I need rehab.......I just bought this....Missile Command Cabaret

[Level42]

Not working. And picking it up will be a 15 hour round-trip.         I didn't expect to win it really.......
I think if I would sell the cone buttons only I would get about the money that I paid for the machine

But I LOVE MC. I played a very cabaret like that when I picked up my Meteor. It's a very nice little machine


O, and no I will NOT paint the coindoor black. This is an Irish built cab.

TO BE DONE:

(was said to be completely dead. Monitor worked right away though)
- repair AR-2 problem, replaced R30 (burnt), TIP32 and 2N2055 It runs !
-replace edge connector, don't want to risk another burn-out....
-clean it completely
-get a new piece of perspex for the monitor
- fix or make a new cardboard beze No need, invisible when under plexi.
- paint inside of monitor area black again
- touch up the CP
- get new bolts for CP
-order parts with good ol' Bob
-replace Big Blue
-cap-kit AR-2
-cap-kit Sanyo monitor
-replace bearings, rollers and trackball
-find and replace the vinyl
-repair the TL light (balast ?)
-replace the right hand coin mech bulb with a 7V (now has 12V)

[Q*Bert_OP]

You don't need rehab...yet. Not until you've spent $30,000 US Dollars on pinball machines, including $4000 to fix up a machine you spent $2500 on. (That would be my Twilight Zone pin, new cabinet art, new ramp, NOS playfield, NOS plastics, a ton of other parts and pinball rebuilding supplies, etc.)

[Level42]

 

Rehab is meant for people who _could_ get back to being normal. You my friend, are a lost case 

[JeepMonkey]

15 hours away  .  You must really like that game.

How much will this cost you in gas?  How many countries to you travel through?

[shardian]

Damn dude, you do need help. I wouldn't drive an hour for that if it was free!

[Mauzy]

I wish I had the patience to travel that long for a cab. There have been several 200 miles away that were games that I love, but I didnt want the drive...


Also wish I could afford that trip. My Cherokee loaded down isn't the most fuel efficient Jeep out there...


The marquee below the monitor always freaks me out of that style of cab...

[Level42]

15 hours away  .  You must really like that game.

How much will this cost you in gas?  How many countries to you travel through?

Well it's 7,5 hours away, will have to return home again too. I guess we may make it "a weekend out"

Will drive through two counties only, Holland and Germany. Germany is a pretty big country (for Euro standards ).

Gas cost won't be much. (Check out the thread about all that in Everything else). In short: I have a company car. I can drive for "free" in it for private use. It's like a extra salary. Thus I also have to pay tax over it. But gas that I get in Holland is "free" for me. And since I've got a Diesel, I can fill it up on the Dutch border, and (if I drive a bit steady, which is hard because Germany doesn't have a speed limit on the motorways ) I should be able to drive about 900 km's on a tank of 50 liters. My car is very fuel efficient. That will almost take me to the place where it is and back to the border.....so no it won't cost me a lot of gas.

Of course this is an insane trip and normally I wouldn't do it if I had to pay the gas (would be a lot more than the cab cost: €101,-)

Shardian: remember the Euro situation. I've never seen an upright MC around here. Never. This is the third cabaret I've seen in Germany within a couple of months. One was already sold (the one I played when I picked up the Meteor). One I missed on E-bay. That one was fully working and went for €153,- and was just across the border (about 2 hours drive one way). I was really  that I missed that one.

Anyway, we can't be too picky. Also, I didn't have a cabaret in my collection yet

Missile Command is one of the games I absolutely loved on the Atari 8-bit series. I've learned that the original arcade versions are always a LOT better than the home versions (although I think the 8-bit is almost 1:1)

The cabaret will fit easily in my stationcar. I've transported full size cabs in it without much problems (only the SI required me to leave the backdoor open partly).

Also, I'm used to do plenty of driving. Sometimes I drive to three customers on one day and travel for a total of 6/7 hours on a day (although those days are exceptional).

I always had the idea Americans are used to travel for long distances ?

[RayB]

Nice Level42, I bought one of those a couple weeks ago. I need rehab too. Money is tight and yet I keep picking up caberets.    I had to sell my cocktail pinball and a jamma board to fund them. (The other one is a Turbo mini)

As much as I love the artwork on full uprights, I just can't pass up minis. I can transport them into the basement without help or busting my back! 

[Wade]

Damn dude, you do need help. I wouldn't drive an hour for that if it was free!

Dude, you know that's a lie!!!   Who wouldn't drive a few hours for a "must have" game that's cheap!

Wade

[shardian]

Damn dude, you do need help. I wouldn't drive an hour for that if it was free!

