Battlezone

This was listed on eBay as non-working. I have read horror stories about how much of a maintenance nightmare these are (just llike Pole Positions) but decided this would be my winter project and gave it a shot. A winning bid of $129.50 and the game was mine.

When I got it home I decided to check the basics: voltage, cold solder joints and fuses. Fuses were good but I had to do some minor tweaking of the +5V and reflowing the header pins on the AVG and AUX boards. Powered the game back on and still nothing. I also noticed that the spot killer LED on the deflection board was on. So I ordered an AR/II and GO5-802 rebuild kit from Bob Roberts.

I installed the AR/II and GO5-802 kits when they arrived and still had a non-working Battlezone. The Hi-Score Save kit, created by Scott Brasington at http://www.brasington.org/arcade/hs/bzone/ and also available thru www.arcadeshop.com, bypasses the onboard ROMs which are a common problematic area.

I eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Hi-Score kit and boy was it worth it. The kit installs in the 6502 socket on the Analog/Video Generator (AVG) board with the removed 6502 being installed on the kit itself. After a quick 3-minute install I powered the game up and immediately heard music. I walk to the front of the game and am greeted with this...

A working Battlezone!!! As you can see the monitor sits parallel with the floor and is projected/reflected vertically onto a slanted mirror. You can notice in the above picture that the monitor is crisp while the image on the mirror is doubled. A quick post to the forums at KLOV (http://forums.klov.com) revealed that the mirror was installed backwards.

I played a couple of games and noticed that the joysticks are a little sloppy and do not return to center when released. Reason is that there are rubber bellows that are supposed to spring the joysticks to center but after 30 years I guess they get a little worn and dry. I pulled the control panel and also found that one of the housings was cracked all the way around.

Luckily I was able to find a NOS joystick housing on eBay.

Battlezone Round 2

I picked up another Battlezone locally from CL. This one had the open front instead of the periscope bezel. The person I picked it up from informed me that he got it a while ago from a job he did with the US Army. Immediately I start to think that perhaps this is one of the early prototypes Atari did with the US Army to simulate combat in a Bradley. Off course it isn't but the thrill and anticipation on my way to get it was fun.

So the story I get from the guy is that he used to do contract work for the US Army and this was in their snack/break room. They were going to get rid of it and he was able to get it. He showed me the asset tag still on it.

Even though the game was working I decided to check and reflow the header pins on the AUX and main PCB for colder solder joints just to avoid any future problems. I added the Hi-Score kit to this and it's good to go.

I ended up trading my original Battlezone for a Spy Hunter and Joust upright. The openface Battlezone still holds a sacred place in the arcade.

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