Galaxian No. 815

[Level42]

Some detail shots... since the original rivets were cut off, I glued them back in by putting a little drop of one-second glue in the hole and directly putting in the top of the rivet.

It doesn't give the real "tight-in by the rivets" look, but it's surely better then simply applying the plate with the backadhesive (which I of course did use to fix it).

[Level42]

Some pictures of the marquee and brackets in place. I still have to touch-up the marquee from the back, but it looks brilliant imho !!!

By the way, I lost a couple of the original screws, so that's why the middle one is missing....I hope they will resurface....

[Level42]

Some complete front shots. I put up the metal part of the CPO just for the pic.

I am still waiting for any news about the CPO I ordered with thisoldgame.com...............

Judging from the pics, the door is mounted a little bit unstraight, will look into that a bit later.....bed time now here.....


P.S. Seeing what 2PacMan did with painting his Galaxian (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65367.0) I am now really wanting to restore (at least) the bottom parts of the kickplate. Going to have to repair some chipped wood there and then re-paint it. It's really something that needs to be done because it really distracts from the other fine looking restored parts IMHO).

[patrickl]

Wow that's coming along nicely even with you being ill and all.

[Level42]

With regards to the cigarette burn marks on the bezel - I have restored a plastic bezel with exactly the same problem.  I used 800 grit wet/dry sand paper, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000.  I then used Meguiars plastic polish which is designed to remove the fine swirl marks from the sanding and those already there as you see in your pictures.  You will be incredibly surprised by the results as they come up looking like new.

Hoops, again thanks for that great tip. I've been doing some sanding with 1200 (the only ulta-fine I could get in a hurry) and that yellow stuff (cigarette marks/melted parts) went away VERY nicely. So I decided to sand the entire front side. I then tried some stuff my wife uses to polish metal things in the kitchen, called Ha-Ra Multi-pasta (no not the eadible pasta, pasta=paste). I worked out pretty well. Those yellow marks are GONE ! Also the front feels smooth as a baby's skin...however, I can still see the very fine swirls made by that paste. I gotta get me that Mequires stuff, but the stupid Dutch Meguires importer is not responding to my mails.....I'll look if I can get anything simular here.

I made pics, no time to put them up my Mac yet.

I also received some pictures of the Galaxian CPO's in production at www.thisoldgame.com
Richard kindly agreed to let me show them here, as maybe some of you guys would like to see them. The colors look spot-on.

Mine will be in the mail on monday according to Richard

Enjoy...

[Level42]

Two more...

[HoopstarsGarage]

Hoops, again thanks for that great tip. I've been doing some sanding with 1200 (the only ulta-fine I could get in a hurry) and that yellow stuff (cigarette marks/melted parts) went away VERY nicely.

My pleasure.. it's always great to be able to help out a fellow arcade restorer/builder

The stuff you've "stolen" from your wifes kitchen sounds like its working nicely but you *really* need to use the finer grades of sand paper first to remove as many of the fine scratches as possible - If you have any problems tracking down the finer paper or for that matter the Meguiars plastic polish, let me know and I can buy some and send it to you..  in the mean time, here is a reference picture that may help you track it down - some auto parts stores carry the full range of Meguiars polishes (normally used on cars) and might be able to order it in for you.

The resto is looking great.. only wish Australia was closer so I could come over for a game or two 


Hoops

[patrickl]

Hoops, again thanks for that great tip. I've been doing some sanding with 1200 (the only ulta-fine I could get in a hurry) and that yellow stuff (cigarette marks/melted parts) went away VERY nicely. So I decided to sand the entire front side. I then tried some stuff my wife uses to polish metal things in the kitchen, called Ha-Ra Multi-pasta (no not the eadible pasta, pasta=paste). I worked out pretty well. Those yellow marks are GONE ! Also the front feels smooth as a baby's skin...however, I can still see the very fine swirls made by that paste. I gotta get me that Mequires stuff, but the stupid Dutch Meguires importer is not responding to my mails.....I'll look if I can get anything simular here.

Go to a car parts store and get a swirl remover polish. The Brezan where I went had 3 or 4 different ones. Maybe you need to check if it works on plastic, but I bought one to use on CDs and it worked fine.

