2025 Bronze Age Repair Club

greedycrisp

Well-known member

Donor 4 years: 2022-2025
Joined
Nov 21, 2022
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Location
Elmhurst, Illinois
Stealing a march on @Dillweed ;)

We need more action and encouragement for Bronze Age restorations around here. Show your commitment to the cause by posting your goals for 2025! I'll start off with some commitments for the first half of the year:

Atari Canyon Bomber to 100% complete in Q1. Only audio remains to be done and I have the plan in place. This is the easy starter goal.

1735130625154.jpeg

Kee Drag Race from zero to hero before July. Side artwork is done. I still have to get new bezels (and possibly new Marquees) scanned and printed. Powder coating is outstanding. Major cabinet work and board restoration to start soon. And possibly a few surprises in the final build. ;)

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Finally, for Q1:

1735131158149.jpeg

Going to outsource some chroming work for this one. Monitor is recapped and tuned up already. Board is recapped and working (haters gonna hate). Mechanicals pretty much working but need adjustments. Cabinet will remain 100% original but needs cleaning and artwork touch-ups to get it back to pristine.

That's me for now, what do you all have out there?
 
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In the final stages of bringing a Chicago Coin Night Bomber back to operational status. Still need to replace one UV tube (lower drum illumination) and a couple 455 flasher bulbs (hoping for delivery of these items tomorrow). The yoke was missing - so please excuse the vise grips - those are only temporary to allow testing. We found a nice vintage aircraft yoke on eBay that should look right at home and require only minimal modification to incorporate the Fire switch.

Have to say this is an amazing machine - built like a 40's or 50's military aircraft - well engineered and easy to service.

Here are a few pictures, and a brief gameplay video:




IMG_9361.jpegIMG_9366.jpegIMG_9367.jpeg

Link to Gameplay Video. The crosshair alignment is spot-on, but there is parallax error from the camera's perspective.
 
In the final stages of bringing a Chicago Coin Night Bomber back to operational status. Still need to replace one UV tube (lower drum illumination) and a couple 455 flasher bulbs (hoping for delivery of these items tomorrow). The yoke was missing - so please excuse the vise grips - those are only temporary to allow testing. We found a nice vintage aircraft yoke on eBay that should look right at home and require only minimal modification to incorporate the Fire switch.

Have to say this is an amazing machine - built like a 40's or 50's military aircraft - well engineered and easy to service.

Here are a few pictures, and a brief gameplay video:




View attachment 789075View attachment 789076View attachment 789077

Link to Gameplay Video. The crosshair alignment is spot-on, but there is parallax error from the camera's perspective.
This is so awesome
 
Australia , Melbourne.
My projects for next year.
Big job and lots of labour.
These are mostly black and white monitors , except space invaders part 2 cabinets and taito defender.
 

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In the final stages of bringing a Chicago Coin Night Bomber back to operational status. Still need to replace one UV tube (lower drum illumination) and a couple 455 flasher bulbs (hoping for delivery of these items tomorrow). The yoke was missing - so please excuse the vise grips - those are only temporary to allow testing. We found a nice vintage aircraft yoke on eBay that should look right at home and require only minimal modification to incorporate the Fire switch.

Have to say this is an amazing machine - built like a 40's or 50's military aircraft - well engineered and easy to service.

Here are a few pictures, and a brief gameplay video:




View attachment 789075View attachment 789076View attachment 789077

Link to Gameplay Video. The crosshair alignment is spot-on, but there is parallax error from the camera's perspective.

@redfive05 recently introduced me to these games. So cool but freaking HUGE.
 
My sea wolf has been down for about four years and my anti-aircraft has been down for about the same amount of time. With Seawolf I just get garbage on the screen, and with Anti-aircraft I've got vertical collapse. I was really hoping to get both working by Christmas, now it's gonna have to be springtime.
 
@redfive05 recently introduced me to these games. So cool but freaking HUGE.

Yes, unfortunately they are much larger (and heavier) than a typical Golden-Age machine. This one will probably have to stay in the barn where it is currently located - no chance of ever getting it in the house safely or without physical modifications.
 
Completed work on the Chicago Coin Night Bomber and it is now 100% operational!

The machine was missing the yoke, so searched on eBay and found a suitable yoke at a used aircraft parts supplier in Greely, CO. I machined an adapter bushing on the lathe, and installed a Fire switch using a counterbore / drill combo.

IMG_9394.jpeg


The spider on the Target Value Selector had two badly worn contacts, so I machined two replacements from 3/16" Nickel-Silver rod, and soldered them in place (new contacts shown in the red circles).

1736628408132.png1736628545925.jpeg

This is the machine in its current state:

1736628679916.jpeg1736628703235.jpeg1736628737573.jpeg

Here's a link to a gameplay video - taken last night. Please excuse the random reflections captured by the phone camera - the visuals are stunning when viewed in person - with the mirrors and black lights. Also - the game sounds are 100% operational. Due to the fact that the phone was sitting on the top of the control panel, the timer motor sound resonates through the control panel structure and is picked up by the phone - causing the actual game sounds to be somewhat overwhelmed by the timer motor sound.

