I picked up this machine earlier this year and it has made it to the front of the line. I’d never played it – but c’mon.. Star Trek! It had been owned by a Star Trek fan/collector vs. an arcade machine collector. He had a Bally Star Trek pinball machine too – but that was moving to the Carolina’s with him as part of his retirement.
He plugged it in and the game ran. I unplugged it quickly – I got a look inside and there was all kinds of craziness happening in there..
First – the cabinet all assembled is the heaviest cabinet I’ve ever tried to move. Normally I can roll one to the end of my pickup, tilt it onto the tailgate and lift the bottom up into the bed. No such luck. The cabinet is ridiculously heavy. I felt bad for the owner. He somehow smashed his finger pretty good helping me. One of the reasons is this assembly – transformer, power supply and PCB cage.. it’s convenient in some ways.. and heavy enough on its own.
The cage, power supply and and anything that was plated with zinc oxide (I believe) all had oxidized. Anything that had that yellow/gold color was coated in this powder.
No better illustrated than by this sticker. I think I figured out the root cause of this. More later..
This particular cab has a few other cosmetic and functional issues that need to be addressed.
The coin door is a mess – it was hacked and re-hacked. When it was operated, they put a standard wall switch on the top.. ugh.. But the difficult one to understand is it was somehow hit where the left side has a big crack and the right side has separated as a result.
Most important is this particular cab has great history that will be preserved. So the restoration needs to keep as much original as possible. More on this later..
Lakeside Arcade 