Or get the Novus polishset, but I guess that's a bit too much for just a few marks. BTW the same store has small grit sanding paper too (up to 12.000)

[Level42]

Patrick, thanks for that tip on the Novus polish set. It's a bit expensive, but I may go for it. Not 100% sure though....for a little more I can get a brand-new repro silk-screened plexi from www.thisoldgame.com and I may be ordering more stuff from them anyway....see below.... I have to do a the complete bezel, not just a  part so it will take quite a bit of this stuff to get it 100% again.

The Brezan here is very small and the guy behind the counter had glazy eyes and laughed and said it was impossible to do something like this....what stuff did you buy there exactly ?

Anyway.....how about some updates....

OK first, I tried to get the joystick ball as white as possible. I sanded it with some 400 (or so) paper, to get the scratches out as much as possible. That gave a nice "fluffy" effect on the ball (see pic 1). Then I used 1200 sandpaper, and after that this HaRa polishing stuff. It turned out pretty OK. The really yellow look has gone. It's still not as white as the (brand new) buttons of course, but it's OK like this.

Actualy playing the game will make the ball smoother again



 

[Level42]

Since the overlay took a little longer, I decided yesterday morning to re-assemble the CP so I could play it already. It turned out I have misplaced or lost the carriage-bolts for the CP, which is amazing since I carefully packed all small parts in plastic bags. Anyway, there are new one's coming over from the US, since I can't find the US sized bolts here, and not even metric sized carriage bolts that are small enough to fit.

Next I thought I had also lost the nut of the pivot rod of the joystick...however I tried a nut that looked about the same size and it fits ! And it IS a metric nut !! This is weird because the Galaxian parts manual mentions this as a #10-32 nut........ anyway, I was "saved"

Sp I assembled the CP and this is how it looked:

[Level42]

Then ONE HOUR after finishing this the doorbell rang. It was the mail-man, and when I saw what he had in his hands I got really excited

Pic 1, the package, VERY well packed
Pic 2, the vinyl samples that Richard included for my reference, more about that later.
Pic 3.....FINALY

[Level42]

Sorry guys, have to go for now, much more pics a bit later....

One thing: the overlay is GREAT quality 

[patrickl]

Patrick, thanks for that tip on the Novus polish set. It's a bit expensive, but I may go for it. Not 100% sure though....for a little more I can get a brand-new repro silk-screened plexi from www.thisoldgame.com and I may be ordering more stuff from them anyway....see below.... I have to do a the complete bezel, not just a  part so it will take quite a bit of this stuff to get it 100% again.

The Brezan here is very small and the guy behind the counter had glazy eyes and laughed and said it was impossible to do something like this....what stuff did you buy there exactly ?

Yeah, that novus kit stuff is expensive. But it contains three different polishes. You will probably need a few different ones anyway and a bottle of polish will be something like 10 or 15 euro too. Get two or three of those and your there too.

I'm not sure what the brezan dudes problem was. They have a 2 or 3 step polish program from just about any brand. I bought a set from Sonax. Usually it's a scratch (scratch + spray mist) remover and then something as a high gloss polish (to remove swirls and small scratches). Depends on the brand how they call it. unfortunately I don;t have my bottles here right now (I've just moved and some stuff is in storage). As I said, I'm not sure if it will damage your bezel. The polishes are meant for car paint. I did try the gloss polish I had on a CD and it worked fine though.

You can buy the Maguire polish Hoopstar mentions overhere too. I went to their site and searched for plastic. It shows 4 different products. Guess the one Hoopstars mentiond is the high gloss product. They also have another product called clear plastic polish.

Oh, BTW, I have seen those Novus bottles sold seperately too. Heb even gezocht en bij pinballwizard.nl hebben ze ze los.

[Level42]

OK, so will this CPO come through the tough "Level 42" test ?

Let's take a closer look...

pic1: The colors look VERY vivid and true to the original. Very nice indeed.
pic2: Macro shoot: VERY well printed, colors are exactly at the right place.
pic3: Holes are exactly the right size for the buttons, ALL holes...

The material used by www.thisoldgame.com seems to be a little thinner than what I got from www.arcadeshop.com, and it's a little different structured and a little less shiny. However, none of this distracts much from the overall excellent impression. Adhesive is also 3M.

[Level42]

OK, time to dig up the old pics.

pic1: Original
pic2: arcadeshop.com
pic3: thisoldgame.com

Judge for yourself....(please understand that these pictures were taken under various lighting coditions (flash at night), pic 3 daytime, bright sun, so think about that with color differences etc.)

IMHO opinion the thisoldgame version is WAY better than the original !!!