Dude, you know that's a lie!!!   Who wouldn't drive a few hours for a "must have" game that's cheap!

Wade

I might drive a bit for a 'must have' game if it was in awesome shape, and was super cheap. My beater range is firmly planted in my immediate vicinity.

[Wade]

I wouldn't call that game a beater just based on the picture and the fact that it doesn't work.  It might be in really good condition except for the chips on the front laminate.

But as you know, I've driven 6 hours and and put some work in, just to get a beater game.   So I'm more from the same school of thought as Level42.

Wade

[shardian]

I wouldn't call that game a beater just based on the picture and the fact that it doesn't work.  It might be in really good condition except for the chips on the front laminate.

But as you know, I've driven 6 hours and and put some work in, just to get a beater game.   So I'm more from the same school of thought as Level42.

Wade

Oh there is no question you need help. This picture says it all: hehe

[Level42]

Pfff, some new vinyl and the chips are gone.

This is sold by an (old?) lady, so who knows, this might be the "fuse replaced, game works 100%" cab that I have yet to come across. Besides, what's the challenge in a working cab....

Gonna buy my wife a nice bunch of flowers and then break the news to her tomorrow

[Wade]

Pfff, some new vinyl and the chips are gone.

This is sold by an (old?) lady, so who knows, this might be the "fuse replaced, game works 100%" cab that I have yet to come across. Besides, what's the challenge in a working cab....

Gonna buy my wife a nice bunch of flowers and then break the news to her tomorrow

Good luck!

Those "needs a fuse" games really do happen sometimes.  The Centipede I picked up (from a game guy, even) was "dead" and he said all he did was turn it on and it did nothing.  He did no other troubleshooting.  Turns out all that was wrong was a connector had come loose from the power supply, and the monitor needed adjusted.  That's it, it works 100% otherwise!  The guy I got it from is actually honest, though.

Wade

[Wade]

Oh there is no question you need help. This picture says it all: hehe

Shoot, you show that picture like it means something.  What kind of person doesn't have a 4 player racing game in his basement?

Wade

[Level42]

Don't worry, my friend Luc has a whole range of 2 player seated racing games. Plus 50 pins. That's only the working one's.
The other 50 still need to be cleaned/fixed..........









Not to mention some nice arcade cabs:



And believe me that's not all by far.....

And I still think Luc is quite sane really

[Singapura]

Aha, now I see why you weren't interested in the Gauntlet cab on Marktplaats. I seriously have to consider remigration 

[Level42]

Well, Luc lives in Belgium and it's a one and a half hour drive (one way) to him, so it's not like I'm there every day... I've repaired the upright SW for him and now work on the cockpit's WG6100...

[Singapura]

Looks like it's a trip worth making, seeing all those cabs. Too bad I'm not in The Netherlands yet or I would have come with you.

[Level42]

Check out www.gameroom.be

That's Luc's site/forum. I think we can arrange something. let me know what dates you're here, I will be on holiday in August too, but I will stay in Holland, not far from home. We will arrange something nice anyway

[Singapura]

Cool, I'll PM you.

[Level42]

So, I bought a REALLY nice bunch of flowers and it worked out pretty nicely

She was glad it wasn't a full size cab. She wasn't very pleased about the distance...but hey, things lightened up when I said we could make this a weekend to Munich

[Mauzy]

Glad to see youre still alive!

[ChadTower]

I've used the "let's make a weekend getaway out of it" excuse more than once.  It does work.   

Nice find.  Looking forward to see that one restored.

[Level42]

Glad to see youre still alive!

Thanks Chad and good to see your posting

[ChadTower]

Thanks Chad and good to see your posting

I just pop back now and again to check out the restorations and the pseudoclassic custom jobs.   

[Level42]

Finaly !

Next weekend I will be picking this baby up. We'll visit Munich and the best part of all, my fellow Vector game lover Andreas. Check out his excellent site about (mostly) vector games. Some really good and unique info there:

www.andysarcade.de

Andreas offered to have a look at my Meteor PCB so that is great too, hope he can fix it

Expect pics from this road-trip next week......

[patrickl]

Cool.  Guess it's going to be nice weather for a trip.

Andreas has a nice collection too.

[Level42]

Yeah, I hope the traffic will not be too crazy (that's why we leave friday, saturday is a "black" saturday....

I hope to be able to play Asteroids and Battlezone on the real hardware for the first time since......the early 80's !!!!
For some reason I didn't play Asteroids at Funspot and I can't remember seeing a BZ there (I was SO overwhelmed by all the games there !!)

Also Star Hawk ....a game I never knew about until getting into this hobby.

I do think I tried Tempest at Funspot, but there was something wrong with it, can't remember really....

