Centipede Restoration

[THE POKER BRAT]

cab looks pretty solid,..you know theres nothing more satisfying than to bring and old neglected arcade back to its original glory!
i gotta drink to that!
keep us posted with the pics ,..and progress details of your work,...
they look great!,..
I recently got a "GORF MINI" (im so stoked!)
I have to do some cosmetic touch ups to it to make it look better,..cant wait to work on mine,
your story gives most of us the motivation to keep going with what we love to do!
 

[Level42]

Looks normal to me. The buttons don't come up very high with the high cones. They are up just enough to normally push them (and work). I think that's normal, at least mine are the same.

In fact here I didn't have them turned up all the way yet. I actually can't remember if I have the nut/ washer installed at all.

[Spyridon]

It will work fine, it just won't work if I use the nut.

[Spyridon]

cab looks pretty solid,..you know theres nothing more satisfying than to bring and old neglected arcade back to its original glory!
i gotta drink to that!
keep us posted with the pics ,..and progress details of your work,...
they look great!,..
I recently got a "GORF MINI" (im so stoked!)
I have to do some cosmetic tough ups to it to make it look better,..cant wait to work on mine,
your story gives most of us the motivation to keep going with what we love to do!
 

Cab is actually in great physical shape.  Just need to convert her back to her original appearance.  Gorf is an awesome game.  Check out my Gorf Restoration if you haven't already seen it.

[RayB]

Mine peek out above the cone about 1.5 mm

But my cones dont look as high as yours. I think there might be 3 sizes. Tall (yours) medium (mine) and real low ones.

I have spare mediums if it really matters to ya. 

[TimothyC]

You must have unlimited patience to try so many methods of paint removal when you already have replacement art on hand .  Project looks great so far though and in the end you'll be happy you repainted the sides as well. 

-Timothy

[Spyridon]

You must have unlimited patience to try so many methods of paint removal when you already have replacement art on hand .  Project looks great so far though and in the end you'll be happy you repainted the sides as well. 

The issue is I can't do any of the cosmetic work until the weather warms up.  I thought it would be fun to see if I could recover what was underneath.  If it was in excellent shape, then I'd sell my art and get some money back.  If it was in rough shape, then at least the cab would look more like a Centipede for the winter.  Also, I really didn't spend much time on trying the different options.

[Spyridon]

I have spare mediums if it really matters to ya. 

I think I'll just go with the ones I have and not use the nut.  Thanks for the offer!

[Spyridon]

Made great progress this weekend.  The goal was to get the game playable.  First step was to remove the old hacked up wire harness. 

Next, I installed the Centipede control panel


Putting the new wire harness into place:

The harness I picked up on eBay was complete and went into place with no problems.  Next was to pull out the PCB from storage and get that installed.


When I put it in, I realized that the top bracket had been lowered for the smaller Arkanoid board.  I needed to pull the staples out and move it to the correct position.


The PCB in place:


Before hooking up the PCB, I fired up the cab to make sure I had the power working correctly everywhere else just in case.  At this time, I replaced the starter in the marquee lamp and it lit right up.


Okay, power looks good, time to hook up the PCB. 


Now that the marquee light is working, I can also install the marquee and bezel.


Now lets fire her up with everything plugged in....

Let's see...P1 and P2 lights are blinking...that's a good sign

Monitor starting to warm up....Hey, I see mushrooms!!!   

It works. 




Played a game.  Can't move across the screen as quickly as I can on my Mame setup, but this feels right.  Plays great.  Got 34,565 on my first game.  Pretty good score for me, especially with not playing in a long time.

Still need to order the blue interior bezel, but I didn't want to staple that in now anyway.  I'll wait until the cosmetic work is done.

One thing I realized is missing is the test switch.  I'll need to pick one up and install it so I can reset the high scores. 

One last thing to do for today.  Replace the old power cord with the ground cut off with a new one.  Picked up an Atari power cord in my order from Bob Roberts so replacing the old one was simple.


That's about all I can do until the weather is better, so time to move it into it's winter spot:



Items remaining:
Cap kit (going to wait until the monitor is pulled for painting)
Install control panel overlay
Strip and repaint cab
Clean interior
Install side art
Strip and paint coin door
Cut new backdoor (anyone have all the measurements for this?)

