Welcome!

Welcome to Pete’s Gameroom!

Please feel free to look around, and even better, comment and post pictures of your treasures!   Each link above contains information about arcade restoration projects along with some pictures of the work in progress.

Use the links at the top of the page to view and read about the various arcade machines in my collection.

Wonderland Arcade – Kansas City – Late 1940′s  – This is a bit before my time, but remember the feel of the arcades you used to visit as a kid?   For some reason I am driven to re-create this in my basement (which is the only part of my house my wife will allow these games to go… for now…)

It’s kinda sad to see this happening all over the place.   The places we used to hang out as kids, the skating rinks, bowling alleys, arcades, are closing.   This is the skating rink where I was introduced to pinball, gun games,  pong, space invaders, astroids, missle command… ahhhh the good old days.

 

I grew up in Beavercreek Ohio and have some very fond memories of that area in the 1970s.   As I was looking for some information on the skating rink I used to go to, I came across a couple of websites, that if you are from this area, are kinda cool.

Beavercreek Nostalgia

Dayton History Books Online has some posts about Beavercreek and Beaver-vu Skate that are kinda fun.

 

40 thoughts on “Welcome!

  1. I have a Chicago coin speedway game, mine is different from youres in that the car has a # 3 and is going the opposite direction. Any info would be greatly appreciated
    Thank you. Dennis 1405 650 6221

    • Hi Dennis,

      That is very different than mine. In the research I did when I got this game, I never ran across anything that went in the opposite direction. I did see some variation in the cabinet paint, and also with some of the decorations on the front, such as the steel bars that run down behind the accelerator, as well as the steel cage around the pedal.

      Do you actually “drive” towards yourself versus away from yourself?

      • What I ment too say is the car on the front glass is from right to left, I’m told it is a very early model, supposedly very few around ?
        I’V gotten the lights on and the round plastic wheel motor running,no movement in the score wheels though

  2. Hey Pete,
    Liked your restoration of the United Matador. I recently bought a similar model and I noticed my ball lift makes noise when a ball is not on the lift. How do you go about disassembling the ball lift chain, sprockets, the lifts and the motor? There are 2 copper pipes at the bottom of the motor is oil put in those and how much and how often?
    Tom

    • Hi Tom,

      It has been a little while since I took it apart, but from my recollection, the chain has a link in it which is removable, and there is a spring clip on one side of that link that you remove, and then you can slide that link out of the chain. Once you have the chain off, you can then remove the motor and the bottom sprocket.

      The pipes are for oil. I check mine about once a year. I’m not sure if is a guideline for filling them, but I just put about 15-20 drops of oil in there. I think if you put too much it will leak all over the inside of your cabinet. I can see evidence of this happening in mine from prior owners.

      I didn’t have to disassemble my motor/gearbox as it all was operating ok, although I have seen instructions/videos on how to do this on Clay Harrel’s site and his TOP videos. http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm (search on gearbox on this page).

      Taking all this stuff apart wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but cleaning it up was a pain. I wish I had used a better cleaner/degreaser. I had tried to use mean green which was just not a good enough solvent. I would recommend something with much better grease cutting properties. I would also recommend using Super Lube teflon gel lube instead of grease when you put it back together. It’s clear, not nearly as messy as grease, and the teflon will do a much better job of lubricating the parts.

      Hope that helps. What model bowler did you get? Is it 13 or 16 feet? Any chance you’d be willing to post a pic or two of it?