....anyway, enough to look forward too and meeting a fellow arcade fan is always a joy !

[SirPeale]

For some reason I didn't play Asteroids at Funspot and I can't remember seeing a BZ there (I was SO overwhelmed by all the games there !!)

There's usually one there, but if it was broken it may have been in the shop for repair.

[Level42]

Just a very quick message:

The machine is home safely. It was a nice but very long trip (as we knew already).

Pics, story etc. later.

Diagnosis so far: monitor works. +5V on PCB is about 2,3 V. This MAY be an easy fix.......more later !

[SirPeale]

Sounds like PS needs work plus connectors need tweaking.  You may get lucky!

[Level42]

Just removed the ARII from the cab and there's a burnt-out R30....

[Level42]

Some first pics...

Cab loaded in Augsburg, Germany. As expected still enough room for the luggage....



And even my son could still sit comfortably next to it...

The sides look pretty good. Top left side has some sticker residue which comes off easily. The lower corner seem to have some paint or something.

Here it is after unloading it after the 850 km trip....












Sorry for the fuzzy picture of the monitor (took it "blind"). There's a Sanyo label on the CRT and the frame reminds me of the 20EZ so this could very wel be a Sanyo monitor in there.


The front black vinyl is already very loose. No problem, will replace it anyway. Of course the trackball needs a rebuild. The CP is actually pretty nice, only some dirt-like stuff on the right side and some minor small scratches. The buttons need a bit of cleaning. The Player 1 & 3 button LEDS work (but were very dim, because of the 2,3 V of course).

R30 shows a value in the mega ohms, so I have some hope the PCB did not get fried by the AR2.

I didn't recall that the "marquee's" on these had backlighting, but there's a tube and starter for sure....(not working though).The "marquee" looks very nice...

I'll put up more pics later.

[Mauzy]

Cool! That looks to be in a lot better condition than I had expected. Nice find!

[extendedplayarcade]

Nice cabinet size.  Does the marquee in the middle light up?  That would be cool if it did.

Got me thinking it would be great if it had a hinge on it to for a keyboard if someone wanted to build a mame cabinet like that.

Looks like it would be a lot easier to make something like that then others mame cabinets out there.

Thanks for the photos.  Can't wait to see more.
Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

[Level42]

Nice cabinet size.  Does the marquee in the middle light up?  That would be cool if it did.

Maybe scroll back a bit and read the text

Got me thinking it would be great if it had a hinge on it to for a keyboard if someone wanted to build a mame cabinet like that.

Looks like it would be a lot easier to make something like that then others mame cabinets out there.

Brent, my friend, because you've got just 13 posts here I'll give you a break and let you get away with it, but whay you're talking about here in my thread is like cursing in a sunday morning church !

Thanks for the photos.  Can't wait to see more.
Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

You're welcome and I hope I didn't sound too nasty There'll be more pics definitly !

[Level42]

...or maybe I just misunderstood and you meant people _building_ a MAME cab like that. So, not converting a classic into a Mame machine. If so I apologize

[Spaced Ace]

Hey Level, don't know if this was asked already, but are you going to stip out the old controles and go a little main stream or are you going to restore back to factory?

[Level42]

Hey Level, don't know if this was asked already, but are you going to stip out the old controles and go a little main stream or are you going to restore back to factory?

What do you mean ? What else would it need ?


Anyway, some first close-ups:
Marquee: near mint I'd say. Only some very minor scratches. You can also see the CP's condition a bit on this pic....



....and yes it should light up nicely like this:



...but I'm cheating because that's my "walking TL light" I put behind it. The tube is not working currently. I soon found out why:



Now I wanted to install back that wire, and there was only 1 open spot on the terminal block near the ballast. So I connected it, but it's still dead. The tube is dead, the starter is OK (Tested both on my MB cab).

I checked the schematics but the Atari schematics I checked (MC, Centipede) don't seem to include the lighting set-up strangely.

Just checked out good old Bob Roberts, and surely it has a nice diagram of how it should be hooked up. Will need to look into it further.

But first the game itself.

Here's the toasted R30:


R25 doesn't look healty, but it's value is fine. I've seen the same thing happen more, the ceramic seems to get old or something.


And what happened to the 2N3055 case ? big dent !


I checked all the power levels on the AR-2 without the game PCB connected. Everything seems OK. But I didn't check the +5V.  So what should be my next step ? I checked the PCB connector and it looks not too bad. There's no burn marks on the PCB edge either. Maybe I should mod the AR-II for just testing it now ? Of course I'll replace R30 anyway. Of coure it'll need a cap-kit, but I want to isolate the problem now first....