Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair

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

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RayB:
Tape up your marquee so you don't accidentally scratch it with tools.

Level42:
Yup, that's the plan I settled for :)

I really need to sand the wood before I can apply the new stuff. Glad it's not a very big area, one of the nice things of a cabaret :) (Like the 14" monitor....a pleasure to handle and work on :)

Wade:
Most Ataris of that period had laminate on the front, esp when the wood was real plywood.  And those pictures look definitely like laminate.

That gold metal of your trackball housing?  It's probably cigarette tar.  That metal is aluminum I believe.  Some Wesley's Bleche-Wite (if you have that over there) will melt all that away in a few minutes.  Same goes for the monitor chassis.

Wade

Level42:
I though the gold-metal was just that color.....I think I've seen others like that (but maybe smoked too  ?)

Anyway, my friend Andreas from Germany was here last wednesday night and brought the laminate with him. Regretfully, he had cut out what he'd thought what would be plenty to fit on the cabaret, but alas it was not long enough  :'(

I was completely amazed, because the stuff he brought was EXACTLY the same as the original, right down to the backside structure ! Andreas thinks he can still use this piece on his BZ. I hope he has some more so that he can send it, but in all the excitement I forgot to ask.

There was another bummer that night, as we went to my SW so he (and the entire family ! :) could have a play on it. And then of course happens what never happens when you're alone: one of the other vector RAMs had died :( rendered the game unplayable. The attract did run, but with all crazy vectors etc.

Well at least he saw the MC and MB. I'm sure they'll be back someday when my gameroom is finished :)

The great news was that he of course brought back the Meteor PCB which I'm going to test today and of course will let know in that thread.

Level42:
Since the marquee lighting was dead on this cab (probably the ballast, as I tried to exchange everything else) I renewed it, but this time a bit differently.

Instead of my usual tl fixture that I have to modify heavily, I went for a bit more elegant and unbelievably CHEAP solution:

Was at the Ikea the other day and they sell what we call "energy saving lamps" too. You know, the one's that fit in a normal bulb fixture. They were 3 for €3,-  so €1 each....

Also picked up a simple regular fixture that has an angled mounting €1,60) so I could align it like the original fluorescent bulb.

Rewired the lighting wiring, tapped into the 230VAC right after the mains switch in the cab.

When I first lit it up, the bottom side of the marquee was not lit properly. I'm pretty sure the same thing applied with the original bulb, guess Atari just accepted that as a fact. I decided to move the fixture up. This way it's nicely lighting the entire marquee. The only bad thing about this is that now the light also comes out of all the CP holes, trackball etc. but I will fix that with an extra piece of wood to block the light.

Anyway, this is by far the cheapest solution I've used so far at only €2,60
Another advantage is that the bulb is only 11 Watts. The larger tubes I normally use are 18W and sometimes make the marquee just a bit too bright for my taste.

A small note about this solution: it works nicely on a cabaret because of the smaller size of the marquee. I guess with a regular upright cab, you will see that the light is too much centered, compared to the more even spread of light from a long tube.

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