Battlezone restore/refurb

From NOV 15th, 2024 in the what did you do with your games thread:
#6,003

About that extra backdrop the game came with:
So the backdrop art in my Battlezone was in pretty rough shape....something dripped on it in a few spots, stained in lots of spots(maybe mold/condensation)....spots where it looks like moths?(who knows what) ate the paper away in lots of places..It's a mystery to me because the cab is in good shape with no moisture damage...

The .good thing was when I picked the game up somehow the seller had a backup ORIGINAL BZ backdrop included in the deal...only problem with it is the side flaps were very warped...I had stacked 2 foot high of guitar mags on each of the sides(after heating them with a hair dryer) for like a month trying to flatten the sides and while it did improve it they were still warped, cardboard has a memory that's hard to break..

So I had a clothes steamer and steamed the back sides of each of the sides and ironed them until flat again(ironed/steamed the back side as to not touch the front artwork. It took about 4-5 passes but I ended up getting them good enough...also the staple holes had to be repaired with cardboard on the back side of the backdrop glued with Uhu Por contact glue(this stuff rocks)...got it hung tonight..very happy.

THe steam and iron method worked great:
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The original backdrop, pretty bad!:IMG_9250.JPG

With the middle staple hole repaired as described above...when installing the repaired extra backdrop I was able to get the staple aimed perfectly where the the original staple was(bear in mind the placement was different on the original bezel), so it covers up the hole and looks great cosmetically! That was a huge PITA!

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Of course cleaned mirror......Got a proper monitor bezel from @joeycuda ....very nicely made...thanks again man! IMG_9433.JPG
 
On to the boards....Hit the usual places...neutralized and reflowed both board interconnect headers:

Yuk:
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Better:
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Installed the centering pot kit:
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Scratch brushed and deoxited both edge connectors, pulled burnished and deoxited all socketed chip legs and tested continuity from the top of every chip leg to it's corresponding pad on the other side of the board...you know it's good...good connections...

The ARII was already recapped with nice caps too.....someone did a good job.....I REMOVED the sense mod they had on there, and installed my own On Semi 3055...good ones I put in all of my games that use them. Burnished/cleaned/deoxited all connectors on the ARII and the harness....all voltages from the brick and the ARII are perfect....that -5 volt when testing unregulated I knew would test wonky unloaded....until you realize BZ doesn't use -5 volts you can get a little worried for a second there when testing after your gameboard provides no load haha.
This little gun cleaning tool actually works GREAT for female connectors too!...gently burnishes then deoxit to clean.
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AND we get, yes...now we can hook up the monitor!:
 

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Got everything centered up perfect...After tweaking the gels...and move the monitor around in the wooden frame(I also shifted the monitor itself in the wood frame as far forward as it would go....but with the centering pots and all the tweaking I was able to get everything centered and looking great!

It did have the shakes pretty bad....but deoxiting and working the bip and size pots fixed it...... also, got no engine sound:

That'll do it, cleared the hole, burnished the leg and resoldered that and the engine sound was fixed right up:
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Pretty happy!:
 
Also got an instruction label from Olly at arcadeartshop.com....still more cleaning to do on the periscope...but happy to find a replacement for this missing art...yes I need to vacuum my arcade, Golden Retrievers are fur factories lol:
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So after all that, I'm stoked....ready to button up the game...reinstall the periscope....and I get NO SOUND from the periscope speakers...upon inspection....Damnit!!! The voice coil lead broken right at the paper where it's impossible to repair....One thing I notice is that it looks like the wood has pre-drilled holes for screws for speaker replacement(which jives with the Atari manual, even though the stock ones are stapled in), that will save a lot of stress/mess/danger....will still cover that marquee during the process to make sure it doesn't get scuffed up:IMG_9444 - Copy.JPG

Have two of these incoming, at least it will be a nice bump in sound quality/power handling...these are full range, have a whizzer cone, increased frequency response:

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Did you check the depth of the speaker? e.g., will it fit the space?

