The EYES Have It

Phetishboy

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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:

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to reveal a nearly perfect example:

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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:

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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:

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Here is the original CPO vs. the screened repro:

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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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Did Frogger have a shorty stick like that? The Froggers I had have had the long skinny stick. NO!?

Looks good. I like those Rockola games.
 
That's where I am at so far. I have begun stripping the paint off the cab and will then sand it down, clearcoat it and cover it with either white vinyl to look original, or black vinyl to make it look mean. Jeff Rothe had vectorized the side art, and Rich screened it, so I picked up a set of that a few years back as well. It is a beautiful blue color, which I think would look pretty hot on a black background. Here is how a typical factory EYES cab looked originally:

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Which I personally think sucks. I held the side art up to black vinyl, and it looks so much better. I really believe that's how it shoulda been done. When I did a little research for a black Rockola cab (to justify my choice) the only black Rockola cab I could find was Demon, and that was just a white cab painted over (side art and all) by the factory:

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Surely nice new black vinyl would look better than that?
 
Did Frogger have a shorty stick like that? The Froggers I had have had the long skinny stick. NO!?

Looks good. I like those Rockola games.

I have no idea, but I know that EYES used the skinny one. I bought a nice used but populated Frogger panel at CAX last year and that's the stick that was on it. I put the shaft in my drill, spun the ball on steel wool, then rubbing compound, then a terry cloth. I repeated the compound/terry cloth about 4-5 times, then buffed it with Novus 2. The ball started out as a scratched up mess, and became something beautiful:

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Awesome!! I love Eyes! It's such a great alternative to the Pac-series of games. Truthfully I think it's a better maze game than Pac or Ms. I have an Eyes board in a generic cocktail and my wife and I love playing it. It's actually my wife's favorite game as of now. We go back and forth trying to beat each others' high scores on it.

That CP turned out REALLY NICE! Can't wait to see the rest of the restoration on it.
 
Yes, I think the two tone black front and white sides is better and more interesting to my one single eye.

Hahahahahahaha, I wish I could slap you so hard that your other eye started actually working again. I don't know man, that white is just bad. I have both on hand, so we'll see. I will obviously start with the kickplate, leaving the final decision til the end.
 
The other Rockola cab I like is Jump Bug. Though it too was white like Eyes, it actually had dedicated side art and I like the blue kickplate:

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(yes that's a KLOV database image)
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Warp Warp also used the black/white combo (though it did at least have dedicated side art).


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Nibbler, very similar to Jump Bug but done in green and white rather than blue and white:

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Not sure why the generic side art was longer than the blue stuff. It really doesn't match the cab profile so even though it's bigger, it looks less 'right' than the small blue stuff.
 
I'm going to be watching this closely as I have a Rockola Eyes as well that desperately needs to be redone. I just put a new K7000 monitor and mine so I can now at least play the game!
 
Can anyone who has an EYES take a few pics of the monitor mounts for me? I assume there should be 2 metal brackets bolted to the side, but then is the monitor bolted to a piece of plywood and slid in? If so, are the frame ears set in front of the board or behind? Or did this game use metal cross beams? How about the inner bezel, paper or plastic? Also, what kind of speaker grill cover was used? Oval, rectangular? Thanks.
 
Also, if anyone is selling 4 long shaft leaf buttons I'd be interested in hearing from you. I have NONE on hand.
 
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