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Author Topic: Midway Extra Bases  (Read 7910 times)

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chopperthedog

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Midway Extra Bases
« on: February 24, 2015, 02:30:25 pm »
The ad for this game was up on CL for months with 2 of the worst possible pics for trying to sell a game. I inquired and asked for some full size pics of the 3 sides and liked what I saw. I had no previous knowledge of this game at all and google doesn't yield much except for the original sale thread of this game on klov 6 years ago. I love these old games that used black lights and mirrors.


Made the deal happen this weekend and got it home. I love the side art and the whole vibe of the cabinet.


When powered on there was a super loud hum coming from that cab that made it sound like a fire alarm from grade school. I thought is was the speakers/amp, but it was the ballast for the black light. I had never encountered such a thing before. It still worked, but buzzed like a mofo and shook the whole cab. When I took the marquee off I saw the previous owners attempt to "fix" the noise. Dropped in 2 brand new ballasts for each fixture.


The wiring for the controls was a COMPLETE clusterduck and didn't work.


I cut all that crap off and was able to rework the main harness to gain some extra length so that I could wire directly to the connectors.


Wiring redone and I was able to play the very first game. I gotta say that it's a pretty damn fun game.


The monitor could use a cap kit to help fix the positioning of the image against the field. The black light fuxture uses a 24" bulb and came with a black light "blue" bulb. I suspect that this game originally came with a black light "white" bulb ala Space Invaders/Asteroids Deluxe.


The original bezel was completely unusable. No ammount of wet sanding could do anything for this since there were micro cracks throughout the entire thickness and not just surface marks.


I carfully cut out the clear area of the bezel so that the art can still be used. I have a new piece of glass on order that will go in front of the art or what's left of it.


It's a nice addition to my little collection and a very fun game. There's only 1 cocktail table and 1 upright of this game listed in the database on klov. Pretty cool to think that this may be the only working/complete upright of this game. Need to do some more cleaning. The trackball rollers are well worn and I need to look into what my options are for rebuilding the beast of a trackball.


good day.

bfauska

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 05:23:30 pm »
Nice work cleaning up a really interesting old cab.
I don't like the shape of lots of the cabs from those days but I gotta say I like that they were mostly unique. My MAME cab is a dynamo (the master of generic-slap-a-kit-into-a-cab company) and a wall of the unique oldies is so much more fun to see in a collection than the look everything had by the '90s.

Le Chuck

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2015, 05:39:33 pm »
That's a great pick up!  Thanks for sharing man!!

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2015, 07:10:12 pm »
Thanks guys!!

Confirmed my suspicions that this game needs a blacklight "white" bulb. I used the 18" marquee fixture to test a BLW bulb from my asteroids deluxe. The stock blacklight fixture in this game is 24" 20watt. Huge difference with the blacklight white bulb.



^^^blacklight "blue".



^^^Blacklight "white" (lower wattage and not in the right position). Also take note of the sky and faux scoreboard with how they react differently to this bulb.

Got a couple 24" BLW bulbs on order now. Had a buddy come over yesterday and got to experience 2 player play. HOLY CRAP!!!! this is an awesome 2 player game. The complete total junk garbage pitching you can come up with using the trackball is hysterical. Can't wait to get the new/right bulbs and caps for the monitor.


good day.

tomstewdevine

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2015, 02:56:28 pm »
I always love seeing cabs I have never heard of.  How does 2 player work on this game?  Take turns? Or does the person on offence just get one button? Or are you on the same team? Very interesting, very rad.
Finished: 2 bartops and a cocktail
Not-Finished: 1bartop, 2cocktails, and 2 stand ups.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2015, 03:29:39 pm »
Both players take turns on offense / defense. Single button for offense swings bat and controls runners (you can make runner keep going to next base by holding button and release button to make runner return). Defense is trackball and button. Before initiating a pitch you can position outfielders with trackball and hit button to start pitch. The trackball has control over the ball from the pitcher to the plate. If a ball is struck the infielders are controlled by computer, but if it goes into the outfield you have to work the crap out of the trackball to make outfielders run and throw ball back. After inning is over you switch sides on the control panel. A 1 player game against the computer also has you switching sides. I like that 1 credit gets you 1 inning with the computer and if you are in the lead after the inning the game continues for free (or you can add more money to continue). I was able to take the computer 5 innings on 1 credit. It really is a cool game.


good day.

tomstewdevine

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2015, 03:48:46 pm »
Both players take turns on offense / defense. Single button for offense swings bat and controls runners (you can make runner keep going to next base by holding button and release button to make runner return). Defense is trackball and button. Before initiating a pitch you can position outfielders with trackball and hit button to start pitch. The trackball has control over the ball from the pitcher to the plate. If a ball is struck the infielders are controlled by computer, but if it goes into the outfield you have to work the crap out of the trackball to make outfielders run and throw ball back. After inning is over you switch sides on the control panel. A 1 player game against the computer also has you switching sides. I like that 1 credit gets you 1 inning with the computer and if you are in the lead after the inning the game continues for free (or you can add more money to continue). I was able to take the computer 5 innings on 1 credit. It really is a cool game.


good day.

