Unfortunately we had a blazing fire going, and he got roasted pretty quickly. His loss however was our gain…he was delicious, and will be missed. Poor, tasty, Tom Turkey. Sniff.

My wife will be coming home from work today, and will then commence to make 4 pumpkin pies. I’m not sure what the hell we are going to do with them, but we’ll figure something out.

In arcade related news, I got the new (to me) coin door installed in our Crystal Castles:

It is not in perfect condition, but its pretty close. I wired it up, put new locks in from Bob Roberts, and moved the game from the middle of the floor to it’s official location.

My desk is now pretty well hidden behind arcade games. You can see the entrance to my work area to the very right of this pic:

This is my view as I type this:

Here are a few more pics showing it’s location from different angles:

Every time we add a new game, our arcade looks a little crazier/cooler.

Hope you have a good Thanksgiving, and that Tom brings you lots of cool stuff(ing) this year.

I grabbed the fire extinguisher, but didn’t need it. I shut it off quickly, and opened the back door and didn’t see any flames. I opened up the windows to let the smell out, which took a long time and made the basement pretty cold.

The cause was the old flyback in the monitor (a GO7). It cracked open in the middle:

I had a rebuild kit for it that I was planning on installing soon. I installed it tonight and got it up and running. The pic looks noticeably better than it did before it went kaboom.

I finally got my initials (actually my nickname) on the first level by getting the high score. I thought it wasn’t saving high scores when powered off, but it seems to be saving them OK now. Here’s what it looked like pre cap kit. It’s hard to see much of a difference, but it is noticeable in person..

The replacement coin door came in today. It’s in great shape. I should be able to get around to installing it this weekend.

I’m awaiting the coin door for my Crystal Castles. In the mean time, I decided to put the service panel back together. To recap, here’s what it looked like:

Here’s an after shot, with drippy paint job and all:

I used hammered paint to hide the pits from the bad case of rust it had. I went a little too heavy with the Rustoleum and got the runs. No one wants the runs, but if you are by yourself and no one knows, no foul right? Well this is sort of the same deal. This goes INSIDE the cabinet, hidden away from critical eyeballs. No one will ever know that my Crystal Castles service panel has the runs except for you, and I know you won’t tell anyone.

Notice the new volume knob? Here’s the scoop on that…

The old volume control was so rusted, I couldn’t get it off easily. It ended up breaking into a bunch of pieces:

I don’t think superglue or duct tape would have fixed this, so I had to find a new volume control. I wasn’t sure what the right replacement was, but figured I could get one from Radio Shack (and get pestered about my cell phone plan to boot). I did some research on RGVAC, and found a very helpful post from Ken Layton (who I believe knows what he’s talking about). Apparently this isn’t just a volume pot. It’s a “rheostat” which is a bit different. Google it.

I probably could have gotten away with a regular potentiometer, but because I don’t really know what the hell I’m doing I figured I’d take the advice of someone who does.

The original Atari part number for this is 19-9032. The replacement part number made by Ohmite is RES50RE. It’s a 50 OHM 12.5W Rheostat (volume thingy). I got mine at DigiKey.com. Their part number for the same thing is RES50RE-ND. Click here to find it on their site.

Here’s what the $25.96 (ouch) bad boy looks like in one piece (front):

back:

Now, my volume knob for this was also screwed. It had a big crack in it, and the metal piece inside fell out.

I figured I could just grab any old knob at cellphone shack Radio Shack – WRONG. I made the mistake of just ordering the Rheostat. The shaft on it is 1/8″ in diameter. The only knobs I could find were for 1/4″. I bought one. No amount of hacking could get it to work right. I ended up having to place another order at DigiKey.com for the knob that was designed for this. The Digi-Key part number for that is 5151E-ND. Find it here.

Here’s what a $5.49 + shipping volume knob looks like:

It fit perfectly. It looked different from the one that was there previously, but I don’t care about that. One thing that is interesting is that the exploded schematic for the service panel in the manual shows this same knob:

I’m guessing maybe I had the wrong knob to begin with. If you’ve seen one knob you’ve seen them all (and I’ve seen a lot of knobs in my day). I think this one will suffice just fine, thank you.

