Found a Stargate on a curb in Memphis

[VectorJunkie]

I hope you can bend those pins on the monitor tube straight. It will suck if any are broken off. I would have grabbed the whole thing too. It would not of made it into my garage whole though. Find a converted stargate and convert it back with the parts.

 

[OregonPacman]

I would have taken the game PCB, bezel and maybe the power supply and left the rest on the curb. Ugh.

 

[mitchschaft]

lol, you guys are awesome. I plan on taking everything out. Should I save hinges and little stuff?
After that, the carcass will go to the burn pile at my folks' place for a witch-burning session. Will post pics of that.

My dad offered to build a new cab from scratch. So I plan to look for some blueprints on that. I doubt I can find another one around here. It's Memphis (i.e., not cool) and I really don't know anyone.

The monitor pins are bent, but none are broken. I think I can bend them back. I really want to see if I can get it to work on Galaga in the meantime.

Other than that, I believe I need a wiring harness. Not sure what else.

I'm off to use the search function!

 

[D_Harris]

lol, you guys are awesome. I plan on taking everything out. Should I save hinges and little stuff?

Yeah, save metal and plastic parts out of the cab if you are going to reproduce a new one. That way you'll only need wood and artwork.

You can't get those hinges anywhere.

In what condition is the wood of the control panel? You'll want to save that also.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Tonym]

having a small tool set in the car isnt a bad idea even for people that have no intrest in arcade games at all...

 

[OregonPacman]

When I first saw the word "Stargate" in the title, I was expecting to see a 25 foot stone ring sitting on a Memphis street corner.

 

[ifkz]

I would actually like to see a new cab built. How the monitor has not fallen into the bottom of the cab, I don't know. How it didn't fall out when the cab was on it's back, I don't know either. Give that fallen soldier a good burial.

 

[LyonsArcade]

Well, this is my first full cabinet, if you could call it that . I really wanted the monitor/chassis for my galaga parts I have laying around so I just snagged the whole thing.
Should I have left it? lol

I know for a fact it worked just last summer. And it looks like somebody took out a wiring harness and cut some wires. The bezel looks like it's in good shape, too.

Part it, and feel good that you saved as much of it as you could. That cabinet is destroyed.

I'd also like to comment on how HARD it is to destroy a plywood cabinet like that. You can leave a painted plywood cab out in the rain for a lonnnnnng time and not have this happen to it. This is months, and months, and MONTHS of getting wet to get to this condition.

 

[Muel]

Let us put our heads down in a moment of silence for the deceased Stargate...

 

[Broodwich]

Let us put our heads down in a moment of silence for the deceased Stargate...

/pours out 40oz

 

[mitchschaft]

Yeah, this thing sat in dude's backyard under a covered patio. They would play it at night. Apparently, the patio became uncovered at some point .

I'm waiting for the wife to get home from work (at a hospital) with some respiratory masks, lol. I'm gonna tear it down sometime this week. I hope the cabinet plans I found are detailed enough for my dad to build a perfect replica. jakobud.com is all I could really find.

Other than that, I found out the monitor is a WG 4600. Just what I wanted to begin with for my Galaga project. But a lot of wires are cut on it and the neck board is snapped in half on one corner. So I need monitor wiring stuff, a new neck board and the major wire harness that connects to the control panel. Then I can try to hook it up and see how it works.

 

[D_Harris]

Yeah, this thing sat in dude's backyard under a covered patio. They would play it at night. Apparently, the patio became uncovered at some point .

I'm waiting for the wife to get home from work (at a hospital) with some respiratory masks, lol. I'm gonna tear it down sometime this week. I hope the cabinet plans I found are detailed enough for my dad to build a perfect replica. jakobud.com is all I could really find.

Other than that, I found out the monitor is a WG 4600. Just what I wanted to begin with for my Galaga project. But a lot of wires are cut on it and the neck board is snapped in half on one corner. So I need monitor wiring stuff, a new neck board and the major wire harness that connects to the control panel. Then I can try to hook it up and see how it works.

