Sir Hacks-A-Lot - A Sinistar story

Dokert

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Here I sit, waiting on more wire to arrive in order to continue the Atari Test Aid production. A knock comes at my door, and low and behold here stands a friend with a Sinistar out in his truck. He asks if he can drop it off, and have me take a look at it in my spare time. Spare time, yeah right I am retired and have nothing but spare time.

He tells me that the sound works, but the speech is missing and it needs a new spider for the joystick.

I open her up and find a switcher has been hacked in place, and I say... that sure looks like Sir Hacks-A-Lot (a local route OP) worked on this game. He laughs and says, yeah that is where the game came from after being passed around a bit between collectors.

Well, I have seen worse and decided to see what I can do. It is weird how these different games that Sir Hacks-A-Lot has worked on keep ending up out in my driveway for repairs.

100_4471.jpg100_4472.jpg100_4473.jpg100_4474.jpg100_4475.jpg
 
When he said 'new spider', was he talking about the mess coming out of the power supply? ;)
 
I have seen worse. It would have been nice if he had left the original power supply for rebuilding though.

The battery placement is classic though. Instead of putting it where it will spray all over the board, let's put it where it will spray all over the components and then drip down the board....:top:

ken
 
I think I have purchased some of Sir Hacks-A-Lot's machines;)
That will look great with a new harness!!:cool:
 
When he said 'new spider', was he talking about the mess coming out of the power supply? ;)

:eek:

I should come over and test out my Sinistar speech and sound board...

Come on over.

I am building a new harness right now, and almost have it done. Rebuilt and tested a power supply a couple of days ago. Thankfully the power brick is untouched, but it will need some light repairs to the output connector. I will be taking pics as I go.
 
You know you're getting deep into the hobby when you start recognizing local operators by their signature hacks.

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and be there when the hack is in progress to say "What the @!#?@! are you doing?!"
 
Eh, I've seen worse. Actually nothing all that wrong with the power supply, provided it's working properly. I mean, come on, it's a power supply. It doesn't matter if it's original equipment or not. Sure, the installation leaves a bit to be desired... but, hey - it kept the game in service, didn't it? And, at least the switcher was mounted to the cabinet, and not just laying on the bottom, like I so often see.

My Robotron was an even worse mess. Seriously bad hacks to the power supply, then a switcher thrown in the bottom of the cabinet, but not hooked up. Control panel harness completely missing, hacked in with Cat-5 ethernet wire.

-Ian
 
Eh, I've seen worse. Actually nothing all that wrong with the power supply, provided it's working properly. I mean, come on, it's a power supply. It doesn't matter if it's original equipment or not. Sure, the installation leaves a bit to be desired... but, hey - it kept the game in service, didn't it? And, at least the switcher was mounted to the cabinet, and not just laying on the bottom, like I so often see.

My Robotron was an even worse mess. Seriously bad hacks to the power supply, then a switcher thrown in the bottom of the cabinet, but not hooked up. Control panel harness completely missing, hacked in with Cat-5 ethernet wire.

-Ian

Ian, Want to compare Rototron Hack pics:eek: Mine was unreal!!
 
This not even remotely close to the worst that I have seen, or repaired. My friend asked that I document the repairs for him, so I thought I would share.
 
Control panel harness completely missing, hacked in with Cat-5 ethernet wire.

-Ian

While I don't recall using Cat-5 for a control panel, I have used it for video cables. It works quite well for low voltage applications like control panels and video cables. Plus I had about a half mile of it that I got for free out of the dumpster at my last job....:D

ken
 
Ian, Want to compare Rototron Hack pics:eek: Mine was unreal!!


http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/cp_connector.jpg
Oh look! The control pannel connector. How... nice.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/cp_ratsnest.jpg
Look at this wonderful control panel wiring job!

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/metal_clip.jpg
Anyone spot the shock hazard?

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/ps_horrors.jpg
Three power supply problems, all within a few square inches! Can anyone spot them?

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/rectifier_attempted_soldering.jpg
Here's a better look at one of them...


And, if you want to read the whole thread, it's here:
http://forums.klov.com/showthread.php?t=88159

-Ian
 
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Looks like Sir-Hacks-A-Lot has been down here to Georgia as well. I serviced a Bump-n-Jump at a local daycare place that had a switcher hacked into the original harness... I ended up replacing that switching power supply with another one because it was bad.

I ended up trading that machine out plus some cash in exchange for a cheap multi.

Nocashvalue now has that BnJ cabinet, which he plans to convert to a Journey.
 
That guy gives Jerry-riggers a bad name... :eek:


Oh wait...

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/cp_connector.jpg
Oh look! The control pannel connector. How... nice.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/cp_ratsnest.jpg
Look at this wonderful control panel wiring job!

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/metal_clip.jpg
Anyone spot the shock hazard?

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/ps_horrors.jpg
Three power supply problems, all within a few square inches! Can anyone spot them?

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg280/RetroHacker/rectifier_attempted_soldering.jpg
Here's a better look at one of them...


And, if you want to read the whole thread, it's here:
http://forums.klov.com/showthread.php?t=88159

-Ian
 
This not even remotely close to the worst that I have seen, or repaired. My friend asked that I document the repairs for him, so I thought I would share.

Dave while I certainly agree this guys "craftsmanship" sucks I think we all need to realize/remind ourselves that these OPS didn't (and still don't) give two shits about their games. They didn't care if the CPO was torn or burned, they didn;t care if some rotten little bastard tore the side art off or if a corner got damaged moving the machine. These were purchased with the sole intention to make money - that is it. And when an OP has 100's of games out in the Jon Q Public they'd do anything as fast as they could to get a game functional again. It's not like anyone would see the internals right?

I used to get upset when I'd get a machine that was hacked to hell .... anymore I expect it with any game I acquire.

And besides - you're retired and ain't got shit to do so be thankful these morons are keeping you occupied lol
 
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