Category Archives: Old Things

You don’t get to die yet…

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Picked up some ragged projects with good bones over the weekend, both Bally Midway cabs. The first is an upright, an old black and white game called Gun Fight. Released in 1975 it has the dubious distinction of being the first video game in which you killed human avatars.

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It’s in very nice shape, though it’s been a long time since any of the original electronics were inside. I grabbed it for $40, mostly for the coin door parts.

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Despite outward appearances it was very thoroughly stripped on the inside, even the switches were removed from the underside of the controls. Finding the parts to restore this one would be both difficult and expensive.

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The art is outstanding and the cab is solid though. A normal color raster monitor won’t clear the back of the case when installed, so I’m going to end up using an LCD. I’d rather compromise on the type of display than have to hack up the wood any more. It’ll likely end up a multi-game, but at least it will stay in circulation instead of being chopped up. I don’t intend on destroying any of the art or drilling the original control panel overlay.

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My other pickup was this sad looking little Midway cocktail table, a freebie (mostly, the price tag was taking away the necked Electrohome G07 tube that was mounted in it).

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Came home in a few pieces, I spent the afternoon putting it back together again.

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Hmmm…

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Gorf. That explains why it was converted!

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Glued the side back to the table top, and added a few brackets to brace it. Also installed a less messed up G07 I had handy.

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Repopulated the coin door with parts from the Gun Fight cabinet.

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Cleaned up the Tournament Arkanoid control panel a bit too. New overlay from Twisted Quarter makes it way easier on the eyes. I need to get a piece of plexi to put over it since the metal panel is swiss cheese underneath due to multiple conversions over the years.

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Things are a little off center since I wanted to use as many of the existing holes as possible. Not totally sure what I want this cabinet to stay as and modifying it permanently for a game that may only be in there a few months would be sorta dumb.

How we Do!

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Spent today giving the mysterious ‘FF’ cab some love. I was initially working towards converting it to use the Mr Do! board I have but I found out the cabinet actually can’t fit a vertically mounted monitor without the back door smacking into the frame. Horizontal mount worked out, so the Do! Run Run board gets to stay.

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I had to pretty heavily modify the monitor shelf even to fit it horizontally. Looking at the mounting setup again I think the original monitor was mounted in there without a frame, and the chassis was just screwed to the little shelf below where the monitor sits.

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I wanted to keep the Electrohome G07 I was putting in fully intact, so I did a bit of rearranging. The PCB and cage had to come down since with the monitor frame in place there was no longer enough clearance on the side. I’m going to redo the butt splices in the video wiring later, didn’t have any heat shrink tubing on hand to do them properly today.

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Also replaced the crappy one piece sealed buttons that came with the cab with the leaf switches that came in the converted Megatack cab and some less weathered buttons from a parts control panel. Installed some real control panel hold downs too since the holes for the slide latches were all messed up, feels much more solid now.

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The game looks much nicer on a CRT. I’ve got it mostly dialed in but the width coil is broken on the chassis I am using so that adjustment will have to stay where it is.

Find of the Week – 1890s Württemberg Uhrenfabrik clock

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I’m always thrilled to find truly old things at thrift stores. This clock was instantly recognizable as being a true antique when I found it on a shelf with a motley assortment of quartz wall clocks and electric clock-radios at the Goodwill on SE Grand. It was priced at $8, ‘as is’. I greedily snatched it up and took it home, feeling like a thief after I checked out and paid the token price.

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The only writing on the case is a fragment of a label on the back, with some handwriting in pencil. It looks like…

Ba(l|b)(y|g|s)
Shar(p|f)(unk.)(u w/ umlaut|i)(d|2)
June 22, 189(7|9)
E?&(l|b)(unk.)

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On first glance I was worried the movement was incomplete because of all of the vacant screw holes. I think the frame is actually provisioned for a few different variations of the mechanism though, maybe some kind of date display thing because of the ‘window’ in the front plate?

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The movement has a few makers markings. ‘Württemberg Uhrenfabrik’ and a stylized ‘WUS’ logo with the text ‘Bürk’ beneath. Based on similar logos found in Mikrolisk’s [1] database I think this movement was made by Württembergische Uhrenfabrik Bürk Söhne [2].

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Output shaft and the geartrain for setting the clock.

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Backside of the dust cover. Hand formed and soldered modification to make the ‘sealed’ area smaller.

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Also interesting is a bit of text visible on the piece used in modifying the dust cover.

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The hands are two pieces soldered together as well.

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Another dust cover strip on the side removed reveals the rest of the movement.

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The spring was wound absurdly tightly already, I gave it a bit of a crank not knowing this and am probably lucky I didn’t break it. I gave the balance wheel a bit of a shove and it actually started right up… It’s been running for two days now. Kinda want it to stop so I can leave it be and avoid putting any more wear on the parts.

I have a feeling the case is not original, though it’s clearly quite old. Not sure how I’d go about further tracing that aspect of it.

[1]: http://www.mikrolisk.de/show.php?site=280&suchwort=W%C3%BCrttembergische&searchWhere=all#sucheMarker

[2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%BCrttembergische_Uhrenfabrik_B%C3%BCrk