:: Berzerk "We Are Human After All" - Reboot the robots in 2010 ::

[DarthNuno]

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Following this road trip... 



...let's see what we can do with this cab' 

Ops...still in the car    And no one around to help me for unloading the cab?  . .. no problem... see my 'Klingon' technique to do it alone   



Sometime I take too much risk... this cabinet is really heavy... if anything go wrong, I can't face it alone... fingers crossed 



a little bit scary at this point... beware the the trailer hitch...



OK, safe... (one more time  ) :



Why call this topic "We Are Human After All" Because of this 



It's funny! We try to reproduce the best as possible the condition of the cabinet like it was back in the 80's... trying to set side arts at the perfect location... but I'm not sure things were perfect back in the days... Remember, we talk about 'arcade cabinets', not an a luxury item supposed to be perfect. Most operations during the manufacture were handmade...  and probably the operation for painting this Berzerk logo on that side   
I'm somehow happy to have that little mistake done at the factory, and I'll of course keep it like that.
An interesting thing about this : There's no offset error on the robots graphic, only one the logo. It proves that the 2 robots and the Berzerk logo were not on the same stencil used to paint the side 

[Superully]

good luck with the resto, bruno, although i'm pretty sure you are already done with this by now

[Level42]

Yep, that's why I jokingly said to Ully that he should have misplaced his stencils a bit when he did his logo resto

Well, I don't mind either way. Yes I do like that often seen defect on Berzerks, but the mistake differs per unit. Mine are pretty well lined out f.i.

By the way, did you order a new CP from Chris Bruno, I forgot if you did or not. It's totally brilliant !

[ckong]

That is indeed an example of how factories sometimes accept the quality of their work. Perhaps an apprentice worked on your cab. I like it, it is original by all means, it shows that it was done by hand because the factory was probably not robotized back then and it ads a nice little story to the cab.

[Level42]

Mmm, dug up some old pictures, regretfully I never made a pic of all the cabs "in line"....but here are two.



The "defect" seems less (the left-right alignment seems almost perfect on the left cab, a bit less on the right one) but is still there, look how the red and blue touch at the left side but not on the right.

What annoys me more is the "missing horn" defect. THAT is really a design mistake...


My guess is that they used a metal mask for the robot art witch they used on both sides (the sides were probably produced in one run, so a lot of left sides first, and then a lot of right sides, at least that's what I saw on old Atari production line pics). Of course that's not possible to so with the logo...

[DarthNuno]

Where to put that game now Nuno's lair v1 and v2 are already full  No other choice than the house, but first ... a good cleaning... and a *quick* examination of the cabinet...



...which will be fast...no board! Let's see in deep what's left here





The front is not too bad...



Fortunately, this won't be to difficult to fix  :



The control panel suffered 



OK, before entering the house, I really have to remove the ton of dusts! A job for my air compressor   





The first 'layer' of dust is gone... it's enough for -at least- entering the house  See my Jedi technique for doing it alone   



On location...   



 

[Etienne MacGyver]

Looking at this picture...



this sight gave me the idea for another practice round in AI  

click on the image to download the AI file..



If you got the dimentions for me, i can adjust that in my file..

[DarthNuno]

Thanks Etienne, but I'm waiting this from Level42   



By the way, I presume the 'white color background' on these stickers are ... transparent? 

[DarthNuno]

Back on this one too 

Ok, let's check its identity...2515 ... see, it's engraved everywhere 



Here too...'5' is missing ... the were a little bit inattentive at the Stern factory 



The control panel is too damaged for me!  The paint is gone, and additional holes!   



...fortunately, a run of control panels repro has been done, and ... I was in 

Because that game has to be restored in that room, I quickly have to clean in as best as I can (WAF to be honest  ). At this level of dust, nothing can beat water + strong soap   







It looks far better now   





Now Let's clean the orginal bezel...



Great! Instructions are in French and no other alien language such German or Dutch for instance   



It shines now   



Ok, without the Sun reflect   



 

[Etienne MacGyver]

Looking Great !

[DarthNuno]

Because I got that Berzerk cab' almost empty (no board at all) and also because it's is an extremely complex board to make work properly (as some of you here know it) I'll get the 'accurate emulation' way for that one.

Let's fine tune the setup of the game on advance mame DOS, on that very old computer. You'll notice my 'trusty' Commodore monitor, working as a perfect arcade monitor (60hz/RGB) 



After checking the setup is perfectly arcade accurate, let's go to my attic and let's pickup a TV to use for that game   



Of course, I'm using SCART connector for the authentic RGB display 



Man, it glows like hell   



Next (easy) step... to put all that stuff into the cab' 

[Superully]

After checking the setup is perfectly arcade accurate ...

hey bruno, out of curiosity, how can you know it's perfectly arcade accurate if you don't have the original stuff to compare it to? it would be really interesting to compare this to the original setup to see if there are differences! i'm planning a similar route for zookeeper (because the boards are close to impossible to find) - that's why i'm asking!

[DarthNuno]

No problem my friend, in short : considering a game perfectly emulated by mame, considering an output resolution equal to the orginal (1 pixel rendering bythe board, and on this case by mame = 1 pixel on screen), same refresh rate (the most important to assure you the same gameplay overall speed), same screen ratio... and you already sure to be very close to accurate.
In addition if you know the game, you can easily judge by ourself how good it looks & plays  
Sure they are some other details to check to 'fine tune' the thing, but at this point your're already good, and ready to enjoy the game  

[Level42]

What will really be different on Berzerk is the voice. No way that emulation will sound like the real thing.

It is playable though, for sure!

Just for the record: Mark Spaeth currently has his ZZPU board available (which is a replacement board for the main PCB, which is MUCH more reliable AND makes it also possible to play Frenzy !).

You'd need to find all the other boards though, but that's not impossible to do...


Please note that this is NOT meant to be another MAME war.....merely pointing out the fact that stuff is available.

[DarthNuno]

I also have the voices.
The tone of the voices may be different of the original because of the emulation (samples in that case)?
Well, I can tell you they are scary as desired, and it perfectly feeds my purpose on this cab'  Hell Yeah 

Just for the record: Mark Spaeth currently has his ZZPU board available (which is a replacement board for the main PCB, which is MUCH more reliable AND makes it also possible to play Frenzy !).

Good to know, thanks for the info 

Please note that this is NOT meant to be another MAME war.....merely pointing out the fact that stuff is available.

No problem André, there is an other topic for those who want 'to fight' on that