Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle

General Chat => Arcade Lifestyle => Topic started by: tb lilley on September 08, 2012, 09:25:36 PM

Title: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on September 08, 2012, 09:25:36 PM
I've been on a bit of a road trip today:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/755b0f908f845fdc7da00a3bb6dca9a1.jpg)

440 mile round trip .....

I know it doesn't look much, but she's got potential .....

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/7F4D0277-E45A-498B-93A9-A1DE407461E3-1999-000000E1E11945E8.jpg)

I love Atari cabarets.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: PaulSwan on September 08, 2012, 09:48:19 PM
That's quite a restoration you have ahead of you...
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on September 08, 2012, 10:28:21 PM
Yeah. I know. I was 'bored' so thought I'd take it on. Believe it or not I've taken on worse than this before. No kidding. It's very much a long term project, something to keep me 'amused' during the winter months. But yeah, it's gonna be a big job .... Looking forward to it though.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Alpha1 on September 08, 2012, 10:32:35 PM
Where was that? I'm 2 miles from Southampton, you should have said and popped in.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Muerto on September 08, 2012, 10:41:44 PM
good luck with the 'Tempest??' restore!!!!
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on September 09, 2012, 09:11:20 AM
Lets folow this , that is a lot of work, so take alot of pics !

I like what atari did; keeping the same fullsize monitor in the cabarets!

Here some motivation  ;)

http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l628/JoeB1355/Tempest%20Cabaret/
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Capt. Kirk on September 09, 2012, 05:13:11 PM
Yeah, the Centipede Cabaret-Cab even got the same size 2"-Trackball. It plays and looks like its bigger brother.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on November 25, 2012, 11:14:56 PM
I've not had much time to do a lot with this, but have made some recent progress. This was a Centipede cabaret, but at some point in it's life it had been converted to a pinball video game. Which means it'd had holes drilled and flipper buttons fitted to the sides.

I struggled with deciding what to do with it. It came to me with most of the difficult parts to find to turn it back to Centipede, apart from the bezel, which was never going to be easy to find. Plus I'm not massively keen on Centipede. 

I've been after a Tempest cabaret for a while, and Centi and Tempest cabarets (bar a couple of extra vents on the back) share an identical cab ..... A Tempest conversion was always going to be difficult. For a start I'd need the cabaret marquee and control panel - impossible - I know of a guy in the US that's been looking for those parts for about a year. And then there's the small matter of a colour vector monitor .... 

Cut a long story short, this little lot fell into my lap. Very unexpected, but very welcome:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/F6FEFD91-67EB-467E-B42D-5EBF71CFB7EF-6503-00000277617AAAF4.jpg)

The Tempest PCB set wasn't part of the deal - I dropped lucky with a US seller for that. I also dropped lucky with getting hold of a WG6100. Picked up a WG6100 tube, with zero burn, cage, and HV unit. Snagged a neck card shortly afterwards, and I have a deflection PCB about to arrive from the US.

So, the Tempest conversion is on. The biggest cosmetic challenge was sorting out the sides. The holes that had been cut for pinball buttons couldn't be covered up without sorting the rest of the sides. Plus, the sides were in pretty poor shape - so I decided to renew the sides completely.

A case of sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill repeat repeat etc etc.

Here's the cab at its worst:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/397CD9AD-6210-4920-85C7-98196C716891-4807-000002387EFE18C9.jpg)

The wood around the control panel area had really suffered. I imagine this was from when the cab was operated as a pinball game - would have been the natural place to grip whilst using the flipper buttons on the side:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/ACC1A0D8-0994-469A-B528-1FA406C0199C-4807-00000238869CC585.jpg)

The other side of the cab was in better nick:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/FF2C773A-3FE5-483D-98B1-88CEEC0FACC6-4807-0000023897A216C1.jpg)

Here she is, looking in need of a bit of work .....

