I did a bit more on Defender today. When I left it yesterday, it was working but the ship wouldn’t move up, and that just sucks.

The switch was making contact. I ended up tracing the wire all the way back to pin 1 on the top connector (3J2) of the interface board.

The wires were fine. I began tracing the circuit from that pin, and it went to resistor R12 in that top row of resistors. I pulled one end of the resistor out, and it tested OK. That connected to a small capacitor right below it (C13). I did the same with that and tested it with my capacitor meter. It was fine. Now, because I am clueless, I didn’t have much else that I really knew how to test without doing some research. So, I looked over the board to make sure everything was fine. One solder joint on a pin on the other connector looked a little crappy, so I fixed it. It had continuity before so I don’t think that really did anything.

The  last thing I did was take that capacitor in the lower right corner out and test it with my meter. It was a 100uf cap, but was testing kinda high…around 135uf if I remember right. For the hell of it, I replaced it.

When I hooked it all back up, the up switch was working fine. So, if I had to guess, I think changing that cap fixed it but I don’t really know for sure.

The joystick handles slow and sloppy (like your mother?), so I’ll need to work on that next.

Here is another pic of it next to its brother Moon Patrol.

Can’t wait to get these 2 in the game room…it’s going to be awhile though because I have to do a major rearranging. Anyways…it’s Friday. Have a good weekend…L8R.

OK…this is too cool. This guy developed an interactive robot thingy. It has cameras in each eye and a microphone for a nose. Here it is dancing to a song by Spoon.

It does more than dance though…it will react to you. I must have this thing. Buy me one NOW!

For those of you following along, I’ve been waiting for a package from Bob Roberts with monitor parts. The mailman came around 2:30, a bit early. My ears are trained to recognize the sound of his engine…I hear him coming a mile away.

Anyways, he usually has to come to the door whenever he has a package because my mail box isn’t gigantic. I hear him open the mailbox, shut it, and take off. I’m thinking the package didn’t come, but went out anyway…and what to my wondering eyes should appear?

WTF! He crammed the box in there, defying the basic laws of physics. That thing was wedged in there like a fat guy in a little coat. It took me a good 10 minutes to get it out. I kept pulling on it, and thought I was going to rip the mailbox off the post. The only thing I can think of is he didn’t want to walk through my long grass and get ticks….especially wearing those USPS short shorts that they sport this time of year.

I did finally manage to get it out…here’s part of what was inside:

Bob Roberts is a great guy to buy from. He ships super fast, and usually throws in freebies. This time around, I got a set of leg levers and a pen. In the bag with the pen was a horizontal width coil that I ordered.

OK…Here’s what I did. I replaced the old broken width coil:

Then I put the new HOT and Flyback in. While doing all that, I noticed something was not quite right with the neck board.

It was actually cracked in half! Someone had put jumper wires over the cracks and then covered the crack with a big glob of silicone. Here it is on the parts side:

You can see the crack running down from the top right corner down to where my thumb is. I thought for sure maybe this would cause a problem. After getting it all back together, I hooked it up. No dice. I had no high voltage.

I took the chassis back out and poked around some more. It turns out one of the fuses (901) which tested OK before wasn’t now. After I messed with it a bit it would sometimes test OK, and sometimes not. I think what was happening is the wire inside broke but was still coming into contact with the other end. I changed the fuse, put it back in, and the damn thing came right up!

You can see its start up here and a bit of me playing it:

The ship won’t move up. The switch is making contact, so I’m not sure what the deal is. I’ll leave it for another day. I’m just glad to actually see it running.

Thanks to Leinhit and tec9 for posting this on KLOV.com…very cool.

Damn I’ve been busy lately! Feels good to get some arcade stuff done, even if it is small stuff.

