APB Restoration - Done!

[RetroACTIVE]

Got this machine off of ebay for $125 over a year ago (Oct 2009... its now Jan 2011)... Filthy, no artwork, no power supply, AC wiring a mess, monitor was bad, steering wheel broken, triac bad, coin door wiring hacked... a real mess.  It turned out that the boards worked fine!!!! And the cab, although it needed some reinforcement and body work... was pretty solid.

Before:


After a ton of time and way way to much money... this APB is now done and in the game room accepting tokens

[2600]

While you are picking it up you wanna check out the Ikari Warriors that guy has?

[RetroACTIVE]

While you are picking it up you wanna check out the Ikari Warriors that guy has?

Its nice... it is a conversion (centipede style) but is clean.  The joysticks are ball-tops but overall the game is good.

[RetroACTIVE]

Overall, the APB is in remarkably good shape....

This restore will be my "typical" except the great thing is that there is no water damage and the cabinet is solid... so I won't need to do any substantial body work... so for that I am psyched!

I will strip it... see if there is any artwork left but I'm not too concerned about that... I plan on re-coating it with some satin black...  and hopefully the APB artwork repro will happen in a year or so to finish it off at another date.

As far as the electronics... it is missing the +5 volt switcher (easy fix) and it has an untested med-res monitor (I've not checked the model on this... but it does have slight super sprint burn so I'm sure its med res).  It has a few hacks in there around the coin door there is this weird electronic money counter that is wired in...

The steering wheel is fine except the main housing is cracked... Got one one order with bushings.

Foot pedal is fine... nice and responsive.

This restore will be fun.... I think 

[TheShanMan]

"Typical" for you of course means "no stone unturned" (the OCD approach). Looking forward to the progress updates.

[Spyridon]

Are you done yet?

[RetroACTIVE]

Are you done yet?

I wish...I still have to put that football back together.  I've been trying to get my games together for a party... but I'm afraid my A.R.-ness (as the TheShanMan has eluded to) has gotten the best of me.

[RetroACTIVE]

Got into the cab to see whats what...

First off here is a pic of the busted steering housing... I secured a NOS from videogameparts.com


Here is the power block... as you can see it is completely missing its +5 switcher... and could use a good scrubbing!


Sound board... filthy too


Here is where the fun begins... it has this elaborate? funky money counter that was soldered in-line with the coin switches and its wall wart was soldered into the ac power cord... check it out:


...yummie


I wonder if this dude is still in business... (I wonder if he's the dude who souped it up with the coin counter  )


 

[Kevin Mullins]

it has this elaborate? funky money counter that was soldered in-line with the coin switches and its wall wart was soldered into the ac power cord

We had something similar on some automated batting cages at one point...... not in a fancy case like that though. Only benefit was they were easily resettable to zero.

[RetroACTIVE]

We had something similar on some automated batting cages at one point...... not in a fancy case like that though. Only benefit was they were easily resettable to zero.

Someone must have had a specific reason for wanting it like reset capability I guess.   I opened it up and found 2 C cells in there that had a complete and total meltdown ... it was really bad so its toast.

[Kevin Mullins]

Someone must have had a specific reason for wanting it like reset capability I guess. 

My best guess is the ability to be able to move it from one machine to another and reset it once in the new machine.

[RetroACTIVE]

Well... I rebuilt the power supply (pics coming), built a video harness... plugged it in and viola!  The darn thing works great!

Thyristors probably need to be replaced as the two marquee lamps are on continuously and do not flash with the activation of the siren.

I'm very glad.  I'm really not in the mood to do any intense debugging... I have some repairs for other folks that are in the hopper and I don't have a heck of a lot of time right now.

 

[RetroACTIVE]

Here are a couple of pics of the re-furbed power block... I cleaned and painted the metal base (hammered silver), put a new 5V MeanWell switcher, new fuse block, new line filter and re-terminated all of the wiring... and as I posted prior... works fantastic!

[2600]

That's beautiful.   I'm going to have to do that with a couple of my games.

[RetroACTIVE]

That's beautiful.   I'm going to have to do that with a couple of my games.

Thanks... I was going to powder coat it like I did my Star Wars but it doesn't mean that much to me... plus I'd rather spend that cash on something else so a can of spray paint fit the bill for this machine

Here is the triac board... replaced the thyristors and opto-isolators...



