuild kit and go from there. The rebuild kit worked and I now was able to adjust the +5 to you guessed it, +5 volts.
I replaced the marquee light and starter and got ready to play a game of Star Wars. Started up a game and noticed that the cursor on the screen was darting all over the place and the left thumb button didn't work. I replaced the thumb switch and the potentiometer and finally had a fully working Star Wars arcade game.
There was still work to be done. One of the rear corner joints had let go and the cabinet was a little on the shaky side. I removed all the old staples and screws, cleaned the area and glued it and screwed it back together. Now this machine really was ready for the jump to light speed. I delivered this game to the house of a fellow collector. Another Atari color vector gets another chance. It was a long process bringing this machine back and another great learning experience. A Star Wars arcade with monitor issues, motherboard issues, audio regulator issues, control issues, and cabinet issues has come back from the from the Dark Side. Never tell me the odds...
This yellow and red wire were backwards, hampering the jump to lightspeed:
This is not the chip I was looking for:
It was a little too cold out in the garage so the pinball room became a makeshift shop:
Whenever I put a cardboard shroud back in, I cover the staples with a piece of black electrical tape to protect the bezel :
You could almost fly a Star Destroyer through that gap :
Mini vise grips work great to remove old staples. Just tap the legs on the other side against the concrete a couple times till the head sticks out and then pull it through :
Wrapping a micro fiber rag around the blade of a screw driver makes it easy to clean the gap out:
I drilled pilot holes and then glued and screwed it back together. It may not be pretty, but even a wookie couldn't pull this apart now:
A pipe clamp holds it all in place while the glue sets:
For Yoda :
Special thanks to :
Ram Controls for the excellent replacement potentiometers.
Bob Roberts for the cap kits, various chips, and AR board rebuild kit.
Radio Shack for actually having the thumb micro switch.
Fellow Klov forum member Dylan aka "Tron Guy" for the deflection board.
My tech friend and true Jedi at fixing games Obi-Tom-Kanobi for the encouragement over the phone to stay the course.
The End.
The first order of business was to make the game whole by filling the hole where the deflection board once was. Post a wanted ad I will. I figured the chances of finding a decent deflection board would be as likely and expensive as finding transport off Mos Eisley while avoiding any Imperial entanglements. Arcade karma was on my side though as a fellow collector that I had once tipped off about a $100 vector game in his neck of the solar system saw my wanted post and returned the favor. He had the deflection board I needed and a couple days later I had a complete ( but still non-working ) game. This was a known working deflection board ( I tested it in my Space Duel) so I set up the Star Wars monitor behind my Space Duel and used it as a test rig to see if the rest of the WG-K6100 was any good. For some reason the spot-killer LED came on when I put this deflection board in the Star Wars monitor. I changed out all the chassis transistors,metered them to make sure they were not grounded to the chassis yet I still had the same problem. I finally figured out that when the yoke was plugged in to the deflection board, one of the transistors would ground out to the chassis. After spending quite a bit of time going over and over this thing, I noticed that someone had inverted the red and yellow wires going to one of the chassis transistor sockets. After swapping them back to the correct positions, the spot killer was now off and I could hear deflection chatter. Finally a step in the right direction but still no picture on the screen. I re-capped the HV cage and soldered all the pins and still no picture. I was about to go back to the schematic when I heard the words of Obi-Wan in my head, " Use the brightness adjustment". I turned up the brightness and I had a beautiful color XY picture. The Force was strong with this one.
I now had a working monitor but the motherboard presented a whole new set of problems. I tested the motherboard using my own working Star Wars arcade game. There were matrix errors,a vram error, a non-volatile ram error,and a math ram error. Remember what I said about Star Wars arcade machines eliciting dread? I struggled to control my fears as I went about working on this motherboard. I replaced the flagged rams, reseated everything on the boards, cleaned the gold edges, and put the connector back on. I still was getting a math ram error, a bad vram, a non-volatile ram error, and the game would not save any changes to the option switches. The odds of the board having this many separate problems seemed odd and unlikely. The schematic showed that the LS138 at 2L could be the culprit of all of these problems. On a hunch I replaced it but still had the same problems. It was worth a try and the possibility that this board really did have 3 or more separate problems was becoming very real. I replaced the non-volatile ram at 1E and that fixed the option save issues. I swapped out the math ram at 5E and still showed a bad ram at 5E so now I know the issue was probably the socket. I replaced the socket and the matrix errors went away but still showed a bad ram at 5E. Using my meter and the schematics I started checking each pin from 5E to various places on the board until I found a dead trace. I soldered on a trace wire and now had a fully operational Star Wars motherboard. I really felt like hitting the cantina right about now but I still had work to do.
