Horrible conversion jobs

ckasek

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2011
Messages
748
Reaction score
8
Location
Ohio
Picked up an arkanoid this past weekend that's in a Centipede cab. I'm trying to get it cleaned up before bringing it in the house, and what a mess this thing is.

The control panel was modified to put the spinner in the middle...not really sure what they used, as they just sliced out the middle of the panel almost all the way across. The spinner is mounted to the plexi they put on top, and nothing else. The buttons are also mounted to plexi. I'm thinking if I keep this thing, I may try and find a stripped dig dug control panel and swap the parts over.

IlVMj.jpg


And the monitor...at some point, the cabinet underwent modification to support a horizontal WG (mounted vertically). Problem is, the monitor isn't centered - it's about 3/4" off center - not really noticeable, except that the cardboard bezel didn't line up with the monitor. This is what it looks like, with and without the monitor:

fvEIl.jpg
ezCq6.jpg


I've got nothing to compare it to, but I'm assuming that entire wood frame is a custom job. It doesn't seem to be mounted in the cabinet at the right angle either, so the cardboard bezel is off quite a bit. It also looks like it may have been used to mount the monitor horizontally at some point. who knows....what a mess.

The used some t-nuts at the top for the bolts to hold the monitor in (which you have to pull the monitor out from the front - not remove it from the back). The left one is about 7" from the side, the right one is about 8" from the side.

BofTn.jpg


The wiring inside is awful as well - wires are pulled tight all over, there are cut wires all over the place, everything is soldered to the control panel, etc. I'm considering just putting it back up on CL and being rid of the thing.

So yeah, what other horrible hack jobs have you encountered?
 
Last edited:
Wow that's pretty sad! makes you wonder what kind of person things thats a acceptable job!

I picked up a Hang on, that had been put into a tempest cab. You should have seen the hole that was hacked with what looks like a grinder in the CP. The wiring was like yours inside, the monitor board was hanging from the monitor frame with a zap strap. No Back door. I went to look at it, as this guy had it for 50 bux. LOL i came home with it, but didnt cost a dime. Needless to say it has been sacrificed to the Arcade Gods. LOL

hangon1.jpg

hangon2.jpg

back.jpg
 
The wood frame that the monitor is mounted on is normal for Atari cabinets. Having it all hacked up like that is not. If you want to remove the monitor from an Atari cabinet, you usually have to pull it out from the front. Fun, fun. Yeah, it looks as though there may have been a horizontally mounted monitor in there at some point. Operators tend to do to cabinets whatever they think will help them make money. Hack jobs may be somewhat sad but really not all that surprising.
 
The fun part about Hang On to Tempest is that Hang On wasn't a kit IIRC. At some point a Hang On cab was so far gone they transferred the parts to the tempest.
 
Back
Top Bottom