Pobtastic pobtastic

The Easy Bit!!!

The top box is in fantastically good condition (albeit a bit dirty) there’s hardly a mark on it! Turns out the machine ISN’T 208cm high as it states in the manual, of course this measurement must include this top box - its only 174cm, so still pretty large then! 😄

The only problem I have with this part is that it doesn’t light up… But then, I don’t find that out until much later…

In The Van

Well this is the machine laying in the van. The manual states the measurements as 78cm X 90cm X 208cm, so the problem I have here is that the door frame is only 74cm wide… Now you can see why I told everyone this was an adventure! As you can see from the picture the artwork is pretty much intact, there’s only a few minor rips in it. The worst part is the control panel which you can’t see here, its in a VERY poor state but fortunately NAMCO still produce overlays for it. Its not an urgent job, so I’ll look into it another time.

Disassembly Preparation

Took me half an hour or more to get the lock off the back door! Well, I only spent so long on it because I didn’t want to damage the wood at all - plus I don’t have an extension cord long enough to be able to use a drill on it. After much hard graft I finally manage to mangle it enough to be able to put a screwdriver into the lock and successfully turn it - this is my first view inside the cabinet.

Disassembled Part #1

A huge great big relief!!! On jemmying apart the bottom of the cabinet it turns out that these cabinets don’t hold together using any glue at all!!! Its held together by wooden dowels spaced out about 3-8" apart across the whole cabinet (including the wooden pieces which are inside the cab which are doweled on each end) then inside the cab there are wooden blocks which are screwed into the bottom/ sides/ top to hold it all together. Of course, I didn’t know this when I bought the cab… It was just a stroke of luck!

Disassembled Part #2

Here’s the bottom part of the cabinet with all of the wiring still attached. What I decided to do was remove the wiring from the sides completely and just leave it like this so I could work out where it went back relatively easily. This means that everything is still in the same sort of place it came from anyway so I don’t have to think too hard about where it goes back! Fortunately, it isn’t too complicated either seeing as the game is relatively new at only 1994, another plus is that no two connectors appear to be the same so there is no real danger of plugging something in the wrong hole!

Reassembly!

With the cabinet laid on its side, me and a friend started whacking it together again! Probably could of used a rubber mallet or something, but of course I don’t have one. It went back together again pretty okay just using our fists to thump it! It seems to stand up pretty well without the wooden blocks, but if a jobs worth doing, its worth doing well… So my Mum says anyway.. I set about rebuilding the entire cab again quite successfully! I decided not to reattach the wiring to the sides of the cab again so it does come apart quickly should I move house or something - it doesn’t matter to me if its just dangling inside the cab its not like I’m operating it or anything! The only wiring I did attach was the speaker/ marquee light wiring because it runs up the front of the cab and has its own screw held attaching things (!) The rest of the wiring was held together by cable ties and stuck to the cab using metal ‘staples’. The only problem with feeling around inside the cab now is that I cut the staples the get the wiring out and left the staples there poking out… Guess I could always just take them out another time, getting the cab together is the main priority today.

In The Games Room

And here it is!!! 😍 It didn’t work at first because one of the pins that attach to the safety cut off ‘plunger’ had fallen off (which was a heart stopping moment after 6 hours work!!!) But after reattaching, it fired up straight away! In the end I was quite glad to have taken it completely apart because it was absolutely filthy and I could then give it a really good clean!