Amendes, cool! Also you've got some alien art on the inside of the cabinet. Never seen that before...

Nice sling plastics too! When everything is complete and working I will have a look and see if there's anything that needs modding =)

Finally another update!

Ive replaced the flipper bases since the old ones were hacked up and welded. Not good. This is how the new ones look:
flipperbase.jpg

Next I replaced the alien head opto that was also hacked up, even worse than the flipper bases!
I also replaced the connector housings for the opto boards:
aopto.jpg

Soldering the wires, that are supposed to be looped trough the new connectors:
aoptoconn.jpg

The red opto light will actually add to the look of the game:
aopto2.jpg

And, the active switch test showed the opto was triggered when I put something between the boards to interrupt the light beam:
aoptoworks.jpg

Now, i will have to wait for the casting material so I can cast my new Alien head. Its not possible to re mount the ramps before the Alien head which feels kinda annoying right now.

Stay tuned!

Thanks! need a new glass before it gets all dusty again!

Now, finally an update! Ive been doing a lot of research about casting and now ive finally made a few tests.

The old alien head getting prepared for the mold, and how the cocoon looks on the inside:
cast.jpg

Newly hatched right side alien baby!:
hatched.jpg

The other half getting prepared for casting... think it feel great inside that alien chamber!
Note the tip of the "ear" that I have sculpted with a bondo-like dough to repair it. Hopefully it will get seemless once casted.
nexthead.jpg

And lastly, this is how the right side model looks when test mounted into the game:
testhead.jpg

This is really time consuming and makes me scratch my head a lot, but fun nevertheless!
Hardest part is to try to align and drill the holes at the back of the head to fit the shafts from the gearbox below the playfield.
After both halves have been cast, aligned to perfection and actually working in the game I will airbrush paint them. Lastly a coat of clear should make the model pop.

More to come!

Hi there amendes!
Thanks for the support =) I will probably make a few spares while I'm at it. Not sure if I can officially put them on sale though because of any licensing issue that I'm not yet aware of. Will need to investigate that first. If theres no problem I can let some of them get a new home =)

Hi there! Yeah I've seen it, that's where I got the idea from. Wanted to try some new stuff so I decided to cast one myself. Don't know how the final result will work but I think it looks promising.

Ledge, thanks! =)

I might look into the licenses etc and see how it works. All I know is that it's a jungle!

Still working on the alien head, heres a picture of the complete set! Its a pain to align it in the game on the shafts from the servo below but I think this will do. Its probably possible to align it so there is almost zero gap between the halves but looking at pics on the internet it looks like this or worse. Now off to the paint shop! A friend of mine is going to paint it so im eagerly waiting for the results!
Note: The right picture shows it better aligned than the left one, and thats how it will line up when done.

2heads.jpg

Thanks ledge! I think the left side tip of the "ear" came out pretty good too, that's the one that I had to re sculpt.

Yes and same with the right side. Either the material has become brittle during the years or it was not any good to begin with. I've tried to drop one of the halves I've made from like 3 meters into a concrete floor and not a scratch. Maybe I should try to really throw it into the floor too just for a test. Any way I think it will hold up fine. The shafts it's mounted on do flex a bit too when a ball strikes so that will absorb some of the energy. I've also made the ears a bit thicker to prevent the head from cracking.

Almost a month since any update but guess what, the alien head has been painted! It looks great imo. I'll post a few pics of it tomorrow.

Ok, here are a few pictures of just test mounting the new alien head.
painthead.jpg

I think it looks great! Will be interesting to see if everything holds up when its getting blasted by balls but I think it will.
Many thanks to my friend Matt for painting this little thing for me!

Now I can finally continue the reassembly and I am really eager to try the game so hopefully it will get pretty fast!

@Flippermatt hehe.. thats strange! wonder why...

Thanks amendes! Always nice when people like the result of all the hard work!

Thank you Avatar! Will post more once the reassembly has continued a bit more. It's really getting there!

Yeah those protectors will be nice! Fingers still crossed they will fit.

Yo kvan99! Nice youre chiming in! Really glad you enjoyed the read!

