Picked up a Battlezone

[Lumonic]

Ive always wanted a Battlezone since I was a kid. Guy local to me that buys/sells had a BZ in pretty nice condition but it stopped working a couple weeks ago. He has too many plates spinning as it is so he sold it as is. Monitor is supposed to be good. AR2 board has been redone and big blue has been replaced. Has one of the savehighscores kits in place. Won't go into test mode no matter what I do. Aux board disconnected and still nothing. Scoped the rails and they are good. Reset is always high so no watchdogging. I did find bad fuses on the 36v and checked for anything after that that would have overloaded it, the +/-15v on the board is good. So im not sure what could have caused that. Coin counter keeps clicking too.

Anyway, Im not too worried about that, I plan on resocketing and restoring the PCBA to stock and burn some new EPROMs once my smaller metcal desoldering tip shows up. Been talking to Bob Perkins and plan on sending it in to him if I cant get it going myself. Also ordered a redzone but it would be nice to have a working board set.

Started cleaning it up. Removed the periscope and took out the windows and marquee and cleaned those all up. Had to use a heat gun to get the sticker off the marquee. Cleaned the gels, the black cardboard bezel is pretty trashed so I copied it into solidworks and will cut it out on the laser cutter later. Removed the mirror and cleaned that with methanol. Also cleaned up the backdrop with a document cleaner which worked pretty well. Going to go through the sticks next, who knows the last time they were maintained.

 

[vintagegamer]

Great game but can tend to be high maintenance. Keep it going and you'll love it!

Be sure to add it to the BZ holes no holes registry!

 

[Lumonic]

Yeah, 45 tear old electronics. Not too worried, i do have an electronics background.

 

[SNESNESCUBE64]

Battlezone is a really cool game. It was one of the ones that made me want to get into the hobby. Mine was a bit of a headache, but they seem to be relatively straight-forward to work on. Lots of awesome people on the forums who know can provide a wealth of knowledge about em.

Mine was a bit of a headache. The monitor and game board all needed help. Folk on the forums really helped teach me troubleshooting it. I kinda wanna try my hand at another...

 

[Lumonic]

Battlezone is a really cool game. It was one of the ones that made me want to get into the hobby. Mine was a bit of a headache, but they seem to be relatively straight-forward to work on. Lots of awesome people on the forums who know can provide a wealth of knowledge about em.

Mine was a bit of a headache. The monitor and game board all needed help. Folk on the forums really helped teach me troubleshooting it. I kinda wanna try my hand at another...

Yeah, I think the next ones on my bucket list ones for me are Tron, Bubble Bobble, Star Trek, and Star Wars

 

[purpleibby]

Congrats...beautiful and FUN game to play!

 

[VectorCollector]

BZ is in my list of TOP 5 FAVORITE VECTORS.
(Knock on wood, my BZ has been working, with no repairs and an added subwoofer, for >30years in my Arcade. Not all vectors are "high maintenance").

 

[Vagabond180]

Congratulations! BZ is my old favorite. I bought the front housing from a guy just yesterday to get started on building one. Great to read that there are a number of BZ experts to advise.

 

[Lumonic]

BZ is in my list of TOP 5 FAVORITE VECTORS.
(Knock on wood, my BZ has been working, with no repairs and an added subwoofer, for >30years in my Arcade. Not all vectors are "high maintenance").

A subwoofer??? External or internal?

 

[VectorCollector]

A subwoofer??? External or internal?

Search KLOV and you will find the answers.

 

[Lumonic]

Took some time tonight to go though the sticks. They are in good condition, Though some idiot in the past used too long of screw on the handle and it poked through the plastic. I will have to do something about that later.

Bellows are in great shape, no cracks that I can see. Though one of these tappets are not like the other. Looks like at some point someone lost one of them and replaces it with a cut off nail. I took a piece of PEEK I had lying around and made a new one. Lubed back up with silicone grease and they move very smoothly now.

Need to run down to blick to get a piece of black matte board to make a new bezel for the CRT tomorrow. Then I can close the front back up.

My redzone shipped so we shall soon see if the monitor really works. Also went ahead and ordered new caps and IC sockets for the original boards.

 

[ArcadeMaze]

Battlezone is wonderful. A 'must have' for me.

The periscope is a must. my wife always knows if I have been playing from the red mark/dent on my forehead.

 

[Lumonic]

Yep, I remember telling my friend around middle school that battlezone was the game I wanted. That was a long time ago.

I burned some ROM today. Went and pulled out the high score save board and put the old 6502 and it hardly felt like I was putting anything in. I have new sockets on the way. Tested with the new roms and the cpu in place and even less activity than before.

I picked up some matte board from Blick and used the laser cutter to cut it out. Set the power low to scribe the fold line.

 

[journeymandt]

Great game... it's on my want list.

Cool toys(lathe & laser) you've got access to! Makes fixing stuff lots easier!

Also, welcome to the forum!

Dylan

 

[BobLangelius]

Took some time tonight to go though the sticks. They are in good condition, Though some idiot in the past used too long of screw on the handle and it poked through the plastic. I will have to do something about that later.

Bellows are in great shape, no cracks that I can see. Though one of these tappets are not like the other. Looks like at some point someone lost one of them and replaces it with a cut off nail. I took a piece of PEEK I had lying around and made a new one. Lubed back up with silicone grease and they move very smoothly now.

Need to run down to blick to get a piece of black matte board to make a new bezel for the CRT tomorrow. Then I can close the front back up.

My redzone shipped so we shall soon see if the monitor really works. Also went ahead and ordered new caps and IC sockets for the original boards.

A six jaw! Nice!

 

[Lumonic]

A six jaw! Nice!

Yeah. Buck Set-Tru. My main chuck I use.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Looks nice.

Do you have an oscilloscope? You really shouldn't try to test the game if you don't know it's working properly. You could damage the CRT.

 

[mopar5150]

Great score! Battlezone is the only game I regret selling.

 

[Lumonic]

Looks nice.

Do you have an oscilloscope? You really shouldn't try to test the game if you don't know it's working properly. You could damage the CRT.

Three or four of them. I check and there is no output from the X and Y test points

 

[Lumonic]

Redzone arrived today and it works.
Pretty much at least. Monitor is dark in areas and all sorts of distortion. So I got a rebuild kit on the way.

Got some led 365nm UV lamps to light the backdrop. Going to need to add a white because they relied on the white output of the BL lamp to light up the non-fluorescent parts and the led is pretty narrow band. LED for the front too.