It also matches the original letter much better, look at the shape of the question mark....GREAT !

However, take another close look......yes look very closely. There IS a mistake......Anyone see it ?

[patrickl]

That looks amazing. That is silk screen printed? Amazingly accurate then.

However, take another close look......yes look very closely. There IS a mistake......Anyone see it ?

The eyes of the green ship should be red?

[Level42]

pic1: OK, I mailed with Richard from thisoldgame about this. His original file had 1978 there !!!! I was glad to see that mistake (would be more noticable than that other one shown above). There's also no copyright symbol.....that's a choice Rich makes which I can understand.

pic 2: OK, this CPO is EXCELLENT quality IMHO. Is it 100% the same as orignal ? No. It's printed WAY better. The material is a little bit different, but hey, we're 27 years later. I can FULLY recommend ThisOldGame for your CPO's etc.

SOOOOOO, let's install it already ! Remove the panel from cab, remove the buttons and ball...througly clean the metal and degrease it with my old friend Dasty ...Dry it very well...

pic3: Since it's rather small I chose the dry application method. I stole this way of installing from Darth Nuno's excellent site: http://www.dragonslairfans.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=135

I kept the pretective layer on, and "installed" the buttons temporarely. This made it possible to adjust the position to be exactly right.

[Level42]

Pic1: Lift up the left side, pulled down the protective layer and cut it near the bend with a pair of sizzors.

Pic2: Put down the left side from the center, sliding over the top with my right hand....

Pic3: Remove the buttons again and lift up the right side.

[patrickl]

Don;t wanna make your project even more expensive then it already is, but can't you get the manufacturers plate and/or the coin door plate from ThisOldGame too? He prints a Space Invaders CPO on aluminum.

[Level42]

pic1: Remove the rest of the protective layer....

pic2: And again slide with my right hand from the center to the right. Done !

pic3: But.......O damn......I FORGOT something ! The dust washer !!!!

[Level42]

Don;t wanna make your project even more expensive then it already is, but can't you get the manufacturers plate and/or the coin door plate from ThisOldGame too? He prints a Space Invaders CPO on aluminum.

Hey Patrick....thanks for all the info about novus etc, will get back about that later.

That was EXACTLY my thought, and I've been mailing with Richard about it, at least about the Midway coin door plate. He had thought of starting a run of it, but saw that arcadeshop.com was already selling it so he let it go, since he thought they printed on metal. Since I mailed him the pics I put up here, he said he was thinking about doing it still now again.

And indeed, later I thought about that great manufacturers plate on the back that is SO missing on my cab. That could be done as well, but haven't mailed about it with Richard.

I'd like to stress here that in NO way this is some kind of crusade against arcadeshop.com. Quite the opposite, all the other parts I got from them are FINE, and I guess 98% of the people are very happy with the repro coindoor plates from them. It's mounted on my door now, and it looks fine.
But if Richard will pick up the glove and make a metal version, I will definitly replace it.


And indeed, this CPO is silk screened (you can see it on the production pictures I put up in this thread). AMAZING job !!!

[Level42]

pic1: AARrrghhh, so I had to remove the buttons again, get the metal CP off and put the dust washer in the only correct place.....

pic2: remember how it was when I first opened the panel ? Quite a difference

pic3: OK, everything assembled back. The bolts are not mounted yet of course....they will be on their way next week

[Level42]

OK, let's put it where it belongs.....

Some "pre" and "after" pics.....can you spot the differneces

[Level42]

So let's PLAY !


It turned out that the ship was moving to the right withouth touching the joystick. A little adjsutment of the leafs corrected it. By the way, what you don't see on the pics is that I have disassembled all the leafs, cleaned the blades and the contacts with a glass-fiber pen. I even measured the resistance, before and after I did that. Although the contacts looked really BLACK, there was NO measurable difference (both 0,02 ohms on my Fluke DMM).

Those blades are mounted strangely by the way, but I'll show that later.

O and I had meant to actualy replace the leafs, because I am pretty sure they were still the original one's. I bought a couple, but they turned out to be a bit too small. So I decided to fix the old one's.

So anyone who claims leafs are taking a lot of maintancence.....I cleaned the contacts, bend the metal as straight as possible, had to resolder ONE wire, and they work GREAT. Even after 27 years !

The only small problem is the joystick. The up-down movement is OK, i can live with it, but there is also movement to the bottom and up. Probably because the ring is loose. I may ask a friend if he can weld the whole thing to get rid of the movement....