      Pete

  3. Hey Pete,
    I have been trying to post a picture on your site but keep getting an error message and a box that tells me to contact the site administrator, I guess that’s you. Anyway my
    Aztec, is a 16 footer. I ended up removing all the ball lift parts. Left the chain together, just started with the top sprocket and worked my way down. I was hoping the occasional squeaking noise was in the chain, but it was coming out of the motor or gear box when I test ran it on my bench. Didn’t look like the gear box was meant to be serviced and was afraid to take it apart not being sure of what I was getting into. Put some oil in the copper tubes on the side of the motor. Cleaned up all the parts and chain and reassembled everything. It has gone away for now and is working as it should. No one I talk to seems to know how to or how much oil the motor needs. They start talking about a pulley belt, it has chain, through a hole in the bottom of the motor, no hole on the bottom. So I guess it is the 2 copper tubes on the side of the motor? The last picture I sent is from inside the cabinet and naturally half of the label regarding oiling is torn off. Do you know what the entire label says?
    Tom

    • Hey Tom, thanks for the note. I’ll take a look and see if I can tell why the picture upload is failing. I would love to see a few pictures of your bowler. I’ll see if I have a label on my motor (for the oiling), I can’t remember seeing one, but I honestly wasn’t’ looking for one at the time…

  4. Dear Pete,

    just have read your description of your flying saucer. nice restoration project.
    I have mine now for 6 years and I still love to play.
    In your blog you mentioned that you have bought an new coil assembly for the gun recoil coil. can you tell me where I can buy this coil? mine is a little burned. I also still look for a electric diagram for this machine.
    Maybe yo can help me also with this.

    Kind regards,

    Adri

    • Hi Adri,

      Your game looks great!

      The recoil assembly I got from pbresource.com (but I’m afraid I may have bought the last one – I still see some of those parts on their website, but not the whole assembly. These parts are listed on their “special when lit” page. I got the schematic from marcospecialties.com.

      Can I ask a question? Is your “start” button – the red one – metal or plastic? I’m trying to figure out what the original button type was.

      Pete

  5. just found out, the button is made of plastic. I have checked the pbrecource site, do you know the number of the coil?
    do you maybe have the schematics digital?
    Maybe we can change some schematics.
    I have over 600 digital diagrams by now.

    • Hi Jim,

      Other than finding used ones on eBay, Pinside, or craigslist – bgresto.com is the only other source I’ve used. I don’t see black hole on their list, but it’s worth contacting them to see if they can do one for you. I’ve used them numerous times and they always do a great job!

      Pete

    • Thanks for catching this. I updated the link. There’s not a lot of information out there for these machines, nice to know the archive project is saving this stuff for us!

  6. Hey, I saw your work on the Gottlieb World Fair. I am working on one now. Is there any chance of sending me a pic of the schematic??? Hmm Yes/No/Maybe

  7. Hi Pete, I am the proud owner of a sea raider arcade game. I have a question in regards to the sound. everything is there in my sound unit and when you score a hit the spring activates but no sound thru the speaker. the relays all work in the sound unit when you press the fire button. so when I unplug the sound unit and plug it in there is a humming noise in the speaker briefly. there is no beep sound with the switch on. the large 500 mfd was replaced the only thing I can see is a slight bulging of that 1000uf you have circled. im not great with electronics. my soldering is like my putting, some days good some days bad…lol. any insight would be appreciated. can I just replace the amp unit? do you know of a replacement? I miss my explosion sound! best part. thanks Cliff

    • Hi Cliff,

      If you are not getting the beeping/sonar sound, and not getting the explosion sound, I would kinda suspect something with the amplifier. There may be an issue with the power to the amplifier, or an issue with the amplifier circuit – perhaps one of the transistors is shorted/open. I’d start with checking to make sure the amplifier circuit is getting the correct power supply. Check the DC+ and – lines listed as GOLD and SILVER and see what DC voltage you get… Also check the AC voltage to the Amp, listed as AC COM – BLU-YEL, AND 12 VAC – WHITE and make sure you AC voltage. The 500 MFD capacitor you mentioned is in the circuit that controls the duration of the sound of the explosion. I guess it might be possible your speaker is bad, or the wires to the speak may have a cold solder joint or break – might be worth checking that.
      Some folks have told me they have visibly burnt 2N4105/2N4016 transistors on their AMP boards – you might check those and make sure you can’t see visible issues of any burnt components. Also, if that 1000MFD cap you mention is bulging I would definitely replace that – it’s right in the amplifier circuit so could be part or all of the problem.