I’m sure this info has been posted elsewhere, but I couldn’t find it so here’s a tutorial on the subject. This tutorial is for rebuilding a 3″ “midi” style trackball but should work fine for a 2 1/4 “mini” trackball as well.

The trackball (Trak-Ball ^tm) in my Crystal Castles was pretty worn out. The ball barely moved, and it was dull and loaded with scratches. At first I figured maybe I would replace the whole unit, but that was going to cost me around $75 + shipping. A trackball rebuild kit and a new ball is about half the price and will make it work like new.

Parts & Tools needed

• Old crappy trackball
• Trackball repair kit ($25 at TheRealBobRoberts.net)
  

• Shiny new trackball ($15 at TheRealBobRoberts.net)
  The price will vary on this based on the color and size. The old one is on the left, and the new one is on the right.
  
• Philips head screwdriver (not actual size)
  
• 3/32″ allen wrench
  
• 3/8″ wrench or ratchet and 3/8″ socket
  
• Your wife’s tooth brush
  
• Pine-Sol (don’t drink this YET)
  

Instructions

1. Reach into your coin door and unlatch your control panel, exposing the crappy goodness that is your worn out trackball:
   
2. Remove the wiring harness connectors, paying attention to how they are currently connected
3. Remove the 4 nuts holding the trackball to the control panel
   
4. Remove the track ball
   
5. Remove the (6) phillips head screws holding the top part of the housing to the bottom, and remove the top.
   
6. Remove the ball and throw it in a dumpster somewhere.
7. Remove all the innards of the trackball, paying close attention to how they were installed.
8. If your trackball is illuminated you’ll have a lamp on the bottom housing:
   

   remove it.

   Steps 9 through 12 are optional, but recommended. I think it’s a good idea to clean the housings so you aren’t using new parts in a dirty case. That sludge may get on your new parts which certainly wouldn’t be cool. If you are a lazy bastard and don’t care if you have old crud inside your trackball, skip to step 14.

9. Fill your sink with hot water, and add some Pine-Sol
10. Throw the top and bottom housing pieces into the sink, and let them sit for a few hours
11. Pull them out. The grime and sludge and dried up Dr. Pepper should now be loose. If you see any still stuck to the housing, scrub it off using your wife’s toothbrush.
12. Rinse off the toothbrush and quickly put it back where you found it.
13. Dry off the housing pieces with something that isn’t as wet as they are now.
14. Put 2 new bearings from the kit onto the shortest roller in the kit, and pop the roller/bearing assembly into it’s spot in the bottom housing.
15. With the allen wrench, remove the bolt holding the encoder wheel onto the other 2 old rollers.
    
16. Put the remaining new bearings on the new rollers, and attach the encoding wheels.
17. Pop both of those rollers back in the casing. Make sure they are seated well.
    
18. Put the new ball on top of the rollers and make sure it spins OK.
19. Put the 2 coupler PCBs back the way they came out. Seat them into the bottom slots on the bottom part of the housing, making sure the encoder wheels fit between the opening in the black emitter/detector thingy on the PCBs.
20. Put the top housing on, making sure the PCBs fit into the corresponding slots.
21. Put (2) screws back in
22. Roll the ball in both directions, and watch the encoder wheels carefully. Make sure they spin freely and aren’t hung up on anything. One of mine was touching the black emitter/detector and wouldn’t spin when the ball was moved slowly. I fixed it by moving the large washer from one side of the encoder wheel:
    
    I moved it to the opposite side of the wheel, making it stick out just a hair more than it was previously:
    
23. If everything spins freely, put the rest of the screws in, hook it back up, and start rolling.

Here’s a pic of mine all lit up and shiny:

That nasty control panel overlay is next on my list of things to replace on this game. Here’s a boring video of me trying to play it with one hand watching the screen on my digital camera instead of the monitor:

You can see in the video that Bentley the Bear is moving normally now. Before, he was staggering around like someone shot him with a tranquilizer dart.

