My $50 Stargate

YellowDog

In Memoriam

Donor 2011, 2013
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
9,851
Reaction score
158
Location
Humble, Texas
Today I spent the day fixing my $50 Stargate. Last Saturday I drove out to pick up a Stargate and a Centipede from Kyle,Texas (about 3.5 hours each way) for $100. When I got a chance to look at them, I decided the Stargate would be easier to work on, so it went home and the 'Pede went to storage, for now.

I didn't take a lot of before pictures because my camera was acting up, but the cabinet was in real good cosmetic condition. As you can see from the pictures I do have, the side art was scratched and dinged but basically intact, except for some serious fade on the upper left corner. There was some delamination on the bottom, so I glued the wood mostly back together again and put a piece of aluminum L-bracket over it (after spraying it with textured black Rustoleum). That saved a lot of Bondo and sanding.

Once I opened the cabinet up and looked at the insides I was shocked. All the serial numbers on the boards matched the cabinet (a first). So if I had had the monitor it would have been a complete dedicated Stargate.

The front was in very good shape. There were no security bars on it and the coin door hadn't been crowbarred. That was a first for me. I had to drill out the lower coindoor lock, but that only took a couple of minutes. No treasure inside, just an original coin box. Added new locks and the feont was complete.

There was no monitor and the power supply had been hacked with a switcher. When I pulled the power supply board and tested it, I was amazed. It was in perfect working condition. So why the beat up PC power supply hacked in? I have no idea. So that was the first thing to go.

Next, I dropped a monitor in, just for now. As you can see in the pics, it has some pretty severe PAC burn. But it is clean and bright, so it will do for now. The monitor shelf was missing, so I had to build one out of a scrap sheet of 3/4" plywood.

I rebuilt the power connector and put the power supply board back in and guess what? It didn't boot. I spent an hour playing bad RAM tag until I realized that it was random. The CPU board was bad. Swapped a new CPU board in and it booted....to a ROM error. So I popped the ROMs and gave them a good bath. Apparently someone had spilled beer over the boards and the ROMs were stuck in their sockets. Half hour later, clean sockets and clean ROMs. Fired it up. More ROM errors. Fuming, I pulled the ROM board figuring it was bad. To my surprise, there was a piece of chewing gum wrapper (the aluminized kind like they use in Wrigley's gums) dangling on a piece of spider thread making intermittent contact with the pins on the back of the ROM board (another first). So I cleared that out, put the ROM board back and it booted.

ken
 

Attachments

  • sm_front Stargate.jpg
    sm_front Stargate.jpg
    43.8 KB · Views: 137
  • sm_right side Stargate.jpg
    sm_right side Stargate.jpg
    34 KB · Views: 122
  • sm_left side Stargate.jpg
    sm_left side Stargate.jpg
    35.8 KB · Views: 115
  • sm_inside Stargate.jpg
    sm_inside Stargate.jpg
    38.8 KB · Views: 128
(continued)
Once I got it working (after playing a couple of games), I scrubbed the front down and surprizingly most of the crud came right off. So I don't need to paint it, at least not right away. I cleaned the bezel. It has some flaking, but is not bad. Added some bulbs for the coin door. Cleaned and adjusted the coin mechs so they work again. Bent the coin reject solenoids back into place so quarters go to the coin return when the power is out (OK I am anal about some things).

I saved the marquee light for last, because I am out of ballasts and these machines always need ballasts. So I unscrewed the marquee and guess what? The fluorescent bulb was shining bright. It was so bright in the garage that I couldn't see the light was on.

So with that I adjusted the interlock switch on the back. Put an upper back door I had laying around (with matching lock) and it was ready to come into the house.

One $50 Stargate ready to play.