I put the monitor and motherboard back in the cabinet and powered on the game with my leads connected to check the +5 volts at the motherboard. With almost 6 volts at the motherboard I shut it down right away. Turned down the adjustment pot, started it up again and still had almost 6 volts. No wonder this motherboard had so many problems. I metered out all the resistors in the area of the AR-II board that could be the culprits and they all checked ok. I metered out the adjustment pot and it checked out ok. I decided to shotgun the rest of the AR-II with a rebuild kit and go from there. The rebuild kit worked and I now was able to adjust the +5 to you guessed it, +5 volts.
I replaced the marquee light and starter and got ready to play a game of Star Wars. Started up a game and noticed that the cursor on the screen was darting all over the place and the left thumb button didn't work. I replaced the thumb switch and the potentiometer and finally had a fully working Star Wars arcade game.
There was still work to be done. One of the rear corner joints had let go and the cabinet was a little on the shaky side. I removed all the old staples and screws, cleaned the area and glued it and screwed it back together. Now this machine really was ready for the jump to light speed. I delivered this game to the house of a fellow collector. Another Atari color vector gets another chance. It was a long process bringing this machine back and another great learning experience. A Star Wars arcade with monitor issues, motherboard issues, audio regulator issues, control issues, and cabinet issues has come back from the from the Dark Side. Never tell me the odds...
This yellow and red wire were backwards, hampering the jump to lightspeed:
This is not the chip I was looking for:
It was a little too cold out in the garage so the pinball room became a makeshift shop:
Whenever I put a cardboard shroud back in, I cover the staples with a piece of black electrical tape to protect the bezel :
You could almost fly a Star Destroyer through that gap :
Mini vise grips work great to remove old staples. Just tap the legs on the other side against the concrete a couple times till the head sticks out and then pull it through :
Wrapping a micro fiber rag around the blade of a screw driver makes it easy to clean the gap out:
I drilled pilot holes and then glued and screwed it back together. It may not be pretty, but even a wookie couldn't pull this apart now:
A pipe clamp holds it all in place while the glue sets:
For Yoda :
Special thanks to :
Ram Controls for the excellent replacement potentiometers.
Bob Roberts for the cap kits, various chips, and AR board rebuild kit.
Radio Shack for actually having the thumb micro switch.
Fellow Klov forum member Dylan aka "Tron Guy" for the deflection board.
My tech friend and true Jedi at fixing games Obi-Tom-Kanobi for the encouragement over the phone to stay the course.
The End.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Heartbreak Hotel.
In a small town behind a small hotel is a not so small shack. And in that not so small shack was one of the most horrific sights of arcade related death and decay I have ever witnessed first hand. The kind of death and decay that is eventually cleared out and has a house built on it that becomes haunted by the previous inhabitants. Everyone knew about this shack containing the ghosts of arcades past. It was the kind of place you speed your step up a bit as you walk by. The kind of place that stays with you long after you see it. I first noticed this shack a couple years ago while strolling the streets of this town and deemed all the games in there as beyond salvation. About a month ago I was there and noticed that the games were still sitting and rotting and part of the roof had collapsed. It was maddening, it was sad, it was frustrating, and it was downright heartbreaking to see these classics just rotting away in arcade purgatory waiting to be saved or laid to rest once and for all. Up until now, the word on the street was that the owner did not want to do anything with these other than let them sit. Instead of entertaining people, they were entertaining the feral cats of the neighborhood (including one that looked like it was straight out of Pet Cemetery). I decided it was time to make contact and see what I could do. To my surprise the timing was right and we worked out a deal to clear out the shack. Sadly, the owner had become ill and the town wanted the shack torn down because it’s a hazard. Not exactly the circumstances I want to pick up machines under, but I was assured I would be helping them greatly by doing this. I called Dan ( Hatrick) and took him there to have a look. We were still working on the trailer full of games from Buhl but I felt this might be worth pausing for. We drove out to get a look and decided that there could possibly be a few parts in there but the amount of work involved might not make it such a good deal. Sometimes you just have to check your logic at the door and go for it and that is exactly what we did. We set a date, rented a trailer, rounded up our tools and rolled out. Here are some pics. I will see you on the other side…
Down on the corner of lonely street...