Enough for now, the project is NOT finished yet

[patrickl]

That was EXACTLY my thought, and I've been mailing with Richard about it, at least about the Midway coin door plate. He had thought of starting a run of it, but saw that arcadeshop.com was already selling it so he let it go, since he thought they printed on metal. Since I mailed him the pics I put up here, he said he was thinking about doing it still now again.

Actually, I have another midway coin door logo plate (the one with midway in the center) and that one is printed on a metallic piece. It's quite thin so it could be just some sort of foil though.

I bought mine at MikesArcade.com. Not sure if you saw it already, but they have a lot of midway parts. Not the coin door logo plate anymore, but I guess it's the wrong one for you anyway.

BTW I came past an old thread about cleaning up scratches in plexi: Removing scratches in plexi (it's kinda old, but I doubt it has changed much)

[Luigi]

Great work !!

I'm sorry to say that, but I saw another mistake. The original at the score table says "CONVOY" the remake says "CONYOY" 

[patrickl]

Now that I look at it again, the Novus polish set looks to contain 2 oz bottles. That's really not a lot (60ml). The pinball site has 8-oz bottles.

[Level42]

Great work !!

I'm sorry to say that, but I saw another mistake. The original at the score table says "CONVOY" the remake says "CONYOY" 

Yep, that's the mistake I meant !!!

[patrickl]

So with the year being wrong, the eyes not red and the word CONVOY spelled wrong, there are 3 mistakes? To be honest it looks great anyway, but you sounded like you were going to get a new CPO. Seeing how you applied it already, I guess not?

[Havok]

Great work !!

I'm sorry to say that, but I saw another mistake. The original at the score table says "CONVOY" the remake says "CONYOY" 

Still looks better, besides English isn't the native language over there. Bet no-one even notices...

[Level42]

Patrick, that Coindoor plate could be NOS of course. If you bend it, and it stays in that shape, it's metal, just like the original.

About the mistakes. The year is NOT wrong. Rich was kind enough to first mail me the digital artwork he would use for the Galaxian CPO's. I checked it and noticed that it showed 1978 as the copyright year. Of course that is untrue. Richard thanked me for pointing out that mistake and he mailed me his scan of his original CPO, and it had a poor spot at the last 9 of 1979, and it looked very much like 1978......he was glad I found that and corrected the mistake.

The only "problem"is that there is no (C) symbol, but as I mentioned that is a choice Rich made, and I can understand and accept that.

I am not too sure about the red "eyes". It could be true, but it's hard to see. Indeed the green aliens have red "eyes" on the game screen itself but I don't mind this.

Also the Convoy mistake is indeed very hard to see. I missed it when I checked out the digital file....

Both these things are hard to see and don't harm as much as the misprint that I got from arcadeshop.

Havok, don't underestimate the Dutch, they're pretty good at English

But who reads instructions anyway these days

Anyway I'll mail Rich about the mistake (I pointed him to this thread too, he's on this forum) and I will demand a huge rebate on my next order

[patrickl]

Patrick, that Coindoor plate could be NOS of course. If you bend it, and it stays in that shape, it's metal, just like the original.

I'm not to sure about bending it I think it's too thin to stay in a shape though. It looks like an aluminum sticker with a silkscreen print on it. Probably just like ThisOldgame uses.

......he was glad I found that and corrected the mistake.

Ah OK, so it was fixed before you got it.

I am not too sure about the red "eyes". It could be true, but it's hard to see. Indeed the green aliens have red "eyes" on the game screen itself but I don't mind this.

Well the other two pictures you showed both have "red eyes". Anyway, it looks great. Indeed much better than the original even. I'm so jealous Makes me want to start on my own cab for real. I looked up the order for that coin door logo plate and I bought it in january 2004! Depressing. I'm working on a birdhouse now though 

BTW I guess my english is not so good. I missed the CONYOY thing 

[Level42]

Hey Patrick,

Als je zin hebt, spreken we een keertje af. Kun je in ieder geval de Galaxian alvast bespelen....de rest "moet nog even" gerestaureerd worden

Your English is fine, your brain probably overlooked it because it excpeted a V there and the Y is close to that shape....I discovered it only after I saw this close-up picture !

Sorry guys, I am laughing out lout here. As I type this, my wife is playing Galaxian for the very first time in her life. She said, explain this game to me.....I said, you can move left or right and fire. Avoid everything and try to shoot everything

Couple of seconds later: Ah, so I should also move away from those white things they're dropping..........

