Taito Space Gun

[strykr]

Bought this one from Julian at the Unigame meet, and it just so happened to turn up pretty much right at the same time as the Atari System 2 cab, nothing like trying to do two at once

.

Bit of an odd one this, i've been on the lookout for an op Thunderbolt for ages, but they never seem to come up so I was chatting with Paulcan about it on the day and we thought that it was more or less exactly the same profile as a Midi Thunderbolt. It was pretty knackered and as far as I knew, it could have a broken monitor, broken guns, broken pedals, and a broken pcb, but like a madman I took a punt on it anyway!

Now its shown up I can see that it is not exactly the same as a Thunderbolt, nor is it the same as the other Space gun cabs I know about, of course the large plastic one, and Indyjones' one that was picked up from the arcade raid.

So im guessing this little fella was put together by electrocoin at some stage and put out on site somewhere, either to test it out or just to put Taitos space gun into a smaller location.

Heres some pics of when it arrived

I gave it a quick clean inside and out, reconnected all the wiring and went to check the voltages before plugging the PCB in.

Doesn't look too shabby, but the Hantarex 150 was spitting out fluctuating voltages on 5 & 12, Nad kindly offered to send me a replacement but I got too impatient and just put a regular switching PSU in.

So all voltages fine, I plugged the PCB and fired it up!

The monitor works, but the pcb is just a static garbled mess.

The monitor works though which is good.

For now I have removed all the metalwork which has seen better days! the pedals in particular are pretty shagged.

Pretty tough to get out, as all rusted together! They have just a small spring in them and a leaf switch inside. Pretty simple.

They will go off for Powdercoating.

Not really sure what to do with this one, as have no idea if controls or sound work... Stevebm1 has kindly sorted me out with another faulty Space gun board, so will try a chip swap when I get a mo, if anyone has a space gun pcb let me know!! If not I will consider doing a full Operation Thunderbolt conversion, possibly with a dual name setup for the other positional light gun games. Im going to do my best to get it working as a dedicated Space gun first though.

TBC...

 

[IndyJones]

Going to be nice to see what happens with this cab

on the one hand Space Gun seems fairly uncommon but Op Thunderbolt would be so great to have.

I'll get the pics sorted asap as I promised someone else some pics of another cab, really upside down atm as I've got rid of the place where I used to store my cabs which has given me some storage issues to say the least

basically I need to do some shuffling to get Space Gun out to the front to do the pics.

 

[strykr]

Going to be nice to see what happens with this cab

on the one hand Space Gun seems fairly uncommon but Op Thunderbolt would be so great to have.

I'll get the pics sorted asap as I promised someone else some pics of another cab, really upside down atm as I've got rid of the place where I used to store my cabs which has given me some storage issues to say the least

basically I need to do some shuffling to get Space Gun out to the front to do the pics.

No rush mate, will be interesting to see what the side art is like.

 

[strykr]

About time I updated this really, cabs finished now.

Had nothing
but trouble with these flakey taito gun pcbs, two dead space guns and 2
dead operation thunderbolts. Deemed as beyond repair I finally struck
lucky by importing an untested operation thunderbolt pcb so at least I
would have something to play until I located a worker.

All of
the metalwork went off to the powdercoater and came up a treat, did it
in a big batch with my championship sprint stuff. all hardware such as
screws etc were re sprayed using a bit of hammerite satin.

First
job was to strip, clean, respray, fix where necessary and make two mint
guns out of the two knackered ones that were on there, and the NOS gun I
had.

Not
too bad inside, pots checked out fine, and some rust that was sprayed,
and a general good clean. had just enough good parts and bolts to make
two very nice guns.

lubed up the cogs

I
was never happy with all the random bolts n rusty screws on the front,
there didnt seem to be any reason for them, on first glance I assumed
they were earthing points, but no they were just random.

So I filled with p38, sanded down and reapplied vinyl

I also replaced the speakers as the others practically crumbled in my hands upon removal..
Lovely powdercoated coin door back on.

The
cab didnt have a back door, and no evidence of locks or hinges which is
odd as the cab has an interlock power switch, made a new one.

pedals re assembled and back on.

After
a lot of troubleshooting and some help from ben76 sorted the lack of
sound pcb issue by measuring voltages and discovering that only 1 pin on
the 12v line was wired in, traced the wire back to a junction box

and
the wire from the psu wasnt wired into the molex, connected 12v to the
pin ftom the psu and got sound back! Why this wasa never connected, and
how the cab ever had sound is a mystery to me! I can only think that
although very similar boards, op thunderbolt and Space Gun differ in
where the audio amp draws its voltage from.

I have a good chance
of finding and trying another space gun pcb soon, but for now, I
thought id make it into a Op Thunderbolt cab, the shape and guns are
much more op thunderbolt anyway.

With the cab working I tidied up the wiring.

Dr Glitch had kindly scanned and touched up the marquee, so had one printed, and jobs a good un.

Plays
great, and op thunder is a grail for me so im very chuffed. The
neighbours must think that WW3 has started! But I will continue to
gather intelligence information, and means of transportation.......

 

[sosfx]

Cool, well done this cab looks amazing !

 

[Alpha1]

Well played. Looks great!

 

[forcefulfil]

Beauty!
Total transformation
good work and a well deserved beer until the next cab begins

 

[Nintendo Arcade]

Great job there mate
Considering you did it all I'm your front room,hats of to you.
Great choice if beer too

Good job