Vectorbeam Warrior and a Seawolf that have both seen better days...
Can we please have a moment of silence...
It's only fitting that the Hercules Pinball was holding the roof up...
A beam came down right on the coin door of the Hercules :
The head of the Hercules pin sits wedged in there. There was dead cat inside of the head that must have gotten trapped when the roof collapsed. It took a long time for us to get the top of the Hercules pin out. Dan had to get in there with a Sawz-all and cut away one corner to free it :
These nails were sticking through the roof everywhere making it a little nerve-wracking to be under it. We risked taking one of these to the skull for this mission. We tried to make sure only one of us was under the roof at a time (btw Dan, I would have given your DK a good home if anything had happened to you) :
We used some wooden beams to get the roof up off the Hercules while we removed it:
Hopefully this will clean up nice:
The coin door folded under the weight of the roof:
What once was a burial ground for arcade games is now just a broken down shack:
It will take us awhile to process all of this and see just exactly what we have. When all was said and done, we were tired, hungry,and sore, but at the same time filled with a sense of satisfaction knowing we did what had to be done. So how exactly does a bunch of classic pinball and arcade machines end up in this old shack? Well, as the story goes, the games were set up in an arcade in town and the building was sold. The owner put the games in this shack in working condition as a temporary home until he could find another place for them. That was about 15 years ago.
As we were clearing the place out the curious locals would stop by and talk to us. They were shocked and yet pleased that the games were finally being removed and that some parts would be salvaged. We heard lots of stories about the previous owner and what a great man he was and what he had meant to the town. What had at times felt like a huge chore was beginning to feel a little more like a privilege. I think it’s fair to say that we were the right people for the job. We cleared the place out over a couple of days and spent a lot of time reflecting on it. I am just thankful that the games didn’t all go straight to the landfill without any of it being saved. It is all a little bittersweet. As much as I hate to see machines parted out, after 15 years of being exposed to the weather I don’t think any or at least many can be saved.
I hope the previous owner can find some comfort knowing that we will salvage what we can and realize it was time to let these machines go. If only it were that easy…
Down on the corner of lonely street...
Vectorbeam Warrior and a Seawolf that have both seen better days...
Can we please have a moment of silence...
It's only fitting that the Hercules Pinball was holding the roof up...
A beam came down right on the coin door of the Hercules :
The head of the Hercules pin sits wedged in there. There was dead cat inside of the head that must have gotten trapped when the roof collapsed. It took a long time for us to get the top of the Hercules pin out. Dan had to get in there with a Sawz-all and cut away one corner to free it :
These nails were sticking through the roof everywhere making it a little nerve-wracking to be under it. We risked taking one of these to the skull for this mission. We tried to make sure only one of us was under the roof at a time (btw Dan, I would have given your DK a good home if anything had happened to you) :
We used some wooden beams to get the roof up off the Hercules while we removed it:
Hopefully this will clean up nice:
The coin door folded under the weight of the roof:
What once was a burial ground for arcade games is now just a broken down shack:
It will take us awhile to process all of this and see just exactly what we have. When all was said and done, we were tired, hungry,and sore, but at the same time filled with a sense of satisfaction knowing we did what had to be done. So how exactly does a bunch of classic pinball and arcade machines end up in this old shack? Well, as the story goes, the games were set up in an arcade in town and the building was sold. The owner put the games in this shack in working condition as a temporary home until he could find another place for them. That was about 15 years ago.
As we were clearing the place out the curious locals would stop by and talk to us. They were shocked and yet pleased that the games were finally being removed and that some parts would be salvaged. We heard lots of stories about the previous owner and what a great man he was and what he had meant to the town. What had at times felt like a huge chore was beginning to feel a little more like a privilege. I think it’s fair to say that we were the right people for the job. We cleared the place out over a couple of days and spent a lot of time reflecting on it. I am just thankful that the games didn’t all go straight to the landfill without any of it being saved. It is all a little bittersweet. As much as I hate to see machines parted out, after 15 years of being exposed to the weather I don’t think any or at least many can be saved.
