New game (Space Duel), new user (haywood)

haywood

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A friend of mine asked if I'd provide a good home for his Space Duel cabinet. I've always wanted an upright and there's a special place in my heart for vectors. Of course I took it :)

I liked this game in the arcade but was turned off by the geometrical shapes. Now that it's here, the ability to play two player with my wife makes it more fun for me than any of the single player vectors out there.

Thought I'd say hi (hi!) and post a few pictures:
 

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Great game, and from the looks of it you have a nice cabinet as well. Any Atari Vector is a good game to have in a collection for sure. I should have my Space Duel on Monday, and I can't wait!
 
congrats on getting a great game!

You should probably look into recapping the monitor and replacing the big blue filter cap in the transformer asap.
 
Thanks :)


A look under the skirt...
 

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Well, I'm kind of a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" guy, but it is worth looking at the caps in the ARII board (the smaller power supply board below the game board) and in the monitor to see if they've been replaced recently. WG vector monitors fail occasionally, but they're easy to fix and the parts are readily available. Space Duel boards are pretty hardy, with only the AVG chip being difficult to source. I'd just check the +5 at the game board to make sure it's not too high and play it till it breaks!
 
Congrats! Space Duel was my first game as well, and the two-player aspect makes for a more enjoyable time.

Check your high-score table - is it saving scores after power-off? One problem with these is the EEPROM that saves the scores goes bad over time. Other than that little issue, mine's not given me a moment's problem in the 13 years I've had it.
 
It only saves the highest score of each of the four modes (1/2 player x linked/unlinked). I think that's the correct behavior and all the EEPROM has room for :)

I'm happy to hear that yours has been reliable. I was just chuckling at the warranty: 90 days on the PCBs; 30 days on the video display under "normal" usage. I wonder if they had any idea of how long these things were capable of running.
 
I love Space Duel as well but I wasn't smart enough to keep mine. When I got it, it had been covnverted to Major Havoc. I also picked up a Space Duel that was in lesser condition and was missing the monitor. Everything else was present and working. So, I was able to do a parts swap from time to time in order to enjoy both games. But, I needed money and should have sold something else instead. Both are great games. I probably miss Major Havoc more because of the challenge and really great gameplay but Space Duel is a great playing game as well. The MH CPO wasn't great and it had the spinner but the cabinet was minty and the SD parts were in great shape.
 
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/bigblue.html

You should replace big blue when you see an old one. Had a tempest that kept randomly taking out its monitor. Problem stopped once big blue was replaced.

When the caps are old in the monitor, the picture will be a little shakey. Replace the caps in the HV section and on the deflection pcb and it will be good to go.

Recapping the the audio reg 2 is probably a good idea. All those caps are 30 years old.. If you plan to keep it, You should do it.
 
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