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/FC5C00D5-C28E-4204-A3B8-205E03CC000A-4807-000002388FFB654F.jpg)

Anyway, yesterday I finally finished sanding and filling, so time to apply DC-Fix to the sides. Large roll, cab laid on top. Traced outline with a pencil, then roughly trimmed:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/20899C24-6796-4647-8D50-4D094BE0AE6D-4807-000002389DA2B170.jpg)

Applied, and trimmed with Stanley blade:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/D7FCFA31-7F72-47A3-9AEE-D1EE401AB1F9-4807-00000238A2BBD47B.jpg)

T mould applied:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/534F6220-7956-48A2-A84D-ED5FC646FFDF-4807-00000238A9399C35.jpg)

New Bezel, bezel retainer, and control panel fitted:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/1EFF0908-9D51-43F8-AEC9-C554F62B6852-4807-00000238AE749E2A.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/383F3D8F-AF7F-416A-8EDC-13EAD1575FFD-4807-00000238B86A0122.jpg)

That's about it for now. Still have to renew the other side and apply t moulding. Next up will be the front ....... Still a long way to go on this one, but it's a start.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on December 31, 2012, 06:59:39 PM
So, a bit of progress on the Tempestipede ......

Left hand side of the cab has now had the DC-fix treatment. In addition, the cab front has been with a friend to have fresh laminate applied:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/9DFB5B2F-B31B-4AC7-8C4A-8F9138B44120-1081-000001483EF90F65.jpg)

Here she is with marquee and coin door fitted:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/3E19C073-B0BA-43B0-A9D0-90FF0E096F5C-1081-0000014846119250.jpg)

Starting to look like a Tempest cabaret:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/72A76FF6-A129-42DA-BF1D-683F73A275AF-1081-000001484B57F939.jpg)

Just need to fit speaker grill. But I've got a shocker of a hangover today, and need to break out the drill. Not happening today.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on December 31, 2012, 07:00:30 PM
So ...... now that cosmetics almost sorted, it's time to address the rest of the cab.

First up, power:

I really struggled to find an Atari colour vector power brick. Did track one down to the US, but with shipping it came in at over £100. ..... I might bite the bullet and spring for one next year, but in the meantime I've made use of what I had to hand - a Centipede power brick, paired with a toroid transformer.

It's not pretty:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/AC2C2897-200D-4FE4-B3FF-0E617A05325C-1081-000000AF1FF2365B.jpg)

But it is functional:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/0D736BD9-EA03-4CB8-8BB5-E76368B64219-1081-000000AF14F1C720.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/E188B57F-7C03-4D72-91B8-D10F0E13A131-1081-000000AF1050C81F.jpg)

So that's a Centipede power brick that's now outputting 50VAC CT on pins 10-11-13. Which is nice.

Straight forward enough. The toroid is drawing power from after the power brick's line filter. Also uses fuse F1. Also plumbed in so that cabs on/off switch also functions as on/off for the toroid. I just spliced the toroid output into pins 10-11-13. So the Tempest harness is almost entirely unhacked. I say almost as pin 13 on the Tempest harness, where the harness plugs into the brick, is female. And I had to repin that to a male pin. Other than that, it's untouched.

Here's the harness hooked up to the brick, with newly rebuilt (all new caps, all new transistors) AR2:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/912A5DFF-3E85-460E-84E5-580168BFA4A3-1081-000000AF23E295C0.jpg)

All the voltages check out, so looking good. Also traced the 50VAC CT through the harness to the WG6100 connector. Again, all voltages present and correct.

So that's power sorted. I also now have a tested working Tempest PCB. So, next up will be monitor. Might try to get that sorted tomorrow, but it needs a lot of hours putting into it ....
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: baritonomarchetto on January 02, 2013, 11:45:44 AM
A very good work!

It's not clear from the pics how did you restored the wood sides: they are like new now! Did you applied a new wood foil, retouched the putty holes with wood-paint or whatever?
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on January 02, 2013, 01:13:21 PM
Looks like you can use some brand new aluminium repro stickers on that fresh cabinet  ;D

I am in the middle of a 4th run, so if you are interested, let me know  ;)

https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=2454.0

ps, can you get me a straight shot and dimentions of the sticker on top of the fuse cover ?

it looks like the interlock switch cover stickers (31), but then a different revision:

(http://www.opdenkelder.com/pics/alusticker/31.jpg)

It would make my "PSU set" complete...

(http://www.opdenkelder.com/pics/alusticker/powerbrick.jpg)

If you can help me out with that etiket, and by that completing the set, i will donate you a PSU stickerset for your project.

Thanks for now
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tordyvel78 on January 02, 2013, 10:15:45 PM

If you can help me out with that etiket, and by that completing the set, i will donate you a PSU stickerset for your project.