What wiring harness that connects to the control panel? Galaga or StarGate?

The common consensus is "don't use jakobud's plans, because they are notoriously inaccurate.

And if worse comes to worse you might be able to repair the neck board.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[keithsarcade]

Judging by the looks of that thing inside and out, I'm betting that everythings dead, boards and all. I wouldnt expect a cheap project. You could probably find a good working Stargate cheaper than trying to salvage those parts in a new cab.

 

[mitchschaft]

Ha, I can't find anything in Memphis. I was talking about a Stargate harness. I already have everything to fire Galaga up if I can get the monitor to work.

 

[avidgeek]

The title of this thread sounds like a gritty blues song....

(steel guitar riff)
Da nee neh naow - repeat after each line

Found a Stargate on a Curb in Memphis
Just sitting there waitin' to die
Nasty and moldy little cabinet
But those parts caught my eye
So i did what had to be done

(chorus)
I tossed it into my truck
Damn things covered in spunk
Others see it as junk
But its just my good luck
(chorus)

PCB looks complete
The control panels intact
Monitor has no burn-in
The Bezel is not cracked

Don't matter the sides are nasty ass black
Plywood splittin' and peeling apart
Monitor shelf has given up
Shit, this is a piece of fine art

I'm taking this woody bitch home
it's comin' with me
snappin' pix cuz is happened
Postin it on K...L...O...V

 

[mitchschaft]

LOL, that is fantastic!

At the bottom of the cab, covered in dirt, I found a few tokens from a Space-Port arcade @ 2152 Frayser Blvd here in Memphis.

 

[YellowDog]

I wouldn't worry about finding a wiring harness or reproducing the cabinet until you have a working boardset. You might want to find somebody with a Williams game you can just plug those boards into. With that much corrosion on those boards, I'd make sure you have a working boardset before investing any more time or money into rebuilding it. If the boards don't work, you would be better off giving RLEVIN a shout out for a Stargate.

If you are going to try reproducing it, take your own measurements and lots and lots of pictures, then use the Jakobud plans as a general reference. They work when you are trying to make a "Stargate" like MAME box, but they are not accurate enough for reproductions.

Once you get a cabinet, give Dockert a PM, he makes reproduction harnesses for most Williams boxes.

Take everything off of the old one. The hinges on the back door and the control panel have never been reproduced so they are a must to grab.

While you are grabbing things, some of the other things to grab include the plastic coin tubes, they often get overlooked. The plastic bezel mask. The steel plates the PCBs are mounted to. You may need to scrape them down and spray some Rustoleum on them to keep them from rotting away. The speaker assembly (speaker, board, screen and mounting brackets). Basically everyhing other than the rotten wood.

If you can bend the pins on the tube out, you might want to just buy a replacement WG4600 chassis rather then trying to hack that one back together. Put an ad in the WTB section and I'm sure somebody will have a working one to sell you.

Good luck, it is a big job reproducing a cabinet from scratch.

ken

 

[Broodwich]

If you are going to try reproducing it, take your own measurements and lots and lots of pictures, then use the Jakobud plans as a general reference. They work when you are trying to make a "Stargate" like MAME box, but they are not accurate enough for reproductions.

So true, i found this out recently while trying to make up plans for a MK control panel box. they are completely off on a couple of measurements and don't take into consideration the actual panel thickness >.<


i also agree don't go throwing around money until you know atleast something from it (of value) works.

 

[mitchschaft]

Ok, cool. The first thing I was gonna do is buy a wiring harness to see if the boards work. I don't have any friends in the hobby so I'm all by myself.
Other than that, I wanted to get the monitor set up first to see if my galaga boards work, too, lol.

 

[Scott C]

Um, please save those! I also spent some time in that arcade. I would love to see tokens from the arcades in the Raleigh Springs mall and the two in the Mall of Memphis too!

I would have definitely grabbed that for all of the parts. Find a converted cabinet, a few parts, and you're back in business.

I'm sure there are folks on KLOV willing to test and/or repair those boards for you.

Scott C.