I hope the previous owner can find some comfort knowing that we will salvage what we can and realize it was time to let these machines go. If only it were that easy…
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Best Laid Plans…
of mice and men often go astray. Well that is what they say anyway. But the only hitch in these plans was the one used to tow these arcade games home to get a second chance at making adults feel like kids all over again. It was a year ago that I first found out about these games. It was the usual scenario. Dusty, dirty, forgotten games locked up in a dark storage container just biding their time and waiting for a miracle. But sadly, the timing was all wrong. I had just changed jobs and winter was setting in quickly. They would have to spend another sub-freezing holiday season without much to cheer about. When I was finally ready, the owner wasn’t. Time passed and other games came along to fill the void. With winter coming faster than I care to think about, and hope for saving these games fading away, I decided to make one last attempt for a rescue. I contacted the owner. The long wait to bring these games home would soon be over.
I decided to bring my friend Dan in on this one as there was a Star Wars arcade in the mix and I knew it was the game that topped his want list. There were 9 games in all, with Star Wars and a Space Ace taking the top honors and a Space Invaders, Star Trek, Tournament Cyberball, Omega Race, Shinobi, Sprint 2 , converted Mach 3 rounding out the roster. We picked a day, reserved the trailer, and asked our bosses for a half day off work. The day came and we met up at my house, grabbed lunch, picked up the trailer, and headed off for parts unknown.
We rolled through the countryside and after about an hour and a half and 3 towns later arrived at Buhl, Idaho. Population: you. After some delicate negotiations, we paid up, loaded up, and headed for home. Dan got his Star Wars, I took the Space Ace, and we will sell the rest and split it. My amazing year of collecting just doesn’t let up. We split them up between our garages and will now begin the task of breathing some new life into these games and finding them new homes. We have each had some fast success and look forward to working on the rest.
Another batch of games saved from death and decay means another satisfying moment in my collecting career. I look out at these games stashed away safely in my garage and know that I am utterly defenseless to their charm. They hold sway over us and like trained assassins know exactly when and where to strike and bring us to our knees. These machines pulled us away from our daily lives and jobs and friends and loved ones and coerced us to drive out and pick them up. It just seems so wrong at times. I resent being at their disposal and yet I love every second of it. The best hobby in the world just keeps getting better. The best laid plans do often go astray but not on this day.
I don’t think the games would have allowed it .
Some pics for the “ pics or it didn’t happen” crew :
I decided to bring my friend Dan in on this one as there was a Star Wars arcade in the mix and I knew it was the game that topped his want list. There were 9 games in all, with Star Wars and a Space Ace taking the top honors and a Space Invaders, Star Trek, Tournament Cyberball, Omega Race, Shinobi, Sprint 2 , converted Mach 3 rounding out the roster. We picked a day, reserved the trailer, and asked our bosses for a half day off work. The day came and we met up at my house, grabbed lunch, picked up the trailer, and headed off for parts unknown.
We rolled through the countryside and after about an hour and a half and 3 towns later arrived at Buhl, Idaho. Population: you. After some delicate negotiations, we paid up, loaded up, and headed for home. Dan got his Star Wars, I took the Space Ace, and we will sell the rest and split it. My amazing year of collecting just doesn’t let up. We split them up between our garages and will now begin the task of breathing some new life into these games and finding them new homes. We have each had some fast success and look forward to working on the rest.
Another batch of games saved from death and decay means another satisfying moment in my collecting career. I look out at these games stashed away safely in my garage and know that I am utterly defenseless to their charm. They hold sway over us and like trained assassins know exactly when and where to strike and bring us to our knees. These machines pulled us away from our daily lives and jobs and friends and loved ones and coerced us to drive out and pick them up. It just seems so wrong at times. I resent being at their disposal and yet I love every second of it. The best hobby in the world just keeps getting better. The best laid plans do often go astray but not on this day.
I don’t think the games would have allowed it .
Some pics for the “ pics or it didn’t happen” crew :
Saturday, August 1, 2009
My Own Private Idaho...
