Invaders Must Die

Found something I’ve been after for a lonnnnnnng time today…

It was rather serendipitous and I’m really excited about it! My parents had one of these Space Invaders cocktail table machines in their living room when I was a little kid and I was always sad they got rid of it. It’s been something I’ve been hunting off and on even before I leapt back into the hobby for real.

Seems likely that it’s been in the area since new, and probably not swapped between locations too much. The cabinet is immaculate and doesn’t have any water damage, smashed corners, or other signs of hard use. A tag on the coin door identifies it as having been operated at some point by the still existent company Amusement Unlimited out of Eugene.

It’s my first black and white game, definitely a bit different than what I’m used to working on. Right now the monitor works perfectly, and it doesn’t look too daunting to keep that way. Not a lot going on compared to the chassis for a color raster monitor.

Sadly the board has issues. Right now all I get is this little cluster of partial characters.

Again though, this thing looks dead simple compared to the newer stuff. Parts are nice and spread out on the PCBs too, so should be easy to work on. Based on my research so far I’m thinking there may be an issue with some of the RAM chips on the boards.

Lost sibling

I found a twin to the ‘FF’ mystery cab at this year’s Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Tacoma, WA!

The design of the cabinet and hardware is pretty much identical, and the art is in a similar style, though completely different in content.

Not sure if this one was originally drilled for two buttons or if that was done for Time Pilot ’84. Both positions are labeled on the overlay, like the one I’ve got.

Non-infringing totally not TIE fighters, or in any way related to Star Wars, side art.

Behind glass

Got a little further re-assembling the Midway CT I picked up. The Galaxian glass isn’t pretty, but it’s an original and the price was right.

I laid down some cork from Ace Hardware between the table top and glass to give it an even surface to ride on and keep it from sliding. Need to get some more clips since the cab only came with three, and brace the door side of the table top since it’s warped enough to allow for a worrying amount of flex if you press on the long edge of the glass on that side.

Got some complete original Gorf CT control panels on order from Quarter Arcade. Didn’t cost a whole lot more than the blank repros and saves me a bunch of work and parts gathering.