Hi guys -
I'm looking for some feedback and advice on how I should proceed with a project (or if I should proceed at all).
I recently was given a Atari Video Pinball project that a friend of mine saved from going to the dump (literally saved it as the OPs were parting it out). He was there picking something else up, saw these guys had parted and started busting up the cabinet, and decided right then and there to save the cab. He told me about it and I was pretty happy he saved it, as it's one of my favorite games and I would love to own one myself.
When I asked him about it earlier this year, he told me he hadn't had a chance to do anything with it, but then he offered it to me because he knew I wanted one and that I would do my best to restore it. Happily, I went to pick it up, and saw that it was going to be a hell of a project- the cab itself had been previously left out in the elements, and it showed - the edges were crumbly and swollen, flaking away at the slightest movement. The whole top, back, and left side were disconnected from the main cab. Clearly, a new cab would have to be built. I was excited by the fact that the wiring harness, control panel, owl eye coin door, power supply, bezel/marquee, light fixtures, game PCB and LED PCB. It was missing the two-way mirror, star backdrop and foamboard playfield, but I wasn't worried about that. He also had the monitor inside his house, a big 23" B&W CRT. I looked at the neck and didn't see any cracks at first glance, so I was set.
I loaded everything up and took it home, taking a ton on photos to assist in reproducing the cab. I took the cab apart carefully, saving the pieces to assist in the reconstruction. I carefully hooked all the components up and in the course of doing so I noticed small, hairline cracks on the neck of the tube. The front of the tube didn't show any signs of what I've seen from necked monitors, so my hope was that they were stress marks and the tube didn't lose vacuum. I plugged the sutup in anyway and powered it up.
I noticed 3 things right away -
1. The coin door light came on. Yay!
2. I heard a low, loud buzzing noise coming from the control panel speaker.
3. Nothing came up on the screen, and it sounded like I had my own Tesla coil running, complete with blue light and smoke.
I knew the monitor was not going to work, so I disconnected it to look at later. I booted it up again and tried to get it to see if it would play blind, coining it up - nothing.
The next day, I examined the monitor. I went to take the small neckboard off the neck when I noticed that the neck seemed to wobble. Ugh... not good. I took off the blob of glue off of the top of the yoke wires - and the whole neck assembly came off in my hand. So yeah, the tube was toast.
So that's where I'm at. Quite frankly, I'm kind of at a loss on what to do. I love AVP and was looking forward to bringing one back to life, but the loss of the monitor is disheartening. I figure I have two options - I would either keep on looking for a working monitor (which given that it's 23" inches and B&W seems like a Herculean task) so I could then try and fix the boards and get something up and running, or I could part the machine out so that others trying to fix their AVPs could get them up and running. Normally I would hang on to everything and slowly work towards a rebuilt, but I just don't have the room to keep hanging on to the parts. I'm not opposed to doing the work to restore it - but I just don't know how feasible it would be, and if others wouldn't benefit from the parts I have. My buddy said he's fine with whatever I do with it.
I dunno. I just wish these was one of those occasions where it was just a fuse. Thanks for listening.
I'm looking for some feedback and advice on how I should proceed with a project (or if I should proceed at all).
I recently was given a Atari Video Pinball project that a friend of mine saved from going to the dump (literally saved it as the OPs were parting it out). He was there picking something else up, saw these guys had parted and started busting up the cabinet, and decided right then and there to save the cab. He told me about it and I was pretty happy he saved it, as it's one of my favorite games and I would love to own one myself.
When I asked him about it earlier this year, he told me he hadn't had a chance to do anything with it, but then he offered it to me because he knew I wanted one and that I would do my best to restore it. Happily, I went to pick it up, and saw that it was going to be a hell of a project- the cab itself had been previously left out in the elements, and it showed - the edges were crumbly and swollen, flaking away at the slightest movement. The whole top, back, and left side were disconnected from the main cab. Clearly, a new cab would have to be built. I was excited by the fact that the wiring harness, control panel, owl eye coin door, power supply, bezel/marquee, light fixtures, game PCB and LED PCB. It was missing the two-way mirror, star backdrop and foamboard playfield, but I wasn't worried about that. He also had the monitor inside his house, a big 23" B&W CRT. I looked at the neck and didn't see any cracks at first glance, so I was set.
I loaded everything up and took it home, taking a ton on photos to assist in reproducing the cab. I took the cab apart carefully, saving the pieces to assist in the reconstruction. I carefully hooked all the components up and in the course of doing so I noticed small, hairline cracks on the neck of the tube. The front of the tube didn't show any signs of what I've seen from necked monitors, so my hope was that they were stress marks and the tube didn't lose vacuum. I plugged the sutup in anyway and powered it up.
I noticed 3 things right away -
1. The coin door light came on. Yay!
2. I heard a low, loud buzzing noise coming from the control panel speaker.
3. Nothing came up on the screen, and it sounded like I had my own Tesla coil running, complete with blue light and smoke.
I knew the monitor was not going to work, so I disconnected it to look at later. I booted it up again and tried to get it to see if it would play blind, coining it up - nothing.
The next day, I examined the monitor. I went to take the small neckboard off the neck when I noticed that the neck seemed to wobble. Ugh... not good. I took off the blob of glue off of the top of the yoke wires - and the whole neck assembly came off in my hand. So yeah, the tube was toast.
So that's where I'm at. Quite frankly, I'm kind of at a loss on what to do. I love AVP and was looking forward to bringing one back to life, but the loss of the monitor is disheartening. I figure I have two options - I would either keep on looking for a working monitor (which given that it's 23" inches and B&W seems like a Herculean task) so I could then try and fix the boards and get something up and running, or I could part the machine out so that others trying to fix their AVPs could get them up and running. Normally I would hang on to everything and slowly work towards a rebuilt, but I just don't have the room to keep hanging on to the parts. I'm not opposed to doing the work to restore it - but I just don't know how feasible it would be, and if others wouldn't benefit from the parts I have. My buddy said he's fine with whatever I do with it.
I dunno. I just wish these was one of those occasions where it was just a fuse. Thanks for listening.


