Restoring my Battlezone Cabaret
My Battlezone got damaged during June 1998 while in shipment from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland. The machine was almost mint before the damage. Somebody hit it with a forklift while it was transferred on a boat (Silja Line, for those who are interested). Luckily, the electronics and the monitor survived. Even more luckily, the shipment company's insurance covers the damage.So, I'm having the cabinet rebuilt by a professional restoring company (Punavuoren Puu, for those who are interested). As an end result, I should have a Battlezone that looks brand new.
Part one of the restoration is to remove all electronics from the machine so the restoration company doesn't damage them. After all, they know everything about restoring wood and nothing about restoring electronics. Normally they work with furniture made hundred years ago or so.
Click on the images to view them in larger size.
Here's full frontal shot of the machine.
You can see the damage on the top of the machine. Basicly the particle board was demolished from the top of both sides. Also the full cabinet was warped and as a result the monitor bezel didn't fit any more and you could see light shining out from the cabinet through the cracks.
Control panel, marquee (how do you remove these things on Atari cabaret machines?) and coin door.
Here you see the damage from inside, after removing monitor class and bezel. Note the high-tech way of transforming a black-and-white monitor to a colour monitor: red and green film glued on the monitor.
Machine from behind, before starting to take it apart.
Audio regulator board, power supply and the PCBs.
Close-up of the PCBs.
I attached a piece of tape to each cable and wrote down where it is supposed to go. This should make reassembly easier.
Close-up of two notes on the audio board: "Regulator/Audio II board, Atari 1979" and "Tested Jan 29, 1981".
The harness, still connected to power supply.
Disconnected PCBs. Recognize the pinball they are laying on.
Front of the machine after removing monitor and control panel.
Monitor glass and bezel. You don't really see the bezel through the tinted glass normally.
Shot of the small cabaret colour vector monitor, from the top.
Yeah, it's empty. Time to call the restorer.
To Hermanni's Games