Now the unit was missing one of the cardboard shrouds on the power supply block.  On APB there is a shroud that covers the fuse block and one that covers the triac board.  I cut a new one out of fish paper... you can see it in the bottom of the pic here:




I cleaned the sound board and re-capped it (although re-capping this is waaaaayyyyy not necessary!) but it was damned filthy... some of the board cleaner ate away at the serial number tag ... but again I'm not too hung up on that sort of stuff with this machine.

[RetroACTIVE]

I've picked up all of the miscellaneous nuts, bolts, washers, straps etc... for this cab.  I simply don't understand when people service machines they just rip them apart and half ass put them back together... missing pcb anchors and what not...

For me I was missing 2 out of 4 PCB thumb screws... all of the thumb nuts, washers, the EMI shroud and the board spacers between the APB and System II video PCB.  Also the control panel was missing one of its anchor bolts... so I also picked up a box of them with associated washers.



Here is the EMI shroud I picked up from a kind gent over at KLOV...  I also bought a new 120mm fan and fan cover (not shown)

[RetroACTIVE]

Don't have a ton of free time... but managed to squeak this simple fixer-upper in...

Here is the old crappy cord... the ac plug was removed... it had been spliced in the cab to accommodate that silly money counter...



Purchased myself a new 10 foot cord and AC switch from Bob...



Popped out the old strain relief and removed the switch and stuff...




I cut the end off of the cord to match the length of the old molex / QD pigtail...



Here is the new pigtail, and the AC cord terminated with the .25" QDs



Finished product...



Nothing too thrilling here... just something to keep it going  
 

[Spyridon]

Nothing too thrilling here... just something to keep it going  

May not be too thrilling, but it is nicely done.

[ChadTower]

Yeah, he always does it top shelf quality.   

[RetroACTIVE]

Yeah, he always does it top shelf quality.   

Thanks man!

[RetroACTIVE]

OK.... I'm back!  I have finally got through all of my stuff... fixing other folks boards... acquiring games / pins and other crap!!!!  Besides I need to get the garage emptied by the first snow (something I promised last year... and I think the year before that...  

I've decided to start with APB first.  I have Space Invaders, Berzerk and Football still to finish... its just that APB is in a convenient place in the garage at the moment

I stripped it down to nothing... I decided to remove all of the crappy Atari vinyl ... its more work but in the end I will have a much more lasting finish than if I had just painted over the vinyl...



I've to just finish up a few dings with some bondo then I will hit the cab with several nice coats of satin black...

[RetroACTIVE]

I couldn't just leave it alone... the monitor panel had been hacked to support a vertical monitor... (although I'm unaware of any vertical frames that are medium resolution)...

It bugged me... I can't stand it when people hack away at games to get stuff to fit... so I rebuilt the panel today...

Here is the old mess:


Here are pics of the old and new panels...


Here it is in place... not anchored yet.. I'm waiting for my new hot poly glue gun...


I still can't believe I am ACTUALLY working on this

[TheShanMan]

It's always fun to watch your restos. I just read through this whole thread again. I can't believe you even replaced the power switch. Unless there was a problem with the original one, that is proof of my statement earlier in this thread.

[RetroACTIVE]

It's always fun to watch your restos. I just read through this whole thread again. I can't believe you even replaced the power switch. Unless there was a problem with the original one, that is proof of my statement earlier in this thread.

It's quite comical I know. However in my defense.. the power cord was destroyed so that made me have to deal with it... and the switch was filthy... I hate grime and stink... so yeah... it happens.


Well, I decided to test fit the T-Moulding... and its a damned good thing I did!!!!! The slot is wayyyy too big for the replacement T-Moulding... so now I have to go through the process of filling it with bondo and re-cutting the slot!... No amount of glue or adhesive can fix it... the moulding just falls out...


Boing!!!


Here we go... fill'er up!


I purchased a new seat assembly from DPtwiz (Klov)... his seat is cut with the proper slot for the new T-Moulding!!!!


I'm soooo happy I tried this... I was just about to get ready to start painting it.... phew!!!!

[RetroACTIVE]

Wish I had something to show ... filling up the tmoulding slot is killin' me!!!!  Its using a but load of bondo and is taking me forever.... (not very thrilling work)

Anxious to paint!

[RetroACTIVE]

Here are a few construction pics...

I rebuilt the lower panel recessed for a fan filter... I don't want anything sticking out beyond the wood surface (like the original fan grille) so I counter sunk it...

removed old one and old cleats... they were pretty much disconnected from the cab anyway... Atari glued them onto the vinyl and stapled them... I cut away at the vinyl and applied hot poly glue when anchoring the new ones...



