Frogger Restoration

bretpyle

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Lake Stevens, Washington
...so, I'll start by saying that I know that Frogger is not the most collectible games in the world, but I always loved playing it. So when I got one for free, I figured why not restore it? It was missing the monitor, the sound amp was fried, and the reset cap was also dead. Of course, no side art was present. The CPO and bezel were also garbage.

The cabinet has some major damage to the top back sections as well as some major damage to the bezel area. I repaired with a two part wood repair epoxy before primer and paint. I stripped the entire cabinet down to bare wood, sprayed with primer and painted with black satin oil based enamel. I always hated the wood paneling and knowing that Frogger cabinets are a dime a dozen, I decided to paint it to my preference.

The restoration went well, except for the friggin' monitor. As I mentioned, the monitor was missing so I picked up one from ArcadeShop. The first one was DOA, never even turned on. I got a new board, DOA as well! After that, they sent out another complete new monitor, it too was DOA. Needless to say, very frustrating. Did I mention this was over a two-month span? In the end, I ended up getting a new monitor from 8liners. The monitor worked for about 4 minutes before crapping out. They sent out a new chassis right away and I was able to get it up and running today with no issues, thanks to some great feedback from Ken L. about the chassis and Dokert for help with adjusting the yoke. This said, I had to convert my new yoke from high to low impedance to match the new replacement chassis. By the way, Victor at 8liners was great to work with and the new monitor I got from them looks great.

I also had the sound amp and the reset cap replaced. Oh, also the power supply was dead, so I went with a Happ. As it turns out, the Happ was great as I could plug in my monitor directly into the new power supply. I also added wiring & lights for the coin slots.

All metal items were sandblasted and powder coated. I put on a new CPO and replaced the cardboard bezel with one from ArcadeShop as well as adding side art. By the way, I'm sure someone will notice, the coin door is not original, it was added by someone else. It is a Midway door -- oh well...

Family is playing it as I type. All that needs to be done is put on the back doors and add some leg levelers...reminds me...time to place an order with Bob Roberts.
 

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Thank you very much. I really had a hard time deciding if I should re-apply the wood paneling. It's one of those games that you can kind of do what you want with and not feel too bad for changing. 99% of games you can't just go changing the color, but I feel that this is one I could take a few liberties with.
 
Wow, I have seen people paint the cabinet green before and I loved it. I always said THAT is how Frogger should have looked. Plus green looks like the Coleco TableTop Frogger.

Now I see yours in black and I'm loving that look. I love how the side art blends right in.

I'm not sure how I would go if I ever own a Frogger, green or black. I do know it would NOT be wood grain!!!
 
Green would be cool! I too liked how the art blended in with the black. Oh, what it must have been like to be a game designer in the day...to be a fly on the wall to see how they came up with some of their designs. In regards to the wood paneling, I guess they figured if it worked for a car - why not throw some of that stuff on a game! LOL, who knows....
 
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