ROTJ

[Muerto]

I just recieved my ROTJ today, and powered it up, with no luck, here´s the pics of the PCB:



There´s some "rust" on some of the ram´s (red circle and diode)





solderside:





When i power up, there´s no light in the diode (not a good sign):



and ofcourse no image on the monitor (yes, 19")



Maby i have to buy a new ROTJ PCB, or? any suggestions...

[flip971]

Muerto: You can de-solder the chip that are "rusted", clear well the parts, put on a socket and replace on it the chips.
Usually, I use an old toothbrush to clean near the chips.
If the "rust" have affected the circuit, no problem however, You can remove doing attention to DO NOT BREAK the circuit and, afther cleaning, You can place some solder past (using the solder ).
For the power check the power supply with a tester and the manual of the pcb to check where and how much need to be the output from the power supply.

[Muerto]

thanks! - a toothbrush, didn´t think of that!
i also just found out wich fuse was blown, have to order a new...

-EDIT-
This is a conversion, as there is a setup for SW is on the right side... do you have a picture of that Level42?

[DarthNuno]

Congratulation and welcome to the very 'select' club of Star Wars cockpit owners    Even if it has been converted to a ROTJ, it's a very hard cab' to catch (but I'm sure you probably know it)
But the most important is : THIS IS IT! it's your now... and safe 

The best thing would be to reverse it into the original vector game, but I know it'll be very difficult to get all the orignal parts... especially the color vector monitor  That's why I went into the emulation, which is far better than nothing. Maybe an option for you too?

It reminds me to try Star Wars with the famous vector games emulator called 'AAE' 

[scr33n]

It reminds me to try Star Wars with the famous vector games emulator called 'AAE' 

I have tried AAE in these days with Tempest and Asteroids  , fantastic !!!! 

[Superully]

great catch! this cab looks absolutely S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G 

good luck with it - i'm sure you'll have it up and running soon!

[level42]

Jees, I ignored this thread for some time because ROTJ is not exactly my favorite game, so I didn't expect to see this !

Wow another SW cockpit on mainland Europe ! It's becoming a family

My personal opinion: I wouldn't bother with ROTJ. Like Bruno says, restoring it to SW vector glory would be the ultimate goal. Hard, yes. Impossible, no. I keep seeing the parts around, but indeed it's not an easy task and it will take money, time and technical skills. From your pictures you already have the power supply and the AR-2 in there.

You would need:
- Amplifone HV pcb. (regularly on forums, e-bay)
- Amplifone deflection PCB (even more regularly on e-bay)
- 25" mid-res CRT (available from Hawkeye
- or, if you don't mind a smaller size, a 19" CRT (available from Canada, NOS !)
- set of magnetic convergence rings (available from any dead CRT)
- deflection yoke (probably the hardest part to find !)
- you'll need to undo the changed wiring or find a complete harness. (very hard to find I think)


Bruno's alternative is a really good option if, like you, find an "empty" or in this case, converted one. It will even allow you to play ROTJ should you so desire (but it's really a poor game).

Putting a hi-res computer CRT in there (Extremely cheap now) and running that special vector Mame version would render very nice results. No it won't be true vector, but it's as close as you can get.

Did they put any ROTJ artwork on the cab ? Doesn't look like it, which is great

It looks like this is an Irish built cab.

Oh and here's the picture you asked:



This is from my cab. The bottom PCB is the HV-pcb, the top PCB is the deflection PCB.

You can find all info about my restoration here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68094.0

Any questions, I'm pleased to answer !


Also, can you do me a favor ? I'd like to see a close up (if possible macro) picture of the steps on the sides of the foot area ?
Thanks !!!

[Muerto]

Hey all! - thx for all the nice feedback
i just returned from a small holiday in Germany... that´s why the lack of responce...

I agree with most of you in here, that it would be cooler to converting it back to SW, but, i like to do it the right
way (the Level42 way) but atm. im simply not skilled yet to do so, so maby in the future. (or even better, find another
working SW-Cockpit, im sure that would look cool, two cockpits beside each other..)
so right now i would like it to run with ROTJ...

the only thing changed form the SW cockpit to this is the "marquee":



And some closeup´s for L42:
If you need other pics, let me know.

[level42]

Great pics, thanks ! Don't think I ever saw that ROTJ artwork like that before....

Do you know it it's an Irish or US cab ?  There's usually a sticker on the backside indicating this. I'd also be interested in the serial number. Maybe this was a factory conversion ?

I can fully appreciate you position right now. I guess you already saw all the nice stuff that David from RAM controls has for rebuilding the yoke, the great new wide-ribbed T-molding etc.

[Muerto]

yes i saw that, i have been folloving your restoration almost from the beginning!

-EDIT-
There´s some debate on another forum (jamma+) if it´s a factory conversion or not:

To my knowledge, the ROTJ Cockpit Kit was only made by Atari Ireland, and they only made 50 kits, there weren't any 'factory conversions' to the best of my knowledge.Each kit comes with a set of serial number stickers that you were to apply over every other serial number sticker in your game. There was a brief instruction manual explaining the conversion, but no proper manual was produced.XY-Man had what I believe was a prototype/field test cockpit marquee in an SW sitdown, but he didn't believe it was real so peeled it apart (multiple layers of art put together) It was a bit faded,  i believe he threw it away (the marquee that is) and the cab was restored to star wars. This was some time ago, and my brain is fuzzy......

Those 50 supposed kits (I heard 90?) had artwork too. I played on a SW cockpit turned ROTJ on the Isle of White (was there till around '96) that was fully converted. Had the usual ROTJ rear marquee but also had the sticker kit applied. The entire cab was white with ROTJ starwars artwork.

Only when I started collecting did I realise what I had played on. Went back but it wasn't there, it was on a Gypsy camp site. I have used IOW collectors for years over email trying to see if it was re-located or bought - but to no avail.

I know there's another one in Wales too, a UKVAC friend of mine saw it at an Operators in storage. Could be PoC/semi-visual/look protos. I guess we'll never know. All I do know is that if one ever comes up it will be mine!

[Muerto]

changed all the fuses today (4 - 5A and 1 - 20A) and the PCB diode is lit now
though there´s only grey on the monitor, so maby there´s some damage to
the ROTJ PCB after all...

[Alpha1]

Muerto,

Send it to IronGiant on J+ to fix.

Don't convert it back to the original Starwars - these guys don't realise that is a factory ROTJ cockpit from Atari and is VERY RARE :-)

Oliver

[Muerto]

@Alpha1
thanks!, i try to contact him asp!

[level42]

Muerto,

Send it to IronGiant on J+ to fix.

Don't convert it back to the original Starwars - these guys don't realise that is a factory ROTJ cockpit from Atari and is VERY RARE :-)

Oliver

Any proof that it is factory ? It's still a conversion....

[Alpha1]

I have the Atari documents somewhere.

Atari had something like 70 or so Starwars cockpit shells that had not been used, so when they started building ROTJ they made the cockpits too using the shells they had.

Atari also had some without artwork and actually made their own ROTJ artwork - I played on a white ROTJ cockpit when I was younger - I wish I could find one now.