1993 Atari Arcade Cabinet Restoration — 3 WEEK CHALLENGE

In the 80's I used to go into an art museum and steal the quarters from the fountain in the foyer. Then when the supermarket installed a can/bottle return vending machine I would walk around town like a hobo collecting and cashing in.

 

Brand new T-Molding from t-molding.com all around:





Here is the new lighting for the marquee. It originally came with a fluorescent fixture, then the last owner jerry rigged a Phillips Hue in there. Wanting to do it properly, I bought and LED roll and cut strips to length and soldered them together.

This will be powered by a toggle and the arcade’s central 12v power supply.



I had to strip the rubber coating off every single positive and negative end.






Final result:



The Marquee with two layers of 3/16ths Plexiglass, along with the Street Fighter II special backlit film in the middle.



Cabinet art applied:

 

Hey I don’t feel like I’m the only degenerate now lol

 

It all changed when I found a Canadian Quarter that would give me credit but the machine would still spit it out like it wasn't a quarter so long as you hit the player 1 button just in time. I was banned from the pizza parlor when they found out. It was a great summer in the meantime. Two for one pizza's plus I was a Rampage boss.

 

Classic

 

Nice work on the marquee and not getting any "hot spots" from the LEDs. You have a nice balanced diffusion.

It's coming together!

 

It should have even better diffusion once it gets mounted in the cab. I just had it sitting elevated on wire rolls.

 

@se7enine How is your TV mounted in your cabinet? Having a hard time figuring out a way to mount mine.

 

My game of choice was Asteroids. One quarter, play for as long as you like, just keep turning the score over.

 

I built a slanted platform and I think I just drove a screw in to stabilize it. I'm not done with that part really because I still need to build the surround around the TV.

 

Hell of a good friend you are. Very thoughtful

 

Great work. You're friend is in for a very special surprise!
My favorite arcade game is Galaga - my brother, dad and I would always play and beat each other's high scores.

 

I'm changing out the speakers in in 1999 Prelude this weekend. Little does he know I'm installing his old stock speakers in the cabinet, haha.

 

Results are looking awesome! One thing I’d like to share is that the adhesive backing on those led strip lights is notoriously frail. I’ve had projects fail after six months because the adhesive backing separated from the light strip in some areas. Leaving the lights hanging like a hammock while the adhesive was still firmly stuck to the project surface. For added piece of mind I’d suggest adding a few cable staples along the strip every few inches as back up. That might not be necessary if the light panel is firmly pressed against the SF marquee where the pressure of the plexiglass will keep the lights in place. Just my $.02 because I hate having to do things twice.

 

Maybe a slanted tray built from some MDF, reinforced with strips of steel bar? Held in with angle iron bolted to the front and back side of the cabinet. Then a ratchet strap around the TV to keep it from sliding if need be.

 

That’s what I’m thinking. The way the CRT was originally mounted was with a slanted metal tray. I’m going to gut the tube from the case so it’s easier to mock up

 

Yeah incase my idea was hard to visualize, hear ya go.
Dunno if that TV is heavy enough to need steel bars under the mdf, but if theres one thing I remember about CRT's, is that they are heavy bastards.

 

I want to say it weighs about 50-60 pounds? It’s actually an old computer monitor as opposed to a TV. Much more appropriate for this kind of thing.

I don’t think it’s heavy enough to need angle iron. Lemme figure something out.

 

Looks amazing Tyler... Excellent restore!

 

Thanks, almost done with the cabinet itself. Next up is the programming of the emulator.