Maybe I can help too  :-)
I got the same sticker on the psu, door switch and the onoff switch.
Asteroids UR
http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii634/tordyvel78/20130102_215751.jpg
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tordyvel78 on January 02, 2013, 10:18:43 PM
I see now that it is the same revision but not the same layout..
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 02, 2013, 10:48:42 PM
Hi. Power brick now back in cab, but I'm hoping to have this up and running in next few days - will grab a pic when I'm fitting cab out. No need for free stickers, but thanks for the offer.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on January 03, 2013, 06:11:57 AM
Okay, thanks for the picture !

does anyone also have dimentions for me ?
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tordyvel78 on January 03, 2013, 09:53:50 PM
Okay, thanks for the picture !

does anyone also have dimentions for me ?

(http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii634/tordyvel78/void0.jpg)
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on January 04, 2013, 08:25:40 AM
Great!
this will be a part of the PSU stickerset  ;)

since tb lilley said he dont want a stickerset, can i send you a set for free because you helped me to get the set complete, or do you also dont need it ?
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tordyvel78 on January 06, 2013, 06:00:02 PM
Great!
this will be a part of the PSU stickerset  ;)

since tb lilley said he dont want a stickerset, can i send you a set for free because you helped me to get the set complete, or do you also dont need it ?

Its ok. Your work for the arcade community is enough. Thanks
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tordyvel78 on January 06, 2013, 08:05:49 PM
Btw.. Do you have anything cool on you FTP?  :-)
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on January 06, 2013, 10:38:40 PM
I dont know what you think is cool, but i would say check your PM and check for yourself if there is  ;)
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 06, 2013, 11:27:46 PM
So ...... Time to bite the bullet and get on with the monitor. Never had a colour vector monitor before, let alone worked on one.

Here she is. Notoriously unreliable WG6100. Looks pretty good from this side:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/5EBC87C3-A721-4A53-83AD-4F6CBCD10AE6-1081-00000288C8DC49FB.jpg)

No burn. At all. Which is where the good news ends, and the bad news starts. As a quick glance round the other side reveals a few missing components:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/BDEF080A-F8D7-4F46-A252-96710F39B7B9-1081-00000288AE0BF417.jpg)

Needs:

HV board.
Deflection board.
The 6 frame mounted transistors.
Neck card.
Missing wiring to be re-instated.
And a full rebuild and upgrade to make bullet proof.

A loose HV cage and board were supplied with the monitor. Here's a list of all parts replaced and upgrades applied to the HV board, and what it looked like when I'd finished:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/1ec01e8bcc2071dd15def297d8c14ee6.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/273CE28F-482A-4DBA-AD4A-D654C358348D-1081-00000288962E805F.jpg)

Next up, deflection PCB. I struggled to get hold of one of these. Really struggled. Finally tracked one down to a guy in the US. But he refused to ship to UK. Grrr. So I asked him to ship to my cousin who has been living in the States for past 20 years. No problem. When I sent the seller my cousin's address, turns out that they live only 3 miles apart. He dropped it round on his way home from work .... Small world.

Anyway. First thing, remove LV section and fit LV2000.

Before:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/90A23BA2-D77B-4F5E-AF07-3133D5292C74-1081-000002889F6F076E.jpg)

During:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/36373B4D-0D34-4FC4-AB92-56450256167D-1081-00000288A415BC52.jpg)

After:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/1BDFBA18-12EC-458E-B81F-0A5175EBC8C1-1081-00000288A91F9A95.jpg)

In addition, the following parts were replaced / upgraded:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/b23d28262b8cdbd9b633572a22331c53.jpg)

Next up, frame mounted transistors x 6 and re-instate wiring:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/83C41CCC-BC0C-49F2-B39B-9EA1FB6BCBAA-1081-00000288B61C25FF.jpg)

Time to put it all together:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/508C3A93-68DE-4A14-8306-D52086A42744-1081-00000232FE9A3116.jpg)

Starting to look a lot better .... So time to test ....

Everything laid out on the bench (utility work top ....):

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/C14DA274-8204-4438-A426-34F566B2C791-1081-00000281D3381EF6.jpg)

Switch it on ..... and bingo:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/7A1DEA96-AE68-4506-985E-0B233F0F3D68-1081-0000028572E3AB3D.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/F58F4046-CC07-4BF5-A276-EE307BDC54F6-1081-00000285773CD444.jpg)