Still some bits and pieces to fix, polish and so on but soon Im gonna play it. Its my third restoration project, still Ive not yet experienced the joy of playing a game ive restored. The bop restoration is waiting for the repro playfield and the high speed project.. well... needs a lot of love and wont be done anytime soon. So, im starting to feel like a little kid before christmas with this one!

@ledge, thanks! Yes it will be very nice to try it! Gonna fix some small things tonight to get closer.

@Zenomorp, thanks! =)

@Jean-Luc-Picard, yes I'm happy with the result too! Took some thinking, research and hard work but it worked. Was going to point out the scientists on the playfield but you found him yourself =)

Hi again!

I have been silent since I have reassembled the game and I am currently testing it out. Most things seem fine but there are some small issues that i need to adress. Heres the list:

- The ballgate at the exit of the shooter lane was missing. I did not notice that until I tried the game and balls kept rolling back down the shooter lane every now and then. It has now been fixed with a home made gate wire that I made from a bike wheel spoke. Works but now theres a slight rattling noise from the area that was not there before. Will check that. =)

- The plunger, which is an auto one, does fire the balls good out on the playfield. However, sometimes they wont make it all the way up to the bumpers. It feels similar to how the VUK behaved before I changed the plunger in the assembly. Like the hit area of the plunger tip is too small and that it misses somewhat sometimes. Ive checked with the manual but the plunger looks to be the correct one. Ive tried to put a shooter tip on the plunger but no difference. So, i might try a wider tip for it and see if it gets any better.

- Somethings strange with the chain of switches for the alien opto, subway entrance at the alien, subway and maybe the virus hole trough switch. Everything works but sometimes the VUK continues to fire like three times after it shot out a ball. Also the opto in front of the alien head will lock a ball even though the ball doesnt make it inside the alien, and rolls back down. I thought the switch inside the alien assy should lock the ball... not the opto that I thought was only for registering a hit on the alien. Hm.. The switches involved are all on the same collumn and they do NOT have any diodes on them and look as if they are all wired backwards compared to normal switches in the game.

If someone knows why there are no diodes on these switches and why they are wired "backwards" i would really like to know. I want it to function properly. However it looks as though this is factory.

- The alien head, it works brilliant concerning ball hits. The material is solid. But, the paint has started to flake allready after about 20 games so I need to try a different clear on it. Nothing major though.

Will post some more on these issues along with some pictures later today.

All in all im very happy with the restoration so far!

/Andy

@RoadRunner, hi there! Nice with some Scandinavians here too =)

I may have found the problem with the VUK just 15 min ago. Check the arm that is supposed to close switch 52, servo open close. It's located under the pf on the alien head servo assembly.
Mine had gotten misaligned when I tinkered with the head so I just held it with a pair of pliers, unscrew the bolt on the shaft a little, aligned the arm so it closed the switch (with the head open) and tightened the nut. Now the opto doesn't seem to lock balls until you shoot them into the head (closing the alien head subway front switch) and the VUK seem to work normal again. Only tried this for 3 games but fingers crossed it was the issue!

The game must have gotten confused since it did not know if the head was open or closed and maybe the VUK acted out like a ball search mode or so.

At least worth a try. Feel free to report back if you manage to fix it! Also check the switch itself so that ain't bad.

The satisfaction when the reassembly list looks like this:

list.jpg

=)

Some pictures of the later steps in the reassembly:

lightsoff.jpg

And here with the lights on:
lightson.jpg

leds.jpg

Still a lot of leds missing, especially under the inserts but they are on their way.
The display seems to work great at least!

aliens.jpg

Aliens huh? Or was it just an elaborate hoax made by some high school students?

(Do the purple leds under the ramps look good or plain ugly? At first I thought it looked like shit but now when im getting used to it I think it looks pretty cool.)

So the list of fixes...

- The missing ballgate was fixed (the one at the end of the shooter lane). The rattling sound I experienced went away when I adjusted the gate to not touch one of the nuts holding the plastic around the VUK wire form.