I'm very happy to have this playable!  It's going to really bug me looking at the crappy control panel, but I'll just enjoy it as is until Spring.

...Now off to get Pacman working!

[Spyridon]

Looks much better already don't you think...

[Level42]

You're on the right track !     May spring come soon !

[WunderCade]

Nice job. You're probably waiting on applying the new CPO for the same reason you're waiting on the blue shroud.

Anyways.....I always enjoy your resto threads....I'll keep an eye out for Pac-man. 

[Spyridon]

Nice job. You're probably waiting on applying the new CPO for the same reason you're waiting on the blue shroud.

Yeah, waiting until it's warmer so I can paint it.  However, I am tempted to do this in the basement.  Since it's not that large, I could probably get away with it.  I'd just need to keep the heat turned on so it can dry propery.


Thanks for all the compliments.  I'm looking forward to getting some play time in on this one.

[Spyridon]

How could anyone not love this game?  Went downstairs and played a few games during halftime of the Steelers game.  Boy, this is a fun game!


P.S.  How 'bout them Steelers!!!!!

[ken_cinder]

Beautiful work, I hope one day I have the opportunity to restore an old game that I like.

[RayB]

Nice "row" !

[Level42]

How could anyone not love this game?  Went downstairs and played a few games during halftime of the Steelers game.  Boy, this is a fun game!


P.S.  How 'bout them Steelers!!!!!

In all honesty, I never loved Centipede. In fact, I hated it. It was the game for the 1983 (IIRC !) Atari World championships. So I rented (!) the cart, practiced like nuts for a week. I totally hated the controls on the Atari 2600, the joystick programming was so that when you moved, the archer moved slowly when you started the move, but increased in speed as long as you kept moving in that direction. A (poor) try to "emulate" the trackball feeling, but I didn't even know Centipede was originally a trackball game in the arcade then. I'd never even seen the arcade game then.

Anyway, I participated in the first Dutch round. Was placed 26 and only 25 (under 18's !) were invited but I was lucky as one guy got ill and they called if I could replaced him. So, like crazy, I again rented the cart and practiced like nuts.....
Became 4th in the Dutch finals. Not bad, but of course no prize :S

O well. it was fun to be in the finals that was in the Amsterdam Hilton and hosted by Ron Brandsteder (a famous Dutch TV host). I'm sure my parents must have some pics from them....gotta dig them up

Anyway, if there' s any game that proved to me that the arcade version can be SO much better than conversions, it was Centipede. I totally love the game now. 

[Spyridon]

Nice story Level42.  Love to see some of those pictures if you find them.  In 1983, I don't think there was any place around me that rented games.  Of course, I didn't have a 2600 to play them on anyway.  Had to go over a friends house to paly.   

[Spyridon]

One thing I realized is missing is the test switch.  I'll need to pick one up and install it so I can reset the high scores. 

I looked into the manual today to see what type of switch I needed to pick up.  I was going to walk over to Radio Shack on my lunch to get on.  I remembered from the manual (and Level42's picture) that the switch was located just below the volume control.  Since I had an open hole in that space and two dangling wires with nothing to connect to, I just assumed that is where the missing switch goes.  It wasn't until I looked at the manual that I found out about the European self test switch and the US self test switch.


The US one is located on the coin door.  I don't remember seeing that on the door itself, but looking back at the picture of the coin door harness I picked up, it looks like it is there.


All I should need to do is plug in the coin door harness (I didn't hook it up becuase I have it on freeplay right now) and I should be good to go.  I'll check it out tonight when I get home.

[Spyridon]

Nice "row" !

Thanks.  Here's the other side:

[Spyridon]

Got home and went right down to the basement to check out my coin door harness.  Yep, there's the switch I need!



And wouldn't you know it, checking out the coin door, there's another one.


I'm really glad I didn't pick one up at Radio Shack today.  Saves me a trip back to return it.

Plugged the coin door harness in...hit the switch...test mode!


