Zaxxon cab coming home tomorrow!

topher

Tesse's Maintainence Man
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Getting a Zaxxon cab tomorrow around noon. Excited as hell about that! Just thought I'd share.

I'll post pics tomorrow.
 

droid

Me Luv U Long Time,
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US Dedicated arcade cabs kick ass. Congrats on your new addition man. Be careful though...you start with one then end up having to rent a storage unit to keep them all like me :)

Droid
 

cgbartek

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I got a Zaxxon for my supervisor a few weeks ago since he used to play it all the time as a kid and he asked me to find him one.

Just one warning though, I've moved tons of cabs, and that was one of the heaviest I've ever dealt with. No idea why, it just is.

Congrats on getting a Zaxxon though, they're hard to find these days.
 

topher

Tesse's Maintainence Man
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US Dedicated arcade cabs kick ass. Congrats on your new addition man. Be careful though...you start with one then end up having to rent a storage unit to keep them all like me :)

Droid


You aren't kidding...I'm up to 9 cabs now!

I'll be picking it up at noon tomorrow and I can't wait. I always get excited when getting a new cab. The best part is that the guy is only about 10 minutes from my house.

I got a Zaxxon for my supervisor a few weeks ago since he used to play it all the time as a kid and he asked me to find him one.

Just one warning though, I've moved tons of cabs, and that was one of the heaviest I've ever dealt with. No idea why, it just is.

Congrats on getting a Zaxxon though, they're hard to find these days.

Are Zaxxon cabs heavier then Tron cabs? I got a 2 tigers tron conversion a few months back and that beast is heavy...my Xenophobe cab is pretty beastly as well.
 
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cgbartek

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I think it's just solid particle board that makes it so heavy, like early Atari cabs. You'd think a Sega Gremlin cab would be light as cardboard like most of them are, but this one is much heavier than it looks. I've never moved a Tron before, so I can't say how it compares.
 

topher

Tesse's Maintainence Man
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Well I picked up the cab today for a whopping 50$. There is a TON of dust on the cab and it hasn't been used in a while. When it is booted up I get just a jumbled screen of multicolored 0's and then some sound (high pitched sound FX I think). Oh well, time to but another PCB in there me thinks. The side art is pretty good (not great though) and the overall condition is pretty good. The coin mechs were removed and laminate placed over the openings so I'll have to undo that job. The monitor looks great though.

Pics will be coming real soon, I just have to clear off some space on my phone so I can snap some pics first.

It was funny, I showed up in my jeep cherokee and the seller was like there is no way that cab is going to fit in there. I told him this is about the 6th cab I've been able to transport...trust me, it'll fit. Last set of cabs I picked up I had a cocktail and a tron conversion in there at the same time and had to travel approx 50 miles back with them. This time was just one cab and a 20 minute round trip. No problems.
 

SSS

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I still can't understand how Sega/Gremlin designed such hideous cabs. Too bad my Frogger is one of those wood grain atrocities.
 

cgbartek

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Hey, don't hate on woodgrain. It could be worse; I have a Frogger that was painted bright green to get rid of the woodgrain. I can see in one of topher's pics someone painted his Neo Gold red. Such a shame... woodgrain demands respect.

Nice pics, she should clean up nicely. Oh, and KMFDM sucks ;)
 

SSS

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Hey, don't hate on woodgrain. It could be worse; I have a Frogger that was painted bright green to get rid of the woodgrain. I can see in one of topher's pics someone painted his Neo Gold red. Such a shame... woodgrain demands respect.

Nice pics, she should clean up nicely. Oh, and KMFDM sucks ;)

deserves respect? woodgrain is the absence of creativity. cab designs in the 80's had some real winners, tempest, gyruss etc.. The fact someone gave up and designed a cab to look like their kitchen, doesn't make it a great idea.
 

cgbartek

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I just like it as a classic design element. It's no different than the beige of the 90's and the brushed metal of this decade. I agree though, in 20 years we'll look back at brushed metal and wonder what on earth we were thinking. It is what it is. If you had a 60's dining room set painted in ugly earth tones or primaries, would you paint it black? Of course not, you keep it old-school because it deserves respect. Or throw it out, hehe.
 

topher

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Hey, don't hate on woodgrain. It could be worse; I have a Frogger that was painted bright green to get rid of the woodgrain. I can see in one of topher's pics someone painted his Neo Gold red. Such a shame... woodgrain demands respect.