It's been almost 5 years since I packed up everything I own, said my goodbyes, and headed for the land of Famous Potatoes. You don't even realize how hectic life is in the big city until you break away and then look back from a safe distance. Idaho has been good to me. Good for my blood pressure. Good for my soul. And most importantly, good for my arcade collecting addiction. I decided it was time to give a little more intimate look at my game room and some of the highly valuable junk that is in it.
Flanking the entry is a poster from one of my favorite horror movies, a picture from one of my favorite TV shows and a concept drawing of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy:
The opposite side of the entrance is home to the Star Wars posters including one that was autographed by Mark Hamill, The Racer X tin sign, and one of the JBL speakers that deliver non-stop 80's hits from Billy Idol, Men without Hats and the like :
Some of the Batman artwork I have including a couple that were signed by the creator of the Dark Knight himself, Bob Kane :
"The Shelf", home to all my figurines and other random items including my old D&D handbook and an autographed picture of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark :
Another movie poster of an all time classic, my custom neon sign made right here in downtown Boise by Rocket Neon, and a glimpse of the obligatory Tron poster :
This little gem joined us after retiring from a Chuck E. Cheese. Looking right at home in front of the window is my beloved Joust Cocktail :
Would you believe this is the original painted on artwork on the cabinet? Would you believe this is the original control panel overlay ? Would you believe all I did to this game was repaint the black area around the monitor and put new orange t-molding on ? Would you believe this game came from the San Jose auction ? I was there when Scott Evans scored this gem and a few months later he sold it to me for the same price of $700. I have yet to see a cleaner original Pacman at any price :
And when the lights go down it looks something like this :
Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, my pinball parlor has slowly been taking shape and will eventually be decked out in 50's memorabilia :
So there ya have it. My time capsule,my panic room and the place I can step into anytime I need a little blast from the past or some peace of mind all rolled into one. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my game room,my pinball parlor, and my own private Idaho.
Flanking the entry is a poster from one of my favorite horror movies, a picture from one of my favorite TV shows and a concept drawing of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy:
The opposite side of the entrance is home to the Star Wars posters including one that was autographed by Mark Hamill, The Racer X tin sign, and one of the JBL speakers that deliver non-stop 80's hits from Billy Idol, Men without Hats and the like :
Some of the Batman artwork I have including a couple that were signed by the creator of the Dark Knight himself, Bob Kane :
"The Shelf", home to all my figurines and other random items including my old D&D handbook and an autographed picture of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark :
Another movie poster of an all time classic, my custom neon sign made right here in downtown Boise by Rocket Neon, and a glimpse of the obligatory Tron poster :
This little gem joined us after retiring from a Chuck E. Cheese. Looking right at home in front of the window is my beloved Joust Cocktail :
Would you believe this is the original painted on artwork on the cabinet? Would you believe this is the original control panel overlay ? Would you believe all I did to this game was repaint the black area around the monitor and put new orange t-molding on ? Would you believe this game came from the San Jose auction ? I was there when Scott Evans scored this gem and a few months later he sold it to me for the same price of $700. I have yet to see a cleaner original Pacman at any price :
And when the lights go down it looks something like this :
Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, my pinball parlor has slowly been taking shape and will eventually be decked out in 50's memorabilia :
So there ya have it. My time capsule,my panic room and the place I can step into anytime I need a little blast from the past or some peace of mind all rolled into one. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my game room,my pinball parlor, and my own private Idaho.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
CSI Boise
Been in this hobby going on 17 years now and I must say, this has been one of my most rewarding and fulfilling years for collecting since I brought home a Space Invaders back in 1993. Since Mother’s Day of this year I have had quite a streak of finding and restoring games while also working on the game room to get it ready for all of these new acquisitions. I was ready to put the brakes on any new games until I had all of my current projects finished. I then heard about a dead Star Castle just down the road from me (everything in Boise is just down the road if you haven’t figured that out by now ) and I had to have a peek. Once again, me and the R2 unit rolled out to investigate.