Here is the new panel and cleats... with a light coat of paint



New cleat..



I tipped it on its front, plopped the door in to get the position...



Hot poly glue and stapled in place...



For those of you who saw my Star Wars restore... I pretty much did the same thing, except this one was a bit more fancy with the fan cut-out.

[RetroACTIVE]

Here are a few pics... this is only the second coat... I'll probably end up with 4 coats all said and done... pictures are kind of crappy... it looks much better in person.






PS... don't tell anyone I had my first paint accident in the garage... spilled about a pint of black on the floor... total duface move!

[Witchboard]

That chrome t-molding is gonna make it POP!

[RetroACTIVE]

That chrome t-molding is gonna make it POP!

Yeah... new chrome t-molding looks really really nice.  Even when I put it up against the cab when it was crappy it looked fantastic.

[RetroACTIVE]

Painting done
Tmolding done... (looks freakin' fantastic... pics are lame)
New fan installed
Electronics back in
Fired up... playing blind (of course... no monitor installed silly!)

Monitor is next...

This black is awesome!  Good 'ol rustoleum thinned with acetone.  Too bad artwork will cover 2/3rds of it











Installation of the new fan assembly...









a few more pics of the fan...







...thats it for the fan stuff



... still debating on whether or not to paint the shelf... it looks like crap... the old coin counter thingie had batteries that leaked leaving a nasty stain.  I sanded it but it still looks like garbage.


... camera takes crappy pics but you get the point.


... don't mind the poopy coin door, its only there for access to the switches for testing purposes

[jennifer]

   Are you going to put that coin door on that machine?.... Really?

[RetroACTIVE]

   Are you going to put that coin door on that machine?.... Really?

HA!  Now that would be something!  No way!!! I have a bunch of stuff to go to the powder coating shop, including a much nicer coin door... I only used that crappy one to coin up the game for testing.

[jennifer]

       Well then, I gotta say nice job. More folks should pay as much attention to details and stop trying to cut corners.

[RetroACTIVE]

Here is the installation of the D9500 tri-sync monitor...

Since it was a shelf mount, I had to remove it from its frame and put it on a D7700 frame I had kicking around from an old DK conversion ... usually I get rid of all my leftovers... this time I'm glad I kept it!





Bezel and glass aren't as nice as I'd like but they still look ok...




This monitor looks fantastic... worked like a champ... The original APB is Medium resolution and the harness uses +V +H sync connections... this does not work for the D9500 (at least it didn't for me).  I had to connect it using -COMPOSITE sync.  Thankfully the board puts out this signal... And remember boys and girls... use pin 10 on the D9500 header, don't combine -V and -H signals like you would on traditional analog monitors it doesn't work that way on this monitor!!!!

[Spyridon]

Installation of the new fan assembly...

a few more pics of the fan...

...thats it for the fan stuff

I'm a fan of your work.   

Looks great.  I've never played this game before.  I'll have to fire it up in Mame and give it a try.

[RetroACTIVE]

Installation of the new fan assembly...

a few more pics of the fan...

...thats it for the fan stuff

I'm a fan of your work.  

Looks great.  I've never played this game before.  I'll have to fire it up in Mame and give it a try.

Your sense of humor blows!        

Yeah, APB was one I played in college (1989-ish).  Funny how I still remember the games in the social hall.  Played a lot of APB, Arch Rivals, Off Road, Bad Dudes and Heavy Barrel...

APB is a silly game, the cab is equally as silly, especially with the goofy side-art that has yet to be applied.  When you press the siren button the two red and blue lamps flash on the marquee.  The humor is over the top NOT politically correct with cops having to get donuts along the way, and you as the arresting officer have to rough up the perp to get him to confess.  Its a lot of fun and neat in the game room.  There are tons of way better games out there but APB is one of those games that brings me back.

[Spyridon]

Your sense of humor blows!         

Yeah, APB was one I played in college (1989-ish).  Funny how I still remember the games in the social hall.  Played a lot of APB, Arch Rivals, Off Road, Bad Dudes and Heavy Barrel...

Cool down a bit   

In college (also 1989-ish) we played Arch Rivals and Chase H.Q. but not any of those other ones. 

[RetroACTIVE]

All the trim went to the powder coating shop yesterday!

[RetroACTIVE]

Here are the pics of the stuff... some APB some not...