Check out the disgusting coin door from my Crystal Castles:

The bottom door is bound, and barely swings. I figured maybe I could pop the pin out before I try to sand it down for painting, in the hopes of getting it to open and close like a normal non rusted to hell door:

That didn’t work out so good:

The pin bent over and broke part of the hinge. I could try to bend it back or cut off that portion, but I’m not going to bother. I’ve decided it’s not worth the effort to fix this coin door when I can get another one in decent shape for $20 plus shipping.

The box that holds the coin box and service panel looks like part of the wreckage of the Titanic:

I took it all apart yesterday. In the process I ruined the volume control. It was so rusted I couldn’t get it off easily, and it ended up breaking apart. I have a new one on the way from Digikey.

Here are a few pics I took while prepping these 2 pieces.

Front of service panel:

Back:

Before stripping the paint off with a wire wheel:

After:

There were so many pits from the rust on the service panel, I decided to use Rustoleum Hammered paint instead of satin. I *really* screwed up the paint job on the service panel. It dripped like crazy (though it’s hard to see the drips in this pic):

The box came out a bit better:

At least they’re not covered with rust anymore.

I cleaned it out with the shop vac, and wiped the inside out with some Fantastik. Here’s a closer look at the power block:

As you can see, it was pretty nasty. It was covered with dirt and rust. I pulled the transformer partially off, and hit the metal on the base the best I could with some steel wool. The better way to do this would be to strip everything off of it, get it down to bare metal (or close to it), and then paint it. I thought of doing this, but just didn’t want to spend the time right now – especially for something that isn’t going to be seen. I may go nuts on it in the future but for now my goal is to make it presentable and less disgusting. This is the same goal I have for myself when I get ready in the morning.

The fuse block was cracked in half. I had saved another one from my Battlezone that was almost like new, and used it to replace this cracked one. I checked all the fuses, and found an 8A fast blow where a 4A slow blow should be.

Here it is after I cleaned it:

It’s still a bit rusty but not nearly as bad, and all the dirt and slime has been removed.

I put the power block back in the cabinet, and worked on the power cord. It was taped with duct tape and electrical tape in two places.

I replaced it with one of these bad boys from Home Depot:

I think the game play will be much smoother with this shiny new power cord. I used my pin extractor to pop the pins out of the old 3 pin connector:

They came out surprisingly fast (unlike Clay Aiken). I then crimped some new female pins on the new plug and slid them into the old connector. I hooked it all back up and it powered on without any major problems (phew!).

The monitor takes forever to warm up. I ordered a G07 repair kit for it from Bob Roberts. I’m hoping changing the flyback and fixing any bad solder joints will fix that. I had the same problem in my Centipede and that took care of it. The new caps should help the picture, though it’s not too bad as is:

Here’s an incredibly boring video of the attract screen:

The trackball is completely hosed. It barely moves. I ordered a trackball repair kit and a new ball as well from Bob Roberts. I wasn’t positive if the trackball in this game lights up, but was happy to see that it does – and at times blinks. Pretty cool.

While I’m waiting for the parts to arrive, I should be able to get the outside cleaned up. The coin door has a lot of rust, especially on the inside near the volume knob and test switch. I think it’s going to need to be sanded down and repainted at some point. I’m guessing someone spilled a drink or something down the inside of the control panel, as it seems to have a lot of rust directly below it.

Hopefully we will be able to actually get Bentley Bear whizzing around all over the place in a few days. WAIT … strike that. I meant “running” around. Whizzing will cause more rust.

I showed the game to the wife on MAME before we got it, and she thought it was pretty fast. I told her that I think the bear is far too quick for her sloth like reflexes, but she doesn’t believe that to be the case. We shall see, we shall see.

It’s in pretty good shape, and in working condition. It could definitely use some TLC. I got it for $225 off eBay. I didn’t want to spend the $, but my wife said it could be an early Christmas present.

I’ll be cleaning it up soon. I have new overlays for the control panel, marquee, and speaker area. You can see more pics here.

I went on a wild goose chase back in August ‘07 for what I thought might be a Crystal Castles. You can read about that misadventure here.

I’m tired, it’s been a long day, and I won’t be messing with this tonight. I’ll be cleaning it up during the week as I can sneak the time in. Stay tuned…