Too many projects
I took 5 days off from work the week of the 16th to work on one of my many projects - the game room. The dumbass we bought the house from decided that she would paint over the stain on the knotty pine, first with a layer of white primer and then a couple coats of light brown paint. After doing that she must not of been happy with it as she then put drywall over the walls. The bathroom was even worse. She put white textured paint all of the walls in there, two of which are knotty pine. Needless to say, after removing the drywall, I spent 3 days of my vacation just sanding the knotty pine walls to the bare wood. I never inhaled so much sawdust and paint in my life. The hardest part was the small inch deep pieces between each section of knotty pine. All that had to be done manually, which made for some really raw fingertips. Also, you had to get every little inch as that white paint sticks out like a sore thumb if you don’t. I did it the best I could but I still couldn’t get all of it. I don’t think you will even notice unless you really look for it. I wasn’t as picky this time around as I was when I refinished the walls in the family room. My fingertips couldn’t take the abuse.
I also spent some time during my vacation cramming for the A+ certification exams, which I took mid vacation and passed with flying colors. I hadn’t taken an exam since high school (15 years now!) so I was a little nervous. The next certification I would like to go for is Network+. Now I just need to find some good study materials for it.
I’ve also been taking on a few video game projects the past couple of weeks. I managed to get my Afterburner cockpit up and running with a new board set I picked up off ebay around Christmas time. The motion even worked too! It was so much fun playing this game again, with the entire cab moving up and down and the seat moving side to side. Unfortunately it was shorted lived as the pitching motor started running non-stop and blowing the fuse in my power strip. It looks like the triacs that control that motor are bad. I did find a guy who had a source for NOS (new old stock) triacs so I picked up a few from him. Before I replace those and fire it up again, the cab needs a complete cleaning. The motors are just covered with dirt and dust. Just cleaning up that cab will be an all day project. I did check all the motor brushes and thankfully they are all in good shape. I did manage to find a guy that has NOS brushes, which I will be picking up in case I need some in the future.
Another project game I recently got up and running is my Atari Quantum that I picked up from the Kalamazoo warehouse in July 2003. I had to purchase a new flyback as the original red was all chewed up (darn mice) and probably dead anyways. Just when I decided to buy a new flyback, Wintron decided to quit making them. This was probably a blessing as Mark over at Cinelabs started working on building a replacement transformer that would be a drop in replacement, unlike the Wintron. It was also quite a bit cheaper. After installing the new flyback and rebuilding both the deflection board and the HV board, Quantum was alive after setting in storage since October 10th, 1988, when the monitor died (according to a note written on masking tape across the top of the machine). This was short lived as when I attempted to adjust the X size on the deflection board, two resistors went up in flames - and took out about $12 worth of parts with them. So after replacing all these parts and putting in new size pots on the deflection board, it was up and running again. I’ve been playing this game like crazy lately and it’s very addicting! My high score so far is just over 122,000. You can really rack up some points by continuing to circle the particles again and again. I rebuilt the trackball unit with new bearings, rollers and a shiny new trackball. This makes it very easy to circle those particles. I’m making it a personal goal to get at least the second highest score on Twin Galaxies. Since this is such a rare game, I don’t have alot of competition. And with my current high score, that already puts me in fourth place.
I also picked up two Outrun upright cabs for $100 from an ad I saw in the local paper. One was complete and the other was mostly empty, tho it is the nicer of the two cabs. The guy I bought it from didn’t have a board set in either cab but included one he had laying around (apparently he had five of these cabs at one time). So when I got home I mounted it in the complete cab and plugged in the board set. I didn’t get any sound and the monitor wasn’t coming up, but the game did seem to play and the shaker motor is working too, which is a good sign. The monitor probably has a bad HOT or flyback. Hopefully the no sound issue is just a bad amp and not something on the game board itself. Another summer project to add to the list.
Last week Saturday I had my fellow arcade collecting buddies James & Pete over to my house for a night of gaming. Pinball at the Zoo was going on that day, where James & I met up with Pete. They had a good selection of pins along with a ton of vids this year, which was a nice surprise. Some of the highlights were Joust pinball and two Dragons Lair’s. It’s a shame Joust pinball is so rare as it’s a riot to play and would be a great game to add to the collection. Super Auctions was doing there thing also and I was really surprised at the number of classic games. You gotta wonder where all these machines turn up from. I would think all of the warehouses have been picked thru by now but I guess that’s not the case. The prices were very reasonable but I told myself I wasn’t buying anything else until I get my projects in the garage finished up. For the record, that’s 5 projects: Afterburner cockpit, Outrun, Donkey Kong, Solar Quest and a Pac cab that will be my Multicade machine.
This week after I tack rag the knotty pine walls in the game room and bathroom, I’ll be staining them and calling it good. Then it’s drywall time. The west wall in the game room along with the south wall and ceiling in the basement need to be drywalled. My brother in law has offered to help me do this as I have no idea how to hang drywall, let alone mud it and make it look good. Hopefully between the two of us we can get this done and looking good.
Wish me luck.