Arcade Sign

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Getting ready to hang this up in about a week. My son had me get this 3 years ago, when he was still in Iraq. He is now done with the Marine Corp. and opening the Bar/Arcade in January. City will not allow us to put outside the building, something about it being to big. So we are putting it inside, approx. 12 foot up hanging from one of the rafters. The gaming area is approx. 5,000 sq ft. It's not in bad shape. The question is do we do a full restore or just touch it up? Thinking it came from a carnival from around 1965 up to 1970's. It has 247 lights in it so we are putting it on a dimmer, that way you won't get blinded when you walk in. I told him leave it original, he says re-do the whole thing. Looking for opinions.Thanks Darrell



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Game-Over-Arcade/452309851463975







 
Getting ready to hang this up in about a week. My son had me get this 3 years ago, when he was still in Iraq. He is now done with the Marine Corp. and opening the Bar/Arcade in January. City will not allow us to put outside the building, something about it being to big. So we are putting it inside, approx. 12 foot up hanging from one of the rafters. The gaming area is approx. 5,000 sq ft. It's not in bad shape. The question is do we do a full restore or just touch it up? Thinking it came from a carnival from around 1965 up to 1970's. It has 247 lights in it so we are putting it on a dimmer, that way you won't get blinded when you walk in. I told him leave it original, he says re-do the whole thing. Looking for opinions.Thanks Darrell



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Game-Over-Arcade/452309851463975

Depends on the vibe of the Arcade/Bar. If the Arcade/Bar will have more of a vintage vibe with many unique "dated" odds n' ends then I'd say leave this sign completely original. If everything will be bright and new and shiny (including all of the arcade machines being fully restored like they were brand new) then spiff up the sign.

I'd fix any broken bulbs, put it on a dimmer, and call it a day.
 
Really neat sign. Does it have a chaser motor? I'd keep it original. It looks good from here.
 
Cool sign.
247 lights? Make sure your dimmer is up to the task. What wattage are the bulbs.
247 * watts per bulb = ?
The ones at the hardware store usually only go to 600 watts for example.
 
Leave it original..that sign gives off a real classic vibe.
 
Sweet sign! Have you found a good source for replacement bulbs for that beast? Make sure you think about accessibility of the sign once it is installed so you can change bulbs when they burn out.

You might want to stock up on bulbs now, since the old school bulbs won't be available forever.
 
You might want to stock up on bulbs now, since the old school bulbs won't be available forever.

Well, sadly the A-type 100-watt bulb is retired, which is stupid and limits our choices as consumers, but I doubt the 11-watt sign bulb will go away anytime soon.
 
A lot of the games will be old school, starting in the late 70's and going up to a couple newer ones. There will be approx. 110 games and 16 pins. We are thinking to at least run chaser on the red out side bulbs. The bulbs are the small 10 watt bulbs, about the size of your thumb. As far as the dimmer we will split the 110 in to 2 sections,red on it's own and the yellow on another, so the dimmer's can handle it. Thanks guys . Darrell
 
Do look around when you get the dimmer - most at the HW store are rated at 600, but you can find 800 watt ones there as well. If you need to go higher than that, just hit an electrical supply place.
 
While that is an awesome sign, I really want to know about that Empire Strikes Back sign on that cockpit Star Wars (pic in photobucket). Is it glass, home made, original....Lets see a close up as I was always wondering why Atari never had these. Info please!

And while your at it, I'd like to hear some details on that Yar's Revenge. I've thought for a while now that it would be a great game to turn into a dedicated arcade game. Although I always envisioned using a midway cabinet and maybe even making it vertical, and of course using this as the side art. So how did you do the Yar's revenge.
 

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With the lights on, could anyone even tell that the sign had been 'restored'?

Its in great shape as it is and I'm sure he's got other details to worry about opening up the new location. I say leave it as it is.
 
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