Alca Space Firebird U/R ( ex Duke Of Lancaster ship)

[Ronnie Dent]

Well! I have been looking for an upright version of this game in what seems like forever! Having owned the table version for many years and to be fair that's the version I played back in the day in the pubs. I only ever seen and played an upright once in an Arcade and it was the Alca version.

So I have found one externally intact but raped inside! the good news is I have A boardset for it and one of those nos 17" monitors, annoyingly I recently sold 2 19" monitors!



so the internals look like this


A blank canvas almost! I found a picture in a thread on here that showed the internals, this gives me an idea of how it should be. Need to figure out in the boards are on a metal plate or wood.
I'm missing the credit board, power brick and psu, but I do have these spare from a cocktail table that I may have to use. If anyone owns one of these and can take picks that would be a great help? Even better if anyone has any of the parts I'm missing to restore it?

How it should look





Thanks Ronnie

 

[Ronnie Dent]

I guess not many of these about, was hoping someone has or had a cab that might have some images, or even a similar styled Alca cab

Found this price list, looks like as well as an upright there was a compact cab too

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Martin dropped this of on Sunday! Happy days, all in all in decent condition, first thing I did was strip the blue paint from the cash box door! Major improvement already. The coin door is wrong so I need to find a stainless steel one to match the bottom door, have put up a wanted post

 

[Lukey13]

I've got an Alca cab but Im missing my bottom door
Is your bottom door original with those carriage bolts?... And if so could you possibly post some pics so I can attempt to reproduce it please?..

Was going to make something out of wood but tbh would probably prefer to make it from metal!
P.S. I absolutely love the woodgrain shade on these!

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Yeah I think the bolts are correct, no problem to take some pics for you, which game have you got? I found this image of another one

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Here are some pics of the coin door, it is wood with a stainless steel facing bent round sides and top, hope these help. Would be nice to see some pics of your cab inside and out ?

 

[Lukey13]

Nice one thanks a lot, appreciate that!
I’ve got an ALCA Planet.. it’s a vector, and from what I’ve found out it’s more like an Asteroids deluxe gameplay wise.
The board boots up and I can play a game blind as I have sound but just get nothing on the monitor.
I’ll try and find some pics 👍

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Managed to get the screen fitted, intervideo 17” nos, I believe it can run a 19” crt so maybe prospects to upgrade later

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Anyone know what this bezel stuff is called? It’s like plastic polystyrene light sturdy stuff

 

[jengineer]

yes it's a really nice machine this Ronnie, it's a shame it was stripped by someone

just to make everyone aware I did try and sell this for a friend of mine a couple of months ago which is why it was pictured in my unit - but I am confirming it was not stripped & converted by me,

the first time I ever saw this was on 5th march 26 when I helped remove it from the site VideOdyssey and I did no conversion work to it what-so-ever,

such a shame it was stripped of the original parts,

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Been working away on the cosmetics, and this is the cpo stripped out to sand out and buff the scratches and fag burns on the perspex
Before work

 

[Ronnie Dent]

And the rebuilt panel having replaced the 4 way stick with a 2 way. Looks much better but the fag burns have damaged the Perspex beyond sanding out but look much better

 

[big10p]

Looks great. Did you try Novus 321 on the fag burns? It's worked great for me in the past. Won't get rid completely, but much improved. Then again, I don't mind a few battle scars on cabs these days. Gives them a bit of unique character. 🙂

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Looks great. Did you try Novus 321 on the fag burns? It's worked great for me in the past. Won't get rid completely, but much improved. Then again, I don't mind a few battle scars on cabs these days. Gives them a bit of unique character. 🙂

Thanks, I used wet and dry started with 400 grit working upto 2500grit then used a DA polisher with compound to finish, Novus is great but this needed major intervention!

 

[Flyback2021]

Great work Ronnie, the control panel has come up lovely !
whats your next job ?

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Great work Ronnie, the control panel has come up lovely !
whats your next job ?

Thanks the coin door is done will post later, I’m painting the black in
around the screen, already done the black you can see from the front, had to remove the t moulding and sand and paint the inner edges

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Coin door stripped cleaned rebuilt and fitted

I found an image of the red entry slot with the Alca logo so I’m having some made by Mikonos

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Front pic of machine with control panel temp fitted, the marquee was removed along with led strips and replaced with a flo tube and choke, also car. Speaker and grill replaced with an arcade speaker .

The coach bolts in the cash box door were far too big! I replaced with smaller M5 bolts on the top 2, bottom 2 are longer so had to order some, you will see the difference in the pics

Still loads to do, cab need rewired for space firebird, need to cut a board to mount the boards
Not decided to use a switcher or linear psu, I have both available to
Use. Also need to refresh the black paint and fill the screw holes that will not be used

 

[Ronnie Dent]

Looking at the internals from the reference machine which is the same machine, the psu looks to have been changed at some point going by the choc block connectors! also the edge connector on the left looks to be the same now as was in the below pic, So I might just rewire that and leave where it is and make up a finger board to suit the firebird boardset, The dilema is do I use a Nintendo boardset with all those little connector plugs (looks like it did have one fitted?) or do I use a bootleg set with edge connector? I have both I could use, decisions!

Looking at the pic again the edge connector looks to be a small pcb no idea what that might be, maybe a video inverter for the weird sync these boards have? Ideas welcome?

 

[Bods]

Can't you trace who had the cab and maybe buy the parts? or at least some of them