Now I can reset the high scores so at least my top 3 get saved.  Hopefully I get good enough to beat the 45K scores that were up there, but this way until I hit that mark, I'll at least have my high scores saved.

[Spyridon]

Now I can reset the high scores so at least my top 3 get saved.  Hopefully I get good enough to beat the 45K scores that were up there, but this way until I hit that mark, I'll at least have my high scores saved.

Resetting the high scores wasn't a big deal as I would have beaten them this weekend anyway.  My high so far is 64K. 

[THE POKER BRAT]

keep the pics comin!,....youre doing a great job!

[Spyridon]

No updates on the restoration progress, but I've been playing this game a lot and I love it.  Got a new high score today 128,000! 

I think I'm only a few weeks away from being able to redo the control panel.  Can't wait!

[Level42]

Can't even remember what my hi-score was.....and the chip seems to have lost it....

The trackball is not as smooth after being in storage. Probably temperature related too.

The CPO got damaged a bit too  (two spots on the under-front side ......sigh).

Anyway, it's a great game, very addictive.

[Spyridon]

Okay, with warmer weather on the horizon, it's time to get back to working on this one. 

First up is the control panel overlay.  I pulled the CP and removed all of the components:


A nice bit of rust underneath where the track ball connects


And the more obvious rust on the top


I had my heat gun all ready to go to pull the old overlay off, but much to my suprise, it literally just peeled right off with abosolutely no effort




And the stripped panel


Lots of glue residue left behind that will need to come off.

[Spyridon]

Now to tackle the rust.  I'll use a wire wheel in my drill to take it off.  This always does a great job and doesn't take too long.


Here you can see the difference on the top portion that I started working on


All top rust removed


And now to work on the bottom



Now to remove all the glue residue (and paint as well), I'll use some Soy Gel.  This stuff works great on removing adhesive from control panels and it's even safe to use in the house


Gel applied


Let it sit for about an hour and the old paint and glue comes right off with a scraper


And the full panel with the gel removed


A few spots to touch up, so I'll hit them with another coat.  Then it will be ready for some Rustoleum paint.

[Spyridon]

Can anyone provide exact dimensions for the back door?  I don't have one and need to cut one out.

[Level42]

Hey, that's the least thing I can do back for you....give me an hour or two....

Although......I do have an Irish cab, I _think_ sizes are the same, but not 100% sure...

[Spyridon]

Hey, that's the least thing I can do back for you....give me an hour or two....

Although......I do have an Irish cab, I _think_ sizes are the same, but not 100% sure...

Great.  I can match the sizes you give to the opening to make sure it works.

[Level42]

Oops, got caught up by something else....will measure tonight...

[Spyridon]

Oops, got caught up by something else....will measure tonight...

Not in a big hurry.  I've got plenty to do before I get to it.

[Spyridon]

Delivery today from arcadeshop:

Blue inner bezel:

I wish this came with instructions.  I'll need to put the puzzle together and figure it out (shouldn't be too hard)

black t-molding and 2.5" carriage bolts for the trackball


I was very dissapointed to see that the carriage bolts had raised lettering on them.  Anybody sand these down before?  What did you use?

[Level42]

Backdoor (IRISH !):

Note that I measured in cm and had the Mac convert it to the inch sizes. I rounded a bit where necessary.








No sizes, just for reference:


Let me know if you need more or if I forgot anything....

[Spyridon]

Thanks!  I'll match this up with my cab to make sure it fits, but that gives me a good idea of what it looks like.

[JayB]

I was very dissapointed to see that the carriage bolts had raised lettering on them.  Anybody sand these down before?  What did you use?

I put the bolts in a drill and then faced it down onto some sandpaper. It did the trick

[Spyridon]

Okay, had some time to work on this over the weekend.  After using the Soy Gel to strip most of the paint off the control panel, I hit it again with the wire wheel on the drill.  This easily removed any remaining paint and glue.

Nice and clean


Next up was to stop the rust from coming back.  I used Rustoleum satin black paint.


Inside:

Outside:


Turned out really nice.  Sure looks better than this:

[Level42]

No primer ?

[Spyridon]

No primer ?

Nope.  With the Rustoleum products you don't need primer.

[Level42]

Lazy !