F7Lans Gaming Community

Small update, but major progress. Got the daughterboard in, plugged it in, and IT WORKS!

Still have to plug the control panel in once it's done to make sure this main board has the LETA chip for trackballs, but it should.

Vinyl is on order, have to wait for it to come in to finish the sides.

Awesome

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.:there is no spoon:.

haha Bad ass man.

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Today's update.

Stripped the old adhesive off the control panel (along with the underlying paint), sanded it down to bare metal, repainted it, applied the new overlay, and reconnected the trackballs, wiring and buttons. I haven't installed the lighting kits yet. I'll have to find a 12v line to tap for them.

Only got one minor chemical burn in the process. For future reference, Nitrile gloves do NOT fully protect against toluene based paint strippers.

Finally bought a ShopVac (on clearance for $30 at Walmart), so I'm finally getting all the Bondo dust vacuumed up.

Thanks to all who have commented so far.

Awesome stuff mate. I remember playing the game back in the day (yes, I am old), and the Tron game you speak of as well. Though i must admit I was partial to joust.

Awesome. It looks like it will still be as hard as I remember with the trackball...

man that was a long time ago...now I feel old and some ancient nostalgic part of my brain seems to think it needs to be sitting in a bowling alley or something...

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Started stripping the vinyl off the other side today. Still waiting on replacement vinyl, had to order from another dealer since the first place only had sheets that large in gloss black instead of matte. This side will be easier than the other, since it seems to have avoided the water damage the other side had. The corners are almost completely there, there won't be a lot of wood removed, or hardener needed. I'll need to fill the screwholes (probably some asshole operator putting a cupholder there) and a few dings and that's about it.

Found more work I'm going to have to do as well. The area under the control panel is a mess. Some nimrod bolted something to the front of it and then apparently ripped the bolts out. Also, the channel the control panel rides in is torn up. I'm going to have to fill it, then cut a new channel. I really need to get a slot cutting bit sometime soon. Even with that though, the very edges will have to be cut by hand.

Pulled the coin door to refinish, and found out that not only is the lower door beat all to hell, but someone kicked the area under the coin doors and split the particle board. Some Gorilla Glue and clamping repaired the wood, but it's yet another area I'm going to have to strip vinyl, glaze, prime, and put new vinyl on. I'm talking with several people trying to get a good price on another coin door assembly in better shape.

Also, one of the trackballs turned out to have a bad optical board, so I'll have to order a replacement for that too. I'm starting to think about accepting donations.

For those interested, here's a link to some photos of the other arcade machines I have. The basement is unfinished, but I'm hoping to start finishing it as a project later this year.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... c5ce7d8858

Looks like it is coming along. What an awesome hobby

Feel free to request for donations here if you would like!

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.:there is no spoon:.

I only ever played MM on my NES... Playing this I'm sure I'll have "fond" memories of never getting past that one level.

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When I got home, I found a large box waiting for me. Inside that box was a slightly smaller box. Inside that box was a plastic wrapped tube. Inside the plastic was the vinyl. It finally arrived.

I'm going to try to apply it to at least one side of the cabinet this weekend. It's wide enough that I can use the cut away scraps to finish other parts of the cabinet. Hopefully I can resell the leftover roll to recoup the cost of it.