Nice pics, she should clean up nicely. Oh, and KMFDM sucks ;)

I painted the front of the goldie red but whole cab was already painted black when I got it. I figured it would match the big red a little better with a red / black paint job.

The layout inside this Zaxxon cab is awful. I really don't like how the psu/iso/ main PCB is located. Checked the wiring / voltages / etc and everything is fine there but the game just displays rows of multicolored 0's. Test switch does nothing and reset just makes the color pattern of the 0's change. I get sound FX -- sometimes it plays attract sounds and other times it gets stuck on one tone in the FX library.

I'll be looking for a replacement PCB soon, I see there are a couple on ebay at the moment and one member here locally has a PCB so maybe I can work something out there.

Anyway, I still view it as a steal at that price. The monitor looks absolutely fantastic and was actually the only thing that didn't have much dust on it. A Wells Gardner 19 49xxx. Well, here is hoping that I have it back up and running soon.
 

cgbartek

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I painted the front of the goldie red but whole cab was already painted black when I got it. I figured it would match the big red a little better with a red / black paint job.

Yeah that's cool, given the circumstances. If you ever want the woodgrain back, check to see if it's latex paint. If so, you can take a hair dryer to it and scrape it right off the vinyl effortlessly. Other paints can be removed as well, but it takes more work.

everything is fine there but the game just displays rows of multicolored 0's

Sounds like bad ROMs on the board. You might be able to find a dead Zaxxon and trade ROMs with it until it works. :) Or buy a new one, usually PCBs are cheap enough.

Those early Wells-Gardners are nice and reliable. I bet they'll all last another 30 years.
 

topher

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Sounds like bad ROMs on the board. You might be able to find a dead Zaxxon and trade ROMs with it until it works. :) Or buy a new one, usually PCBs are cheap enough.

Those early Wells-Gardners are nice and reliable. I bet they'll all last another 30 years.

I think I'll go ahead and snag a PCB off ebay or something and sell this one off. Maybe I can make a trade with Cyberfluxor for a spare 2 tigers PCB I have or something similar like that.
 

topher

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Working PCB purchased off ebay for 38$, so I now have a whopping 88$ invested in this cab -- that's pretty good I think. After I get the PCB and get the game running, I'll be snagging a highscore save kit and two HAPPS slim coin mechs.

I got the cab cleaned up, there was probably 5 pounds of dust and nicotine on it. It cleaned up pretty nice.

The flightstick was giving me problems -- it was gunked up pretty bad. Generously sprayed Kano SiliKroil (this is the best spray lubricant ever) all over springs, etc and now it is great.

Can't wait to get some play time on this cab. I walk past the cab and grab the handle and "pretend" for a few minutes -- yeah, I know, lame, but it's the best I can do right now.

I haven't played Zaxxon since I was around 8, so I hope the game is still as fun and hard as I remember it. I refuse to play it in mame, I don't want to ruin the experience for when the PCB shows up.
 

cyberfluxor

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Awww man, I have 5 Zaxxon boards in my attic and could have hooked you up with one. Oh well, the cab looks to be in great condition and totally worth it. I'll check it out whenever the next meet-up is, just let me know how the PCB works out. :)
 

topher

Tesse's Maintainence Man
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Awww man, I have 5 Zaxxon boards in my attic and could have hooked you up with one. Oh well, the cab looks to be in great condition and totally worth it. I'll check it out whenever the next meet-up is, just let me know how the PCB works out. :)


I figured we could have worked something out, I'm just impatient and with my school and work load, my time has been really limited.
 

topher

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Cyber, thanks for coming by and letting me try out / borrow those boards. I crashed shortly after you guys left, but have been jamming out all morning on Zaxxon.
 
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