Star Wars

Another Craigslist pickup. I purchased this for the amazingly low price of $175 in August 2008. It was sold as complete and "was working and now not".

I recruited the help of my buddy since I wasn't sure I could fit an Atari cab in my vehicle. When we got the game back to my house we removed the back door to find that the transformer was not affixed to the bottom of the cabinet and the power connector disconnected as a result. I plugged it back into the transformer and powered the game on.

To our surprise it came to life. Needless to say I was totally stoked! It's not everyday you find a working Star Wars arcade for $175.

The cab would need some repair work done to it as it had some missing corners. The marquee was hacked, there is also a crack above the coin door, it has lockbar holes and a chunk missing from the lower front. The artwork was decent on the cab but the CPO is missing.

The game was filthy on the inside so I stripped the cabinet to clean everything from the transformer to the harness to the cooling fan.

I used Bondo to repair the damage to the cab... OUCH!!! Gotta love particle board.

Only drawback about using Bondo is that it sets fairly quickly. Once you mix the compoind it has to be applied immediately. After the Bondo cured I sanded it smooth with an orbital sander. I then masked off all the artwork and applied several coats of Rustoleum Gloss Black Finish.

While the cabinet looks significantly better from when I first got it it is far from perfect. I plan on finding an empty cabinet in better condition to swap this one with. Until then...

Update 16MAY09...

I ended up getting an almost empty, near mint Star Wars cab. I swapped just about everything from my working, beat-up cab to the new one within 24hrs of getting the cab (yeah, I was a little excited).This one also had a respectable marquee and not that Frankstein that some op concocted. While I had it out and accessible I decided to post another question to KLOV to see if I can resolve the monitor jitters. I was informed to check the B+ and also ground the monitor frame. I did both and jitters are a thing of the past.

I also ended up getting a control panel overlay from www.arcadeshop.com. I stripped the black vinyl from it and sanded it down to remove the glue and paint. I then primed...

Then I sprayed some black followed by a clear enamel coating.

Then applied the CPO...

Reassembled and sitting pretty in the gameroom...

A KLOVer by the name of VectorLabs released a multigame for Atari Star Wars. This kit allows you to play both Start Wars and Empire Strikes Back. The kit was purchased for $175 and works great.