Wow…I haven’t posted in 7 days. I guess I’ve been busy actually working for a change. Anyways…

My Rampage had a monitor issue since day 1 when I first brought it home. It would work fine for a few minutes, and then the whole image would jump vertically for a split second accompanied with a scary crackling/zapping noise that sounded like a static discharge. If you can picture yourself wearing a big wool coat and rubbing your shoes on the carpet for an entire week, then touching the tip of someone’s nose, it sounded just like that (except without the screaming).

The picture jump was very quick, and looked like a flicker. It would usually take about 20 minutes for it to start acting up, and once it started - the jumping would get closer and closer together to the point where the game was unplayable and a bit frightening. For this reason, I had the switch on Rampage turned off. When I fired up the circuits in our game room, the other games in the arcade just laughed at it and called it names.

I finally got around to doing a cap kit on it. The picture became clearer, but that jumping problem was still there. I also noticed that if you left it on for a long time the focus would start to go out. I figured it probably needed a new flyback, so I put one in. That fixed the loss of focus, but that jumping was still there.

I picked up some control/contact cleaner at Ratshack. It’s labeled as non-flammable (sorry kids!), and looks like this:

I figured that maybe a dirty pot might have been causing the problem, suspecting that if so it would be either the V-Size or V-Position pots.

I sprayed every pot on the main chassis and the neck board. I rotated each one back and forth about 10 times or so, and then returned each to their original positions. I fired it up, and some of the settings were a little off (brightness, contrast, etc…). I tweaked the pots to get the picture looking good, and the vertical jumping seems to be gone!

You can see it in action here:

It’s hard to play Rampage with one hand!

I’ve had it running now for about 3 hours or so and haven’t heard it crackle once. I’m keeping my fingers crossed (which made it very hard to type this!).

I’ve been soldering for about a year now with a 45W Weller SP40L soldering iron and a stand from a different Black & Decker soldering iron:

I’ve done a lot of cap kits with this, and some smaller PCB work (I’m not a pro by any means). It worked well, but I was curious about temperature controlled soldering stations (aren’t we all?). I ended up charging a WD1001 and just got it today:

I had to finish a cap kit and change a flyback on a WG K7000 monitor from my Rampage game, and was waiting for this to come in so I could play with it. I ordered it from All-Spec.com. Their prices were far lower than anyone else’s that I looked at. I also ordered 3 extra tips, which you can see sticking out of the back of the stand above. Here is a closer pic of those tips and the soldering pen:

The tip at the very top of that picture is the one that comes in the iron. Weller sells a few different stations that are similar. Here’s a PDF that shows the different models and their features. The WD1001 comes with a WMP micro pencil for small work. It’s very comfortable. You can get your hands much closer to your work with it. I almost got the WD1002, which comes with a larger WP80 pencil.

One thing that impressed me that I wasn’t expecting was how fast this thing heats up. My old iron took 5 to 10 minutes to warm up. This one goes from 0 to 660° in 20 seconds! Check it out:

Another plus is that you can’t melt through the cord, and it doesn’t seem to get in the way like my other one. I can’t wait to do some finer detailed soldering with it to try out those small tips.

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…

It’s true. But she deserved it! She was trying to eat humans that I already had my eye on. No, we are not ready for the looney bin yet (though very close!)…we were playing Rampage:

I just picked this up today in Stratford, CT. This game is awesome. You get to be one of 3 monsters, obviously stolen from monster movies…King Kong, Godzilla, and the Wolfman. This game was in a warehouse that also had some other games in it. Nothing that I had room for or would be interested in except for this. Unfortunately, it was loaded with mold like my Space Invaders. I think it must have been in a damp location at one point, but it didn’t have any water damage. Just loads of mold:

It took me hours to clean it up in the driveway. My neighbors must have thought I was nuts! I looked like I was from outerspace with my mask, safety goggles and other hazmat equipment. I took all the boards out first. Then I vaccuumed all the mold out, and sprayed the entire insides down with Zep cleaner/disinfectant. I let it sit for awhile, and then wiped down every square inch inside with Zep again. Hopefully I got it all…

Before I put the boards back in, I sprayed them with the air hose to get any loose mold off. I followed that by cleaning the entire outside with some Fantastik with anti-bacterial goodness. Mmmm….love that anti-bacterial goodness. After finally getting it cleaned up, I put some new locks in and rolled it inside.

It works OK, but has a bit of a glitch that I haven’t had a chance to look at yet. The monitor tends to flicker after you play for awhile. The control panel overlay is pretty warn out, so if you know where I can get one please let me know.