- The plunger, still fires some balls half the way to the bumper area. I took it out and tightened the coil in the bracket but no success. Something you have to live with?

- The Alien opto locking balls and the VUK firing, not 100% sure yet since I only played three games after I adjusted it. But it seems the issue was switch 52 not closing since the arm on the alien head shaft from the servo was missaligned. Still need to give it some more plays to really find out if it was a permanent solution.

Ive done some other minor adjustments too, like the ballgate on the left ramp. A soft shot up the ramp should send the ball back, stopping at the gate, and let it roll down the rear alien head hole to trigger the "July 2, 3" etc. but it got stuck there if it did not roll fast enough. Thats been fixed.

When I first tried the game balls could be trapped on top of the right ramp (up in the left curve right before entering the wire form). It was because i changed one of the hex bars that supports the ramps to make the alien head go free from the ramp. Later I discovered it was nothing wrong with the height of the ramps but instead I had drilled the hole in the left alien head half a bit off. Used a dremel to expand the hole a bit so the head could be tilted forward slightly and now it clears the ramp.

Had a lot of frustration going on with the third bumper cap. The ramp touched it no matter how much I took off off the cap but finally it fitted.

Then there is the flaking paint on the new head.. sigh.. but will fix that too eventually by trying another clear.

I also got a manual for the game, decent shape! No game is complete without one.

Now, there are still some things to fix:

- LEDs for all the inserts

- New legs with longer bolts

- Make stickers for the fuse list that goes in the backbox, the transformer sticker, the inside cabinet serial sticker and some more.

- Get an envelope for the manual, not sure if its the brown style and if there should be any sticker or something on it so if someone knows feel free to tell me!

- Get a new glass

- Try to install a LED strip in the back of the cabinet to enhance lighting. Would be cool.

I would also like to get tags for the wire harnesses saying "xfmr secondary", "playfield" and so on but they are hard to find.

Probably something more that I forgot but ill report any progress! =)

hehe.. repaint the lockdown bar.. will have somone do it for me so it gets really good. Wont use a spray can for this but rather something more industrial.

@ledge,
I will check with some friends and see if I can have the lockdown bar "powder coated". Not sure it's called that in English but it's better than the home stuff and should be able to withstand wear. Sounds like what's needed for the bar.

I've only got a print of the original instruction card but I am missing the right side one, which says something like 3 balls per play etc. I'm tempted to design something own for both cards but guess it won't happen soon. Will let you know if I do it.

Hm might try some colored sleeves too, the good old black is alright but I may change my mind.

"the alien head turned out awesome man, well done indeed....."
Thanks! Will fix the paint and try it out with different clear.

"what kind of leds did u use in the pops?".
Used these:
http://shop.textalk.se/en/article.php?id=31839&art=18399599

Looks great!

"did u have to adjust the ramp a lot to get that 3rd cap under there?"

The process of fitting the cap was driving me nuts! But to summarize, I did not modify the ramp at all but cut off parts of the cap itself. On the right side where it goes close to the ramp and on the front "slope". Might be some other ways. The cap looks pretty bad but from the players POV it passes as a complete cap. I can live with that =)

Already bought a led strip that can change color by a remote control. I think it's possible to cut it and hook it up to the game at some 12v connector. Getting the color you want is done by regulating the voltage if I remember correctly. Still have it in a shopping bag but it's time to test it in the game soon!

@RoadRunner,
If I remember correctly the switch should close when the head is open and vice versa. (I'll double check tomorrow) Also from the picture you posted it looks the switch is on backwards. Try flipping it so the blade points to the left as opposed to how it sits in the picture. Mine is mounted that way, again if I remember correctly.

Check page 79 in the game manual. There you can see the switch on the bottom left pic. By the way it should be a uhm.. Roll switch (blade with a roller at the tip like the ones in the ball trough) and not the kind of blade you have. Not that it matters function wise but in the long run that normal blade will wear itself and the switch actuator arm and may cause trouble.

First off try flipping the switch and see what happens. Fingers crossed! (Report back with results cause I'm curious if it solved it) =)