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Project Ataray - Preserving and renewing
Hammerfist:
Hi guys! Just yesterday got hold of an oldish arcade cabinet from 1991. It's originally made by Atari in Ireland for Finnish company that does business in the gambling/vending machine area. They don't deal with arcade stuff anymore though.
My plan is to combine the two, Atari and Ray by upping the rather ugly original look, with some Atari themed graphics and colors, yet still preserve the original look somewhat (all plans are subject to change ;) ). I have planned to update the CP to some extent and maybe make it modular. From this..RAYTARI Ataray shall arise!
The cabinet has the option to turn the monitor by opening the front and then just turn. Nice.
The problem we had to face when opening the cabinet, was the two sturdy cylinder locks, that kept the front "door" locked. What we did, was to remove the top that was fixed with six screws and glue, and then attack the locks from behind! Luckily we managed to do just that and very easily at that. Only damage that was done, was to the top cover underside, that was glued to the wood pillars inside the outer panels of the cabinet. So basically nothing major.
What was quite unnerving, was to realize, that when we carried the thing four floors upstairs, I had carried the whole thing (weighting at about 100-150kg) by holding from two handles screwed to the top cover, which was only attached with the screwes and glue :D. Ok, good stuff can hold a lot, but still..
But on to the pictures!
The cabinet itself:
Cabinet from the side: As you can see, the sticker has been torn off partially (not by me). The sticker has a good color palette, which I have been thinking of incorporating to my Fortunes Whim -cabinet, but I'm considering the colors on this as well.
Cabinet from behind: Top was removed at this point, but it had two of the same kind of handles for carrying.
Factory markings: I really like this one :)
Then some weirdness. The cabinet has a coin slot on top of the CP. From there the coing drops to this:
This thing has a spring loaded mechanism at the rear (left on the pic) and a small lever-kind of thing. The smaller part (in far left) goes under the coin chute if it is pulled all the way back, but the coin rejection push button in front of the panel only pushes the bigger lever about 1 cm forward (see the small round detrition in the middle of the bigger lever).
These pics explain it a bit more:
There was a PVC-pipe about 10 cm long behind the rejection button, which most likely held the rod that pushes the big lever. But what I don't understand yet, is how the mechanism worked as a whole. Regrettably the coin handling system was not there, so we can only guess, unless someone has some solid info :)
Here is the cabinet open: As you can see, the door has hinges and opens very easily to make maintenance easy. The white label under the monitor says "monitor falling support". It's handle bar that can be pulled out and used as a support for the monitor. Neat. You can also see the parts I've mentioned and some more. Coin chest on the lower right, the "counter CPU" unit with its grey cable in the middle shelf and door, Jamma board in the middle and the power unit and transformer at the back.
Bottom half of the cabinet from closer: Regrettably it didn't have the coin recognition system anymore, but it did have a black box connected to the door labeled "Counter CPU" in finnish. So it's the system doing the counting, but at the moment it doesn't seem to work. On the right you can see the coin chest, but it as well is locked with a lock I don't have a key for :P.
Here is the board of the monitor: I didn't have time yesterday to properly investigate the components. The monitor has a good picture BUT it takes about 60 seconds for the picture to center and it's a bit green for few first seconds. But after that the picture is really good. I had to adjust the setting a bit, but that was easy, since it has a separate control panel for settings.
Yes, it is Wells-Gardner 19K7601
And for those interested, here is the Jamma-board from component side: The game is World Rally Championship.
and from solder side:
Well, here ends the first report. I have only one evening behind me with the machine, so there might be some surprises yet to come, but all seems to be working ok, except the sound.
What I'm going to check next is the speakers, the connection to the speakers and if those are ok, then the Jamma-board itself.
More to come! :)
Malenko:
instead of Raytari why not Ataray/ AtaRay ?
Hammerfist:
--- Quote from: Malenko on July 05, 2012, 04:26:03 pm ---instead of Raytari why not Ataray/ AtaRay ?
--- End quote ---
Yes, why not! Good idea :D Only that my friend pointed out that Raytari sound almost like "ritari" which is Finnish for "knight" :) Just add some Sir Arthur from G&G in the artwork and we're set ;). Yeah, but I'll give Ataray some serious thought. It does sound a bit less cheesy, compared to Raytari.
But here's what I got done today:
I tested the speaker connections and they worked ok, so the problem is with the game. That can wait for some other time, but I'll see about fixing it. I took off the front supports holding the glass and CP in place.
The player 1 and 2 buttons. The only leaf switches in this cabinet :)
Removing the front gave me the possibility to measure the CP. It seems that it should be possible to fit almost any buttons in there, since the lowest point from top to bottom is 6 cm and highest (at front) 9 cm. I have to think about the way to make the CP modular, for example by making the top plate removable. The switches have been made by Cherry.
The CP removed
The top part of the front door has a hinge that lets the top part with the speakers and lamp to turn back, when a small metal plate is turned. This makes it easy to operate the speakers and lamp. I will change the speakers and maybe replace the lamp with LED-lamp. Maybe, because I want to see how it looks with the original style bulb it had. Just got to get a new one first.
Next up is buying some adhesive remover and start planning the graphics. Also got to remove that big ol' coin chest! We'll see if I have to remove the boarding from inside. I kind of hope I don't but since I'll be adding more stuff inside anyways, it might have to go.
More to come :droid
Hammerfist:
What do you guys suggest: The cabinet has the dull grey laminate covering the sides. Considering that I am going to paint it and get good quality print outs that I'll attach on top of the paint, should I even bother removing the laminate? I read this http://fixmycabinet.com/2009/01/04/remove-formica-from-cabinets/ and it says: "If you’re planning to resurface a cabinet or counter, it is not necessary to remove the existing mica. Just cover over the top of what is already there.". What I gather from this, it means that if you are going to laminate it with new laminate, but what about using paint? Thanks!
Edit: Seems that Well Fed Games got good results with painting over (yeah, I'm trying to wiggle myself out of the process of removing the laminate :D) : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115324.0
Well Fed Games:
--- Quote from: Hammerfist on July 06, 2012, 01:12:07 pm ---
Edit: Seems that Well Fed Games got good results with painting over (yeah, I'm trying to wiggle myself out of the process of removing the laminate :D) : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115324.0
--- End quote ---
Yeah, it came out ok, it looks like the laminate surface on yours is in good shape so as long as it is still bonded to the wood well I think it would be fine to paint, and the added paint thickness shouldn't be a problem for t-molding or anything. I did rough mine up pretty well with sandpaper to help the paint grip, but it was very smooth to start out with.
Now one of my current projects, had wood, then the original sideart, then some damaged black laminate on top of that attached by a thick layer of glue). For this project I stripped it down to the wood, since the layers were of varying (and unknown) condition.
That is a very unique cab, nice find! And World Rally is a fun little racing game... hope the board can have new life someday (and a fun fact, Galeco released its rom as one of the truly "legal" MAME roms!). I am with you on the color palette of that sticker, those stripes have a nice retro feel. If you were particularly creative, since your laminate is in good shape you could do full side art and bypass paint entirely on the sides (this coming from someone who loathes painting).
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