All said and done I will probably return a couple of pieces for refinishing... they are really decent at this place and will fix them for me no problem...

Atari coin door frame  (bubbling on the bottom)
Galaga coin door (bubbling around coin shute and 25c window frame)
Foot pedal (bubbling on the corner and the hole for the axle is mucked up so bushing doesn't fit well)

[Spyridon]

I really need to find a place locally that can do powder coating.  That stuff looks really good.

[RetroACTIVE]

I was a bit bummed by the APB stuff that was not as nice as it should be... because I'm ready to put this thing to bed... but it will just have to wait.

The color I had picked originally for the space invaders door was not what you see... it was a bit darker and had a slight texture to it, closer to the original finish... but unfortunately that powder was no longer available and I left it up to them to pick a substitute.  Its a gray with a little brownish tint... it looks nice, better than what I could do with a spray can so I'm pretty happy with it. 

[HaRuMaN]

Why is the left coin return crooked?

[RetroACTIVE]

Why is the left coin return crooked?

Oh, I've not mounted it back to the door... i just plopped it on there for a photo.

[Malenko]

still looks fantastic James!

[RetroACTIVE]

still looks fantastic James!

Thanks!  Hopefully I'll be done soon... I'm looking for suitable seat covering at the moment.

[RetroACTIVE]

This seat is a result of a bunch of different folks... plans were drawn up from my original seat, DPTWiz (klov) had reproduced the wooden seat pedestal as a kit for me so it came ready for assembly!  Rich at ThisOldGame faithfully reproduced the seat side art in both factory white and APB flyer red!! I chose red.  The pain for me was finding a suitable replacement for the seat material... I was lucky enough to find one and its pretty much dead nuts the same as the original...

Building the base of the seat first...


Then came the front and rear faces...


That's it! Nothing to it... I did sand the corners to round them off as per the original.  I hit it with 80 grit on the random orbital...


Can you guess which one is new


Sides attached...


I painted the sides two colors... Black for the inside face and Red for the outside... in case there is any exposed wood when the decal is attached.


Here is the new seat rubber... whadddya think?


Cut to fit (about right)... we will trim it later...


I attached the bolts and tnuts (not shown) then sprayed the thing with contact cement...


Also coated the rubber matting..


Simply roll it on keeping constant even pressure against the material...


Continue until its wrapped tight and then staple...


Trim off excess... and we're done!!!



Re-attach the sides... sorry folks no pics of attaching the side art... truth be told it was pretty easy... no special skills needed... if you can put on a postage stamp... you can do this one


Do the t-molding...

...looks so darn good when that protective layer is peeled away...


Here it is... (red got washed out in the pic)

[Spyridon]

Nice work.  That seat turned out great.

[jennifer]

         Oh yes, that did work out nice..... I gotta ask however, that seat rubber, can I get some too or was it just a lucky find??

[RetroACTIVE]

         Oh yes, that did work out nice..... I gotta ask however, that seat rubber, can I get some too or was it just a lucky find??

Found it on amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Cal-Ribbed-Corrugated-Rubber-Floor/dp/B001ASCTEQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_o_dp_-m7-mb0VD185G_tf

[RetroACTIVE]

I've been waiting for this for a bit... I received my artwork the other day and had a heck of a time getting it to fit... bottom line... its a tight fit and it is challenging.  For one, its irregular and secondly it has very little room for error as it follows the cab profile fairly close... 

But I'm giddy... this looks so damned good!!!

...pinball machines make great tables ...except stuff slides off them


... its necessary to trim the excess ... and trim it close as I mentioned, its a tight fit.


... align it, you will need to put the cop light right up against the edge of the cab to get the back side to fit without hanging over... there is little margin


...shyaaaah


...calling officer Bob!!!!


... aaaaaand there it is!


...tutha' side




just to show how tight it is ... along the cop lamps...




... along the back side...


Here is a nice shot of both the side art and seat art from ThisOldGame.com

[Spyridon]

Nice job installing that, but I have to say that is some pretty ugly side art.  That guy gives me the creeps!

[brock.sampson]

What?  That guy is awesome especially love the 70s porn moustache.

[HaRuMaN]

         Oh yes, that did work out nice..... I gotta ask however, that seat rubber, can I get some too or was it just a lucky find??

Found it on amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Cal-Ribbed-Corrugated-Rubber-Floor/dp/B001ASCTEQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_o_dp_-m7-mb0VD185G_tf

Nice.  That looks like the same material on my Battlezone.  I'll have to keep that in mind...

