Author Topic: Robotron cocktail - Finished!! (Read 7095 times)

OSCAR · « **on:** May 24, 2004, 11:41:53 pm »

Some of you may remember Edgedamage's posts about his Robotron and Joust cocktail cabs quite some time ago... Well, as luck (or perhaps fate) would have it, they ended up in my hands for restoration.

I started on the Robo this past weekend and I really have my work cut out for me on this one, I can see a month of Sundays dedicated to getting this back to "showroom" condition! The Joust can be seen in the background in the 2nd pic:

Edgedamage warned me that the Robo would be a lot of work, he wasn't kidding... So far I've stripped the cab down, removed the remants of the wiring, and started refinishing some of the salvagable wood panels. There was some water damage to the cabinet bottom as well as the right side (sitting in the P1 position). I stripped off the wood grain laminate on the right side because it had a large chunk missing near the front corner. After a bit of investigating I found that the Formica brand Colonial Cherry laminate is a very good match for the original finish. It looks more like Walnut to me, but what do I know??

Some photos while I was taking apart the cab:

control panel full of crap, litterally

pics of the guts

bezel and tinted plexi inlay

Top reassembled. Still needs a new underlay, t-molding, and instruction cards. I just wanted to put it back together before I lose any pieces. Also shown is one of the control panels stripped down. This cab was converted to another game and a button was added, so I need to fill that hole before I install the new overlays.

P2 side refinished. I polished the kickplate on my buffer, it didn't turn out too bad.

Wooden coindoor stripped, gouges filled with putty, and repainted.

Nothing to do with this project, but here is a Robotron wallpaper that I made for my PC. I figure this is as good a place as any to post it if anyone is interested.

I still have a long way to go on this project, but I'm posting this now in case anyone would like any specific dimensions or detail pics while I have it all apart. I'm trying to get this project finished up within the next couple weeks and I'll post better pics as I go.

AGGIEZ · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2004, 01:43:01 am »

You da man Oscar! Are you married? Not cause I'm interested, but you're wife must be one hell of a woman to put up with this stuff!

NiN^_^NiN · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2004, 06:37:02 am »

I must say i LOVE seeing these restoration your been doing oscar i hope it works out well

I have a very rare cabinet im gonna restore but i dont have any idea on how to go about it lol oh well i'll work something out soon.

It's looking good u did a great job on that other cab

good work

GadgetGeek · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2004, 10:32:59 am »

Can you please make this one look cr@ppy so the rest of us can feel OK about our work

Mr. Dude · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2004, 10:52:02 am »

I can't wait to see the end results

Harakiri · « **Reply #5 on:** May 26, 2004, 11:53:11 am »

Oh man...

I wish i had money to have a hobbie like this! In my city, there's so many resources and i'm so broke...

Looking sharp, i already saw Oscar's work, i have no doubt that it's gonna be turned into something great.

menace · « **Reply #6 on:** May 26, 2004, 09:15:51 pm »

I would love dimensions on that joust cocktail--if i built a cocktail it would be that style--I'm sure Jakobud would want both for his site as well!

OSCAR · « **Reply #7 on:** May 26, 2004, 11:18:27 pm »

Thanks for the comments, guys! I figured that some people might be interested in the Joust and/or Robotron cocktail dimensions. I'll draft up dimensions of the Joust cocktail after I finish the Robo.

I haven't made too much progress on the Robo in the last couple days except to strip the paint off one side and the control panels. I'd like to get a large portion of the Robo cab done over the weekend, hopefully everything but the wiring. I'll post more pics after the weekend if I get as much done as I would like to.

ButeLegz · « **Reply #8 on:** May 27, 2004, 08:27:03 am »

Next to the school desk style & the Hankins, these two cabs are by far my favourite style... heaps of personality. Plans for these would be awesome but from photos I've seen online (not sure we actually even have these in Aust.), the Joust would be fairly complicated to build from scratch... or does it just look hard? Have fun with the restorations.

OSCAR · « **Reply #9 on:** June 05, 2004, 12:33:54 am »

I finished re-laminating the cab, painted all the panels, refinshed the kickplates, etc... Basically the cab itself is finished except for the t-molding. Now to get started on the wiring an install the monitor. Here are the latest pics:

control panels repaired, repainted, and the dust covers laying in the recesses

overlays from phoenixarcade.com & joysticks installed

I bought a sheet of perforated metal to replace the vent and speaker grilles. The originals were perforated plastic, but after a few hands get in there to lift the cab, they break out pretty easy. The metal grilles should hold up better.

It's amazing how much t-molding adds to the finish of the cab. Once the t-molding is installed, it will look 100% better.

I received a few emails about the Joust cocktail dimensions, so I jumped ahead a little bit and started drawing up plans for that cab. Recreating a Joust cocktail would be a pretty complex project, to say the least. There isn't hardly a square corner in the thing! Regardless, I am putting together some pretty good plans with all the construction details in case anyone wants to tackle it. Here's a quick snap of what I have drawn up so far, but it will take me a little while before it is complete.

