SOLD
This unit was sold to the Vidiot Jeff. He is continuing his maintenance effort in the KLOV forums.
Thread: Jeff’s Space Encounters
Thread: Jeff’s Space Encounters
Delivery
We did not have a buyer, but we NEEDED to take the now working Space encounter back to the Vidiot for a Day party. One year ago we picked up both the unit there from a frustrated restorationist. He gave them a valiant effort but did not succeed in getting a working unit.
We showed up and unloaded the game. It was a huge hit. It is a great game experience even with the monochrome limits on it. Just seeing this failed project returned to glory one year later lent an extra excitement to the event.
We showed up and unloaded the game. It was a huge hit. It is a great game experience even with the monochrome limits on it. Just seeing this failed project returned to glory one year later lent an extra excitement to the event.
Swap Outs
With a working unit and a non-working unit side by side testing is easy. You simply move assemblies from on to another and watch the problems recur. The other unit had a bad strobe board. To be sure it was the strobe board and not the main board we swap! We move the strobe unit to the working game and if the strobe still fails it is a problem in the strobe, not the main PCB. For sanity checking I also installed the working strobe unit in the in the other cabinet. That working strobe kept working so it was obviously getting the right signal from the main PCB.
Repeated this procedure for the control panel which had a little stutter in the X axis movement. Same trick for the monitors. Well, more of an extension cable than a physical move, but same testing is achieved.
Repeated this procedure for the control panel which had a little stutter in the X axis movement. Same trick for the monitors. Well, more of an extension cable than a physical move, but same testing is achieved.
Fixed
The boardset came back repaired. We have a working Space Encounters. This unit had a working monitor and strobe unit. It also has the hard to find color gel.
This is a monochrome game with color provided by a multi-colored overlay that hangs in front of the screen. It is held in place by a plastic bezel with some printed space portal artwork. The overlay has deep blue for the “sky” above the tunnel. The sides of the tunnel are red and the bottom is yellow. There is a yellow Notch in the blue sky for the score.
The bezel art is complemented by folded card board art that shrouds the space between the bezel and a second glass bezel mounted in a plastic surround. This is very similar to its contemporary Atari Destroyer design.
The nice thing about the upright version is the lighting effects. In that shroud space between the space portal bezel and the clear glass a full on light show is installed. There is a blinking red panel at the bottom that resembles the red dot displays of Star Trek Original Series design. Placed in the “random” red dots is a clearly spelled out MIDWAY. This panel just blinks to produce that “battle stations” red alert feeling.
The marquee is also a blinking red light in attract mode. The black marquee seems to require a huge light source. The manual calls for a 200W bulb. The bulb is red. I could not find a 200W bulb, especially not one already painted red. I also had a fear it would just melt the surrounding plastic like a shrinky dink.
The best lighting effect happens during game play. They installed a strobe light under the marquee. When you hit an alien ship the strobe flashes and the red marquee light flashes to produce a fire and explosion look. The 6 x 9 speaker cranks enough bass to add the right bang to the lights for a great experience.
This is a monochrome game with color provided by a multi-colored overlay that hangs in front of the screen. It is held in place by a plastic bezel with some printed space portal artwork. The overlay has deep blue for the “sky” above the tunnel. The sides of the tunnel are red and the bottom is yellow. There is a yellow Notch in the blue sky for the score.
The bezel art is complemented by folded card board art that shrouds the space between the bezel and a second glass bezel mounted in a plastic surround. This is very similar to its contemporary Atari Destroyer design.
The nice thing about the upright version is the lighting effects. In that shroud space between the space portal bezel and the clear glass a full on light show is installed. There is a blinking red panel at the bottom that resembles the red dot displays of Star Trek Original Series design. Placed in the “random” red dots is a clearly spelled out MIDWAY. This panel just blinks to produce that “battle stations” red alert feeling.
The marquee is also a blinking red light in attract mode. The black marquee seems to require a huge light source. The manual calls for a 200W bulb. The bulb is red. I could not find a 200W bulb, especially not one already painted red. I also had a fear it would just melt the surrounding plastic like a shrinky dink.
The best lighting effect happens during game play. They installed a strobe light under the marquee. When you hit an alien ship the strobe flashes and the red marquee light flashes to produce a fire and explosion look. The 6 x 9 speaker cranks enough bass to add the right bang to the lights for a great experience.