It was another unseasonably warm day in Boise as we arrived on the scene and took notes of the surroundings. The garage door was open and the victim was sitting in the left rear corner of the garage. We were instantly greeted by a woman identifying herself only as Judy as we strolled up the driveway. A few other collectables were strewn here and there throughout the garage including a Gottlieb pinball and an organ from the 1800’s. I took a statement from the lady. She insisted that the kids were just playing the game one day and it died. There was no evidence of foul play so I took her at her word. “Approximately how long ago was that Ma’am? “ I asked. “About ten years” she replied. The spiderwebs inside the game seem to substantiate that claim. The trail was cold by now and we would be on our own to determine what killed this machine. I asked if it would be ok to plug in the game and she obliged. The only sign of life was a flash of the LED on the motherboard when I powered on the game. No picture on the screen, no sound from the speakers. For all intended purposes this game was D.O.A. Time to draw a chalk outline around this one and slap on a toe-tag.
While I was conducting my investigation, Judy told me about how her father had traded for this game many years ago for his grandkids to play. Between hearing her story, and seeing that little flash of light, I knew what I had to do. “But wait just a second Dave. This is a Cinematronics vector, don’t let your emotions get the best of you. They can be hard to find parts for and you really don’t know that much about them...”, I could hear my inner voice telling me. My inner voice was right. I had to keep my senses about me and not get in over my head. I offered her $50.00 figuring at that price I couldn’t get hurt too bad if I couldn’t get it working. She accepted. I looked in my wallet and realized that I only had $47.00 after stopping for coffee and donuts on the way there. I offered the $47.00 and a sincere promise to do everything within my power to get to the bottom of what stopped this Star Castle dead in its tracks and bring this game some justice. I think the promise meant more to her than the money and with that, R2 and I loaded up the game and headed for home.
The first thing I did was reset the circuit breakers (I had forgotten this game uses breakers instead of fuses) and turned the game on. I could here the monitor crackle and start to come alive and then after about 3 seconds the breaker blew. I decided to go online and do a little detective work. Using the Cinematronic vector repair guide, I was quickly able to determine that the X side of the monitor was the guilty party. I took the monitor out and starting metering away looking for clues. Eventually I was able to determine that the cause of death was due to a shorted heat sink transistor that looked like it took another transistor out with it. I replaced all the heat sink transistors with the upgrades recommended in the guide, making sure not to mix up the NPN and PNP transistors. I powered up the game and now had a working monitor. The game played fine with the exception of sound, or I should say lack of it. First I looked for any obvious clues and found nothing. Not a single sign of trauma anywhere. I jumpered the volume knob to make sure it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t. Metered the speaker and it was showing 1.8 ohms on an 8ohm speaker. This was not good. Using the Star Castle sound board guide on Outerworldarcade.com, I was able to determine that there were blown transistors on the sound board. I replaced those and put in a new speaker and now Star Castle was putting out some beautiful music. I replaced the marquee lamp and starter and this game was now completely back from the dead. I repainted the metal brackets around the control panel and marquee, installed new white buttons, gave it a little cleaning and another vector is now ready for duty. This game proved to be a bit of a challenge. Whenever I ran out of clues to keep me going, I would lean on the promise had I made to a nice lady who wanted nothing more than to know that her father’s game would get my best attempt at a second chance. I recently contacted Judy and let her know that this case has been solved and the Star Castle is now in my game room.
Exhibit A: Star Castle in gameroom.
Despite evidence of some cigarette burns, the game still looks nice:
After dusting for fingerprints,all I did to the coin door area was clean it:
Partners in crime:
Case closed.
It was another unseasonably warm day in Boise as we arrived on the scene and took notes of the surroundings. The garage door was open and the victim was sitting in the left rear corner of the garage. We were instantly greeted by a woman identifying herself only as Judy as we strolled up the driveway. A few other collectables were strewn here and there throughout the garage including a Gottlieb pinball and an organ from the 1800’s. I took a statement from the lady. She insisted that the kids were just playing the game one day and it died. There was no evidence of foul play so I took her at her word. “Approximately how long ago was that Ma’am? “ I asked. “About ten years” she replied. The spiderwebs inside the game seem to substantiate that claim. The trail was cold by now and we would be on our own to determine what killed this machine. I asked if it would be ok to plug in the game and she obliged. The only sign of life was a flash of the LED on the motherboard when I powered on the game. No picture on the screen, no sound from the speakers. For all intended purposes this game was D.O.A. Time to draw a chalk outline around this one and slap on a toe-tag.
