I'm finally gonna get this Berzerk running! An original Berzerk save/recondition thread.

Sorted the pieces for the control project tonight and looking forward to getting to it.

This took a while to put together, a really nice shape original batstick, it was missing the compartment box for underneath it but someone here a few years ago was nice enough to make me one of these in his metal shop.

NOS parts and springs for the batstick, I'm going to dissasemble, clean up and resolder the pins on the connector and try to get it all connected together again and stable, hopefully not missing anything.

I've got this panel, the front overlay is a mess but good where it counts, even has the original molex connector left for the batstick, this panel I'm guessing was from when Stern just started replacing the batsticks to wico's so should adapt plug & play, will check it though on the schematic to be sure the 5v is routed correctly.

The new overlay, I've had it for years, I don't remember if it's NOS or reproduction but it's silkscreened on metal & still has the paper on it, should be pretty.



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Fingers crossed that the masking comes off without a hitch! 🤞
 
The paper was on it so strong it was literally hard glued to the panel.

Nothing worked to get it off! I then finally resorted to soaking it in water but that just helped peel away a little of the top layer.

So then I soaked towels in Goo Gone and carefully used a plastic scraper, scratch free pad, some 0000 steel wool on the bare metal areas, that started penetrating it.

Worked through it all without putting too much force, and being careful not to get too aggressive, a little section at a time getting it off.

A little over 3 hours later and tons of elbow grease, here she is and maybe after 45 years? Hard to tell but if it withstood everything I just threw at it?

I'm very happy with that!


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The paper was on it so strong it was literally hard glued to the panel.

Nothing worked to get it off! I then finally resorted to soaking it in water but that just helped peel away a little of the top layer.

So then I soaked towels in Goo Gone and carefully used a plastic scraper, scratch free pad, some 0000 steel wool on the bare metal areas, that started penetrating it.

Worked through it all without putting too much force, and being careful not to get too aggressive, a little section at a time getting it off.

A little over 3 hours later and tons of elbow grease, here she is and maybe after 45 years? Hard to tell but if it withstood everything I just threw at it?

I'm very happy with that!


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Yep, just went through this with a kung fu master bezel. Unfortunately my NOS Bezel now has surface scratches everywhere. There was nothing getting that baked on hard as a rock glue off. I finally had to resort to a quart of Goo Gone and a razor scraper. Let that be a lesson all you NOS hoarders out there. A lot of this shit isn't gonna be worth much if you don't start doing something with it.
 
Sorry that you went through that! I just had a feeling when I saw it that it was gonna be a bear. It looks great though!

Phetishboy is right- NOS hoarders should peel all of these bad boys sooner than later!
 
Yep, just went through this with a kung fu master bezel. Unfortunately my NOS Bezel now has surface scratches everywhere. There was nothing getting that baked on hard as a rock glue off. I finally had to resort to a quart of Goo Gone and a razor scraper. Let that be a lesson all you NOS hoarders out there. A lot of this shit isn't gonna be worth much if you don't start doing something with it.
Sucks that you had go through that too. Kung Fu Master is awesome, I love that game.
 
Sorry that you went through that! I just had a feeling when I saw it that it was gonna be a bear. It looks great though!

Phetishboy is right- NOS hoarders should peel all of these bad boys sooner than later!
Thanks! Spot on.

True words.. peel these off soon and wear a mask or else you'll be tasting Goo Gone the next day like me.
 
Assembled the Batstick, replaced the Molex with new and followed the 5v wire all the way down the harness into the board, it's correct.

Lubed it up inside with some Super Lube synthetic grease.

Maybe the ladies will play with the game again? No kidding..




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Last major step for the cab was the monitor. I have a few in storage and picked a nice, nearly burn free WG 4900 as I thought it would go good with this cab.

It has all the original labels on it and same fit molex power connector that was in the cab. I'm guessing this was a later model Berzerk as it wasn't a G07 like many that were made. I'm thinking it was probably a 4600 so the 4900 appeared to be a good fit as similar but a more compact chassis and without the cards. I think it will look great (just have to figure out if it still works, first :))

The inner plastic bezel went right back on as I tapped it into the same staple holes. Cleaned the glass bezel and left the stained instruction card on for character as I don't want to overdo this, it's not a restore but what I like to call a recondition. I want it to feel old just in nice shape.