The Rampage I got a few months back had an oddball joystick (Wico?) for the middle player:

In the interest of making this look original, I’ve been keeping an eye out for a replacement joystick. The one that should be there is a Monroe 4 way. Before getting this game, I never noticed these joysticks before. After getting it, I really started to like the feel of them. They are very different from standard Wico style joysticks. They have a smoother feel, especially when you are rotating them. They were used in Gyruss probably for that very reason. Here is a video showing the one on the right in action for all you people into arcade pron:

I had a saved search in eBay for awhile and just recently saw a NOS (new old stock) one turn up. It ended up going for big bucks…$108.50 to be exact! I wasn’t about to spend that for a joystick.

Anyways…another one turned up shortly after that was used, and a 2 way. I guess no one was as interested in a 2 way compared to a 4 way (can you blame them? ) , so I was able to get it for $10 ish. I figured all I had to do was put 2 more leaf switches on and hook it up. Alas….it was not that simple.

The joystick was very stiff (please no jokes) and didn’t move nearly as well as the 2 that were already on the game. I took it apart and greased it up and it was moving much better…BUT it wouldn’t move up or down easily. The other 2 can actually be rotated around 360 degress, like in the video above so something was up. I took a good look at the mounting plate:

The whole was an oval, only allowing movement from left to right. The other 2 had a perfectly round hole there. I ended up drilling it out to make it match. I had to go buy a new cobalt drill bit to get the job done, and it was a major PIA:

Here is a pic of it all apart:

The joystick in the upper right corner was one of the original ones, for comparison. There were some other differences. The white plastic actuator jutted out at the top on the original and was completely straight on this 2 way. The new one is also slightly higher and the ball is a little bit bigger but hardly noticable.

Here it is assembled with 2 more leaf switches added:

And….BAM! Here it is installed:

So much better! Now if only I could find a NOS control panel overlay…

I finally got my traffic light wired up and mounted. Now I can run red lights from the comfort of my living room.

Here it is in action…this thing is super bright…like standing in front of a super nova, without the nasty solar radiation side effects:

I put an order in today for monitor parts to fix Defender. They should be in Thursday. Stay tuned for more non stop arcade action!

In the interest of trying to keep this site updated, here is the deal so far with Defender….

Here are the boards:

And the dirty, dirty power supply and transformer:

I did a cap kit on the monitor (an Electrochrome G07-CBO). The HOT (horizontal output transistor) is dead. It’s shorted. I’m going to be putting in an order for a replacement, along with a new flyback so this one doesn’t blow up on me. I’m hoping that will bring the monitor back to life so I can see what’s going on with the game.

One thing that might be good is when I tried Defender in MAME, it sounds exactly the same when it starts. It then sits at some sort of power on screen asking you to setup options. Maybe this one is doing that…should know soon.

Hey folks! It’s been forever since my last post (almost as long as its been since my last confession).

I’ve been super busy with work and haven’t had a load of time to work on games lately. I have been buying parts here and there, got my traffic light working, dealt with a horrible seller on eBay, etc…

But now, behold…the glory…that is….DEFENDER!:

I picked this puppy up yesterday with my nephew Mackenzie. It was listed on Craigslist as non working but complete. It stopped working and they didn’t feel like fixing it. I offered the guy a $100 for it.

It isn’t exactly mint, but at least its not painted black.

I haven’t had much time to mess with this at all yet. I opened the back, gave it a once over (and a “who’s your father?”) and plugged it in. When you turn it on, it makes a normal defender sounding noise and then nothing else. No video, and no audio when you try to coin it up. I plan on messing with it tomorrow morning as we have a book sale to go to tonight. With any luck, we may be Defender-ing tomorrow afternoon!

OK…I haven’t posted in a while. I don’t have any new arcade related stuff to mention at the moment, but should soon. I haven’t had much free time of late.
I ran into some pretty cool stories today. They found a hole on Mars that seems interesting…just the right size for UFOs to fly in and out of.

Here is the article.

And now, for something completely different…

This dude in a wheelchair got all up in some truck drivers grill and went on a 50mph joy ride for 4 miles on the highway in Michigan. I hope he was wearing Depends. Click the pic for the article.