Birthday Present

Hiya everyone!!

Gotta tell you about this.. Today (well, the 13th) is my birthday. Took
the time to spend it with family (read: drove to RI and went out to a
Chinese buffet w/ Mom 'n Dad). Funny thing happened though. On my way to
the buffet, while taking a back road, I saw out of the corner of my eye a
beautiful sight.

Pointy, bright, evil monsters on the side. Yes, it was a Tempest cabinet!
Turned around, went back to it, checked it out..

The bad news:

Poor bugger was converted to a Bomb Jack. The bottom has some rot, and the
fools who took it to the side of the road tore the back off. It's fixable
with some TLC. The monitor was replaced by a Taiwanese medium-res raster.
The control panel was converted to a Bomb Jack with a new (at the time)
joystick.

The good news:

The side art was intact, not painted over, but a little rough for my liking.
The original wiring harness is intact along with the original power supply,
though some wires have been snipped. None of the interior wood was torn
out, in fact it's all in great shape. The front glass and bezel are in
beautiful shape. The control panel is, in fact, the original one except for
the added buttons (still has the two Atari buttons on it!). No big deal.

Now I've got a helluva project to undertake. I wouldn't have this in my
place just yet (it's in a garage 'til I can fix it up this summer). Now
I've got to start from scratch, finding a monitor, Tempest PCB, CP Overlay
and spinner (or replacement CP from an original).

So here's the beginnings of "John's Restoration" or "Sarge's Rescue and
Resuscitation" - I'll keep y'all up to date on the progress.

BTW, the chunks of wood formerly known as the rear of the cabinet were
tossed inside and tore off some capacitors and ICs from the Bomb Jack.
EPROM #2 was ripped from its socket, but was rescued. Won't be a problem
getting that working, but that's another (raster) story. It's not my focus
here, either. <grin>

If anyone has any recommendations about replacing the wood (fastening, etc.)
on the bottom side, underneath the graphics, please let me know. I know
it's particleboard, but there has got to be a way I can replace the lower 3"
that got mangled on the one side. Also, for fastening the rear upper and
lower panels.. I DO have the pieces, they're just.. err.. detached and a
bit mangled. ANY suggestions are appreciated!!

Pictures coming soon,

Thanks,

John

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Received on Fri Apr 14 01:06:26 2000