      Pete

    • Thanks for the kind words! Probably not, I’m kinda backed-up as it is… I pretty much just do my own machines.

  8. Hello Pete,

    Your website is AWESOME! It has helped me a ton! I was wondering if you could answer a question or two about your Episode 1 Racer. I am putting one back together but I have a couple of issues.

    1. I have two red molex connectors. One of them is to the dollar changer but one splits off the power that goes to the monitor. Any idea what that one is? Does yours have it? I know you have a replacement LCD monitor in yours but does it have that red 3 hole molex?
    2. I also have a two hole molex(White) that stretches to the bottom board that I cannot quite figure out either. Any idea what that might be?

    I am about ready to fire it up, but these two issues are keeping me from doing so. I got some Pod Racing I need to do so any help would be greatly appreciated

    Thanks,
    Bucky

        • Ok, I’ve posted a bunch of pics of the inside of the machine to the Pod Racer page. I reread your note to see what to look for, but I couldn’t identify any 3 position red molex, or 2 position white molex connectors. I went ahead and took photos of pretty much every part of the wiring of the game hoping that you could compare with yours and that might help identify whether the connectors you have need to be connected or not. If my pictures don’t help, you could post a couple of pictures of the connectors you have and the area around them in the game. I’m thinking there probably isn’t much risk to fire it up even with these disconnected, and might help you identify what they are for. Sound like they might be for power to a marquee light, or perhaps to the start button or something like that.

  9. Hi Pete-Thank you for hosting such a wonderful site rich with helpful information. I write in relation to your CC Speedway.
    I am in the process of restoring a CC Motorcycle (1974 version). I had a friend over yesterday and offered him a game on the machine. To my horror he quickly found a static route through the middle of the track to simply full and continuously accelerate without accident and only ending after extended play and timeout with record miles. In your experience is this possible if machine is properly configured? Thanks Wayne

    • Hi Wayne, I sure don’t think that is possible on my machine, but I will give it a try. I suspect the wipers on the discs need cleaning and adjustment, they may even been a little loose.

      I’ve got to pull the game out a shoot some video of the startup sequence today for someone else that is restoring this game, so I’ll give it a few plays to confirm..

      P.S. Thanks for the kind words about the website!

  10. Hi Pete,

    I think your gameroom looks really beautiful. Funny thing is, when I read your words ‘ For some reason I am driven to re-create this in my basement’ I recognised it immediately. I also have very fond memories of playing pinball and arcade games as a kid. Here in The Netherlands. But apparently for me it only works when the machines are kind of the same. I have several pinball machines. Playing arcade machines on general mame cabinet is ok. Best for me is a kind of original looking cabinet I with the great side-art and panel layout belonging for example to scramble, robotron or MS pacman. I have two gutted zaccaria arcade cabinets with absolutely the most beautiful side-art. Probably will use these for some projects. Anyway, just wanted to congratulate on your gameroom and site. Know exactly what you mean! Spending time in your gameroom with friends must be fantastic. And that bar really adds to the overall feeling. Reminds me a bit of that bar in ‘Cheers’.

    • Hi Ben, thanks for the kind words! It’s great to hear you are enjoying reading about the projects and experiences. It’s nice to share the hobby with others that have the same interests and nostalgia. Please upload a picture or two of your projects when you have a chance. I always love to see what others are up to 🙂

  11. Hi Pete!

    I picked up an Allied Leisure " Crack Shot '" roughly five years ago. Recently the sounds were replaced with just a loud humming. Everything else seems to work okay. Any ideas or suggestions?

  12. In the pictures of the United Matador bowler you restored is a picture of the coin box
    I was wondering if you have the gear and washer for the lock. The one I am restoring ( completely rebuilding) is missing that piece, somewhere along the line somebody drill out the old lock and removed the gear that moved the rods to lock or unlock the coin box

    William
    6027228318

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