Tron: saved!

[SuperGunGuru]

Well I was getting ready to pick up a Tron from my local arcade. I do tech work for em and last week I noticed their Tron was down. I made a deal to get the Tron from them and tonight I was moving it with the managers help to a different spot on the floor so it was ready for me to pick it up tomorrow. The part we moved it to was elevated and due to the water damage the cabinet had recieved, the bottom simply fell apart.

[SuperGunGuru]

Well I took a closer look at the damage to the bottom of the cabinet tonight. It turns out that the bottom didn't completey come off the cabinet, but it cracked in half. The font 1/3 of the bottom is still intact and attached to the cabinet. My buddy came up to look at it and he thinks it can be fixed. Also, because the deal for the Tron fell apart (literally) the manager is letting me take their Crystal Castles (working).

[Redseven80]

Got any pics?

[SuperGunGuru]

Got any pics?

Not yet, but I'm sure I will take some Tuesday. Hopefully I'll have pics from the sucessful repair to Tron, but I will at least have pics of my Crystal Castles (this one has minor water damage, if any.

[paigeoliver]

Don't put a ton of work into the cabinet, just rig it up until a gutted Tron cabinet comes along. They aren't that hard to find, a buddy of mine threw one away because no one would come pick it up (the PARTS to a Tron cost about 3 times what one is worth).

[SuperGunGuru]

Don't put a ton of work into the cabinet, just rig it up until a gutted Tron cabinet comes along. They aren't that hard to find, a buddy of mine threw one away because no one would come pick it up (the PARTS to a Tron cost about 3 times what one is worth).

Very true. I'm glad I at least will have all the parts of a working Tron. I won't sink a ton of time or money into making the cabinet useable again, but I want to do a good job on it.

[Flinkly]

also, remember that tron wasn't the only game to use that cabinet design, although printing up artwork should be figured in.

[SuperGunGuru]

also, remember that tron wasn't the only game to use that cabinet design, although printing up artwork should be figured in.

[SuperGunGuru]

Well both Tron and CC made it home safely. No work was done on Tron for the time being since the decision was made to get it home and then work on it instead of trying to fix it up at the 'cade. Here's some pics from the games before unloading. Big thanks goes out to my cousin Justin for the trailer use and help with loading/unloading. His idea for stabilizing Tron for transport really saved the day.

[Flinkly]

that tron has got one great monitor in it, the game that's running on it looks very lifelike.  also, not like you didn't know, but you seem to be missing the coveted translucent handle.  good catches though, wish i had someone to steal cabinets from around here, or the colateral to get said cabinets.

[SuperGunGuru]

that tron has got one great monitor in it, the game that's running on it looks very lifelike.

[paigeoliver]

Crystal Castles is a much better game than Tron anyway, you made out like a bandit. If Tron had come out in a more generic cabinet and WITHOUT a movie tie in then it would be a $150 game.

[ChadTower]

Dude, you should just resconstruct that Tron.  It looks like the sides still have very intact artwork.  Just take the sides off, build new front/back/etc from the templates you have there, and you'll have a very nice Tron without sending an existing (damaged) one to oblivion.

[SuperGunGuru]

Crystal Castles is a much better game than Tron anyway, you made out like a bandit. If Tron had come out in a more generic cabinet and WITHOUT a movie tie in then it would be a $150 game.

I can see what you're saying about Tron. I've yet to see the movie so the tie in really doesn't mean much to me. The game itself is somewhat shallow with only the 4 mini games. For me the cabinet and the music are a big part of why I like Tron, but the gameplay is also a big part of it.

[Wade]

Crystal Castles is a much better game than Tron anyway, you made out like a bandit. If Tron had come out in a more generic cabinet and WITHOUT a movie tie in then it would be a $150 game.

That's a pretty pointless thing to say.

Tron is valuable because it really has it all.  A great theme (at the time)... one of the best cabinets ever... and cool play (not many games at the time essentially had 4 totally different games built-in).  Gameplay is always a matter of taste, but for the time, even the gameplay was pretty cool.

Wade

[ChadTower]

Tron without a movie tie in is Satan's Hollow.

[crsdawg]

for me the tron theme didn't really mean much when i first started playing the game. i didn't really appreciate tron the movie until later in life. it became one of my favorites because of it's game play and control scheme. also, i think the mini games keeps it from being monotonous as some of the other popular games of it's time.

to be honest it seems tron is either a game where you either get it or you don't. it's a matter of taste. hell i never got into pac or mrs. pac. while i bet many of the tron haters did. not that those games are bad, just not for me.

[Crazy Cooter]

...I've yet to see the movie so the tie in really doesn't mean much to me.   

For as corny as that movie is, I like it.  But then I build old arcade machines too.   

[SuperGunGuru]

The original 90412 linear PS has been bypassed and a switcher usesd in its place. I'm thinking I could get Bob's rebuild kit for ther power supply, but I know an adaptor also exists to run a switcher in the cab and it includes high score save. I think it'd be nice to have the original power supply fixed, but I'm concerned that Bob's kit may not fix it. Anyone with experience with the 90412 have some thoughts on this? Anyone use Bob's kit?

[paigeoliver]

Tron without a movie tie in is Satan's Hollow.

Nope, I really like Satan's Hollow.

Tron with no movie tie in is Gorf.

[DarkKobold]

Uh, all of these are opinions.... Tron with no movie tie-ins is Tron, a 4 stage game, which involve random unrelated things walking, riding, or shooting at some random guy in blue.
Tron is great except for the MCP cone. I can't beat it. Not one hairy bit close.

[SuperGunGuru]

Finall got around to working on the Tron some more with the the help of my friend Josh (I don't know jack about carpentry). Today we got the cabinet laying on 2 tables on its side so we could start the repair to the bottom. We removed the remains of the old bottom and then began to apply generous ammounts of Minwax Wood Hardener. It's working pretty good so far. The plan is to get the new bottom piece mounted Tuesday or maybe tomorrow. Here's a few pics. The first one is the section of bottom that actually broke off the cabinet. A smaller piece was still holding on to the front, but not by much at all. In the 2nd pic, you can see how far up the water was soaked into the cab. That part is not too bad overall and this stuff has already made it stronger. The bottom edge of the cabinet is the worst, but so far the wood hardener is making the wood workable again. This should hold me over until a better cab comes along.

[ChadTower]

Where is a few pics?

[SuperGunGuru]

Where is a few pics?

Hmmm I can see them. Maybe photobucket was down when you tried to view them?

[ChadTower]

Yeah, they're in now, when I was looking earlier there weren't any.  Nice Net.

[SuperGunGuru]

The front of the game looks to be the most damaged after I checked out how the wood hardener did. I put on another generous coat on the areas that could still use some help. Tomorrow the plan is to get this thing back on its feet.

[SuperGunGuru]

The reconstruction of the new bottom section is complete. The cabinet should be fine until I find a better one. My budy Josh saved the day on this one. He did a great job working around the damaged areas and reinforcing the cabinet. The final test is moving it into the basement tomorrow afternoon, but I'm confident it will hold up with all the work put into it. Here's a few pics from tonight's construction. It still needs some legs and then we'll put the wheels back on (note the holes for them are cut out already).

[SuperGunGuru]

Tron passed the test of moving downstairs today. Josh came over and helped me move it into its new home. We mounted the monitor back in and after figuring out that we plugged the monitor cable into the wrong spot on the PCB, we had the game working.

[SuperGunGuru]

Here's some pics I took tonight. A few minor things to take care of on this cab, but it's come a long way from being held together with wratchet straps. 

[ChadTower]

Nice.  I love it when people save a cab rather than part it out for MAME idiocies.