Phetishboy
Well-known member
So I finally started gathering all the parts for my upcoming EYES restoration. For those not aware, EYES was/is a really cool maze game put out in 1982 by Rockola (yes the Jukebox company). In the game, you play an organic eyeball trying to traverse a maze with evil robotic eyes chasing and trying to eliminate you. Once you clear a maze of all the objects you can consume, you move onto the next level. It's pretty obvious that the game was developed because of and to be in direct competition with the Pacman/Ms. Pacman games. I discovered the game when I first got my 96 in 1 Pacman Multi from Mike Doyle about 5 years back. Though the game is similar to Pacman, one huge improvement over the Pac series to me is that you can actually shoot your pursuers (but they can also shoot you). In addition, I think that the sounds from this game are simply (and literally) stellar. Very surreal/robotic/space age type sounds that really add to the game play.
First off, I needed to obtain an original Rockola cabinet. Nothing spectacular about the cab, but I had to have an original to start with, or the word 'restoration' kind of becomes a moot point. About 4 years back, I ended up getting one secured from former KLOVer Tekkev. He somehow got it up to Brett's in Ohio, and it was later brought to the Twin Cities by someone making a DPTwiz run, and brought to me in Avon by Chris25810. The cab was stripped bare (not a coin door, control panel or marquee bracket to be seen) but it was solid with little to no corner or edge damage. Though it was sturdy and clean, it had been poorly painted black. Before I can do anything to the cab, the paint will have to be stripped. (pics later)
Next I needed to find a marquee. I wanted an original in nice shape, but had no idea where I'd find one. Did a little searching and found that Anthony at QuarterArcade actually had some NOS ones (with protective paper intact) among his inventory. I bought one on the spot. Just this morning I removed the protective paper:
to reveal a nearly perfect example:
I also secured a working board-set from Anthony, which I ordered with the marquee. I had no idea where I'd find an EYES harness, so I decided I'd go JAMMA and have an adapter made. Forum member kstillin responded to my request thread and offered to build me one, which he did. Well, when I got it, I used it to test the board and everything worked fine. That was 4 years ago. The stuff was put in a box and stored with the marquee until yesterday.
Next I needed a bezel. It's been so long that I can't really remember where I secured that, but I did end up with a KLOVer offering me a pretty nice used Rockola bezel:
Well now we get to the interesting part. I of course needed to find a Control Panel. Well, if you've ever seen a Rockola machine, you know the CPs are like no other CPs in the world today. The cp itself is just a rectangular chunk of MDF. Nothing spectacular there. Onto that MDF is placed an adhesive backed CPO. Again, nothing remarkable about that either. Where it gets weird is the hardware. At the top (bezel side) and bottom (player side) of the CP, over the CPO, 2 metal brackets are screwed into the MDF, right thru the CPO. The one at the top is shaped like a relaxed 'V' (similar to the bracket above the CP on a TRON that everyone seems to be missing) and the bottom one is curved (much like the upper marquee bracket of a classic Nintendo machine). Since I had no originals with my cab, flynn54321 borrowed me a set. I then had KLOVer 56321?Aaron fab me up a set. He also fabbed up a set of marquee brackets for me. I then got an old burnt up control panel board with overlay from flynn54321, but it had no hardware or controls. Now the other piece of hardware the Rockola control panels used was a colored metal joystick plate which also screwed down right on top of the CPO. flynn54321 had these fabbed up and painted. I bought one and sat on it for 2 years. Since the original CPO on the panel I had was so melted from ciggy butts, I needed to scan, vectorize and have Rich screen a whole run of Rockola CPOs so that I could get one for my machine. Here's the original file:
Here is the original CPO vs. the screened repro:
Last night, I gathered up all the pieces, polished up an old small 4-way Wico leaf stick from a Frogger and decided to assemble the panel:
First off, I needed to obtain an original Rockola cabinet. Nothing spectacular about the cab, but I had to have an original to start with, or the word 'restoration' kind of becomes a moot point. About 4 years back, I ended up getting one secured from former KLOVer Tekkev. He somehow got it up to Brett's in Ohio, and it was later brought to the Twin Cities by someone making a DPTwiz run, and brought to me in Avon by Chris25810. The cab was stripped bare (not a coin door, control panel or marquee bracket to be seen) but it was solid with little to no corner or edge damage. Though it was sturdy and clean, it had been poorly painted black. Before I can do anything to the cab, the paint will have to be stripped. (pics later)
Next I needed to find a marquee. I wanted an original in nice shape, but had no idea where I'd find one. Did a little searching and found that Anthony at QuarterArcade actually had some NOS ones (with protective paper intact) among his inventory. I bought one on the spot. Just this morning I removed the protective paper:
to reveal a nearly perfect example:
I also secured a working board-set from Anthony, which I ordered with the marquee. I had no idea where I'd find an EYES harness, so I decided I'd go JAMMA and have an adapter made. Forum member kstillin responded to my request thread and offered to build me one, which he did. Well, when I got it, I used it to test the board and everything worked fine. That was 4 years ago. The stuff was put in a box and stored with the marquee until yesterday.
Next I needed a bezel. It's been so long that I can't really remember where I secured that, but I did end up with a KLOVer offering me a pretty nice used Rockola bezel:
Well now we get to the interesting part. I of course needed to find a Control Panel. Well, if you've ever seen a Rockola machine, you know the CPs are like no other CPs in the world today. The cp itself is just a rectangular chunk of MDF. Nothing spectacular there. Onto that MDF is placed an adhesive backed CPO. Again, nothing remarkable about that either. Where it gets weird is the hardware. At the top (bezel side) and bottom (player side) of the CP, over the CPO, 2 metal brackets are screwed into the MDF, right thru the CPO. The one at the top is shaped like a relaxed 'V' (similar to the bracket above the CP on a TRON that everyone seems to be missing) and the bottom one is curved (much like the upper marquee bracket of a classic Nintendo machine). Since I had no originals with my cab, flynn54321 borrowed me a set. I then had KLOVer 56321?Aaron fab me up a set. He also fabbed up a set of marquee brackets for me. I then got an old burnt up control panel board with overlay from flynn54321, but it had no hardware or controls. Now the other piece of hardware the Rockola control panels used was a colored metal joystick plate which also screwed down right on top of the CPO. flynn54321 had these fabbed up and painted. I bought one and sat on it for 2 years. Since the original CPO on the panel I had was so melted from ciggy butts, I needed to scan, vectorize and have Rich screen a whole run of Rockola CPOs so that I could get one for my machine. Here's the original file:
Here is the original CPO vs. the screened repro:
Last night, I gathered up all the pieces, polished up an old small 4-way Wico leaf stick from a Frogger and decided to assemble the panel:
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