Scramble restoration

[conrad]

Picked up a Time Pilot cabinet today. It has a bootleg "Space Pilot" PCB, generic bezel, generic control panel (I think, let me know if anyone recognizes it), and what appears to be a real Time Pilot marquee,

Based on the tag inside the coin door: it was converted from Super Cobra. Very clean cabinet, with the original coin door.

I have always wanted to own a Scramble, and this looks a great candidate to convert. I think Super Cobra and Scramble had the same cabinet, let me know if anyone knows for sure. I'll track the restoration here.

I just got it into my garage, haven't had time to take photos yet. Here's the seller's photo.

 

[conrad]

My photos

 

[conrad]

A few more photos. Cabinet number is 245.

 

[ida34]

I have both cabs. I will try to remember to take a look in the next day or two if no one answers up.

 

[geech]

As far as I know they are the same cab and same harness. You might also find the number stamped into the upper front section of either side or on the front panel too. My Scramble is numbered that way but no interior stencil. Good luck! Bring that spaceman to life! Such a gorgeous cab when it's all done.

 

[conrad]

Good luck! Bring that spaceman to life! Such a gorgeous cab when it's all done.

I will!

The harness is original, and the cabinet's in great shape. No major dings, no water damage, all the corners are intact, etc.

The only thing that appears to be missing (beyond the original PCB, control panel and marquee) is the original power supply, it was converted to a switching PSU at some point. That will make it easier to get Bitkit going (with Scramble, Super Cobra, etc). I am planning to hunt down an original Scramble PCB as well.

This Old Game had one set of Scramble Stencils left, so I bought it in anticipation of getting this cab. I'm going to strip the cab, repaint it yellow, stencil it, recap the monitor (K4600), etc.

I've been trying to find the Scramble paint color codes so I can order matching paint, there's conflicting when I google that. Let me know if anyone has them.

 

[conrad]

I ordered a 2nd Bitkit for this cab (thanks again, @CraftyMech !), playing Scramble here (with P1 mapped to the bomb button).

I'm going to replace the control panel.

I also tried Ms Pac Man, and it's pretty painful on an 8-way joystick (as others here have pointed out). My original Bitkit is in a Galaxian cab (2-way joystick).

You know what that means: I need a third Bitkit!

 

[geech]

My BitKit is in my Scramble and yeah, the 8-way can really suck for certain games. I've still managed to rack up 677k on Eyes with it though. 4-way would be ideal for those but I make do.

 

[CraftyMech]

I ordered a 2nd Bitkit for this cab (thanks again, @CraftyMech !), playing Scramble here (with P1 mapped to the bomb button).

I'm going to replace the control panel.

I also tried Ms Pac Man, and it's pretty painful on an 8-way joystick (as others here have pointed out). My original Bitkit is in a Galaxian cab (2-way joystick).

You know what that means: I need a third Bitkit!

Great project, the Scramble artwork is awesome and gives me a late 70s pinball vibe (no surprise I guess coming from Stern).

Scramble / Super Cobra do use the same cabinet. In my cabinet I originally had Super Cobra/Scramble pcbs on a switcher, until I put a BitKit in that cabinet for testing 8-way games.

You can never have enough BitKits!

 

[highscoreheroes]

I've been trying to find the Scramble paint color codes so I can order matching paint, there's conflicting when I google that. Let me know if anyone has them.

I have a Scramble cab that was painted over that I recently stripped and the colors underneath were still vibrant. I'm not sure what the process is for getting color codes made (especially since I assume I'd have to buy some paint in the process) but I might be able to get some sampled from the cab.

 

[geech]

Is there any substantial overspray on the inside? Mine redone when I got it and you can tell the yellow is a little lighter & brighter than the original, which is kind of flat. Check out Phet's old thread for some insight. Though he went with a lighter shade too.

Latest project- Lost Tomb/Stern Cab Resto

Figured I would post my progress on this one. Started with a beat up Amidar cab that had been converted to Time Pilot: Paint was worn and faded: bottom was torn up and peeling/delaminating: stripped the cab and glued and clamped all loose plywood: Then mixed up 3 batches of bondo...

forums.arcade-museum.com

another take: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/scramble-restoration.200262/post-1771903

 

[VidyaGamez]

My photos

View attachment 508681View attachment 508682View attachment 508683View attachment 508685

That cabinet looks to be in really good shape, good luck on the resto!

 

[conrad]

I ordered a replacement glass bezel from Phoenix Arcade and a marquee from Escape Pod.



The S P A C E P O R N graphic is a trip! Oddly, I don't remember it from back in the day (and Scramble was one of my favorites back then). Given my age at the time (14 or so), it seems like it would, um, stick out.



And, in a first from me, the coin door bulbs appear to be original, and (mostly) working. The one nearest the door lock cuts out now and again. I will look for a replacement.



I also have an original (and populated) Scramble control panel I acquired from a KLOV member, but the joystick mapping appears to be different than what's in the cab now. Same molex connector, but slightly different mapping (the right joystick seems to be permanently on, and P2 doesn't work). This cab was originally a Super Cobra, so I was hoping it would be plug and play, but someone may have rewired it for the Space Pilot conversion. I'm planning to rewire it over the weekend.

 

[geech]

Space porn? She's just singin' karaoke!

 

[conrad]

Latest update:

I ordered a control panel from a forum member. 100% complete, and it great shape overall. Had the original thin-handle Wico joystick, with worked for a while, and then collapsed down into the control panel. I ordered some replacement parts for that, and used some Novus on the handle/shaft. which came out pretty good.





You can see a blurry token on my desk: it was wedged between the meta control panel overlay and the wood below. It's from Family Amusement Center (with a clown on it).

Here's the current state of the cab. I have a NOS fat-handle Wico joystick in there for now, pending restoration of the original.





I had to add a wire to the PCB edge connector for the bomb button, which was missing it. I did some research on which pin/wire to add. A lot of the pinouts are for generic Stern/Konami PCBs, and it wasn't immediately clear (to me) which one I should use. A few posts mentioned pin C, which maps to p2 fire, which was not correct (I tried).

I found this Super Cobra pinout, which showed pin F used for "1 player shoot 2" (pin F shows empty on the Mike's Arcade pinout). I tried that, and it worked (both on an original Scramble PCB set, plus the BitKit via a Jamma adapter). Describing all of that here in case someone else needs to add a missing bomb wire to their Stern cab.

I assumed this cabinet was originally Super Cobra (based on the tag in the coin door). Now I'm not sure, since I assume Super Cobra must have had a harness that supported a working bomb button).

Now it's 100% functional. On the todo list: restore the original joystick, recap the monitor, replace the flaky fluorescent light bulb, find a coin box, and strip/paint/stencil the cab.

 

[geech]

Just noticed you have the Konami ROMs too. Bonus! Slower fuel consumption with those. Looking good, and yes indeed, Super Cobra has the same controls.