Star Wars Project

Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back
06/02/01

The best way to get a game working is to have the same game that is already working. Get it working part-by-part. When all parts work, the game is ready. The one on the left is our other Star Wars. The one on the right is the project game.

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This game has been cleaned before these pictures were taken. This is how we got the game. Harness, tube, power chassis and there. We added the HV unit, but it is dead. The boardset and deflection board are missing.

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Note the "Red is dead" HV transformer. We have a Wintron replacement we purchased for this game.

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Here is the deflection board. It was missing the black component in the lower left corner of the PCB. We pulled one from the PCB in the background and soldered it in place.

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We installed the deflection PCB in our game and powered it up. The picture came up too wide and had color off. Turning the various pots on the PCB made for a very nice picture.

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Next, we installed the WinTron HV Transformer. It works great. Well, it should for $200!

Tested the PCB set (arrived 5/17/01). It also works great!

Next, we installed the the new ESB controller overlay. Here is what the control cover looked like before the overlay:

Here it is with the overlay removed:

Next, we removed the paint and prepared it for the new overlay:

Here it is with the new overlay:

5/21/01:

We cleaned the monitor, control panel, and glass. We replaced one of the thumb switches with a replacement from Radio Shack. The lever had to be removed, but otherwise, it is an exact fit.

We replaced the amp connectors between the game and the controller with some we had in our parts bin. The ones on the game had gotten wet at one time and they were very, very corroded. It took us 10 minutes to get the plugs apart. Even then, some pins broke. Then we installed the overlay cover onto the game and buttoned up the control panel by adding some washers and wing-nuts.

Here is the overlay installed on the game:

We next replaced the marquee ballast, bulb, and starter. While we were at it, we replaced the incandescent bulb sockets in our other Star Wars game with a standard Atari fixture taken from a Xevious we stripped some time ago.