Now that the cabinet is together and pretty much done less a few details, the last step is the boards! so I'll be going over those next one by one starting with the power supply.

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Lots and lots of board work. Recapped the power supply, sound pcb, sucked out the solder and reflowed the header pins, the large headers were the worst, I think ended up redoing them all to take no chances, just old & cracked, used a fiberglass pen to shine them up when finished and coated the pins with Deoxit

The new cables from APAR are fantastic, best cables I've ever worked with and totally worth it.

I had a nicer ZPU in storage which I used instead of the one that was in the game, it was still untested but it didn't have the bad corrosion since the battery was removed on it much earlier so just installed an NVRAM module on it for memory.

Tested power, voltages tested in range, dialed them in, so I knew the regulator was good, plugged in all the boards and got nothing, a solid red light :(

The good news is that I'm noticing Stern did a much better job on the owner's manual and supplemental schematic than they did with the cabinet, the originals are color coded, large & easy to read.

One of the first things to check in the troubleshooting with a solid red light was the Z80 and guess what? It was indeed BAD, that saved a lot of time.

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Cleaned up an original coin box for it and placed it back where it belongs.
Funny thought I had today.. all that work, all those boards and a JROK Berzerk fits inside the coin box.
Life insurance policy for the game ;)

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Looks FANTASTIC!! Where did you get the Batstick, marquee and bezel artwork from? I have an original cabinet, but it was converted to a Wonderboy (unfortunately). It has the original CRT, control panel and coin doors, which is cool. You can actually see Berserk burn-in so I know the CRT is original. I was thinking about putting original hardware in it, but it's a bit of a headache with those 5 boards. I have an ArcadeSD that has a good Berserk emulation, or I'm also looking out for a dedicated JROK at some point. They seem to be difficult to find.
 
Thanks! The Batstick along with everything else was just collected over years from different people selling. Luckily the marquee and glass bezel were still intact with the game, just needed a good cleaning.

Good that yours has the CRT and ArcadeSD isn't half bad, I have a few of them in different games. JROK is good also, I like to collect everything that's available for the games while still keeping them as pure as possible.

A member here was nice enough to sell me their Spaeth ZPU replacement that Mark made many years ago, I'm looking forward to that and going to put that in when I receive it, it'll take things a step further with the original boards, be able to play Frenzy too.

Good luck on your project, can't go wrong with Berzerk!
 
Cool, thank you again. If I can't find a Batstick, is the Wico an acceptable alternative? I do have a Berzerk main board here, I bought it not realizing that I needed another 4 boards to make the game work!!! How's the speech implementation in the Arcade SD version? Is it fairly accurate? Where would I go to find a Berserk marquee and the bezel perimeter? My control panel still has the silkscreened artwork on it, but I haven't peeled up the rest of the Wonderboy artwork to see how it looks yet. Hopefully it's not too damaged and I can just put a light plexiglass over the original for protection. Thanks!
 
Cool, thank you again. If I can't find a Batstick, is the Wico an acceptable alternative? I do have a Berzerk main board here, I bought it not realizing that I needed another 4 boards to make the game work!!! How's the speech implementation in the Arcade SD version? Is it fairly accurate? Where would I go to find a Berserk marquee and the bezel perimeter? My control panel still has the silkscreened artwork on it, but I haven't peeled up the rest of the Wonderboy artwork to see how it looks yet. Hopefully it's not too damaged and I can just put a light plexiglass over the original for protection. Thanks!
Yes, and if you can find a Wico with the skinny shaft one can argue that was original too since that's what Stern replaced the Batstick with in later builds.

ArcadeSD is emulation so it's good for what it is, JROK is technically identical being FPGA, but original, well it's original! so there's no debate and worth it if you take it on.

For the marquee, looks like Rich has 1 left and their quality is always good, they sometimes ship fast if in stock, may want to ask them about the bezel though, if not ask Joe from Szabo's arcade, he's good as well:


 
I recapped the speech board last night, adjusted the batstick, it's officially done!

Played a few games, here's a little gameplay video:

Loved the video and congrats on completing the restoration.

question...
I haven't played this in years and haven't started on my project yet, but why are you shooting at evil otto, I thought he couldn't be killed?
 
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