From the holes, it looks like it was an oval speaker. I had the same thing on my Tail Gunner 2 - multiple holes and the ones I used were for the round speaker (which matched the as-found).
 
Did you check the depth of the speaker? e.g., will it fit the space?

From the holes, it looks like it was an oval speaker. I had the same thing on my Tail Gunner 2 - multiple holes and the ones I used were for the round speaker (which matched the as-found).
It will fit, only the whizzer might protrude a little bit...and that will fit inside the center hole.....it's not an oval shape...just a 5 inch 8 ohm high fidelity speaker(according to the manual). They just offset the holes so the staples would have something to grab on to. Atari engineers were forward thinking it seems:
 

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Add an amplified subwoofer into the BZ. It's awesome.
Once you go SUB you never go BACK. 😻
That would be awesome :rock:

One mod I'm considering, and this is out there...but....

I have an AWESOME form factor 19 inch Zenith TV in my stash....perfect square box that would sit nicely on top of Battlezone(looks very similar to the ones you'd see on top in those flyers)....No mystery holes needed(mine doesn't have them)

But I've thought about wiring up a Go Pro camera inside the box area of the periscope underneath the visor, aiming it carefully...plenty of empty space in there...mount it with some 3M Dual Lock(will NOT come off unless you wanted it to....all of it would be hidden inside the periscope(no permanent modification needed)..........wouldn't be too hard to convert that and send that signal to a vcr and into this sitting on top of the game. Service the TV for best picture.... Similar to what Atari was envisioning! Spectator view!! IMG_9458.JPG
 
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Have all the parts needed for the step restore....I cut a piece of the runner material for the step from here, left a little overhang to trim, perfect cut...stuff is very close to the original:


Also, have the reproduction Atari Flat T-Molding from @rotheblog to fix it right, the original T molding on the step is too far gone....so, all proper parts here to restore the step RIGHT! Dude hooked me up on the T Molding, sure do appreciate it!

Gonna give the 3M 80 spray adhesive specialized for rubber a try, will be the guinea pig on this stuff for the forum...shit was expensive!
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Yep! The old speakers were brittle, had some holes in the surround....something was in there lol...gonna be a big sound quality upgrade! Ace Hardware to the rescue, again.
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Step done....Reproduction Atari flat T molding(good stuff!) and Runner Material replaced...light paint touch up....came out great....3M 80 Spray Adhesive for rubber worked great here! I got the cuts perfect on the runner material...no gaps...did many practice runs putting it into place before applying the glue...Only got one chance.....with this stuff you do have a little correction time(small though) but do it fast...be liberal with it but follow directions on can. Very happy!IMG_9553.JPGIMG_9557.JPGIMG_9520.JPGIMG_9521.JPG
 
Still working out all the bugs....everything plays great...just pcb maintenance to clean up the linearity and I've had good results...I figure these are upgrades/maintenance for the board socketing the analog section....so far I've socketed new 082s, DG201s(x and y) not the other, new mylar caps at C59 C56, new pots and centering pot upgrade....still haven't nailed this artifact down, and I'm almost tempted to leave it alone because the picture is so good and it looks great in the cab.....and you only see it in test...I have all the parts for the analog section.........I thought it was analog but don't know....Thinking DACs next....I'm not really going through parts as I get clean pulls.....doesn't really hurt to try...

Anyone seen this?:
 
What exactly is the artifact? I can't tell from the video.
If you look at the left and basically upper left hand corner the box lines aren't straight like they are on the right side.....Everything else looking good really....I'm probably nitpicking but it's there....not a perfect box on the left side(a slight trapezoidal effect on the left side of the box)...I'm tempted to leave it as the game looks so great, you'd never really see it outside of test....you can see some slightly when looking at the line of text underneath the high scores:

 
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Yeah, I'm still not really seeing it. (I'm not saying it isn't there, it's just hard to see from the video.)

You can always try swapping the X and Y DACs and see if things change.

You can drive yourself crazy chasing every little detail. These things are analog, so no two are exactly the same. It's always a question of if a problem is 'bad enough' to warrant trying to hunt down.
 
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