So I have been looking for a Space Invaders for a couple of years now. I know it doesn’t rate that high with many but I remember it being a really cool game when I played it as a kid. I like fixing and restoring games so most of the pins I own started out needing work. This one needed a LOT of work. First I want to thank Vid1900 for all of his guides. The man is not only extremely knowledgeable, he is also very generous with sharing this knowledge. I also want thank my wife for doing amazing job on the recreation of all the playfield decal and touch-up artwork.

The game had one of those pizza slice overlays in the center. The owner thought it was original but I clearly saw from the mismatched colors that it was a decal.

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This is what it looked like with the decal removed:

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After the playfield was torn down, I removed the mylar. I used the freeze spray method and removed the residual glue with the flour and alcohol. Freeze spray has never failed me and whoever had discovered flour and alcohol to remove the glue, I owe you a beer.

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After cleaning with Magic Eraser I could properly assess the damage. Many of the inserts were worn down as if someone haphazardly took a Dremel tool to them. Someone also decided to touch up the numbers on the inserts with a Sharpie, which bled into the plastic. Needless to say they had to be replaced. The problem was, if I replace one I have to replace them all; snow white inserts against the aged orginals would stick out too much. This created another problem, I had to recreate all of the artwork—not just the black text.

It’s a good thing my wife is a kick ass graphic designer. ☺

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Inserts removed:

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New inserts installed:

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Obviously the center of the field was the main concern. What I would have to do is shoot a coat of clear as a “bed” on which I could begin my repairs. After the clear applied I painted all of the worn areas white as a primer so the colors would pop more. I used the pizza slice decal as a guide.

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Some most of the damage painted white:

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Some of the colors added. This was all done with an airbrush and createx paints. You can also see part of the decal (a copy of it) that I used as a reference, not for color but for placement.

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Little more:

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Now the black:

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As I had reached the limit of my painting skills, my wife took over from here.

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One area we were unsure of was the part just below the alien claws in the center. We first thought using a water slide decal. We would have to break it into thirds because it would be difficult to apply as one big decal.

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Then my wife said, “let me paint it by hand”. What she showed me was nothing short of stunning. Holy sh*t, really, she did a fantastic job!

Insert Decals.

Using decals with a black font is pretty easy, the only thing you want to make sure of is that the opacity matches as close as possible to that of the original inserts. Unfortunately there were many inserts with colored artwork. This was a real pain in the ass. We wanted to make sure that the color matched when not lit and wasn’t washed out when lit. This was cause for many trips to Staples and funny looks from the employees to print the decal sheets.

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This is the center part my wife painted:

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After a little more tweaking, several coats of clear, sanding, clearing, sanding….and finally buffing……

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Lit:

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Full:

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More pics of the restore to follow.....

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Hey Labnip. I don't think I can take on another but if you need the files for the insert decals pm me with your email and I will send them your way. That goes for anyone else too.

I used LEDs in the 3 pop and 4 dead bumpers for the same reasons as you, to avoid burning the bumper caps. Everything else is incandescent, 47s instead of 44s. To be honest I'm not a big fan of LEDs especially on older games. I like the look of the incandescent bulbs.

When I was almost done with this restore I had learned that CPR was doing a repro SI pf. LOL