Ravage said:
To promote a healthy discussion, <snip>
Ok, here's mine
Have been hardcore arcade nut since the age of 10 (Now 42
) and used to travel miles to checkout arcades so have played in most. My quest would involve seeking out Defenders and maxxing out the high score on the all time greats list at 999,975. This is the maximum score Defender can handle before resetting to 0 and once achieved, the only way it could be beaten was to reset internally.
Anyway, I got my first proper job from school filling gas bottles, then going out with a driver to deliver them around Warwickshire, I came across a cafe that I used to frequent in my travelling days. The cafe was having a lot of work done and we were delivering next door so I stuck my head in for a look.
In one corner was a Defender covered in dust, it was all that was left of the arcade at the back of the cafe. As I was already an *addict* I asked the guy working there if it was for sale, he said 'yeah, give me £70', I said ok, went out to our driver and borrowed £70
It was on the tail-lift and away before the guy had a chance to change his mind, dropped off at my parents house and left in the back garden until I finished work, convinced gaffer I needed to go home early and move it in case it rains as I'd left my keys at work when we dropped it off, he let me go early (good really because if he hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to smuggle it into my bedroom before mum & dad got home from work
)
The next 3 hours were pure hell as I moved it, on my own and without sacktruck etc.) dragged it through the tight kitchen, around the living room through two doors, around a 90 degree bend that was the hall way 3ft square and up the stairs to my bedroom. Them Defenders is heavy beasts. Anyway, I checked it out inside and found out that there was no power supply board or transformer, where do I get one ??? It was 1985 and most places were closed and skipped so I tried phoning OPs and arcades to see if anyone could help, what a bunch of miserable bastards they were, no one was interested or wanted £200-400
I cleaned it, polished it and loved it for 2 years (no sign of a psu), even travelled to Skegness looking for one, loads of other machines and parts stored but I was interested only in Defender PSU, nothing. Then I had a call from a guy who used to work as a salesman for our gas tanks saying he had found me a psu, wooohooo, travel 60 miles to his house to pick it up next day in works truck. It was just the psu pcb, no transformer
but it was complete and clean, so thanks for that Simon (wherever you are now).
I could not find a proper transformer anywhere, and as there was no such thing as t' internet back then I would keep ringing arcades across the country at the end of every month when I got paid, nothing doing (this would be about 1989). My Defender then took a back seat as my eldest son was born 1990 and we rented a house and all that went with it, I would still check around and get trade mags etc., cab was still at my parents......
......1992, another son and I had almost forgotten Defender, It was still at my parents. I would pop in in the mornings to see my mum, as I was now delivering gas in my own lorry
and see Defender occasionally........ January 1997 Parents decided to sell up and leave this sh*t hole and move to the country, I needed to find a new home for Defender so I had to bring it home finally, very small house though and I was not the most popular person for a while but hey, March 1997 another son on the way
and a new job and we moved to where I am now, lots of space and some time to do stuff.
Soooooo, I managed to get a theory of operationl and back door sheet from a guy in London for £10 so I studied it like I was taking an exam, got myself familiar with every component/pcb/connector and set about connecting up 3 transformers to do the job of the original, this was sufficient to get things going up in smoke, like the monitor chassis and the coin door bulbs, hmmmm
Much messing about over the next few weeks, checking and rechecking was done, no positive results though so my interest melted away again for a bit and it was hard to concentrate with 3 young uns. 1999, Proper cable Internet was installed and the world was at my fingers so I searched for Williams transformer and messaged people all over for months asking if. One guy got back to me from the US and I paid $200 to get the heavy sod to the UK, it took 3 weeks, but I had a transformer. Downloaded everything I could from the web about Defender.
Over the next week, I wired it up cleaned it, checked connectors and prayed, still no joy duff tranny
got back on to seller who was great and sent me another one and hey presto, after another 3 weeks wait, we have some form of life with leds and stuff, still not much idea of what is supposed to do what so again I searched the net, found a couple of numbers for people in the know and asked questions, got a user manual from some site so now I had an idea of what was supposed to happen, I was away.
Found out chassis was knackered and found one on Ebay.com from a guy called Chad, bought it for $120, guaranteed working. Monitor tube was in the front room waiting for the replacement chassis to arrive and my boys necked it with a basketball, gutted. I now had a chassis without a tube, no 4600 tubes for sale anywhere that I knew of. I then got an email addy for a guy called Luke in Blackpool who had loads of cabs, I contacted him, He had a Wells monitor that might fit but he needed to ask a couple of questions to someone and would get back to me, no answer fo a while so I emailed back. The monitor had been destroyed by a roof collapse on his games room
Eventually (2007 ish) I found one on Feebay for £70, bid, won, picked up same day
Put into cab and we have lots of scrambled garbage on the screen but at least there was something, first time since maybe '84. Spent the next few weeks reading up on the web and trying to repair the boards, there were damaged tracks, acid corrosion and partial working logic, so not being very good with digital electronics, I again resorted to Feebay.com. Bought loads of Williams boards from Finland, loads from the U.S, and a few from Canada and waited.....
Also bought a switcher for the testing of boards
....About 2-3 weeks later I shut myself in the garage for a day, I had 3 large boxes of Williams boards ranging from Defender to Sinistar (big thanks to Dave@Robotron2084) awesome website that helped me to sort them out, all the tools needed. I managed to get a full working set of boards (red roms) and replace the ones in the machine, I then rebuilt the psu as recommended and viola a working Defender for the first time since 1984
I was so chuffed and played my first game in years
I have to say, still running on its original rebuilt psu and has not had a problem since that day. I now have 16 cabs and 30+ pcbs, its soooo adictive
Hows that Rav
Andy.
)
