Hi all. As I mentioned in my introduction thread one of my goals is to get a Defender up and running as it was my favourite arcade game back in the early 80s when I was in university. I passed or missed out on picking one up over the years as life, career, family, etc. kept me too busy. But now that I am retired I want to own a Defender of my own. However, due to health issues, I want to ensure it is a manageable project and I want to keep the weight down due to a serious back condition in case I ever have to move.
So over the past few years I've been buying up bits and pieces to make a Defender. I've focused on the electronics, the stainless steel coin door, the marquee, bezel, and control panel. As I wanted to keep the final build as light as possible I decided on a VisionPro 19" LCD even if purists will balk.
The Bits & Pieces
As mentioned, above, I have a number of bits and pieces that I have collected over the past 5 or so years (yes, I've been planning this for a long while):
- Defender Control Panel
- Defender CPO, reproduction
- Stargate Board Set including sound board and pot (from AncientGames, see below)
- Defender Board Set including sound board and pot (from AncientGames)
- JROK from Arcade Shop
- 19" VisionPro LCD from Arcade Shop
- Defender Marquee
- Defender Marquee light fixture
- Defender Bezel
- NOS Defender buttons (found on eBay years ago)
- Defender joystick from Paradise Arcade Shop
- Defender Stainless Steel coin door (eBay find years ago)
- Defender power supply, transformer, etc. from RusselMania
The boards I purchased are from Mike (
AncientGames) and after a bit of cleaning they work great! He's actually looking for some more bits for me which I am so thankful for. Of course he also being in Ontario means he's been dealing with a lot of snow this year as well which has slowed things down but spring is close and I'm in no rush.
Some of the boards and the CP had partial harnesses which were quite old and fragile looking. So, I ordered three new complete harnesses from Ken of
Golden Arcade Parts in BC: Defender, Stargate, JROK. My goal is to have the cabinet play multiple Williams games but initially only Defender and Stargate. As this is a long term project for me I'm in no rush to get it done. My goal is to have at least four dedicated control panels: Defender, Stargate, Joust, Multi-Williams. The harnesses are works of art. I'm completely gobsmacked at how beautiful they are.
Monitor
I was asked separately by Russel whether this build will support a CRT if someone in the future acquires it and wants to replace the LCD with a CRT. The answer is yes, it will be possible. The storage for the different CPs might have to be adjusted but the cabinet design is meant to incorporate a CRT. I am awaiting CRT frames from Mike to place into the cabinet to which I will mount the LCD. Thus, it will be an easy upgrade for those who wish to move the reproduction even closer to original. I have to thank Russel for asking about that.
Multigame Support
As mentioned, the goal is to support multiple games and so each CP will be removable and storable behind the LCD in the cabinet. I'll make slide in storage for each cabinet so that it's stored safely and safe should I need to transport the cabinet in the future. I'll show how I plan to do this in future posts.
Ken has made the harnesses plug-and-play so that will make my build all the easier.
Artwork
I haven't decided which way to go. I wouldn't mind going the original pre-release artwork. But I have nothing against the released artwork, either. I'll have to decide one day but for now I'll just leave it as unknown.
The Cabinet
I have read up on a lot of restorations here and they've all been super helpful. However, due to my health issues, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible and ultimately decided on having a cabinet CNCed by
The Wood Source here in Ottawa and they did a superb job (see photos). The CNC file I provided was from
Classic Arcade Cabinets. The cabinet is made from "18mm paint-grade birch ply" to make it as light as possible yet strong/sturdy and it is superb (see pics). I am so pleased with The Wood Source's work and recommend it to anyone need to reproduce a cabinet here in Ottawa. Their CNC and sales teams were wonderful and very helpful.
Here are a few photos of the cabinet when it was delivered. I will update this thread as I begin the build with my son. It will be a great project for us to do, though his time is tight as he just began his career as I ended mine. And the back-to-back-to-back snowstorms didn't help either.