[JustMichael]

What?  That guy is awesome especially love the 70s porn moustache.

I think he wears too much rouge...

[opt2not]

RetroACTIVE, your gameroom looks awesome. Got more pictures of what's in there?

APB is turning out great too, glad you saved this one! 

[RayB]

Beautiful work.
 

[RetroACTIVE]

RetroACTIVE, your gameroom looks awesome. Got more pictures of what's in there?

APB is turning out great too, glad you saved this one! 

Thanks... Yeah, at some point I'll take a couple of shots of the game room... I 'aint there yet... I need to get all of these machines finished up then it will look nice

Beautiful work.
 

Thanks!

[adidas1984x]

got to do video as well!!!

[RetroACTIVE]

Pedal work... I took some shots of the application of the anti-skid tape but cant find them... anyway... cut it stuck it... nothing to it.  You can get it at Home Depot or Lowes.

Old grubby potentiometer and a new one ready to go...


Pedal parts ready to be assembled, I already put the axle in and the C clips on the ends.  All we need now is the new pot, rocker arm and spring...


Rocker Arm... installation


Soldered the cabinet pigtail on to the potentiometer and used a bit of heat shrink tubing to make it nice.




Mounting the pedal...


Seat Mount on the inside with bolts...


Exterior Coin Door...


Interior Coin Door...


As you recall... in a previous post I had a difficult time dealing with the filthy inner shelf... welp... decided to give it a coat of paint...

Masking...


Painted... nice and clean now!!!


Now that looks much better ....


Now the control panel.  To be honest, I really would like to strip this down, powder coat it and put a nice silk screened reproduction overlay on it... but since that doesn't exist ...yet... ahem... I am just going to clean this, change the wheel out and the buttons out to pep it up a bit.

Old rusty wheel...


Bad buttons...


Gummed up bearings...


Filthy wheel hub...


Dismantling "The 500" wheel



See the diff between the old and new bearings....


Bobs APB buttons


Stripped and cleaned


Installing the hub...


...the large wheel bearing


...the wheel


...and the encoder pcb.


The last of the wheel...


Installation of the EMI shield. Of course this piece was missing from my APB... found one and then found the knurled nuts used to anchor it...




The APB System 2 Boards, properly mounted in the APB cabinet:


A view from above...


Control Panel...


Atari's APB








Thats all folks!!! I hope that there is some information in this thread to help other APB lovers out there!!!  This was very fun... now back to Space Invaders

[opt2not]

 
Excellent job Retro! That APB looks amazing! So clean and minty...
Seeing what you started, this cabinet has come a long way. Thanks for documenting and sharing the process. 

Heh, you do love the sandblastin' don't cha?

[RayB]

Looks like it has the world's longest circuit board!

great job!

[yotsuya]

I played this game enough as a kid to tell you that I really enjoyed reading this thread and seeing your progress! 

[Vigo]

 

I love APB, it had so much personality. Very cool restoration, you do grade A work! 

[RetroACTIVE]

Thanks folks... yeah I've been enjoying playing this.  I'm digging the confess-o-meter stages after you capture the perp!

I may do a couple small finishing touches....

1.  There is/should be a paper cardboard shroud that is stapled to the shelf and curves up and over to the left sidewall to keep grime from falling on the sound board and coin counter area.
2.  I may finish painting the insides... i really like the way that shelf came out and it makes the rest of it look dirty.

3.  There is a small PCB issue on the main power connector.  The original design has a small rf filter board that sits between the harness and the pcb.  On mine, it is bypassed because the header on that small filter board is burned up... I will definitely rebuild this and re-pin the main harness with trifurcon connectors for long term reliability.

[jennifer]

        Two thumbs up...... The dude on the sideart, still a little creepy!        Kinda hopin" to see the space invaders too, is that a upright?

[RetroACTIVE]

        Two thumbs up...... The dude on the sideart, still a little creepy!        Kinda hopin" to see the space invaders too, is that a upright?

Yup it's an upright... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108461.0

[RayB]

I'm pretty sure the filter board was just to meet FCC radio interference rules for commercial devices. You don't need it.

[Malenko]

baller status.

Whats up next?

[RetroACTIVE]

I'm pretty sure the filter board was just to meet FCC radio interference rules for commercial devices. You don't need it.

Yeah... your absolutely right...  its not needed... but I was thinking on repairing it just for sake of making the the game 100% done.

baller status.

