I’ve spent some time recently thinking about alternatives for the All American Football game. Quite frankly, the game just doesn’t appeal to me and it doesn’t get played at all. I knew this before I even purchased the cabinet and my initial thought was to convert it to a jamma cabinet and put a multi-board in it allowing me to play about 48 games in it.
One thing has kept me from doing that…the huge control panel. Playing a game like Frogger on that monstrosity of a control panel just wouldn’t seem right. I started thinking about games that could make use of the huge control panel and could only come up with a few alternatives. 4 player fighting games, which aren’t really my cup of tea or trackball games like Golden Tee and various bowling games which require lots of real estate for “rolling”.
I’ve come up with a plan and if I can find all of the right parts I intend to convert it to a Golden Tee and a World Class Bowling combo cabinet. Both games would be installed in the cabinet at the same time and be controlled by a multijamma controller. If I can aquire at least one of the board sets, I’ll probably start the conversion fairly soon. It will be a fairly detailed project: completely rewiring the cabinet; possibly installing a new, larger monitor or at least changing the orientation on the current monitor; and completely reworking the control panel. Stay tuned…
About 2 weeks ago, after trying for several months to work out a trade, I decided to sell my Omega Race game. It was a tough decision to make as it is the game that got me into the hobby. It was also without a doubt the game the required the most effort to get running. As much as I liked the game, it just didn’t get played enough to justify having in my collection. For archive purposes, all of the Omega Race posts and pictures will remain on the site.
I’m on the hunt for a replacement game….something along the lines of PacMan, Ms. PacMan, Galaga, Frogger, Centipede, Asteroids, Space Invaders, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, a budget Golden Tee or a decent pinball machine. If you’ve got any of the following for a decent price and are within 150-200 miles of central Illinois, drop me a line.
I had a site reader e-mail me some questions over the weekend about Omega Race. Somehow, the e-mail got deleted before I had a chance to respond. If you happen to read this, please send your e-mail again.
Not really arcade related but I came home from work on Wednesday and fired up the XBox 360 to unwind for a bit. Instead of being greeted with the main dashboard, I was presented with a message to contact customer support in about 30 different languages and the error code of E 74. Of course the warranty expired in March, so it will now be repaired on my own dime.
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There is not a whole lot taking place on the restoration front right now. I simply don’t have time. Although the All American Football cabinet still needs new t-molding, I’m tempted to dive into a full blown restoration of either Donkey Kong or Track & Field. Right now, I’m leaning towards the Track & Field restoration.
I’m also working on acquiring another non-working game. I haven’t committed yet, but the price is right and it’s not too far away. The only problem is working out the details of a pickup as my calendar is pretty full for the next few weeks and I’m not sure how long the current owner would be willing to hold onto it for me.
For those that are interested, there haven’t been too many updates to the site as I recently attending a week long conference in Florida and just returned Sunday from a week long vacation in South Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, there’s not a lot taking place on the arcade restorations. I’ve come to the conclusion that spring and summer are too busy for me to dedicate time to my projects. Between kid’s baseball games, swimming, soccer, business trips and vacation there just isn’t enough time (not to mention work itself). I guess that is one benefit to living in Illinois. It’s so damn cold in the winter you’re forced to stay inside. That seems to be the time when most of my work gets done.
Anyway, last week, my long time friend and good buddy Patrick was in town. Patrick is a frequent commenter on this site and lives in Hawaii, so we don’t see each other too often. About a week ago, we developed a great plan…Saturday would be “game night”. Patrick would show up around 5:00, we’d cook some burgers on the grill, have a few beers and then head to the basement for some serious old style arcade gaming.
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I managed to free some time last weekend to do a bit of work on the All American Football cabinet. Other than new t-molding, this project is about done. I spent about an hour cleaning then reattaching all of the joysticks, spring sticks and buttons. The buttons will eventually get replaced but the old ones will work fine for now. I’d like them to at least be the same color! Per a request in another thread, I’ve got some closeups of each joystick hole cutout:
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I came to the realization that of the games I own, the Omega Race upright doesn’t get much play. I’m looking to trade it for a Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga machine. You can find plenty of pictures of the game in the Omega Race photo gallery. Where two cabinets are pictured, the one usually referred to as the “orginal” cabinet is the one offered up for trade. The other cabinet was empty and sold several months ago.
The game is fully working but does have one minor issue. When the game is playing there is some “blooming” present on the screen. What does that mean? The image moves in and out slightly only when the game is playing. This is not present when the game is in attract mode. I have replaced the high voltage diode but that didn’t solve the problem and I haven’t tried to diagnose it any further.
Use the contact form to contact me with any offers you may have. I’m located about 2 to 2 1/2 hours from Chicago and St. Louis and about 3 hours from Indianapolis.
The new control panel overlay arrived today from Mame Marquees. I have had a marquee printed there before but never a control panel overlay. I have to admit, I’m very impressed with the quality. In anticipation of installing the control panel overlay, I wanted to make sure to have all of the cabinet components painted before it arrived. I spent some time over the weekend repainting the marquee retainers and control panel frame.
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I received an e-mail today notifying me that my All American Football control panel overlay was shipped. It should be here in 2 or 3 days. I’m busy painting those parts that I stripped and should have an update in a few days.