While I was conducting my investigation, Judy told me about how her father had traded for this game many years ago for his grandkids to play. Between hearing her story, and seeing that little flash of light, I knew what I had to do. “But wait just a second Dave. This is a Cinematronics vector, don’t let your emotions get the best of you. They can be hard to find parts for and you really don’t know that much about them...”, I could hear my inner voice telling me. My inner voice was right. I had to keep my senses about me and not get in over my head. I offered her $50.00 figuring at that price I couldn’t get hurt too bad if I couldn’t get it working. She accepted. I looked in my wallet and realized that I only had $47.00 after stopping for coffee and donuts on the way there. I offered the $47.00 and a sincere promise to do everything within my power to get to the bottom of what stopped this Star Castle dead in its tracks and bring this game some justice. I think the promise meant more to her than the money and with that, R2 and I loaded up the game and headed for home.
The first thing I did was reset the circuit breakers (I had forgotten this game uses breakers instead of fuses) and turned the game on. I could here the monitor crackle and start to come alive and then after about 3 seconds the breaker blew. I decided to go online and do a little detective work. Using the Cinematronic vector repair guide, I was quickly able to determine that the X side of the monitor was the guilty party. I took the monitor out and starting metering away looking for clues. Eventually I was able to determine that the cause of death was due to a shorted heat sink transistor that looked like it took another transistor out with it. I replaced all the heat sink transistors with the upgrades recommended in the guide, making sure not to mix up the NPN and PNP transistors. I powered up the game and now had a working monitor. The game played fine with the exception of sound, or I should say lack of it. First I looked for any obvious clues and found nothing. Not a single sign of trauma anywhere. I jumpered the volume knob to make sure it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t. Metered the speaker and it was showing 1.8 ohms on an 8ohm speaker. This was not good. Using the Star Castle sound board guide on Outerworldarcade.com, I was able to determine that there were blown transistors on the sound board. I replaced those and put in a new speaker and now Star Castle was putting out some beautiful music. I replaced the marquee lamp and starter and this game was now completely back from the dead. I repainted the metal brackets around the control panel and marquee, installed new white buttons, gave it a little cleaning and another vector is now ready for duty. This game proved to be a bit of a challenge. Whenever I ran out of clues to keep me going, I would lean on the promise had I made to a nice lady who wanted nothing more than to know that her father’s game would get my best attempt at a second chance. I recently contacted Judy and let her know that this case has been solved and the Star Castle is now in my game room.
Exhibit A: Star Castle in gameroom.
Despite evidence of some cigarette burns, the game still looks nice:
After dusting for fingerprints,all I did to the coin door area was clean it:
Partners in crime:
Case closed.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Urban Legends...
We all know about urban legends. When I was a teenager growing up in the East Bay we were all aware of the urban legend about the White Witch that roamed the East Bay back roads. I would be a liar if I said I had never gone out with my friends looking for her. We spent countless weekend nights cruising along dark and windy roads hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Fast forward many years and now I had a new urban legend to chase after: a warehouse full of games. After hearing about it from a couple different people, I decided to look into it a little deeper. The rumor was that this warehouse was home to four Battlezones, a game that was high on my want list. It was time to go a little "Scooby Doo " and track this one down. With a little help from Dan (Hatrick) I was able to get a contact number for the owner of the machines and gave him a call. After talking a bit he made me an offer: get the Battlezones working and I can keep one. He said I would be able to cherry pick all of the best parts to put on the cabinet I wanted to keep. I told him I would want to see the machines before accepting the challenge. I met one of his guys at the warehouse that just happened to be a couple miles down the road from where I live. We went in and took a look around. Most of the classics were gone, but the Battlezones were still there along with a hundred or so other games sitting, collecting dust, and providing habitat for the Black Widow spiders in the neighborhood. Of course the Battlezones were upstairs. Why should it be any easier than it has to be?
All four machines were clustered together in the dark corner of the second story behind a couple other machines reminding me of a scene from “I am Legend”. They had been sitting there about 15 years. We dug them out and looked them over. They were in various states starting at fair and going down from there. Just the kind of challenge I like. I decided to go for it. We hauled the machines down the stairs, loaded them up,and took them to my garage. Maybe catching up with an urban legend wasn't such a good thing after all. Time would tell.
