Ok, time to dabble in this world a bit. Once I get a few things cleared out of the current collection I think I'll be on the hunt for a players quality STTNG.

-Hans

I can finally join the club after an overly long two day road trip that brought home this machine and a rollergames. Pretty much un-touched, I’m told it spent most of its life in storage, and the condition reflects it. One of the best condition games I’ve ever owned.

Only current issues are a bad HV section for the DMD, and the left cannon has a long delay to it. The DMD I’ll likely solve with a ColorDMD, (LED? or LCD?). The cannon I haven’t really looked into yet.

One confusion I have is the bird of prey is I. A different location than usual. But it’s on a bracket that looks factory original. Odd.

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The nice thing with this machine is that it was obviously well maintained. Other than the HV circuits having issues powering the DMD, and that occasionally sluggish cannon, the rest of the machine is in fantastic shape both cosmetically and functionally. I've only bought one machine that was in better condition than this one. A few connectors that I will re-pin, but none that are of any immediate concern.

-Hans

The Starblade makes this STTNG seem like a lightweight. 3-4 people to set up and tear down due to the weight of the overhead monitor and other heavy and bulky issues. The next time I take it apart will be when I sell / trade it. Great game but toooooooo big it feels at times.

I think you guys will be happy with what I'll be able to do using the original Bird of Prey and Warbird. I'm a fair hand with a brush.

It pre-loads the two VUK's. Normally only IIRC 4 are kept in the shooter trough when the game is ready to play, the other two are kept under the playfield in other locations. Maybe yours already has a couple in place up in the playfield.

It's also a game you have to go through the Unload Balls sequence via the menu instead of just reaching under and popping them into the shooter lane. Otherwise you just can't easily get them all out manually.

I'd suggest going through the unload cycle first to make sure it really is cleared out completely, then try again.

-Hans

I've been watching through STTNG again slowly. Season 1 is ....... not easy to watch.

Even the 70's cartoon? Ouch.

-Hans

Well, in about two years I should have a phenomenal topper. I just subscribed to the Eaglemoss Enterprise D build series.

When things start arriving I'll definitely start posting build progress on it. I've done an ungodly number of plastic kits of various subjects.... including a quite nice USS Defiant (with full lighting, I even did blinking running lights!). This will be my first big die-cast build. Should be fun! I'm a bit worried it may be TOO big though. Since the parts dribble through with a delivery every week or so it will be 2022 before I really have a good handle on the size of the final build.

I had been debating between doing an Enterprise-D for a topper, or a Refit (Motion Picture / Wrath of Khan style), and decided that only a D would be appropriate for this machine. I could have done the AMT/ERTL kit, but wanted to do a subscription diecast for a while, so now I wait for the first parts to arrive.

-Hans

Let me know what you think. I subscribed last year and have gotten 3 boxes. I haven't opened a single one yet.
I have seen some headlines of people building it on Youtube; but haven't watched a video.

Looks like it's 2-3 weeks for the first parts to start arriving, so some anxious waiting at the moment.
I've been reading through a blog that somebody has been running on his build and it looks pretty well engineered from what I can tell.
Since it's a blend of 5 different studio models (2ft, 4ft, 6ft, CGI, large primary hull), there's going to be some variations.

He's only up to stage 14 in his blog, and IIRC there's about 100 stages. So it'll take a while for sure.
I do really like how they handled the lighting with smaller sections each getting their own LED and light piping to help keep lighting consistent and avoid hot spots.

https://myenterprised.com/

Will be hard to find under $5k I'd say right now.