Laser Ball (Sold)
Finally, a replacement wide-body for my Stellar Wars. Not the Space Invaders I was hoping for, but something different. This one will need a little work to get fully functional, and then a good cleaning. It kept blowing the solenoid fuse and since moving the machine the sound has gone out (though it was working intermittently still shortly after moving the machine). I think both were related to bad contacts on the bridge rectifiers. I cleaned the contacts and have not had a problem since. Ok, about a month of sitting around, the sound went out again, and the fuse blew. Changed the fuse again, cleaned the contacts and things are working again. I also started on some of the switch cleaning and adjustments -- primarily on the rollover targets in the center since that was one of the things I liked about the game. Too much time has gone by, but I did replace the bridge rectifiers (better contacts) and have not had sound problems or blown fuses since. Still needs a good cleaning and switch adjustments. Ok, many months later, and had some sound problems, but no blown fuses. Sound did not start right away, but about 2-3 minutes into the game the sound kicked in. It might of had something to do with it being colder in my basement (the heater was not on). I have noticed some strange behavior on the old Williams games when it is colder. Much, much later -- finally got a couple of hours to devote to the machine. Ended up finding out that one of my solder joints on the new bridge rectifiers did not hold (had to redo). I also pulled the power supply board, replaced the filter cap and reflowed the solder on all the pins (some of them where showing actual cracks -- which probably accounted for a number of the problems above). Been running for a few days now and I probably got a dozen or so games played with no problems. Still need the clean the machine!
Ok more months (now mid September). I have not had any more problems with the game and since I had a vacation day I had to use from work I took the day off while the kids are in school and tore the machine apart and gave it a good cleaning with new bulbs, new rubbers and new drop target stickers. Looks great! I will probably bring it to the York show for sale though since I have a lead on a Space Invaders Project.
Well, it is October and the machine went to the York Show and was sold since I got my Space Invaders. I never even got a chance to take pictures of the machine since I shopped it out and cleaned it up, so the pictures below are before the cleaning.
If you have not figured it out yet -- I like diversity in the games.
Click for a larger view of the machines!
IPDB info for Laser Ball