Over the last few weekends, I was able to dig into my Mario Bros. I tore down the control panel and found that only the screws were missing on the joystick restrictor plate, so the "8-way" feel has been corrected back to the "2-way" joysticks. I also stripped the control panel and applied the screen printed repro overlay from Quarter Arcade.
There was a lot of rust on the panel and it took a good bit of work with the wire wheel to clean it up. Damn, the original overlay was hard to remove! After Citristrip, I had to go to the serious stuff (Strypeeze) and that didn't even take all the residue off. After about an hour, the wire wheel prevailed and the new overlay was installed.
I ordered the true, flat t-molding and, after an incident where I almost cut the tip of my thumb off, it's now installed. I cleaned up the coin door and wired it up properly. There is a hole drilled in the door, which looks to be from a credit button. I'll deal with it for now, but I'll be on the look out for a top door for this. I'll be picking up the Braze High Score Save kit for this shortly. It saves the top 5 scores and adds free play to the game.
The last thing that I'm struggling with is the sides. At first, I said I would definitely redo the sides and install new side art. Then, after the kids wanted me to hurry up and finish it, I said "screw it" and deemed the sides decent enough. After installing the t-molding, I'm back to thinking the sides deserve to be refinished and side art installed... decisions, decisions...
I ordered the true, flat t-molding and, after an incident where I almost cut the tip of my thumb off, it's now installed. I cleaned up the coin door and wired it up properly. There is a hole drilled in the door, which looks to be from a credit button. I'll deal with it for now, but I'll be on the look out for a top door for this. I'll be picking up the Braze High Score Save kit for this shortly. It saves the top 5 scores and adds free play to the game.
The last thing that I'm struggling with is the sides. At first, I said I would definitely redo the sides and install new side art. Then, after the kids wanted me to hurry up and finish it, I said "screw it" and deemed the sides decent enough. After installing the t-molding, I'm back to thinking the sides deserve to be refinished and side art installed... decisions, decisions...
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