Needs picture size and focus adjustments. But that'll wait until later in the week. Hopefully now just a case of transferring it all into the cab and job done.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 06, 2013, 11:58:00 PM
Despite promising myself I'd leave it for tonight, 5 mins of tweaking has improved things. Think the yoke needs an adjust, but looking better:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/02BAA734-963B-4A2D-A421-56EA75B32752-1081-0000028C1BB13504.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/EBF2F32A-4F9C-4C5F-BCE1-5C9B3B916A64-1081-0000028C1FC5350D.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/4AC747A4-77F0-48E0-AC4F-98F01DD3D6BB-1081-0000028C1364F32E.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/12ED3A94-E5B3-49A8-B28D-A89C918DE4A0-1081-0000028C28206091.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/8DFD88AC-6A47-4B2E-89C3-2710CE188642-1081-0000028C2FE9C1D0.jpg)
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: ataritoobin on January 07, 2013, 12:18:01 AM
Nice work!  :spaceace:  If I owned a cabaret game it'd have to be Tempest!
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: scr33n on January 07, 2013, 12:58:26 AM
Cool!!! Love Tempest  :-* :spaceace:
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Bomjac on January 07, 2013, 02:07:34 PM
Judging by those last pictures can we renegotiate on price for the tube and parts ?

The picture looks pretty amazing on that, and I had a feeling that the tube was unused and the chassis had just been stripped for parts when i got it.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 07, 2013, 09:23:36 PM
Thanks Dave, was a good deal for us both I think. I agree that there's a pretty good chance that the tube never saw any action prior to me getting hold of it - might well have been a case of an operator grabbing a deflection board off it to swap into another that had gone up in smoke.

Shame it didn't stop there though, as that monitor had been well and truly stripped - even the rubber wedges that hold the yoke in place had been ripped out and used elsewhere - ditto the frame mounted transistors, half the wiring, and the neck card. It was in a very sorry state when I got hold of it. Oh yes, and despite the tube having no burn the tube does have a few nasty scratches - so its clearly spent some time sliding about on it's face.

Still, it was nothing that 20 hours of work, £200 in cash, 20 hours research, and no end of grovelling to our US cousins to sell me a deflection PCB couldn't sort out. But overall I found it an enjoyable and satisfying project from which I learned a great deal - so I've got to be happy with it. Ditto the price. I'd take another one off you for the same cash if you've got another to sell.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 14, 2013, 07:29:30 PM
I'm calling this pretty much done. Built and mounted a shelf for marquee light yesterday, as well as putting everything else in the cab.

Few niggly little jobs left to do, but will be done in my own time and require little effort.

So. Money Shots:

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/A4F7A3A3-0302-4881-9E47-49DAA04AE7D2-9263-000003F65D955270.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/71780553-2095-41B0-BA50-681E11BCB696-9263-000003F6693572E8.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/10B8093E-93BE-4825-8A0F-997F8D2D537B-9263-000003F66519AA38.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/BE780857-C3EA-4FA6-BB5C-C7DE80B81A2F-9263-000003F6498F7E8F.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/9441DAD1-D7DD-4D9A-AF4F-61E9AAB87486-9263-000003F690502518.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/727DA680-2ADC-4AD6-98E7-3158CA92ECDB-9263-000003F688EA10B1.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/18327569-9D03-4FCF-B9EF-54DDCFCE1315-9263-000003F68435DE53.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/74F53E4A-99AD-4E68-AADD-E8B909E6C433-9263-000003F6E1A7337B.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/8FD8B547-756D-4F47-B24A-EB7CF23BCFE4-9263-000003F6DCFA8D77.jpg)

(http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r121/tb_lilley/80C3BC90-9533-4296-8752-4BD3215F4CB2-9263-000003F6F33F1683.jpg)
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Muerto on January 14, 2013, 07:39:09 PM
AWESOME result sir!!! looks absolutely fantastic!! :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: gyruss on January 14, 2013, 08:19:13 PM
Beautiful!!  :spaceace: :spaceace:
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on January 14, 2013, 08:22:46 PM
Like it very much !
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: Robinholland on January 14, 2013, 08:27:30 PM
Nice work  :wink:
Looking great !
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: scr33n on January 14, 2013, 08:38:09 PM
Wooooowwwwww !!! Amazing !!!  :spaceace: :spaceace: :-* :-*
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: tb lilley on January 14, 2013, 10:23:08 PM
Thanks guys. A lot of work went in to this one. Very enjoyable though and really pleased with end result.
Title: Re: Atari Cabaret
Post by: level42 on January 14, 2013, 10:27:10 PM
Very nice ! Tempest works well as a cabaret game.....


...we need a Tempest @ Eurocade 2013 ;)