Restoring Defender

Forum for retro arcade discussions
Post Reply
zodiacprime
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Restoring Defender

Post by zodiacprime » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:48 pm

Just picked up a non-working Defender cab and was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers. Here's the skinny:

The game was "just working until we moved it to the other room" according to the previous owner, but now nothing comes on when plugged in, not even the marquee light. Any ideas here? Bad power supply? Where would you start looking? I opened the back and everything _seems_ to be in order, but what do I know.

The side art is covered with a thick rough-black sticky paper. What would be the best way to remove this? If it doesn't go well does anyone know the best place to get reproduction artwork?

I live in Seattle, so links to any local shops (Portland would be ok too) would be a bonus.

The stick needs some work as well, any links to surplus/parts sites would be welcome. I'm a total n00b at this stuff but have been looking for a decent game to restore for a while now. I figured what better way to start than with Defender! :D

User avatar
raz0red
Site Admin
Posts: 677
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:21 pm
Location: Britannia
Contact:

Post by raz0red » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:09 am

First let me say that I am very jealous. :D

While I have a number of arcade games, I have yet to get a Williams game. The one game I am looking for is Defender which I consider the greatest arcade game of all time.

Anyway, from the sounds of it, you need to determine whether you are getting power at all. So, I would check all of the fuses, connections, etc. Another thing to look for is that arcade games have safety switches on the game. Usually on the back door, on the coin door, etc. When they are pushed in, power is allowed to flow. If they are not pushed in, you get nothing. So, if you take off the back door, or have the coin door open, you have to make sure these allow power to flow. So newbies attempt to tape these to make them closed, but if you just pull out on them, it is like flicking a switch and power will be allowed to flow.

Did you check to see if the monitor was glowing (in the neck of the monitor). It should glow when power is applied. If the neck isn't glowing, either you aren't getting power at all, or the monitor may have an issue as well. Are there any lights on the PCB to indicate that it is receiving power?

I am not sure about repair in Seattle (or even Portland for that matter). I usually try to repair my own boards. If I am not able to, I usually ship them off to someone reliable like:

http://www.elektronforge.com/

As far as parts go, here are the ones I use:

http://homearcade.org/BBBB/ (Bob is the man)
http://www.arcadeshop.com/

Finally, I couldn't find a specific article for the cabinet cleanup. However, whenever I need to do something like that, there are a couple places I go:

http://forums.webmagic.com/ubbthreads/u ... p?Cat=&C=2

The majority of arcade collectors are on this forum. I would post something there, and you will get a ton of feedback. It has always been a major help for me.

http://www.arcaderestoration.com

I can usually find something on this site to point me in the right direction.

http://www.rgvac.com/

Brian is great at arcade restorations. You might want to ping him with a question, he is usually very willing to answer.

Have fun, and keep us updated.

--Raz.

zodiacprime
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Post by zodiacprime » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:18 pm

Thanks for all the great tips Raz, I'll look these over in the coming weeks as I plan on really getting into this as soon as spring hits. Looks like I've got a few tools to buy and a lot of reading to do.

The unit appears to not be getting any power at all, there looks to be a row of red LEDs but they do not turn on when plugged in, nor does the monitor glow.. no hum, nada.

At lunch today I poked a bit under the vinyl covering (couldn't think of the word 'vinyl' last night, so "thick rough-black sticky paper" was all I could muster) ... :roll: well, it looks promising. The front (yes they vinyled _everything_) is very pristine and the paint looks great with a few nicks here n' there. The side art seems to be there as well, but has some blue paint covering it and seems to be in much worse shape than the front. It looks like someone tried to remove the blue paint, but got fed up and covered it w. vinyl. Overall, I'm very happy and should be able to fully restore the paint myself without resorting to new stencils.

The only other piece missing is the bezel graphic and i've got a lead on that currently.

I'll keep you guys in the loop and will post before/after pix when the project is finished.

Also... I think I'm already addicted: I'm picking up a Super Zaxxon tomorrow which looks very nice with the exception of a layer of dust. All art/monitor/parts are there. The guy says it needs a fuse :)

-zp

User avatar
raz0red
Site Admin
Posts: 677
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:21 pm
Location: Britannia
Contact:

Post by raz0red » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:20 pm

zodiacprime wrote: Also... I think I'm already addicted: I'm picking up a Super Zaxxon tomorrow which looks very nice with the exception of a layer of dust. All art/monitor/parts are there. The guy says it needs a fuse :)

-zp
You have to be careful, it is very addicting. I started out with one, then two, and all of a sudden I was up to 25 games. I have since trimmed it to 20, but even selling those 5 was painful...

--Raz.

zodiacprime
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Post by zodiacprime » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:41 am

Found out the Defender cab just needed a new power cord - I'll tell ya, that's harder to track down than you'd think.
raz0red wrote: You have to be careful, it is very addicting. I started out with one, then two, and all of a sudden I was up to 25 games. I have since trimmed it to 20, but even selling those 5 was painful...
--Raz.
I'm up to 3 machines :) I now have a very nice Vindicators machine to go with my Super Zaxxon and Defender. Btw, I know a guy in Portland who is trying to offload 3 storage units full of arcade and pinball games, PM me if you're interested - he just may have what you're looking for. I almost took his sit down Night Driver, but I just don't have the room.

steve0

Post by steve0 » Tue May 06, 2008 12:22 am

It's very great!

Post Reply