Whats up next?

Welll... If I can ever get rid of this respiratory infection I have I will be continuing onto my Space Invaders project.... then believe it or not I have an Atari 4P football game to finish (there is a resto thread on it around here somewhere). That one I started well over a year ago and had to rebuild the whole cabinet as there was so much moisture and rodent damage to it.  I've one more panel to finish and then I can put it back together...

[Malenko]

how much are you going to sell me this APB for? Frederick aint that far from Delaware!

[RetroACTIVE]

how much are you going to sell me this APB for? Frederick aint that far from Delaware!

HA!!!! Not sure this one would be worth the trip... I don't think anyone would be willing to pay what I would have to ask for as the amount I've invested in this bad boy is way way way more than what this game is worth.

[TheShanMan]

As always, very nice restoration Jim!

         Oh yes, that did work out nice..... I gotta ask however, that seat rubber, can I get some too or was it just a lucky find??

Found it on amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Cal-Ribbed-Corrugated-Rubber-Floor/dp/B001ASCTEQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_o_dp_-m7-mb0VD185G_tf

Nice.  That looks like the same material on my Battlezone.  I'll have to keep that in mind...

You can get this stuff at Lowes (and probably Home Depot) in the flooring dept for something like $2.50 or $3 per linear foot. I recently redid the step on my battlezone and my sea wolf with this stuff.

[RetroACTIVE]

As always, very nice restoration Jim!

         Oh yes, that did work out nice..... I gotta ask however, that seat rubber, can I get some too or was it just a lucky find??

Found it on amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Cal-Ribbed-Corrugated-Rubber-Floor/dp/B001ASCTEQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_o_dp_-m7-mb0VD185G_tf

Nice.  That looks like the same material on my Battlezone.  I'll have to keep that in mind...

You can get this stuff at Lowes (and probably Home Depot) in the flooring dept for something like $2.50 or $3 per linear foot. I recently redid the step on my battlezone and my sea wolf with this stuff.

Thanks Jeff!  You know I thought the same as everyone was telling me Lowes or Home Depot... Must be my area because this stuff is no where local to me.

[jennifer]

This matting is available in different thicknesses.... mine (for the base of enduro racer) will probably be on the thin side. Guess I better get out the caliber. Thanks again.

[HaRuMaN]

This matting is available in different thicknesses.... mine (for the base of enduro racer) will probably be on the thin side. Guess I better get out the caliber. Thanks again.

Caliber?

[Malenko]

off topic: My mom builds those (she works in the stamping side of Belvedere) I used to work in Newark building Durangos

[Funnel]

  Very impressive work!! Everything is so detailed!

[jennifer]

        OMG..... I"m so shamed..... Just going to take my caliber and go!

[rotten]

Great job!  I just picked up one of these to restore to.  I really love this game.  Mine works but was having monitor problems.  Kind of a warp with tears.  So i recaped it.  That didn't work.  So i just resoldered every component on the monitor pcb.  That did the trick!  Now if i can just score the seat.  I've contacted the guy who has it, but he lives about 4 hours away.  Trying to figure out a time to meet up with him.  Worse comes to worse, i have the skills to build one.

This project is on the back burner for a bit as i am restoring an elevator action and a mystery game (other then it's a williams, my lips are sealed for odd reasons)

Hope mine will turn out like yours!

[RetroACTIVE]

Great job!  I just picked up one of these to restore to.  I really love this game.  Mine works but was having monitor problems.  Kind of a warp with tears.  So i recaped it.  That didn't work.  So i just resoldered every component on the monitor pcb.  That did the trick!  Now if i can just score the seat.  I've contacted the guy who has it, but he lives about 4 hours away.  Trying to figure out a time to meet up with him.  Worse comes to worse, i have the skills to build one.

This project is on the back burner for a bit as i am restoring an elevator action and a mystery game (other then it's a williams, my lips are sealed for odd reasons)

Hope mine will turn out like yours!

Definitely a fun game... it was fun to restore as well.  I play it regularly and its still running perfectly.  Most people who visit enjoy this one... the flashing lights really liven up the game room!

Good luck on your restore!  Don't forget to post pics!

[guruguys]

Thanks for the informative thread and rebuild info.

It looks like I am going to be getting an A.P.B. in decent condition but with a bad monitor (and no chair). The existing monitor could be repaired but also has very bad burn in. Im not to fond of replacing it with an LCD, what would be the least expensive CRT based alternative I should look at going with?