Missile Command cocktail Restored and Sold

[RayB]

**This cocktail machine has been revived! Original posting is just here below: **

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OK so I've been VERY SLOWLY reviving a Missile Command. It's been an experience I must say, though none of it real negative (nothing blowing up, no magic smoke, etc...) I need advice from some experienced people...

So the story thus far:

A year ago I picked up a Missile Command cocktail with no board in it. Guy told me the monitor worked. "See, you can hear it come on..." he said. No board to prove it of course.

It came with an AR-II board (Audio/Power Regulator).

So first steps, acquiring a board, and testing the power voltages. So of course what I did instead was immediately order trackball rebuild kits from Bob Roberts! :-D

OK, so beyond that, I won some PCBs off Ebay, got them, then saw they were missing parts. :-(

[D_Zoot]

Ray,

Usually when the self test reports bad ram, it will in fact be a chip problem.  I'n not familiar with the Missile Command board, so I can't be specific.  Sometimes there may be other chips involved with the ram circuits, such as addressing chips, your problem could lie there as well.  But, ram chip failures are more common.

Testing ram isn't something you can do without special testers. Generally when a self test routine reports bad ram, you have to replace the suspect ram and re-run the self test and work thru the troubleshooting that way.

The first thing you can try is re-seating all the socketed chips.  If that clears up your problem, you have bad sockets on the board.  That's pretty common.  Then carefully inspect the board for bad/cracked solder joints, broken legs on any components, improperly installed chips, or damaged traces on the board. 

If you still have the same problem after that, you will probably need to try replacing the suspect ram.

To get into the vblank problem, and/or if replacing the ram doesn't clear up the ram problem, you will be looking at getting into some logic level testing.  That means you will need a logic probe, or scope, and some understanding of how logic works and how those circuits operate.  It's not something that's easily explained.

Since the board was missing parts, that's not usually a good indication.  Usually, people won't rob parts from good, working boards. 

I don't know if it's cost effective for you, but eldoradogames.com will exchange that board with you and you'll get a working board with a warranty.  I've delt with them before and had good luck with them.


Good luck!
D

[RayB]

Thanks for the advice. Eldorado's site doesn't have much information on their board exchanges, except in the "glossary". According to that page, they don't accept boards that have been worked on. My board has not only been serviced before, but I got it working by taking parts from 2 other boards I own. So I dunno if they'd accept it.

Do you know where their proper page is about this info?

MODS: If you move this to Projects I'll keep it as a running thread on my restoration progress...

~Ray B.

[vader]

Ray,

I have a Missile Command upright....if I can be of any assistance, gimme a buzz...I'm not sure how to test things except that mine works.  You could tell me what to do or call me...or I could even send you a board or something if that helps...let me know

Tim

[D_Zoot]

So I dunno if they'd accept it.

I'm not sure if they would flat out refuse a board just because it's been worked on before.   Large numbers of boards have had repairs at some point given that many are 20+ years old now!!

I suspect what they are trying to avoid is boards that have been "hacked up".  That would include sloppy or poor repair work, missing parts, wrong parts and so forth...   But I can't speak for them,  if you have any doubts about it, you could call them.  Best to avoid email with them, they aren't very good about responding, but they always answer the phone.

Another possibility would be to post a message on the newsgroup rec.games.video.arcade.collecting   and ask about recomendations on getting it fixed elsewhere.  There are some really sharp repair folks that read that group and there's alot of folks that do only one kind or just specific boards so they get pretty good at them.  Due to the nature of your issues, probably be hard to try and get any usefull troubleshooting help, but I'd bet you could get hooked up with somebody that would be willing to fix it for you.

Good luck!
D

[highwayman]

unless you want a damaged gameboard you should replace the edge connecters.

that goes for all old atari games, they used crap connectors.
easy to spot, black with crimp-contacts.

they get bad and the powersupply tries to counteract by raising the voltages - eventually the tracks burn on the pcb.
if your really unlucky it blows all the chips too.

another thing, and this applies to all games that use 4116 ram chips is this:

check the +5v, -5v and +12v lines.

they *all* need to be exact for those chips or they will fail.
this problem is common in old williams games like defender.

other than the edge-connectors the other common problem with old atari games (and midway) is the chipsockets are crap.

often if it indicates a bad ram/rom taking the chip out and cleaning the pins, then putting it back often clears the fault. (for a while)

good luck.

[RayB]

Voltages aren't an issue here I think. I rebuilt the voltage regulator and everything is reading within tolerance.

So on a whim, since I have 3 boards, I figured I'd try the other mostly complete board and see what beeps it would give me if any. I had to install 2 caps from the "parts" board, and then move the Crystal over from the other semi-working board.

Plugged it in, got all good RAM beeps, but still getting a VBlank failure sound.

So, basically now I'm looking for how to troubleshooting VBLANK failure.

~Ray B.

[RayB]

   My cocktail machine is now fully working! Thanks to Vader88 who parted out his Missile Command upright and sold me his board. It's fun repairing stuff, but it's even more fun when you have a tested working board from someone reputable at a fair price!

Read up on the status of this machine here (December 22 entry):

http://www.retrofx.com/rayb_arcade.html

~Ray B.

[vader]

Glad everything worked out for you RayB, I'm actually surprised you got it so fast, especially considering the holidays and USPS and customs.  Don't beat my high score now 

Tim

[RayB]

Since I got this machine working, I thought I'd make this thread about the restoration...

So far I've taken care of all the "guts". Next are just cosmetic issues.

I need:

 - Top glass (preferrably with the artwork screened on it)
 - Steel single-slot coin acceptor/faceplate (FOUND!)

Otherwise it's almost good to go.

Done:
 - Repainted glass clips.
 - Rebuilt trackballs (new balls, new bearings, new rollers)
 - Replaced smoked plexi with new one
 - new leg caps

To be done:
 - Repaint the legs
 - Touch up parts of the black wood
 - touch up front of one of the control panels (slight rust)

[RayB]

Pics were long overdue in this thread too...

I still haven't installed the proper coin door (which I found on Ebay), painted the legs, bought new glass, nor finished vectorizing the glass artwork which I started. (Special thanks to RGVAC regular, Scott Caldwell, who sent me several high resolution shots of his glass).

Now that I have a caberet, I will be swapping all the best parts from the cocktail into the caberet and then selling the cocktail.

[Level42]

Very nice ! I love MC.

I hate it that I will have to wait another 16 days before picking up my cabaret.....

[RayB]

Zorg sent me some perfectly done vectorization of the glass underlay. Now I just need to print em out, after I confirm proper colors.

Zorg: I sent you PM long time ago about your colors looking like darker versions of what they should be... can you reply?

[zorg]

replied

long time with no answer was caused by hollidays

[RayB]

FOR SALE

[RayB]

- Repainted the legs
- 6 new leg caps
- Installed original steel coin acceptor assembly
- Installed correct original power switch (not wired)

Before and After shots (though there's more I could do such as touch up black paint and new tmolding):

[RayB]

Capped the monitor, which fixed the "fold-over" problem.

This machine is now posted for sale locally.
(please dont move this to BST)

[RayB]

Finally SOLD.
(for less than I have into it. Oh well!)