Now it's time for a beer and to get my ass kicked by a stupid video game again.....I suck at Stargate and Defender, why do I keep picking them up????

ken
 

Attachments

  • sm_monitor tray Stargate.jpg
    sm_monitor tray Stargate.jpg
    27.8 KB · Views: 70
  • sm_PS Stargate.jpg
    sm_PS Stargate.jpg
    42.2 KB · Views: 75
  • sm_front Stargate II.jpg
    sm_front Stargate II.jpg
    34.8 KB · Views: 97
  • sm_Stargate in the house.jpg
    sm_Stargate in the house.jpg
    40.6 KB · Views: 132
(continued)
Once I got it working (after playing a couple of games), I scrubbed the front down and surprizingly most of the crud came right off. So I don't need to paint it, at least not right away. I cleaned the bezel. It has some flaking, but is not bad. Added some bulbs for the coin door. Cleaned and adjusted the coin mechs so they work again. Bent the coin reject solenoids back into place so quarters go to the coin return when the power is out (OK I am anal about some things).

I saved the marquee light for last, because I am out of ballasts and these machines always need ballasts. So I unscrewed the marquee and guess what? The fluorescent bulb was shining bright. It was so bright in the garage that I couldn't see the light was on.

So with that I adjusted the interlock switch on the back. Put an upper back door I had laying around (with matching lock) and it was ready to come into the house.

One $50 Stargate ready to play.

Now it's time for a beer and to get my ass kicked by a stupid video game again.....I suck at Stargate and Defender, why do I keep picking them up????

ken


Wow Ken, congrats on your score! I'm jealous!

Saltbreez
 
Very nice! Your Williams Row looks great bookended by the two Stargate cabs (I know the other one is a multi...) Great job, and for $50 and a little elbow grease you can't beat it.
 
Thanks everybody.

This was one of those rare CL deals that worked. I saw the ad on Thursday, zipped off a quick email and sat back to wait. After a couple of hours, I figured that it was gone. Got home that night and got an email about 8pm that said I was the first, so come get them. I fired off a reply saying it wouldn't be until Saturday afternoon before I could get there. That is usually the Kiss of Death on Craig's List. Got a reply that said no problem, here's the address of the storage unit, call 1/2 hour before you get there.:001_ssuprised:

Driving out there, expecting a phone call the whole way, we drove out and just enjoyed the wildflowers. The guy was at the storage unit, I paid, he helped load (a good thing if you've ever tried lifting a Centipede by yourself :eek:) and we hit the road again. We got back in the early evening and I dropped the 'pede off at the storage unit (unloaded it by myself, that's a bitch even with gravity helping :() and took the Stargate home to work on it. The rest of the story, you know.

ken
 
Anytime your willing to put that kind of drive into a game...you deserve a good deal...I used to be dedicated to driving wherever for a good deal..or even a shitty one...:D but over the years I've become lazy and really don't get too excited to do any long drives anymore..with the exception of maybe a good auction...or some type of grail which are few and far between...
Congrats Ken..nice to see those Williams being saved.
 
Well, now we know who got them. You should've stopped by...

I thought about giving you a call, But we were running late & my storage unit place locks the doors at 9:00pm. So we had to get back to drop the 'pede off.

ken
 
You don't leave early enough. When I make a Houston run, I'm usually in Houston by 8:30am and back in Austin by 2pm...
 
I swear I am moving to Texas... Great story on a great game Ken thanks for sharing!
 
That was me... I got the Satan's Hollow project for $50... The screen has pretty good burn in from 1943... and the control panel is cut up for the 1943, but it came with an additional control panel... If anybody wants to trade this cab out for something that would be more appropriate for a 60-1 I would be open...

kags
 
You don't leave early enough. When I make a Houston run, I'm usually in Houston by 8:30am and back in Austin by 2pm...

I'd like to leave earlier, but I usually have to go rent a pickup truck and most rental offices don't open until 9am. The airport opens earlier, but you pay a ton of $$$ in taxes that I try to avoid. We get a great discount most of the time and the taxes take a big bite out of that.

ken
 
Back
Top Bottom