Centipede restoration - a long road

TheShanMan

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Donor 2011, 2024
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The restoration itself isn't amazing in any way. It's more the story behind it that I think is worth telling here. Back in '98 my neighbor introduced me to mame and gave me a non-working Centipede for free so I could make a mame cabinet. At that time I had no idea that repairing a game was really even a consideration, so preservation wasn't really a thought that entered my mind, at least in terms of the electronics. I did have enough sense to keep the artwork intact, and pretty much leave the electronics in place. What I did was build a shelf above the power brick and mount a PC to it. Then I decased and mounted a computer CRT. Finally, I had a new cp fabbed.

Fast forward 10 years at which point I started collecting dedicated games. It was at this point that I started to have those feelings of shame for maming a classic. :) Somewhere along the line it occurred to me that I should de-convert it, so for the last few years I knew this day would eventually come. However, other projects within this hobby kept me from getting around to it, until recently. Last month my motherboard and/or cpu died. I decided that would be the trigger for finally de-converting it, and I'd just have to find some other generic cabinet for mame.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get the game functional again. I repaired a non-working monitor and replaced a bad big blue and the game worked. Woo-hoo! The remaining work was to install a speaker, volume rheostat, and new cpo. I also had a little very minor wiring work to do.

Here is the end result!

And a generic cabinet has been procured for my new mame cabinet. Project underway!

2012-12-21CentipedeArcadeDeconversionComplete001_zps5b1d3e4b.jpg
 
At least it only took you 10 years to make the right choice. lol Looks good.
 
Looks awesome. I always enjoy hearing stories about how people got into this hobby.
 
Good story. And a happy ending. Congrats.

Is it my imagination or do Centipede bezels hold up better than most?
God knows the CPO's go down like crackheads.
 
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