Opininions from the purists welcome

joeycuda said:
It'll swell if it gets much moisture, and it's already too swollen and rough for his tastes. I think this guy wants it to look pretty much new..the goal of his projects - and this cabinet will never cut it. Combine the swelling with the mold and I'd get rid of it too. There's a point when it's not worth saving and that's it, but I'm not saying the game isn't worth saving - I'd build a new cabinet for it.
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I think everyone has a different idea of swelling. I personally am fine with some wear on a cabinet, I fix them up, but to a point. From the photo he posted, If it were me would just give it a good cleaning/bleaching and see if that took care of the smell. That cabinet looks pretty good to me.
 
It's nice to see a civil thread on the topic without any terrorist posts.

If mildew is infused in the cabinet it might never go away. I used to have one and I tried chemical treatment and uv and more and ended up passing it along to another.

If the mildew was just on the bottom you could always swap out the bottom as an option and treat the bottom sides. In my case the whole cab was spore infused so it wasn't an option.

If you could get the smell gone and the swelling is not too bad you could always color the wood to match the molding and likely no one playing it would notice the extra eighth inch at the floor...
 
I would get the cabinet reproduced, and let someone else have the empty cab (if possible). If you could get one produced for under $300, and the money isn't a big deal, that sounds like the best option to me. From your post it sounds like sparing it's current cabinet is really the last thing you want to do anyway.
 
There are a select few pieces of the original cabinet structure that I'm going to try and save If I can sand and seall em up good, the plan is to build a new cab out of black melamine particle board and incorporate some of the old with the new and avoid finding another cabinet that's still gonna require a lot of work. Fortunately, atari never stamped their serial numbers so a transfer of the serial tag will be easy, not original to a purist of course but it will look like a fresh out of the box game when I'm done. This whole machine cost me $125 at the auction so it's certainly worth spending a few bucks on a new cabinet to keep it alive.
 
chris25810 said:
There are a select few pieces of the original cabinet structure that I'm going to try and save If I can sand and seall em up good, the plan is to build a new cab out of black melamine particle board and incorporate some of the old with the new and avoid finding another cabinet that's still gonna require a lot of work. Fortunately, atari never stamped their serial numbers so a transfer of the serial tag will be easy, not original to a purist of course but it will look like a fresh out of the box game when I'm done. This whole machine cost me $125 at the auction so it's certainly worth spending a few bucks on a new cabinet to keep it alive.
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Hear hear! Excellent decision. The force is with you :)
 
We should clear up the misconsptions. A purist is not a restoration hobbyist. A purist buys an item as it is and is always searching for the mint condition cab. He treats cabs like baseball cards, in that a bent corner detracts from the value, and cannot be fixed. A resoration/hobbyist usually trys to keep it original, but using repro parts are ok as long as they are good quality and keep the "spirit" of the machine intact. The cab is just wood. Getting a new cab made and simply transferring the parts is ok in my book, because the parts are still original. Now if you replace it with a VGA and a hard drive, it's no longer being restored, it's just a mame cab. Personally if I had access to a new cab, All of my games would be minty fresh built from the ground up.
 
Sell it to me for the rock-bottom auction price of $150 and I'll do all the work ;)


chris25810 said:
The purpose here isn't to mock anybody, this just happens to be one of those games that makes you go hmmmm. It's very rare, it's all there and now working but the cabinet itself is beyond what i would call a fun restoration. I've scrapped cabinets that have been in far better shape and i've also restored cabinets that have been worse.

This one seems to be stuck in the middle from a resto standpoint, the originality of the game doesn't mean much when it stinks so bad you can't stand it. A new cabinet is an easy answer yet to a purist it's not. Repair of this particular cabinet will mean a complete disassembly of the cabinet itself that won't be easy and when you're that far onit, it's alot easier to have a new one made or just scrap it.

The laminate used on these cabs does not simply peel off like we're used to seeing on other atari cabinets. I've tried it and all it does is take chunks of the wood as the laminate comes off in tiny little pieces. The best option here: bust up the cabinet for templates, drive the pieces up the road to the cabinet shop to have a new one made and let the cab shop run the original through their shredder when my new one is done. The originality factor of the game was gone a long time ago when new caps were put in the monitor, the coin mechs were changed from original, the coin box was replaced, carriage bolts were replaced with the wrong ones, leg levelers were replaced and the board was worked on so from a purist standpoint, it's not all original anyway. Slapping on some bondo, a paint job and filling it with new art and t-molding will certainly make it look pretty but now it's even further from original.

In case anyone's wondering, i'm far from a purist when it comes to these things. They're old, they stink, they look bad and i've yet to see any game from this era (not even an HUO) that i wouldn't do something with. Making it look better goes way beyond a windex bottle and a vacuum even if it means sacrificing the originality. If it can be made to look/smell new, i'm all over it, even if it means having new art created. If i can't or don't wanna do it, it gets scrapped and there really is no in between.

I had the manual in the house last night to look at a few things and within 5 minutes, my entire family was bitching that it stunk so bad in the living room, they couldn't stand it. My wife has commented for months about the "wet basement" "pee smell" in the garage and of course i know where it's coming from. Now, place the game as it is in your house and see how quickly the purist vision gets blurred.
Click to expand...
 
Option 1 if you don't love the game and in that case I would sell it as a lot, if possible, that way someone could do the transplant on their own and I think you would have no shortage of takers
Option 3 if you really want the game.

Don't even attempt to repair the cab. I've had half a dozen cabs with mold and smells, no amount of sanding, bondo and sealing could totally eliminate the smell. And with the health concerns over inhaling mold spores, its simply not worth the chance (here's where Arc will come in and say that I'm Satan for not spending every last ounce of your energy to try to revive this).
 
robotron911 said:
And with the health concerns over inhaling mold spores, its simply not worth the chance.
Click to expand...

Scarface.gif

Spores!
 
Have the new cab built and transplant the parts. That's the best option. If you're not passionate about the game, sell it as a project to someone who does. Pretty simple actually. I have a few games that don't exactly smell fresh, and a few that have slightly swollen wood, I don't actually mind that much.

One thing to keep in mind, although you own the game and can set fire to it if you choose, in the big picture we're all just custodians of these games for a brief time.
 
mclemore said:
It's nice to see a civil thread on the topic without any terrorist posts.
Click to expand...

That's because I haven't posted yet. I still find it funny that you view me as the terrorist Greg instead of guys that threaten to part and smash games if it's "not gone by this weekend". Who really sounds like the terrorist ?

Seriously though, this game is pretty borderline. I would take Rainman up on his offer of a Asteroids cab since it's gutted and then give the LL cabinet a shot and do like Dan said and also replace the bottom. You got nothing to lose on that cabinet. If it can be saved great, if not, at least you tried.

Robotron said:
This whole thing is a set up. He wants to make all of the "normal" collectors poke fun at what he calls "purists". He wants to draw out "purists" and mock them.

It really doesn't matter what we say. He is going to do whatever he wants with the LL. Its his game and his money. It obvious that he wants to do "Option 1"

And that is fine. Its his machine.

What would I do with the same machine if it were mine? I'd find an Asteroids that needs a board and swap out all the good parts of the LL.

Why? Because there were lots of asteroids made and not that many Lunar Landers. In fact I've never seen or played one in all 51 years of my life. I'd love to at least play one before I die, but considering how few there are, it will probably never happen.
Click to expand...

I agree somewhat about the set up. No matter how I answer I am going to get crucified. If you really want to play Lunar Lander, drive on over to Boise. You are welcome any time.
 
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