I've managed to get so far with restoring my SW upright....
I bought this a few mths back from 'Hatster' (Kevin).It came from sunny Spain via a friend of his,to which he dropped it at Rav's place ready for collection by Martin.
The cab was owned by Forcefulfil before Kevin bought it from him,but Kevin wasn't that keen on the cab so decided to sell it on to me
..
The cab is my Holy Grail of Video games,i were a big fan of the films as a kid (hence all my Starwars toys as well) and also a big arcade gaming fan,so when Starwars got released in 83',well it was just a natural thing that i were drawn to the game.The first arcade i saw and played this in was The Starlight Rooms on Lower Briggate in Leeds (sadly the arcade is no longer there) and after a few games i were hooked Thumbs Up
The Starlight wasn't the only arcade to have the machine in,there was another arcade that had the cockpit version in and this was called 'The Original Penny Arcade' this was situated just off 'Eastgate' in Leeds and that version just blew me away,climbing into the seat and just feeling 'engulfed' in the whole cab was a fantastic experience for me Big smile,so i did end up playing the cockpit version far more than the upright version....
Anyway jump forward some 29 years and i stumbled upon Jamma+,DLF and UKVAC (after reading about them on a BMX forum i go on) and i saw a couple of Starwars cabs that were either up for sale or had been sold some mths previous (me looking through old threads on Jamma+ and UKVAC) and i said to myself i just had to have one (a cockpit would have been awesome but sadly i just didn't have the room for such a beast) so an upright was the one to hunt for.I sold a few of my restored BMX bikes to raise the cash (the only way i could have afforded one)....
A few mths later i'd raised enough cash to be able to afford one so i made room in my bedroom for it (with the blessing from my wife as well Heart) and i put up a wanted on all the arcade forums i go on....
I ended up with a nice PM from Kevin saying he had one but the game just wasn't to his taste so a few pm's back & forth and a deal was struck..
The cab as i got it from Kevin,
The cab wasn't in the mintiest of condition but it was in working order which for me was the important thing as i'm not the best at electric work,saying that when i first got it delievered by Martin the cab wouldn't 'fire up' properly,to say i were gutted was an understatement LOL,anyway after a few pm's to Kevin i got it working (the Vector board had come loose from the 'inter connecting' board so there were all signs of power up but no life on screen).Once the beast fired up to life i were 12 years of age all over again
So i slowly started to strip down and clean up what i could without causing too much fuss....
To my delight i found out that it had the Amplifone deflection board still there but sadly not a proper Vector moniter,but it was an Amplifone 'set up' (so i've been told anyway and you guys know more about that than me)
The rear door was buggered so i made another one out of Birch Ply and also i fitted better 1"x1" pieces for the door to go against...
I also replaced a few of the 'skeleton' for want of a better word pieces including the piece that the speakers are attached to,
Around the moniter as well,
The coin doors and surround were quiet rusty and batteredalso the coin reject flaps were as well,
So i had them powder coated in Satin black,
The coin box,Yoke controller,test switch panel and CPO i had powder coated in Satin black as well,
In the meantime whilst all these were at the powdercoaters i bought a repop 'Kick plate' decal,CPO decal and Yoke controller decal,
Also i when i took the Yoke apart i broke the Anchor Pin and the large plastic 'spacer washer' needed replacing,
I did replace the 'bumpers' as well but i forgot to take any photos of them
Originally where i got the anchor pin/nut from didn't have any instock at the time of me ordering them so i did have a friend of mine fabricate one for me from the original one,
When i got the fabricated one from my mate 'video game parts' that i'd originally ordered one from managed to find me one so i have 2 of the bloody things now
,still its a spare i suppose...
I stared to build up the Yoke controller once all the bits were back from powdercoating,
Looks brand new and minty fresh now
I did replace the 'front' panel as well as it was ballaxed on the bottom with water damage.I weren't gonna put a fresh new decal on a piece of buggered board,
After rewiring the Yoke (which was a bit of a nightmare tbh as like i say i ain't that good with electrical work) but it came all good in the end (whilst rebuilding the Yoke i did put the 'X POT' and 'Y POT' on the wrong way round so when i pulled up on the controller the 'crosshairs' went left and vica versa DOH....
)
Also i applied both the Yoke and CPO decals and tbh it did look a 1000 times better than before Cool also when the coin doors and coin mechs (which do still work spot on BTW) all fitted back i stood back and the whole cab for me looks super clean and 100% better than when i got the machine originally (ps i did buy some new barrel locks as well as the keys to the original locks disappeared years ago)
Originally the main PCB cage was missing from the cab when i bought it so i managed to source one to replace it,
It did come with an 'EMI shield PCB' as i bought them from the States but i read that cabs made in Ireland (mines Irish BTW) didn't come with them fitted,so its surplus to requirements....
The cab after all decals were fitted,
I also bought an original Atari coin box for it as well (i know its gonna be on 'Free Play' majority of the time but it was only cheap so i though what the hell i'll have it
)
I also managed to get a few old 10p pieces from my old man (for some reason he's got a few older coins),
There are a few bits to still restore but i'm happy with my Starwars atm,its playable and it looks super cool in my bedroom
Bits to still sort,
The side art is in good condition so i'll not be replacing that,
The bits that do stand out are the cig burns on the plastic 'shroud' (think that's what i heard it called)
If i could get a better replacement shroud i would but the one i have is ok for now.....
I did buy one of Vector Labs Starwars/Empire Strikes Back kits but tbh i fitted the kit and i've just hardly played ESB on it so i took it back out and replaced the original chips...
So this is surplus to requirements and will be sold on soon.
That's about it guys an gals,sorry for the long drawn out thread but i've tried to get as much detail out about this as i can,there are still like i say the odd bit of resto to do on it but i'll do that when i have more spare cash to throw at it
Russ...