Thats bomb and does sound really fun. Super Unique find, thanks for sharing.
Finished: 2 bartops and a cocktail
Not-Finished: 1bartop, 2cocktails, and 2 stand ups.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2015, 11:16:00 pm »






Pulled the black light fixture for a cleaning before install of the correct bulb. When I got the game I saw the 4 strips of double sided tape residue on the fixture and saw it called out in the parts breakout in the manual. Shiny aluminum duct tape seemed like a good replacement.



The proper bulb looks frickin' awesome!!



If anyone was curious, here's a shot of the field removed from the game. The areas that appear black under the black light are actually from the sloppy reglue of the infield that someone did at some point.



Such a cool unique looking cab. Next thing is to get to the monitor recap and pull the rollers from the trackball to ship to my brother to have some nice new spiffy ones turned.



good day.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2015, 06:57:51 pm »
The monitor in this game was causing some odd crap in my SI monitor, so I swapped it for stratovox in the bedcade to avoid 2 laydown monitors side by side. I woke up sunday and was basking in the glory of the side art and noticed the box scores didn't make sense.




The scores don't add up and what the hell does MMC mean on a baseball box score.... It hit me. Did Midway Manufacturing Corp (MMC) incorporate the serial number and date code in the side art?




The serial stamp on this cab is 560. Could 181 be the month and year of production?

One of them moments when I wish there was better documentation and pictures of this game online. Pretty damn cool detail to include that info in the sideart if it ends up being what their original intentions were.


good day.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2015, 07:00:19 pm by chopperthedog »

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2015, 08:15:19 pm »
A little update. Here's what the trackball looks like. Similar to missile command but different and it's also 4 1/2".







Obviously there are no parts to be found for these 4 1/2" midway balls. I passed along one of the well worn rollers to my brother on Easter. He sext'ed me the above pic today. He turned a new set out of 304 stainless steel. Can't wait to get them!!!!



Did some reading about the Motorola XM702-10 and got the voltages dialed in along with finally learning how to get the image in the right spot.



good day.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2015, 08:45:37 am by chopperthedog »

opt2not

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2015, 08:28:21 pm »
Great restoration so far, this one's going to turn out spectacular!  :applaud:

Slippyblade

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2015, 08:34:30 pm »
Just found this today, loving the restore!  Not a big sports game fan, but this recovery/restoration is looking cool.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2015, 09:59:01 pm »
Thanks guys!!



Since I finally got the monitor image adjusted in the right spot, I shot a little video of the attract mode (no sound) since the trackball still in pieces. I'd like to do a 2 camera shoot of 2 player game play at some point. A youtube search for "midway extra bases" doesn't yield anything from an original cab. Also keep in mind the monitor in this thing is a 23" Motorola black & white monitor.


good day.

opt2not

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2015, 01:55:14 pm »
Looks pretty cool!  Yeah, seeing this in MAME isn't nearly as cool as seeing it with that B&W monitor w/ overlay. MAME is fine and dandy, but in cases like this it goes to show that you cannot perfectly emulate the experience of some games. Some games are best enjoyed in it's original format.

Are you planning on restoring the overlay at all?  You mentioned someone did a sloppy re-glue job on the infield. That shouldn't be too hard to fix with some crafty cut & pasting.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #14 on: April 10, 2015, 09:03:34 pm »
Are you planning on restoring the overlay at all?  You mentioned someone did a sloppy re-glue job on the infield. That shouldn't be too hard to fix with some crafty cut & pasting.



I'm leaning towards not mucking with it all. There's no way to match the type of uv colors of that infield and I would hate to f*ck anything up myself beyond what its current condition is since the paper is super brittle. I can accept things as they come, but it would kill me to have to forever look at damage I created.  :cheers:




Got the rollers and they are perfect!!! Close up of my brothers handy work. Trackball feels and rolls factory fresh now. Making the outfielders run for the ball isn't a chore anymore.


good day.

Slippyblade

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #15 on: April 10, 2015, 09:04:59 pm »
Always handy having a machinist in the family, those new rollers look great!

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #16 on: April 11, 2015, 05:27:43 pm »


Made a switching power supply adapter out of a .156 pin header and some chunks of wire. Part laziness and part piece of mind to avoid the time dealing with the midway linear power supply.


good day.

1atarian

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #17 on: May 25, 2018, 03:03:46 pm »
Any chance on attaining another set of those 4 1/2 rollers for my Extra Bases? Thanks.

chopperthedog

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Re: Midway Extra Bases
« Reply #18 on: May 27, 2018, 04:26:57 pm »
Any chance on attaining another set of those 4 1/2 rollers for my Extra Bases? Thanks.
Sorry, no. Your best bet is to find a machinist local to you and bring them one of your worn ones to replicate.


good day.