Centpede Cabaret illumination

rknucklez

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Just finished a resto of my first Centipede mini. (pics comin soon)

I was wondering;
Is it just me or could this game use some more illumination?

The marquee below the control panel is cool and all,
but in the dark the game lacks something.

Not as bad as Rolling Thunder but close


~RK
 
Ritchie, I think a lot of the cabarets are seemingly less glamorous than their upright counterparts. My Battlezone cabaret is in the same boat as your Centipede. I used to have an upright BZ and it was definitely better eye candy, but the cabaret is still cool in its own right. The BZ cabaret marquee is also below the control panel and seems dim, too.
 
i have one too
i have a led strip by groovy game gear to illuminate the marquee
and i plan on getting a traslucent track ball and light that up.
but 2 1/4 trans track balls are hard to find in green. i belive happs sells trans red and blue
 
That just gave me an idea. Maybe I should affix a fluorescent fixture in the marquee of mine....Hmmm.....
 
That just gave me an idea. Maybe I should affix a fluorescent fixture in the marquee of mine....Hmmm.....

I've been wondering about this but not sure about going the LED route. Has anyone successfully added a fluorescent fixture to their Centipede Cabaret marquee? I'd be interested in hearing how it turned out and seeing some pics.

Can anyone provide some guidance on best way to go about adding illumination to the marquee with parts and wiring (what source did you tie into)?

The Tempest Cabarets appear to already have the marquee lighting, so it seems to me this should be a pretty straightforward application, right?

- Dave
DYuck
 
What about El wire? I'm sure you could just drill one small hole and run a strand around the perimeter of the marquee. It wouldn't give you a ton of light, but it would give it a little "pop". It's also cheap, easy to install, and comes in a ton of colors.

Link to EL wire if you are unfamiliar with it.
http://www.elbestbuy.com/
 
I picked up a 8 inch fluorescent light and installed. Wired it directly to the power supply. There is a connection for a marquee and used that. I did need to make a card board cut out between the light and the CPO, as the light bleed through. Looks so much better lit.

First time uploading a picture. Hope it works.

Paul
80sarcade
 

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I picked up a 8 inch fluorescent light and installed. Wired it directly to the power supply. There is a connection for a marquee and used that. I did need to make a card board cut out between the light and the CPO, as the light bleed through. Looks so much better lit.

First time uploading a picture. Hope it works.

Paul
80sarcade

That's what I'm talking about! Very nice. I was worried about the light bleed too. Any chance you could take a pic of the inside of the cab sometime with a shot of the flourescent fixture and wiring? I'd really like to do that to mine, but not sure what kind of fixture (voltage, etc.) to get and where exactly to connect to the power supply. Also, do you recall where you got the fixture?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
- Dave
DYuck
 
I saved an 8" fixture for that project, from what I've heard, some came with lights BITD from the factory.

Right now it's on my "to do" list....
 
I installed a florescent light in the mini Centipede I had years ago -- put a 3 position Molex (or was it an AMP?) connector on the end of the wire for the light and plugged it right into the factory Atari power brick (I also used to wire fans into my color vector games in this manner as well). I'll be damned though if I can remember how I mounted the light...
 
Here is a picture of how I mounted the light. I screwed it to the monitor wood bottom bracket. It was very easy and worked out great. I used, as you can tell in the picture, a cut out from my Wii box (new school, helping old school) :) To block the light from showing around the control panel.

Paul 80sarcade
 

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Here is a picture of how I mounted the light. I screwed it to the monitor wood bottom bracket. It was very easy and worked out great. I used, as you can tell in the picture, a cut out from my Wii box (new school, helping old school) :) To block the light from showing around the control panel.

Paul 80sarcade

Thanks for the pic Paul. I think I see what you did now. So you wired it directly to the power brick? Did you use a molex connector or hardwire it? Sorry if I'm being a pain, but a pic of that would be appreciated.:004_ssmile:
- Dave
DYuck
 
Had a old connector from a pole position and used that Molex connector. Three wire with a V on one end.

Hope this helps.
Paul
80s arcade

Pole Position, Gauntlet, Gauntlet DL, Tron, Battlezone, Red Baron, Star Wars with ESB kit, Wizard of Wor, Tempest, Crazy Climber cocktail, Gyruss, Centipede Caber. Ms PacMan Caber, Berzerk, Skins Game 2k TE, Asteroids Deluxe, Baby Pacman, Warlords and three Pins Twilight Zone, Star Trek TNG and The Shadow.
 
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