Uhhhhh, DUHHHHHHH yeah indeed !!! 

She seems HOOKED !!! Shouting fanatic words at those poor aliens (they will regret fighting my wife, believe me )

She also makes the traditional mistake of "over"firing...good test fot the leaf swtich 
______

Must say I am very much tempted by this:

http://www.thisoldgame.com/thisoldgame/new_page_2.htm

[Edit] Mmm, direct linking doesn't work, what I mean is the kick-art repro.....the lower side of the kickplate is damaged/worn. It's not TOO bad, but it's distracting more, now that almost everything on the frontside looks as new (or is new)....
I either have to fix this by painting, which would require an EXACT color match (remember the color has probably changed from light etc.), and a steady hand. It will also not fix the Dutch license plate. I actualy LIKE a Dutch licence plate to be on there, but it's not intact anymore, and not showing any details about the game. There probably was also a "licence frame" around it at some time.

Rich sent me some samples of the vinyl he uses for this art. I personaly think it's a bit too smooth (should have more structure) and is a bit TOO white....but of course, I compare it with the "white" of the 27 year old side-art so that's not really fair....

I am much in doubt.

[Level42]

RATS !!!!

I found another mistake !!!!

There are no dots before the instructions 

The original has a dot (point) before each step of instructions on the left side.....missed again 

Mmmmmm, this is getting less funny

[patrickl]

Hey Patrick,

Als je zin hebt, spreken we een keertje af. Kun je in ieder geval de Galaxian alvast bespelen....de rest "moet nog even" gerestaureerd worden

Lijkt me een goed idee.

Your English is fine, your brain probably overlooked it because it excpeted a V there and the Y is close to that shape....I discovered it only after I saw this close-up picture !

I suffer from "speed reading". I can only see whoe sentences. I think almost every human has that to an extent though.

How many F's are in the following sentence:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Personally I don't think you should replace the kickplate art if it's still in a reasonable state. It's like replacing a van Gogh with a digitally enhanced print. Of course if it's completely useless, then your cab is not a piece of art and you want it usable, but personally I'd love to keep some of the original stuff intact.

BTW you need to stop looking for faults in that CPO Just count how many less mistakes there are so far (compared to the original).

[WunderCade]

If you are going for that "strictly original" standard, then you might consider getting some original coinage stickers that read INSERT COIN 25¢

[Havok]

Havok, don't underestimate the Dutch, they're pretty good at English

Oh, I wouldn't - I have some Dutch ancestry. But I still bet they don't notice. Heck, I probably wouldn't!

 

[theCoder]

RATS !!!!   I found another mistake !!!!   There are no dots before the instructions 

There are probably no more than 100 people on the planet that would be able to find these mistakes.  You should be very proud of what you've created.  Great job.

[Level42]

Thanks, I am and you're right about that. My mainproblem with the the arcadeshop.com CPO was that it looked wrong at the first moment I layed my eyes on it. Not so with this one. I'll mail the things I found to Rich, I know he will fix these little problems for the next batch.

Wundercade, well that actualy IS original DUTCH original. This cab was imported from the US at the time  it was new. I'm quite sure of that because I found some paper of the company who imported it and it looked as old as the rest of the papers that was with it. Anyway, this is the exact coin insert that I remembered from the old arcade days. My Atari Dominos machine from 1976 has the same insert.
And of course, the coin mech is still running on Guilders !!! That's handy, since they come around with every cab purchase I've made so far (got about 9 of them now) and they recently lost all value here, so it's much like using a token. We had Guilders in 1981 so this is quite original

My goal is "as original as possible", but sometimes you need to compromise a bit. No problem, I'm REALLY proud and happy with this cab and how it turned out......

There's still some work to do, I'll keep you all posted.

[Level42]

Was working at a company that has a technical department and they had welding equipment so I asked the next day if they could weld the ring to the "base" of my Galaxian joystick

Both sides on the pics. I can't commend on the welding, I know nothing about it. What I do know is that it is VERY sturdy....
I CAN comment on the effect: FANTASTIC. NO more loose and wacky up-down movements in any way. It's a very rigid stick now. Just left and right, smooth and simple.

It instantly increased my high-score !!! (Not that I'm very great at it, I got somewhere in the 25000.....but I need to train a bit

Very recommended for other Galaxian owners IMHO !!!