Author Topic: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead  (Read 12203 times)

nilfisk

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Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« on: September 06, 2014, 12:42:13 PM »
As some of you may remember, I've picked up Midway's 1970s EM smasher SAMI more or less by accident last year, when I went to Graz for an Asteroids cocktail table. Turned out SAMI was missing the projection unit, but with some luck, and the help of some friendly folks over at the KLOV forums, I was finally able to track a complete projector down. I ordered two of the reproduction films for SAMI available at http://samifilm.com/ at the same time, so I'm finally ready to get this beast going again :) .

EMs and "bronze age" games have grown on me over the last few years, so I've decided to document some of the steps I take this time, and also post updates on the overall progress. I hope you guys enjoy an excursion away from the usual vid stuff.



First step: take all the inards out to give them a proper cleaning. This is one filthy machine, and it seems it's also been home to a colonie of wasps over the years. Fortunately, SAMI is very serviceable - almost anything can be removed by opening some hinges, or is easily accessed through the cabinet itself.



Up next: clean the "rocket launcher" base. Lots of oil and grease have cummulated here.



The rocket launcher is using quite a few #55 bulbs to generate the illusion of a flying missile. I haven't decided on whether I will replace these with LED bulbs or not, so for now, I'll test each and every lamp while cleaning and reassembling the launcher base (I know these bulbs come cheap, but with a total number of probably > 100 bulbs used across the game, I still do not see the sense in replacing them all).





I am using NOVUS to polish the launcher cover, let's see how that turns out .....

[to be continued]

« Last Edit: September 06, 2014, 08:23:17 PM by nilfisk »

Alpha1

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2014, 02:46:36 PM »
Fantastic restoration choice! :spaceace:

SAMI was a huge hit in the US and it's nice to see one coming back to life in Europe  :spaceace: :spaceace:

Laschek

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2014, 08:40:40 PM »
EM games rule! Fascinating stuff!

ckong

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2014, 09:35:05 PM »
Nice,  an uncommon restoration object,  will be interesting to follow.

Q*ris

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2014, 12:06:24 AM »
Will also follow that thread closely, very cool game!!!

nilfisk

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2014, 07:11:52 AM »
Thanks for your positive comments, much appreciated! I've been quite busy with the machine yesterday.

The rocket launcher assembly with the chain drive removed, including all gears etc.. No way to get this one clean without removing everything first. Note to self: always take a lot of pictures when taking things apart. I've had a hard time reassembling things due to a lack of photos ;).



While cleaning the base, the gears and the chain get a good bathing in nitromethane (take care though! Three of the gears are made of plastic, you obviosuly want to keep these away from the nitro stuff!).



With everything cleaned up, I then reassambled the launcher unit. It's moving much easier now. Btw., as Midway seems to have stuck to combining plastic and metal in the chain drive (the metal gears use plastic shafts and vice versa), I've refrained from using any lubricant, following Clay Harrell's advice in his excellent guide to EM repair: http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm#lube

Now up for some more cleaning: the projection screen ....



... and the plastic landscape, both used to knit together the landscape and flying planes via SAMIs semi-permeable mirror.



Both cleaned up really well, so let's finally unwrap the projection unit I've sourced via KLOV:



Looks clean and complete, but it seems the base plate got damaged during shipping:



Well, let's temporarily fix that with some bondo, and replace the plate properly next week.



Having everything cleaned and reassembled, SAMI is already looking much better now :)



... but it's looking even cooler with the blacklight/UV neon on, that's used to light up the landscape during gameplay:



As you can probably tell by the last picture, I've ended up yesterday with turning on the game for the very first time since I own it:

- Checked all the fuses and the sockets: looking good.
- Replace power chord because it got tasted by some rodents over the years (at least that's what it looks like): ok, done
- Quickly go over the relay contacts with my DMM to see if they are making proper contact when closed:  checked.
- Cross fingers, power on game and trigger coin mech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k37lJevhOi0

As you can see, the game is basically running and behaving as it should. Of course, there's still a lot of stuff to do:

- Replace projector baseplate
- Rebuild or replace projector fan, as it's really noisy.
- The gun position to the utmost right is not registering hits
- The electronic soundboard needs new caps - lot's of static noises.
- The cabinet outside is still very rough and dirty.

Cheers,
Martin

 
« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 07:16:40 AM by nilfisk »

Q*ris

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2014, 08:52:51 AM »
That rocket launcher is magical!
You got that game back on track in no time  :spaceace:

Superully

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2014, 09:15:52 AM »
fabulous - EM games rock!!!
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

DarthNuno

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2014, 09:23:28 AM »
fabulous - EM games rock!!!

+1

How they work is just fascinating!  :-*

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2014, 09:29:53 AM »
fabulous - EM games rock!!!

+1

How they work is just fascinating!  :-*

I agree 100%.

You guys should watch the TOP video's, some of them cover some EM games, really cool stuff

ckong

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2014, 09:44:44 AM »
Amazing,  very nice effects.   :spaceace:


nilfisk

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #11 on: September 13, 2014, 03:29:47 PM »
For those still following this thread: I've continued working on SAMI this weekend.

I've for now replaced the fan with a more powerful, yet very silent 12v one (exactly the same size, and made by Pabst, so quite a quality product ;) ). Also, I've replaced the film with the new repro strip I got from SAMIfilm.com, and recalibrated the projector and the disc used to track the film loop's position (you have to perfectly align the projected image and the position of the disc, otherwise no hits are detected). Took some practise, and a few attempts, but I finally managed to find the perfect setup.

As SAMI started to show odd behaviour during the week, I also stripped and cleaned the timer disc / assembly (it was quite dirty and gummed up, as you can see in the pictures), and cleaned and checked the relais in the backbox. I found two broken wires on the zero position relay and the missile trigger relay and fixed these as well. Now SAMI is working as expected again.




You can see in the video that the game has already been play tested by the usual crowd ( -> kids), without any complaints ;).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oolA0wyTkPA&feature=youtu.be

Now all that's left is cosmetic stuff.

Martin


« Last Edit: September 13, 2014, 04:03:55 PM by nilfisk »

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2014, 03:36:56 PM »
Great work on bringing this game back to life. It looks like a very cool game, the black light seems to work very well to give some atmosphere to the game.
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jcp

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2014, 04:58:09 PM »
Nice SAMI and (again) welcome to the club !



Congrats for your fast restoration too  :).

nilfisk

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Re: Midway SAMI - The Resurrection of the Dead
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2014, 05:26:22 PM »
Thanks, guys

@JCP: My SAMI is in good company as well, standing next to Chicago Coin's TWIN RIFLE and MOTORCYCLE. Also awaiting restoration, though not in the basement (it was the very first game officially too heavy for moving it downstairs), is Kasco's STAR V.

So expect more EM repair logs to come :)

Martin