Space Wars Lives Again!

Phetishboy

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
47,929
Reaction score
9,391
Location
Avon, Minnesota
Long story short, I had restored a Space Wars a while back. After the resto everything was fine for a few months. After a while though, I was noticing that my monitor was taking longer and longer to warm up. When it hit the 10 minute mark, I decided to rejuve the tube. That only made it worse. Now it was taking 20+ minutes for a decent pic to come up. Over time, this increased to about an hour, which obviously sucked. I went out and bought a NOS tube, installed it, and waited. 6 hours later, I could finally see faint ship images on the edges of the tube. WTF? I decided to contact Van Burnam who I knew was a Cinematronics and Vectorbeam fanatic. She put me in contact with her husband Seamus, who just happened to work for those companies in their heyday. After a lengthy email conversation, I sent my chassis to Seamus for repair. Best decision I ever made.

A huge thanks go out to Van Burnham and Seamus Blackley for completely repairing and refurbishing my ancient Cinematronics Monitor chassis. Seriously, I am in their debt forever. Add that rebuilt, upgraded and modified chassis to the NOS Amperex tube I picked up from Komodo last year, and I have what I believe to be the best pic a Space Wars has to offer. The stars twinkle, the ships and black hole sun are bright as hell and the pic is sized and rotated properly. Thanks again guys.

DSC01463.jpg
 
If you really sit back and think about how long ago this was designed, how old it is, and how long it was probably intended to work, this is amazing to see. I wonder how many fully working Space Wars games there even are out there..
 
Dlbagna (Dave) and I had a small duel on Saturday night with this game. It's fun. It's like head to head Asteroids - who can blow each other up first?

MAN, those ships fly around that screen fast. Holy crap, my drunk eyes could barely keep up.
 
You seriously waited 6 hours for the tube to warm up? I don't get that.

What don't you get? We installed the new tube and then worked on other projects all day, periodically checking the monitor to see if a pic would come up. We left it on about 7 hours. After 6, a faint image appeared. 1 hour later, the image never got any brighter, so we shut it off, waited a few minutes then turned it back on. We were just waiting to see if ANY pic would come up at all. Since before the tube swap it was taking an hour for a perfect pic to come up, I wanted to see if a perfect pic would EVER come up with the new tube. After 7 hours, it never did. Let's call it an experiment.

Your Friend,


Conway Phetty
 
I'll vouch for how nice the picture is. Zookeeper and I had a "fast" ship dual on party night, and it was a thing of beauty. Funny thing is, the rest of the game looks just as nice. Congrats on owning a VERY cool game.
 
Glad you got it working again, Now you can turn that refrigerator around. You should mod it to be a dual kegerator/space wars, there certainly is room for it in that cabinet. ;)
 
I am doing a rebuild on a cinematronics monitor right now. We'll see if I can do it. It's amazing how many parts need to be replaced on these. Any idea what was wrong with your chassis that he fixed? HV section? All those insane numbers of diodes? Tat caps?
 
If you really sit back and think about how long ago this was designed, how old it is, and how long it was probably intended to work, this is amazing to see. I wonder how many fully working Space Wars games there even are out there..

35 years later, it's still amazing to play as well. Simple, but oh so fun when you have a second player who knows how to play. Vector Combat in space. Who didn't love Combat on the 2600?
 
I am doing a rebuild on a cinematronics monitor right now. We'll see if I can do it. It's amazing how many parts need to be replaced on these. Any idea what was wrong with your chassis that he fixed? HV section? All those insane numbers of diodes? Tat caps?

He replaced the HV section completely and jumped a few solder points. There was a mouse nest inside the old HV cage. I bought it that way so it worked like that for a good long while before finally burning out.
 
I'd just like to say that there is probably no cooler couples names than Van Burnham and Seamus Blackley.

Oh, and grats on the Space Wars working again. Feels good, eh?
 
I'd just like to say that there is probably no cooler couples names than Van Burnham and Seamus Blackley.

Oh, and grats on the Space Wars working again. Feels good, eh?

You bet it does. I am amazed at how much I missed the game when it wasn't working. And yes, their names are pretty sweet when uttered in the same sentence.
 
I am amazed at how much I missed the game when it wasn't working.

Im the same way.

My OutRun had been OOC for the past 3 months (monitor sync issues) and Sammy decided to plug it in this past weekend and it still didn't work. The next day he plugged it in again, and it was fine. Weird. He and I have been playing the SHIT out of it the past 3 days. So fun. You miss those that dont work and it always seems like time passes and they are down for long periods.
 
Im the same way.

My OutRun had been OOC for the past 3 months (monitor sync issues) and Sammy decided to plug it in this past weekend and it still didn't work. The next day he plugged it in again, and it was fine. Weird. He and I have been playing the SHIT out of it the past 3 days. So fun. You miss those that dont work and it always seems like time passes and they are down for long periods.

I miss my Outrun a bit, I saw there was a $100 Working Sega Power Drift FS near me. Wonder if that one's any fun? *Kinda* looks like an updated version of Outrun.
 
I miss my Outrun a bit, I saw there was a $100 Working Sega Power Drift FS near me. Wonder if that one's any fun? *Kinda* looks like an updated version of Outrun.

Never heard of it, but I don't think you can go wrong with a $100 racer. If anything the kids will love it.
 
If anyone would like to replicate Phet's experience, I have 2 Space Wars cabinets complete waiting for restoration and a box of parts for a third. Not trying to hijack a thread. Just thought I would mention that this game is one of my grails that I hope to get to later this summer. I bought these three to keep them from getting parted. (One of them will be as the cabinet is toast. (yet complete) If you have never played it vs another player, you are truly missing out on one of the best vector experiences there is. With all the game options available, every game is different and even more challenging than he previous. Congrats on the repair.
 
If anyone would like to replicate Phet's experience, I have 2 Space Wars cabinets complete waiting for restoration and a box of parts for a third. Not trying to hijack a thread. Just thought I would mention that this game is one of my grails that I hope to get to later this summer. I bought these three to keep them from getting parted. (One of them will be as the cabinet is toast. (yet complete) If you have never played it vs another player, you are truly missing out on one of the best vector experiences there is. With all the game options available, every game is different and even more challenging than he previous. Congrats on the repair.

Thanks Pat. Obviously you really have to like the game to go for the Cinematronics version as it is massive and will take up 2 spots in any game room. I had to have that version though as it's the first 2 player arcade game I ever played as a youth in 1982, when the game was already 5+ years old. I plan to have a pick up some colored gel material and tag board to make a removable bezel/overlay to change the monitor's color at will. I'd love to find a nice Star Castle overlay as the center circle would fit over the black hole sun pretty nicely. If I can't find one of those, I think I am gonna try Blue like Asteroids Deluxe, Green like Battlezone or just plain red for the hell of it.
 
He replaced the HV section completely and jumped a few solder points. There was a mouse nest inside the old HV cage. I bought it that way so it worked like that for a good long while before finally burning out.

How long did it take them to repair it? Weeks? Months?

Is the HV section on Space Wars a separate Keltron unit or is it located right on the board?
 
How long did it take them to repair it? Weeks? Months?

Is the HV section on Space Wars a separate Keltron unit or is it located right on the board?

It was originally located on the chassis, but Seamus upgraded me to the newer unit mounted on the frame separate from but connected to the chassis. It took a while, but they were busy launching a new company while they had my stuff.
 
Outstanding Phet, its looking great. So glad to hear there are still folks out there that are willing to help ppl like us out, and get them classics running like new...
 
Back
Top Bottom