Two weeks ago, during
the roadtrip, I was gone to pick up a Space Invaders witch landed in 'aganim' house for some vacation.
It was then time for me to bring this back in the field.
1. Cabinet surgeryAt the time of the roadtrip, I couldn't linger and dig deeper about the cabinet condition and running state.
So let's start with that today :
don't believe the pictures, the cab isn't outside but inside a veranda.
Cabinet is really in good shape and conditions :
The cpo is what is in the most damaged (if I could use this word) :
You can't clearly see on the picture, but the letters are well erased.
Pffff, not even 56000 credits :
Screen chassis, also in good conditions (despite 20 years old dry spiders liying around) :
Unlocking the cpo, locks are a bit rusted, but they're still working well :
Panel buttons are all there and seem to be working.
The Power Supply, including its huge capacitors :
The AC Transformer and the game pcb :
Interesting, there are
intéressant, il a des réglage de windings for 220, 230 et 240 V
In 1978, we were using 220V, maybe I could make some solder to fits current Voltage values.
On the pcb side, I did some research, in my current theoretic limits.
The day of the road trip, I got Two pcbs.
One named "space invaders" and this one, in the cab, named "space walk".
"Carotte", the previous owner, thought was a "Space Invaders" Bootleg.
But it isn't.
"Space walk" is also a midway game of the "Space Invaders" time, based on the same Intel 8080A harware, exactly like "space invaders".
As "Spacewalk" pcb was keeped in the cab, I was only with the "Space Invaders" pcbs to try to go a bit forward.
Intel 8080A based hardware has 8 proms locations on its mainboard.
But on my pcbs, there are only 4 proms. So I first tought there was some missing chips.
Using Mame for my search, I noticed that "Space Walk" was using those 8 proms (from A to H)
Z:\Mame\mame>mame spacwalk
sw.h NOT FOUND
sw.g NOT FOUND
sw.f NOT FOUND
sw.e NOT FOUND
sw.d NOT FOUND
sw.c NOT FOUND
sw.b NOT FOUND
sw.a NOT FOUND
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run.
Z:\Mame\mame>
Whereas "Space Invaders" was only using 4 :
Z:\Mame\mame>mame invaders
invaders.h NOT FOUND
invaders.g NOT FOUND
invaders.f NOT FOUND
invaders.e NOT FOUND
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run.
Z:\Mame\mame>
By pure chance, it's the one locatred on my pcbs. So it seems complete.
So, if as I presume, "Space Walk" became "Space invaders", I should find 4 proms on the "spacewalk" pcbs instead of the original 8.
And this afternoon, without surprise, I've found 4 proms on the main board, and written on the pcb label
the "Walk" is crossed with a red pen, with splendidi "Invaders" handwritten above it.
Okay, this pcb story is fun, but what is still actually working ?
Three good news with this picture :
- The PSU is working
- The Screen chassis is working (nice bright picture)
- The video part of the pcb is working : nice standstill colored garbage pictture
For the curious ones, Here is how it looks like in the mirror :
That's all for today. I'm gone with all the removable parts (except the pcbs), for full cleaning.
Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the stars sky nor the moon : it was a real pain to remove it, as I didn't know how the sky was tied.
But they're all in good shape, like the rest of the cab.
By the way, I said the cab was complete in the beginning. It's not completly true.
The back door is missing and also the keylocks.
I will have to build a new door.
See you.
edit :
update from yesterday :
Swimming pool for the masses...