A truly amazing machine for being 52+ years old!

 
My sea wolf has been down for about four years and my anti-aircraft has been down for about the same amount of time. With Seawolf I just get garbage on the screen, and with Anti-aircraft I've got vertical collapse. I was really hoping to get both working by Christmas, now it's gonna have to be springtime.
New to group ,I have had sea wolf for many years and its down as well ,was working fine till screen started flashing and went dead ,was told main board was bad sent out for repair and still the same ,did you get yours going ? regards from AZ
 
New to group ,I have had sea wolf for many years and its down as well ,was working fine till screen started flashing and went dead ,was told main board was bad sent out for repair and still the same ,did you get yours going ? regards from AZ
Nope. I was told to try to bend the pins in the edge connector back together, making tighter contact on the board, but that did nothing. I do have a replacement edge connector, I just haven't gotten around to trying to install it.
 
Nope. I was told to try to bend the pins in the edge connector back together, making tighter contact on the board, but that did nothing. I do have a replacement edge connector, I just haven't gotten around to trying to install it.
Let me know please if worked for you .thanks Andy
 
Completed work on the Chicago Coin Night Bomber and it is now 100% operational!

The machine was missing the yoke, so searched on eBay and found a suitable yoke at a used aircraft parts supplier in Greely, CO. I machined an adapter bushing on the lathe, and installed a Fire switch using a counterbore / drill combo.

View attachment 792475


The spider on the Target Value Selector had two badly worn contacts, so I machined two replacements from 3/16" Nickel-Silver rod, and soldered them in place (new contacts shown in the red circles).

View attachment 792483View attachment 792484

This is the machine in its current state:

View attachment 792485View attachment 792486View attachment 792487

Here's a link to a gameplay video - taken last night. Please excuse the random reflections captured by the phone camera - the visuals are stunning when viewed in person - with the mirrors and black lights. Also - the game sounds are 100% operational. Due to the fact that the phone was sitting on the top of the control panel, the timer motor sound resonates through the control panel structure and is picked up by the phone - causing the actual game sounds to be somewhat overwhelmed by the timer motor sound.

A truly amazing machine for being 52+ years old!

That is flippin' excellent. Nice work and gorgeous it is! Great work on the yoke. Really cool.
 
Super Bug needs repair.
Don't know if I manage to take a look at it this year, its almost February already... 🤔

I still want to make new maps for superbug...

I started documenting the code ins 2015, but haven't touched the project since 2021... heh.

IIRC, there were still a few bits related to the map tiles that I hadn't figured out -- related to oil / sand / arrow generation.
 
Completed work on the Chicago Coin Night Bomber and it is now 100% operational!

The machine was missing the yoke, so searched on eBay and found a suitable yoke at a used aircraft parts supplier in Greely, CO. I machined an adapter bushing on the lathe, and installed a Fire switch using a counterbore / drill combo.

View attachment 792475


The spider on the Target Value Selector had two badly worn contacts, so I machined two replacements from 3/16" Nickel-Silver rod, and soldered them in place (new contacts shown in the red circles).

View attachment 792483View attachment 792484

This is the machine in its current state:

View attachment 792485View attachment 792486View attachment 792487

Here's a link to a gameplay video - taken last night. Please excuse the random reflections captured by the phone camera - the visuals are stunning when viewed in person - with the mirrors and black lights. Also - the game sounds are 100% operational. Due to the fact that the phone was sitting on the top of the control panel, the timer motor sound resonates through the control panel structure and is picked up by the phone - causing the actual game sounds to be somewhat overwhelmed by the timer motor sound.

A truly amazing machine for being 52+ years old!

So cool hope the project goes well .
 
I still want to make new maps for superbug...

I started documenting the code ins 2015, but haven't touched the project since 2021... heh.

IIRC, there were still a few bits related to the map tiles that I hadn't figured out -- related to oil / sand / arrow generation.
That would be so cool if it came to be.
 
I still want to make new maps for superbug...

You should do that with Fire Truck. Also, just make a color FT board, Kthx.

Here's a couple repairs from the last few days. Thanks to @cnlmoore for the BS parts that were a lot nicer than mine!

blueshark.jpg

And bronze-adjacent, but I swapped the 3 nearly-new Sylvania and Eiko BLBs that were in this thing over to NOS GE BLBs and everything pops now. Twice as bright. GE's blacklight blue recipe was unmatched.


spacetactics_long.jpg
 
You should do that with Fire Truck. Also, just make a color FT board, Kthx.

They're pretty much the same hardware so I'd expect the coding to be the same.

I did do a colorized Super Bug, but my redesigned Fire Truck was still B&W. I could at least make the truck red and the text some other color. To really colorize you'd need to do new gfx and add bit planes.
 
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