Budget Frogger Restoration

Hyde

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Hello, some of you all may remember one of my previous posts I made about 2 months ago, regarding my first arcade purchase, Frogger. (Here's the thread if anyone wants to check it out: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=89088)

Anyways, here is a quick overview: A while back I noticed an arcade cabinet at a garage sale. The game was a Frogger, kind of. Really the only Frogger thing about it was the boardset. (Which I suspect was actually a bootleg board!) The cabinet was non original, the controls were non original, the marquee and bezel were not original, etc.

But it was my first game and I could not be very picky. Plus how could I resist a working game for $20?

So here is my restoration post, and I have learned quite a bit in the process of fixing up the machine. Keep in mind though, I'm only 15 and had to work on a quite a budget to fix the game up. Basically, I did the best with what I had. So without further ado, here we go!

Some before pics. (These are after I scrubbed brown spray paint off the bezel and removed t-molding)

Love the control panel.
arcades003.jpg


One side had woodgrain, the other was painted black
arcades002.jpg


Here is the cab after wood filler is applied to the frayed bottom and holes in the sides
arcades028.jpg


And here is a closeup of the bottom after sanding
 
Part 2 of the Restoration

Here is the cab (with a new marquee arrived from ebay!) lightly sanded.
arcades033.jpg


Now the painting begins. I know, I didn't completely sand the cab or use primer, but remember, this was a restoration done on a tight budget. And it came out looking great even without the primer.

Here is a shot of my dad painting over one side (hopefully I can find some wood-grain to make the cab look more original, but paint will have to work for now)
arcades036.jpg


Here is that bezel, basically I flipped if over to the backside, masked it off, and painted it grey. (A bezel with spaceships just does not work with Frogger!)
arcades043.jpg


And a Willis CPO I got off ebay, hacked to pieces to fit the different cabinet shape
arcades042.jpg
 
Here is a comparison shot of the "original" Control Panel, and my new one: (Though I would prefer a balltop joystick, the current one is actually not too bad.)
86688641.jpg


And the final pictures of the completed game:




Total cost breakdown:

Game: $20
Black Paint: $8
Grey Paint: $4
Textured Black Paint: $6
Wood Filler: $6
Wood Glue: Free
Sandpaper: Free
Marquee: $25 shipped
CPO: $15 shipped
Plexiglass: $10

Total Cost: Roughly $95

Not bad, and once again this was not meant to be a top class restoration, more along the lines of a first project experiment. My real goal was to get the game looking nice enough for my parents to let me bring it in the house. (And they did!)

And finally, yes, my game needs a cap kit. And the color blue needs fixing. It is only showing in the game's background because the blue pot on the monitor is turned up. the actually in-game objects that are supposed to be blue are not, and many of the other objects are discolored due to the missing blue. I'm just nervous to mess with the electronics, because I'm afraid I will just end up making it worse. At least right now the game is 100% playable!
 
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works for me. as long as you enjoyed what you were doing, I think thats the main point.

PS. We got our completely working for $50. hehehehe
 
works for me. as long as you enjoyed what you were doing, I think thats the main point.

PS. We got our completely working for $50. hehehehe

Yeah, but I bet you didn't get a completely cool "MIGHTY GAME" marquee!

Actually, I did enjoy every bit of it, but I didn't want to dump tons of cash into a non-original Frogger, just enough to have it presentable.
 
Not bad at all considering the restraints! ;) Now just take that grey panel off, put some black paint on an old car tire, and roll it onto the right side! :cool:

Make sure to do some practice runs on paper first, until you get used to how much paint needs to be on the tire! ;) And really, cut a new piece of glass or plexi, then do the car tire trick (to the left side) then paint grey on top of that, then flip over, and it'll look completely 'real' or more 'professional'...
 
Not bad at all considering the restraints! ;) Now just take that grey panel off, put some black paint on an old car tire, and roll it onto the right side! :cool:

Nice idea, I think I might actually give that a shot!


@herbertsmart
Hmm.. I would love to have an original upright Moon Patrol. It's definately my favorite game.
 
Great job on the cab, looks very nice. Now it is time for another one and to start getting into the electronics stuff. That monitor would be a good place to start. :)
 
Looks really good man; feels good to get something done for less $ and still looks great, right? I went down that road with my Sea Wolf resto.
 
That doesn't look bad at all! Nice budget project. The blue color problem is probably pretty simple to fix. You'll enjoy it even more with a black background.

Wade
 
You should have pulled the spare tire off your car, applied black paint to the tread and rolled it up the right side of the bezel.

That would have perfectly completed the project and been in line with your budget goals :)

Nice job BTW!
 
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