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.

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.

I started looking at sources for replacement side art and couldn’t find any. I thought that I would design my own and try to find someplace to get it printed. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of printing it on my wide format inkjet printer as it contained too much black to get an accurate reproduction.

Fortunately, Richard from This Old Game stepped forward and agreed to silkscreen new artwork if there was enough interest. At last check, there were enough people interested that Richard was willing to proceed with the project. The side art will be die cut and silkscreened on 3m adhesive backed vinyl.

I began to vectorize the side art in Adobe Illustrator using measurements taken from my original cabinet and photographs I had taken. The picture you see to the left is the final version of the side art on my end. This is a lower resolution picture of the side art than the actual Illustrator file.

Richard and I are trying to find someone to color match the reproduction side art to the original cabinet. Richard does not have a cabinet and I am color blind, so I’m probably not the best candidate. There will also be some minor adjustments made to the side art on his end, I’m sure, as he prepares for the silkscreening process.

If you have any interest in obtaining reproduction side art for your Omega Race cabinet, be sure to visit Richard’s website, This Old Game , and fill out the form on the main page. Also, if you’d be interested in helping with the color matching process, drop Richard or me an e-mail and let us know that you are interested. Richard has an older version of the artwork pictured on his website. The version you see here is the latest.

If this project goes well, I will probably work on a reproduction control panel overlay as well.

I recently acquired a control panel in a ltitle better shape and decided to install it tonight. Along with switching the panel itself, I swapped the buttons from the old control panel onto the new and used a few of the old leaf switches from Track & Field on the new control panel. The Track & Field leaf switches were in much better shape. As you can see in the picture below, all of the bolts are intact and there isn’t a huge chunk of the overlay missing.

Finally, the game didn’t have an on/off switch so I had to plug it in and unplug it to power it on and off. I purchased a temporary switch and installed it while I had part of the cabinet dismantled. I’ll replace the switch with a more fitting one when I can find one.

The center of the bezel gets covered with a “yellow” film, which I glued to the back of the new bezel. I then reassembled the entire cabinet after scrubbing it with Simple Green cleaner. It’s extremely difficult to take pictures of this game as it uses a mirror system to actually display the image to the player. Below are a couple of my best efforts:

Again, the pictures aren’t the best quality. Up next, installation of a control panel in better shape, restoration of the coin door, and replacement of the high voltage diode on the monitor to take care of a “blooming” issue with the display. Due to a lack of reproduction artwork, the rest of the cabinet will be staying as is.

Pretty cool that the game is set in the distant future…2003.

As you can see in the pictures, especially the views from the back, the new cabinet has quit a bit more wear and tear than the original cabinet. The first step was to remove the monitors. I’m not sure of the condition on either one as neither machine is in working condition. They are two different monitors, the original cabinet has an Electrohome G05 monitor and the new cabinet has a Wells Gardner 19V2000. Both are black and white vector monitors. After removing the monitors, it was time to start stripping the new cabinet of the wiring harness. This took a bit of time as I stopped to label a lot of wires to ease in the reconstruction process.

Now, before you make fun of my multi-colored floor, I’ll tell you that standing on those foam cushioned pads for a few hours is much easier on the feet and legs than standing on a concrete floor. I’ll have another update and some new photos once I begin the transfer of parts to the original cabinet.

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to purchase another complete Omega Race upright cabinet, again in non-working condition. Most of the motherboards on the Omega Race games are covered in corrosive acid due to bad battery placement. After years in the cabinets, the batteries, used to save high score data, began leaking acid on the motherboard. The longer the battery leaked, the more damage done to the board. Working Omega Race boards are difficult to come by as a result of this.

I jumped on the opportunity to grab this new cabinet as I was always disappointed that I never got the game working. The hunt for a working motherboard begins! The progress of this restoration will be maintained on a dedicated page on this site. Updates for this restoration will only be posted on the dedicated page (also reachable by the “Arcade Restorations” option in the top menu) and not on the front page of the site. Photos of the restoration will be posted in the Photo Gallery as well.