Wade · « **Reply #10 on:** June 08, 2004, 04:11:59 pm »

Wow!! That looks really nice!!!

Wade

boyowilkins · « **Reply #11 on:** June 09, 2004, 03:00:19 pm »

Looks real good. Building a design on Ms Pacman at the mo - would love to restore one of these as my next project - wife permitting!!! Could always pretend to be restoring it to make a squiddillion pound by selling it on E-bay!!!

OSCAR · « **Reply #12 on:** June 10, 2004, 08:22:16 pm »

Thanks, Wade & boyowilkins!

I installed the t-molding and put the tube in. It's almost starting to look like an arcade cabinet again!

boyowilkins - Funny you should mention a Pac project, I just started making a router template for Pac last weekend. Too many projects....

GadgetGeek · « **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2004, 10:26:51 am »

Do you ever sleep? Constant amazing projects, a family, OscarControls and I assume a dayjob and ...
Anyway, looks incredible and that pac template looks great as well.
What do you use for your templates?

OSCAR · « **Reply #14 on:** June 14, 2004, 10:30:47 pm »

This template I made from 1/2" particle board because I had a sheet that I was sick of tripping over. I have previously used 1/4" tempered hardboard for templates, but after a few uses the bearing on the router template bit starts to make dips in the template. I think the thicker particle board will hold up better because it is more dense, just have to keep the bearing in the center of the board so it doesn't cause the particle board to crumble or break away. We'll see how it goes...

And no, I don't sleep very much. The wife calls me a workaholic, but I can't sleep when I have too much on my mind and projects to finish up.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #15 on:** June 15, 2004, 12:33:24 am »

What size monitor?

Wade · « **Reply #16 on:** June 15, 2004, 01:24:27 pm »

How was that thing set up to fire when you got it, or did it have a different board in it? I see two buttons instead of another stick. Please tell me they didn't just but a left and right fire button in place of the stick.

Wade

OSCAR · « **Reply #17 on:** June 15, 2004, 09:49:38 pm »

SirP - It has a 19" monitor. AFIAK, all the Williams horizontal ct's had 19" monitors. I'm not sure about the vert's like Make Trax, though. The Joust has a 19" monitor, too.

Wade - The cab had been converted and didn't have Robo boards in it when I got it. I think Edgedamage mentioned that it had Tetris in it when he got it, or maybe that was the Joust that had Tetris?? Anyway, both ct's had been converted, but I'm not sure what they had in them before Edgedamage stripped them down.

Wade · « **Reply #18 on:** June 16, 2004, 09:37:34 am »

Well, that explains it. I can't imagine playing robotron with fire buttons.

Keep us updated!

Wade

OSCAR · « **Reply #19 on:** June 19, 2004, 09:40:09 pm »

Finished wiring the cocktail today and fired it up. After a quick smoke check after I hit the power switch to make sure nothing was on fire, I peeked up at the monitor to see the Robo attact screen. Woo-hoo, I didn't fry anything!

Just in case anyone has a couple hundred feet of spare wire that they don't know what to do with, wire up a Williams cab from scratch. Sheesh....

Ahh, nice backlit '2084' on the cp. It looks killer playing the cab in dim lighting!

Now I just have to pick up the new glass top in a couple days, and that will finish it up this one. On to the Joust...

Edgedamage · « **Reply #20 on:** June 19, 2004, 11:02:08 pm »

Man if I just had the time/space. Anyways great work as always!!!!!!!!!! Now if I only could find a Eheim 1250 pump in Canada. I only have space to do PC mods

Grasshopper · « **Reply #21 on:** June 20, 2004, 03:38:38 pm »

Awesome as always!

Are those genuine Wico joysticks or clones?

OSCAR · « **Reply #22 on:** June 26, 2004, 12:31:50 pm »

I picked up the glass today and now this one is complete. Well, maybe 99.9%... Just waiting on the correct sound rom for the board, it has a Joust chip in it right now. It makes for an unusual game of Robotron with Joust sounds!

Grasshopper - These are the clone sticks. They play pretty decent, but they take a bit of work to get them tuned in. For example, more than half of the screws that hold the leaf switches to the brackets were stripped out, meaning that the threads on either the bracket and/or the screw were blown out. It looks to me that they were put in with too much torque at the factory combined with the cheap steel used to make the brackets and screws make them easy to strip. Almost every leaf switch out of the 4 sticks was loose when I got them. The screws that were holding the switches can be easily stripped out if you tighten them too much even with a small screwdriver. I ended up replacing nearly every screw on the brackets and added a nut on the back side as shown below with the highlighted arrows.

