[スーパーレイジーロードの旅!!] ナムコポールポジション

[ataritoobin]

スーパーレイジーロードの旅!!  ナムコポールポジション

Super Lazy Road Trip: NAMCO POLE POSITION

What a journey it's been!  This machine has quite literally been all around the world.  I purchased this Japanese Namco Pole Position Cockpit from Alpha1 last year in the UK.  Firstly, let me say how great Alpha1 was in getting this machine safely to me.  You may have seen the below video of the machine being wrapped for shipment.  As I've said, he definitely has dibs on any of my machines should I sell!

And after arriving in the USA:

The machine came exactly as described.  The people at Simtex International in the UK were incredibly helpful.

Unfortunately all hell broke loose when the machine hit the US customs - everything that could have possibly gone wrong did with the US shipping company.  Pretty much killed my "arcade mojo" for the time being - but I'll save that whole downer of a story for later!

In celebration of its 30th Anniversary, let's get this race started and bring this well-traveled guy back to life!  Let's see what we're dealing with here.

It's evident that some areas were painted black, most notably the control panel.

Why would they do that?  Let's peel away some of the putty/black paint and see:

Gross!  Just what I suspected - cigarette burns!  Some go all the way through the CP.  At least the operator cared enough about appearances to try to cover it up  

Just some general cleaning on the top of the machine, and the inside.

Hey some souvenirs!  Maybe this will cover customs fees?  

[ataritoobin]

List of some of the things that need to be done:

- Clean!
- Replace power cord with U.S. type
- Adjust power transformer for 120V.  I noticed that there was also a 220/120V jumper on the power supply board itself.
- Swap fuses as needed
- Check/rebuild power supply
- Clean!
- Replace/recreate original seat
- Test PCBs (non-working, but I have two other untested sets).
- Test/recap monitor
- Find another Namco steering wheel or attempt to restore original grip.
- Rebuild coin door to stock
- Restore CP.  This will be pretty tricky due to the texture - some research will have to be done on this
- Add/make Shifter Knob
- Find metric leg levelers - M10
- Create retainer bar for CP
- Clean!
- Find four casters that will fit
- Plug/repair excess carriage bolt holes along the bottom
- Restore Pedals
- Scan shifter artwork - redraw shifter artwork
- Replace rubber mat
- Add Cap or NOVRAM to allow high score save after removing battery

Long road ahead! Until next time...

[Etienne MacGyver]

Looks like a perfect packing job !

those sig burns are indeed major ! 

well, congrats on your new baby, and it sure does look like you have something to spend your spare time with 

[Superully]

first of all: nice thread title

then: this looks like a major undertaking, time- and money-consuming, but once this is finished you'll have a fabulous looking game. good luck with the restoration, hopefully you'll post lots of pictures. and pleaseshare that customs story with us ...

[Belike]

Nice one Steve, I guess you really love this game.
A tip for the resto:
There are several companies, that renew car's steering wheels with leather in any colour, I guess it could be a solution in this case.

[Blanka]

I put the title in my Katakana Converter. Easier to read.  
Don't get the first half, but the last bit is obviously Namco Pole Position

[level42]

Cool, good luck with the restoration !

I you ever decide to sell it it must go to Japan to complete the circle

[Q*ris]

WOW! 
More of that story please!

[gyruss]

a work of art! 

[ataritoobin]

Thanks, all!

Did some more work on it today.  The shifter area had been painted black, cockeyed, again I assume for cigarette burns.  I used some Citristrip which I tested under the "aftermarket seat" area.  It seemed to not affect the laminate, but I needed to be careful near the inner sides as they're painted white.

Dig the backwards shifter  

During the process - yep - cigarette burns.  Yet the cockeyed black paint and overspray looked better to somebody at some point  

At this point I had removed the chair.  It was hanging by one stuck bolt and had scratched the crap out of the base area from years of dragging around under the weight of people's bodies.

Getting better!  I haven't quite decided yet, but since these burns are more on the surface one might be able to carefully polish them out.

Let's move onto the electronics.  Time to replace the UK plug with a US type.

"It's green, the 'earth,' in America."

"Some places it's brown, y'know?"

 

Changed the input tap on the Transformer to 120V and changed the power supply jumper to 100/120V.

Unplugged the power supply, monitor and PCB and tested the 100V output - perfect!

Checked the voltages and they were surprisingly close to the mark.

Let's give it a shot...

Crap!  Vertical collapse on the monitor.  PCB doesn't appear to boot, as known.

Let's try another PCB [Video Link]:

Hey!  Cool - could have all sorts of gfx issues though as far as I can tell  .  Immediately turned it off so that the screen didn't get a horizontal line burn like those Sanyos in Nintendo cabs with foldover issues.

I did notice you could select a track - so this must be a PPII PCB - neat!  The last screw that holds the monitor cover is stuck, so I'll wait for another day to look over the monitor.

I started to strip the black paint off of the CP.  I had an idea to repair the cigarette burned areas using some mold making materials I have from another project.  I'll try a few tests out and do a sort of "proof (or failure  ) of concept."

I spent some more time carefully cleaning and disinfecting the sides.  Funny after hours of all that detail work, from this pic, it looks just about the same as it did before!

[ataritoobin]

I put the title in my Katakana Converter. Easier to read.  
Don't get the first half, but the last bit is obviously Namco Pole Position

Super Lazy Road Trip    Though a boat was involved at some point too....

Cool, good luck with the restoration !

I you ever decide to sell it it must go to Japan to complete the circle

 

WOW!  
More of that story please!

I'll post the story of its arrival in the USA after everything has been settled, then I won't be so grumpy about it   

[ataritoobin]

Removed the monitor from the cabinet.  Filthy!

Monitor is a Nanao KZ-20EN, aka MC2000S.  

Replaced C480 (10uf25V), C523 (100uf50V), R416 (22ohm 1/2W), and re-flowed some solder joints.

Result?

Had to take a break to play a few rounds!    The front speakers aren't emitting sound - if the uprights are set to only use 2 speakers (instead of the cockpit's 4) then maybe that is a cause, or two amps on the PCB are dead.

I flipped the shifter to the correct orientation while I was at it.  The switches are wired backwards, hence why it was upside down.  Will fix that later.

Started to work on the lower panel and inner sides that were also painted black.  This I don't understand - it looks fantastic underneath!  Perhaps to cover rust on the coin bucket/pedals?  Went to work with the Citristrip and elbow grease again.

Control panel is progressing slowly.  I think it may potentially turn out better than I would have expected:

[ataritoobin]

Nice one Steve, I guess you really love this game.
A tip for the resto:
There are several companies, that renew car's steering wheels with leather in any colour, I guess it could be a solution in this case.

Thanks, Bela!     That is a good idea - definitely something to check into.  Maybe something to go with the cabinet color scheme?

[level42]

Great work ! Are you running original Namco boards in it ? I guess Atari ones have different connectors ?

Do you have an idea how the steering wheel looked like originally ?

[Belike]

As I see it from Pieter's pic, it was simply black, definitely not that ......... brown.