Some years ago, some friends and I found a Space Shuttle on craigslist. Being spaceflight enthusiasts, it seemed like a nice find. Until we saw it. At some point between 1984 and then, the machine had actually been on fire (like, flames and all). My guess is that someone plugged in the power connector wrong, shorting the +12V rail to -12V rail, and explosions ensued. Evidently the person must have left it on a long time, too, because the entire machine was full of grit and what looked like residue from smoke. That guy on craigslist must have thought he won the lottery when we dragged that crap out of his garage and even paid him for it.

So, this seemed like a lot of fun to restore! Maybe don't ask us *why* we did this, but we spent months debugging the connections on the MPU board with a logic analyzer in order to bring it back to life. I'll be keeping our unholy bodge wire board now as a souvenir. We replaced it with a new Rottendog board that is far more reliable.

During the restoration process we did *everything*, and now, with nothing left to fix, we need to find the next carcass to restore... Here's what we did to it:

* New light kit (Cointaker with frosted LEDs)
* All playfield parts, solenoids, and switches removed and restored
* Shuttle ramp rebuilt and restored as per Ed Cheung's technique: http://www.edcheung.com/album/album05/pinball/playfield3.htm
* Playfield sanded down, inserts polished, and refinished with Outside Edge hardtop overlay
* Plasma display and controller replaced with PinScore
* MPU board replaced with Rottendog System 9/11 board
* Wiring harness connectors refurbished
* Playfield rubbers replaced
* Entire cabinet repainted (in a slightly brighter blue to match the new lights) using Pinball Pimp stencils
* All playfield plastics replaced plus other broken playfield parts replaced
* New non-rusty legs
* New topper plus custom-cut stand for topper
* Coin door restored and plastics replaced

It was awesome fun restoring and cleaning up this thing. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Space Shuttle in better condition. Especially since I didn't bother to play it very much once it was fixed...

All the pictures are of the machine in its current state except the last four: the fourth-to-last image is the original appearance, the third-to-last is the burn marks on the inside of the cabinet, and the last two are the MPU board that we painstakingly repaired (not included when you buy it---I'm framing that and it's going on my wall).

Video of game running through tests:

https://www.ratml.org/misc_img/space_shuttle/overview.mp4

If there's any information you're missing that you'd like me to provide just let me know.