The leaf switches were also bent up pretty good. The switches seem to be made from a lower quality steel than the Wico's, too. They don't seem to be nearly as resilient as the Wico ones and are easier to bend out of position. I speculate that they will need somewhat frequent maintenance if the game is played a lot. I'm suggesting to the guy I restored the cab for (who supplied the joysticks) to keep an eye out for real Wico's as to replace them with as I'm sure those will hold up better.

boyowilkins · « **Reply #23 on:** June 26, 2004, 04:44:34 pm »

Absolutely stunning

I luv the look of the Robotron cab!!

Karman · « **Reply #24 on:** June 28, 2004, 10:33:33 am »

Quote from: OSCAR on June 26, 2004, 12:31:50 pm

I'm suggesting to the guy I restored the cab for (who supplied the joysticks) to keep an eye out for real Wico's as to replace them with as I'm sure those will hold up better.

You're not keeping it?!?!

Santoro · « **Reply #25 on:** June 28, 2004, 10:41:08 am »

Oscar

This is so sweet.

I have a question - thee did you get the "perforated metal?" I have a cople of space duels that have it and I like it's subtlety. I would like to use it on a cab I am building now.

Thanks
Dave

OSCAR · « **Reply #26 on:** June 28, 2004, 08:25:20 pm »

Karman - Correct, the cab is not mine, a friend of mine who purchased the cab from Edgedamage hired me to restore it. On the plus side, I will get to play it occasionally when I go over to his house.

Santoro - I bought the perforated metal from McMaster-Carr. Part # 9255T661 at www.mcmaster.com to be exact. I really like the look of the perf metal grilles, too. It cuts very easy with tin snips, so no special power tools are required to work with it.

The perf metal goes behind the side lifting handles as well as the speakers. The orginal grilles were perforated plastic, but they were all punched out. While not true to original using metal, at least they will hold up a lot better.

hyiu · « **Reply #27 on:** June 29, 2004, 02:33:46 pm »

Oscar... you work is always SO NICE !!!....

even I won't be actually playing it.. touching it...
but seeing it makes me feels good....

damm.... somehow my cab (computer desk) just looked worse than before... need to add some artwork....

pathdoc2 · « **Reply #28 on:** June 29, 2004, 02:42:50 pm »

Absolutely killer job.

Floyd10 · « **Reply #29 on:** June 29, 2004, 03:55:08 pm »

I don't usually like cocktail cabs but this is absolutely kickass

Santoro · « **Reply #30 on:** June 29, 2004, 09:57:38 pm »

Quote from: OSCAR on June 28, 2004, 08:25:20 pm

I really like the look of the perf metal grilles, too. It cuts very easy with tin snips, so no special power tools are required to work with it.

When you cut it are the edges presentable enough to be visible? I was hoping to screw rectangles of this material over my speaker holes. It looks really nice on my Space Duel cabs.

OSCAR · « **Reply #31 on:** June 29, 2004, 10:14:16 pm »

Just cutting it with some shears or tin snips won't leave that nice of an edge. Just like when you cut sheet metal with tin snips, it leaves a sharp edge and/or burrs. It wasn't a concern with the Robo cab because the grilles go on the inside. Although, I bet you could polish up the edges nice enough with a belt sander or file to be presentable on the exterior of the cab.

BTW - Thanks for all the comments, too. I'm glad you guys like how it turned out! The Williams cocktails are very nice cabs. I'm just happy I had the opportunity to work on a Robo, they are pretty rare!

pcdoctor · « **Reply #32 on:** June 30, 2004, 06:30:46 am »

Oscar.
You always do excellent work.
If I may ask, what do you do for a living fulltime?

OSCAR · « **Reply #33 on:** June 30, 2004, 07:18:07 pm »

pcdoctor - I am a mechanical engineer for an automotive supplier. More precisely, I lead a design team for material handling systems for auto plants. I primarily work on large conveyor systems and automation equipment. More often than not, I normally end up in the plants assisting with the installation of the equipment, too. Below are some pics of the types of equipment I design:

Body to chassis marriage:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/work1.jpg

Overhead quarter panel and fender carriers:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/work2.jpg

Inverted paint system (probably a sand or finesse deck)
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/work3.jpg

Inverted car storage bank
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/work4.jpg

Pretty exciting stuff, huh? Anyone still awake?

Thank you for your comments, too. I really appreciate it!

Aceldamor · « **Reply #34 on:** July 01, 2004, 11:54:09 am »

Yet again it's proven why Oscar is top kit when it comes to restores..fantastic work as always (as I look at my cab then curl up in the fetal position in the corner of the room.....

)

mod · « **Reply #35 on:** August 30, 2005, 08:01:57 pm »

Oscar,

Your website is closed - What happened?

Regards,

Mod.

Timoe · « **Reply #36 on:** August 31, 2005, 01:45:40 pm »

I cant see the pics?


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Author Topic: Robotron cocktail - Finished!! (Read 7095 times)

boyowilkins

boyowilkins

Floyd10