Hey guys. My first ever restoration project since entering the hobby and collecting games. Everything I've picked up has always been working for the past few years. That ended when I found Centipede cabaret 1962 in a barn for a hundred bucks, ashtray and all.
View attachment 802878
Non-working, monitor came up, everything died shortly thereafter. All things considered, this thing could've been in much worse shape. The fact anything happened at all at power up was a miracle in and of itself.
I've maintained and done general maintenance and repairs of my games of course, but never a full project.
So following my touching up and general refurbishment of the Out Run
@KaBoom1701 graciously sold to me, and the Black Widow kickplate/coin door restoration I did after picking it up from
@BigDogs, now's the time to turn my attention to Atari's second best selling juggernaut and one of my favorite games: Centipede.
I currently own an upright in great shape. At first I thought I'd take all its guts and move them over to the cabaret since that game is a mish mash of serial numbers and scrounged parts since '81 and they're like 30x more common than the cabaret.
View attachment 802888
I quickly decided against that after discovering the serial number integrity of Mr. Cabaret 1962. I don't quite know what I'll end up doing with my upright in the event I finish this project with satisfactory results. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
So today began and I just went after it.
I quickly learned just how grimey, dusty, and filthy this woodgrain little brother was.
Here's a pic of the power brick shortly after a bit of WD-40 rust penetrant to unscrew it from the cabinet.
View attachment 802890
That'll be the first area of attention much like
@TheYeti with his machine. I was really inspired by his and
@Phetishboy's efforts with their units so I'll try to be half as good as theirs turned out to be.
The middle area:
View attachment 802892
You'll notice the lockbar bolts and nuts invading the wood.
Started vacuuming things out after removing the ARII, PCB, power brick, control panel, and monitor.
The inside will still need copious amounts of Simple Green and Magic Eraser love. We'll get there eventually.
View attachment 802893
After removing the glass and cardboard bezels and the monitor, I got an easy win by spraying the cardboard the rich Rustoleum satin blue protective enamel inspired by and shamelessly copying
@TheYeti. It really is an awesome color for the bezel.
With that easily out the way, I turned my attention to cleaning parts themselves. The PCB is in good cosmetic shape astoundingly so it'll sit off to the side for a while. ARII also in good cosmetic shape but dirty. Monitor tube and chassis obviously filthy. Power brick awful. It was out the garage for Simple Green and hose down from there for all.
Original G07 looking nice. This cab really is just under 50 pounds of dust and filth.
View attachment 802897
Additional grime off the chassis. G07 sticker hanging on for dear life.
View attachment 802898
Glass cleaner reveals more of the Centipede burn. You can almost feel the amount of journeys the titular bug has taken across its phosphor…
View attachment 802899
View attachment 802900
ARII and power brick looking presentable, very minimal rust on the power brick! Fuse cover intact and all labels looking clean and shiny still there! No fuses blown, contacts cleaned up, I almost want to keep those fuses, who knows how old they are?
ARII 1962
Power brick 1962
PCB 1962
Cabinet 1962
You love to see it.
So it began! I have a newborn only 2 weeks old and a 2 year old so this might take a while. I'm still on paternity leave so I'm taking in the time and enjoying it while I can with the new additions to the collection. So bare with me as I embark on the mission to breathe new life into Centipede cabaret 1962!
