To gut or not to gut, that is the question...

I have a question that has kept me awake a night or two and before I
carry out my only available course of action I'd like to see if this
would be considered a capital offense.

About five years ago I met a guy named Bob Hartlieb at a Chicago area
hamfest. I noticed he had some Audio Reg 2 PCBs at his booth. I asked
about them and he said he used to work at Wells Gardner during the '80s.
I was skeptical. Then he mentioned the scrap dealer who had 20 plus
Tempest boards. I had seen them earlier and I bought a few of the better
ones and a set of manuals. I should have offered $100 for all of them but
I didn't know that then. Those were boards he fished out of the scrap
pile at WG after he was laid off. His story checked out. Quips about the
other vector monitor Atari used (i.e. Amplifone) that should have
included a fire extinguisher with every game. I think he even flashed an
old WG business card of his. Or maybe it was a card for his porno movie
making operation. I didn't quite know how to react when he told me how
important it is to have a good bail bonds man in that line of work. :O

Then he walked over to a large plywood case and opened the lid. Inside
was the guts of a Space Duel. He said they used it at the factory for
monitor testing. I forget how much I paid for it, probably $25 or so. I
do remember that I had to do some very creative packing to fit it in an
Escort wagon. I would have picked up the 25" raster monitor somebody else
was selling but I couldn't afford it let alone get it home.

I threw it downstairs and buried it under a 32" K8000 picture tube I
bought from him at a later date. One day I went looking for the Tempest
boards and I thought they might be in the crate. I glanced at the serial
number while I cleaned off the dust.

#0016

That's probably the closest thing I'll ever have to a religious
experience barring any future near death encounters.

The board looked like a normal SD aside from the Tempest style pots on
the outputs.

It did work. A via had opened and one of the deflection signals was
getting lost just before the final outputs. I wasn't able to figure that
out until later when I finally got a K6100.

Recently somebody donated a SD cab to my collection. It was gutted and a
wreck aside from the art. Now it looks great aside from some minor
scratches on the sideart and a mangy CP overlay.

Now the question is...

Should I remove the guts of the test jig and put them back into my cab or
should I preserve this pseudo jig?

Visually its nothing special. SD harness in a big box made of 3/4"
plywood with air holes.

Historically, this is something else. This jig probably tested many a
K6100 (though not too many as the connector is in OK shape).

If Atari sent them a complete cab and the WG guys took out the parts to
make the jig then it probably has the unique distinction of being the
first SD ever to be gutted. :)

I tried to get a harness & transformer back from a relative who wanted
the parts when I had them but he said he tossed them out after a flood
along with three K6100 HV and deflection boards. #^$%&*@ idiot.

Would Vidtopia bar me from entering if I put it back in a cab? Would Jess
hire a hitman to take me out? Does anybody have a harness & PS for sale?

Virtu-Al

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Received on Thu Jan 7 11:49:12 1999