Beware...I live!

[Spyridon]

Recently picked up a Sinistar cab.  Game was 5 miles from my house which is rare as it seems I'm usually driving at least two hours for a pickup.  Game is in decent shape but non working.  The "story" from guy selling it is that his parents purchased it new and it has sat in their basement ever since. 

I'm not sure how far I'm going to take this restoration right now.  Side art is not perfect, but may be too nice to strip off and redo.  However, I will have to repaint the black as there is some damage to the bottom of the cab that will require some bondo.  Well, whatever I decide, besides cleaning, there won't be any cosmetic work done until Spring.  Right now, I will focus on getting it working so I can play it all winter.

[Spyridon]

Control panel has some cigarette burns on it but isn't too bad.  I'll try cleaning it with a magic eraser and see what it looks like.  New overlays are available if I want to replace it later.



A nice find inside were all the manuals


Marquee and bezel are perfect (except for that guy trapped inside)


Back door still has the paperwork attached to it

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

That sit-down Sinistar on the manual looks pretty bad-ass.

[Spyridon]

The main cosmetic issue is the bottom of one of the sides.  Nothing a little bondo can't fix, but I'll have to decide how to handle the black paint.  I'm leaning towards masking off the existing artwork and repainting the entire side black.





The other side has an issue with one of the corners

[Spyridon]

Now that is some cool side art!



Closer inspection shows some scratches through the Sinistar


And other marks on the sides



Again, not in bad shape, but those scratches may annoy me.

[Spyridon]

First thing to do is to get this game working.

Still had the AA batteries in it.  Some corrosion going on here, but doesn't look like any of the components got damaged


Power supply has had some work done to it.  Burnt pin and the wire soldered directly to it. 


When I fire up the game, the +5v light is out on the power supply and the CPU has a ram error.

Time for a power supply rebuild

[Spyridon]

The Robotron power supply I did was much simpler than this.  This one had issues

BR1 was blown
IC1 was blown
IC2 was blown
4J3 was burnt



and now...



At the same time, I upgraded the ram from 4116 to 4164 (including adding in the required power adapter). 


I also put in a lithium battery

[Spyridon]

Powered the game up and still had a ram error.  Turned out one of the 4164 rams I put in was bad.  Swapped that out with a new one and the game fired up!   

The monitor has a perfect picture on it which is a nice surprise (I hate capping monitors)

This is hard game but I'm having fun playing it (in the limited free time I seem to have right now).  Love the speech. 

The only issue now is that it is not saving high scores.  Anyone know hat to get your name on the Sinimortals list?  I can get on the bottom section in the Survivors Today list but not on top?  Also, when I power off, none of the lower scores (which makes sense as they are daily) are saved.


*above picture is for reference only and is not from my game

[RayB]

How many plays on the coin counter?

[Spyridon]

How many plays on the coin counter?

Zero!  But that's because the Williams games don't use them.  I'll check the book keeping stats to see if it gives a total, but I think those can be reset.

Regarding the HUO claim, it wasn't the reason I purchased this and he didn't even mention it until I had it loaded up in my truck.  Really no reason not to believe him but in the end, it doesn't matter.

[yotsuya]

I have no doubt that when you are done that thing will look like it just rolled off the assembly line!

[Rick]

Regarding the HUO claim, it wasn't the reason I purchased this and he didn't even mention it until I had it loaded up in my truck.  Really no reason not to believe him but in the end, it doesn't matter.

I had to look up that 'HUO' meant 'Home Use Only'.  Otherwise, AWESOME thread.  Will watch again!

[opt2not]

Another beauty of a find there Spyri, looks like you're on a bit of a Williams kick lately. I love these Williams cabs, all their hardware problems seems to be the same issues. Bad ram, or faulty harness connections, or the PS needs a re-build.
Keep on with the good stuff, I swear I'm going to get to the nitty-gritty stuff on my cabaret soon enough!

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Such a beautiful cab, even though it's a little rough in places. The sideart kicks ass.

[Spyridon]

Another beauty of a find there Spyri, looks like you're on a bit of a Williams kick lately. I love these Williams cabs, all their hardware problems seems to be the same issues. Bad ram, or faulty harness connections, or the PS needs a re-build.

Yeah, I'm really liking these Williams cabs.  Great stenciled side art, awesome game play, and parts are swappable across games.  Once you learn a bit on the hardware, you can work on a number of games.  Now I need to find a Defender and a Joust!

Keep on with the good stuff, I swear I'm going to get to the nitty-gritty stuff on my cabaret soon enough!

Slacker!     Put down the controls and get to work.  The Robotron cabaret has to be one of the best looking cabarets out there.

[Spyridon]

The only issue now is that it is not saving high scores.  Anyone know hat to get your name on the Sinimortals list?  I can get on the bottom section in the Survivors Today list but not on top?  Also, when I power off, none of the lower scores (which makes sense as they are daily) are saved.

Played around with resetting the factory settings a few times and now the high score save is working.  Of course, I got this going after I put up a 107,000 score - my best so far.

[Spyridon]

Cleaned up the control panel with a magic erasure.  Looks pretty good and would be perfect if it wasn't for a few cigarette burns in the corners

Before:

After:


Also replaced both lights in the coin door, and 3 lights on the control panel.  The blue ones are lit but they don't glow very well

[opt2not]

Also replaced both lights in the coin door, and 3 lights on the control panel.  The blue ones are lit but they don't glow very well

Yeah, those blue ones aren't very translucent. I'm really considering whammoed's Lightmite for my blue buttons. Though it wouldn't make the cabinet 100% original, but it's non-destructive, so maybe it's ok.

Are you going to keep the original CPO, or can you live with the minor cigarette burns? That CPO doesn't look that bad really.

[Spyridon]

Yeah, those blue ones aren't very translucent. I'm really considering whammoed's Lightmite for my blue buttons. Though it wouldn't make the cabinet 100% original, but it's non-destructive, so maybe it's ok.

I did pick up some new blue buttons on eBay for the Robotron and they are very bright and still original

Are you going to keep the original CPO, or can you live with the minor cigarette burns? That CPO doesn't look that bad really.

I think I can live with this one.  I'd like to not put a lot of money into this one (for a change).