First things first. I had to decide what cabinet I wanted for myself and start moving all the best parts to it. After getting my game assembled I put the others together. There were only enough parts to make 3 complete machines so that is what I did. One of the cabinets had the 2 lower front and back panels busted out. I set it aside and went to work on the others. Using my rebuilt spare monitor, I tested all the motherboards. They were all partially working. There was only one good set of roms between the 4 motherboards. I used that set and found 3 of the motherboards to be good. I ordered the High Score save kits for those boards and went to work on the monitors. After capping the monitors and changing the chassis transistors, I had two working monitors and one that was blowing fuses. Using my meter, I was able to find the guilty transistor on the deflection board and changed it out.
Now it was time to take control of the controls. I had to repair some wiring and replace a couple bellows and the controls were working like new again. Flowed some solder over the AR-2 boards in a few places, adjusted the voltages and I had 3 out of 4 Battlezones ready to do battle again. I consider it a moral victory getting 3 out 4 working again as there weren’t enough parts to make the fourth game whole and the cabinet was busted up.
I replaced the t-molding on my game and put some new rubber mat on the step. I ended up with what I consider a collector quality game, a great learning experience, and 3 more games back amongst the living. There are still games out there in dusty old warehouses waiting to be saved. They won’t crawl out of there on their own. All it takes is a little initiative, and in some cases, being willing to believe in a local urban legend. Sometimes you find your “White Witch” and sometimes you don’t. This urban legend proved to be real and worth the Scooby Snacks it cost me to find my Battlezone.
Zoinks ! A picture is worth a thousand words...
This note gives me the creeps :
What would Scooby Doo ? He would select this shabby looking cabinet to keep for his own, and so did I :
Obviously the work of a dark and twisted mind, or a four year old :
Not looking too shabby now :
One for the money :
And two for the road :
The mystery of the missing Battlezones has been solved.
The End.
All four machines were clustered together in the dark corner of the second story behind a couple other machines reminding me of a scene from “I am Legend”. They had been sitting there about 15 years. We dug them out and looked them over. They were in various states starting at fair and going down from there. Just the kind of challenge I like. I decided to go for it. We hauled the machines down the stairs, loaded them up,and took them to my garage. Maybe catching up with an urban legend wasn't such a good thing after all. Time would tell.
First things first. I had to decide what cabinet I wanted for myself and start moving all the best parts to it. After getting my game assembled I put the others together. There were only enough parts to make 3 complete machines so that is what I did. One of the cabinets had the 2 lower front and back panels busted out. I set it aside and went to work on the others. Using my rebuilt spare monitor, I tested all the motherboards. They were all partially working. There was only one good set of roms between the 4 motherboards. I used that set and found 3 of the motherboards to be good. I ordered the High Score save kits for those boards and went to work on the monitors. After capping the monitors and changing the chassis transistors, I had two working monitors and one that was blowing fuses. Using my meter, I was able to find the guilty transistor on the deflection board and changed it out.
Now it was time to take control of the controls. I had to repair some wiring and replace a couple bellows and the controls were working like new again. Flowed some solder over the AR-2 boards in a few places, adjusted the voltages and I had 3 out of 4 Battlezones ready to do battle again. I consider it a moral victory getting 3 out 4 working again as there weren’t enough parts to make the fourth game whole and the cabinet was busted up.
I replaced the t-molding on my game and put some new rubber mat on the step. I ended up with what I consider a collector quality game, a great learning experience, and 3 more games back amongst the living. There are still games out there in dusty old warehouses waiting to be saved. They won’t crawl out of there on their own. All it takes is a little initiative, and in some cases, being willing to believe in a local urban legend. Sometimes you find your “White Witch” and sometimes you don’t. This urban legend proved to be real and worth the Scooby Snacks it cost me to find my Battlezone.
Zoinks ! A picture is worth a thousand words...
This note gives me the creeps :
What would Scooby Doo ? He would select this shabby looking cabinet to keep for his own, and so did I :
Obviously the work of a dark and twisted mind, or a four year old :
Not looking too shabby now :
One for the money :
And two for the road :
The mystery of the missing Battlezones has been solved.
The End.
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