:: Workshop :: Pleiads

[DarthNuno]

Following this roadtrip :



Let's start the renovation of this Pleiads cab'.

This is the official Spanish cabinet version for the game, done by Irecsa, under the Thekan/ Centuri (and Midway?) license.

I'll start with the control panel 



As you can see on the picture :

- An hole has been drilled for an additional button
- I don't think it's the original joystick because the current one it a 4 ways and a bigger hole has been drilled to fix it
- The plexiglass is broken

   



OK, the first step is to do a high resolution of the control panel overlay (2 x 20MB .TIFF file) :





The 'vecto' work is already on the way by Nickos69 from the french website gamoover.net on this post. Sneak Preview 



Many thanks to you Nickos69 for the great work done until now on this 

Because of the additional button added, I'm not able to read what's written of the fire button 

Can someone help me to guess what is the word written ? I presume it's a Spanish word ?!

D . . A R O

or 

D . . . A R O ?

Any idea ?

[polaris]

hi bruno
all the photos i can find of this game have two action buttons, fire and warp.
does yours definitely just need one
 

[DarthNuno]

Hi Polaris,

Nope, Pleiads has only one fire button 

I presume you've seen some Phoenix cabs pictures, which have two buttons : one fore fire and one for the shield.
I would my cabinet has been modified in the past to play a two buttons game, most probably Phoenix. I can see the hack in the wires, the button added and its hole is different than the others buttons of the panel.
I guess Pheonix->Pleiads conversion was very easy to do at the time... same wires loom  But the Pleiads to Phoenix required to add this extra button 

Good news  I know what was written for the fire button  The missing letters are : I S P 

D I S P A R O

It just means 'Fire' in Spanish or Portuguese   

[logan]

so you wanna keep the spanish words? or switching to english?

[DarthNuno]

so you wanna keep the spanish words? or switching to english?

Nope... As much original as possible ...I'll keep the spanish (or Portuguese?) words 

[DarthNuno]

hi bruno
all the photos i can find of this game have two action buttons, fire and warp.
does yours definitely just need one
 

Well, it's very strange... I don't recall to use that 'Warp' button on that game, but the manual mention that button.
I've just try the game via mame on my computer, but this 'Warp' button doesn't do anything during the play 
I'm almost sure the panel of cab was supposed to have only one button, because the CPO  mention only one fire button (the famous "DISPARO") 

[scr33n]

Nope, Pleiads has only one fire button 
 

Bruno, take a look - PLEIADS original control panel:



but in Mame i've the same problem, Warp button doesn't work 

[liquidx]

When I played it as a kid in a converted Phoenix cabinet I remember the barrier/warp button would transport you to another part of the screen, a bit like the hyperspace button in Asteroids.

[DarthNuno]

This question of one or two buttons about this game is wired 

Let's investigate 

* On the US flyer of the game [CENTURI] 



...you can see two buttons for moving the ship to the left/right, and TWO buttons (fire and certainly a 'shield' or 'warp')


*On the EURO (and/or probably JAPANESE) flyer of the game [TEHKAN] 



...it's a joystick for moving the ship, and I would say only one button for fire (difficult to see on the picture) ?!

My board is labeled Tehkan, and I know a lot of dedicated games for Europe were based on the Japanese version (ex : my Namco's Galaxian Theater, StarBlade, ...).

So I would say my Spanish version of Pleiads -like the Japanese one- has only one fire button ?!

...but ... but the coin door is also labeled Midway...which is US manufacturer of course... so what 

This cabinet would be a mix of everything... assembled by that Spanish label : Irecsa ?...

[polaris]

Hey Bruno
i don't have a mame setup at the moment, why not try the different rom versions for comparison.
 

[DarthNuno]

Hey Bruno
i don't have a mame setup at the moment, why not try the different rom versions for comparison.
 

Good idea  After testing in mame (0.119) I have the answer 

In the Centuri roms version, there is a *warp* button you can press during the play.

In the Tehkan roms, the warp button has no effect.

So, my board is a Tehkan, it confirms that the orginal panel has only ONE button for *fire* and no warp button 

The vecto of the CPO is now done  Many many thanks to Nickos69 for that great job   



 

[DarthNuno]

Let's do an overall view of the cab.

Here's the beast (don't pay attention about the mess in the new game room ) 



A part of the T-Molding is missing here :



It's a flat T-Molding without the 'T'  Do you know where to found similar model by the way ?

The broken CPO plexiglass 



Both side arts are in great condition   





A small crack in the wood, hopefully in the back/ bottom of the cab 



The front side art, in a good condition :

[DarthNuno]

First thing to do... replacing the old monitor (which has serious synchro / colors problems  ) by a *brand* new one.

Of course, I'll use a new TV with a full RGB ntsc signals of course (I love SCART  ).

I just need to build a custom adapter RGB to SCART... easy stuff   



Done   



I just need to replace the end of the original wires going to the monitor ...



...by my SCART adapter.

My TV need a signal in order to swith to RGB. Let's find the correct voltage for the specific RBG pin... Got it   



Power on ...


YATA !!!



It works fine   





I love RGB   

[polaris]

hey bruno
why not get regular t mold and trim off the spine, would that work?
 

[Valsimot]

First thing to do... replacing the old monitor (which has serious synchro / colors problems  )

That monitor wouldn't happen to be a Hantarex would it? I hear people don't like them much...