Omega Race #9963 is Alive!

After starting my collection over 2 years ago, I finally got my first vector
game running today, a Omega Race UR. I thought I was doomed to be known as
"the person who collects dead vector games". I also have an Asteroids Deluxe
and Star Trek that are up next. It feels really good to have something other
than my MAME machine up and running.

You have to love those calls from your spouse..."Honey, I'm over here at
this house with my friend, and they're moving out. There's a game they want
to get rid of for free...just haul it off. It's an Omega Race, or something
like that." I'm over there before she hangs up the phone, loading it up into
a pickup. It turns out I got pretty lucky. The operator running this thing
back in the '80s had pulled the battery long before it started leaking.
There is absolutely no acid damage. The WG19V2000 monitor was intact, with
only the slightest of burn-in, but missing a deflection PCB. The cabinet
sideart is nice, although cracking slightly. The bottom edges are a furry
mess. I pulled everything out of the cabinet, and started trying different
methods of stabilizing the cat fur. So far, the Elmer's wood glue seems to
work best, but doesn't sand down that great. If I don't have better luck
tomorrow, I'm going to search for that marine epoxy stuff used for wooden
boats. Regardless, I'm going to have to mask off the artwork and front
orange panel, and repaint after all of the filling and sanding this is going
to take. I'm guessing semi-gloss black would be the closest match? Today,
with all of the boards and monitor arranged on a test bench, I took a
deflection board from my un-assembled/untested Asteroids Deluxe monitor, and
installed it. Worked the first time out! I guess the deflection board had a
problem, they took it away for repair, and never got back to it. I had some
strangely distorted graphics appearing after it warmed up a while. Reseating
C5 and B5 seems to have corrected the problem, and the graphics are correct
and stable. I can't believe that this thing still works 100% after all of
this time. Every single light bulb even worked! I wish they could all be
this easy.

While I'm anxiously waiting to finish the cabinet restoration, so I can put
all the guts back in, I have a couple of questions for you more experienced
folks.

1. The centering of the image on my WG19V2000 is a little too far left
(approx. 1.5"). How do I adjust the centering magnets (are they the ones
with all of the hot glue holding them in place)? Do I turn them, and the
entire image shifts left or right? I read the messages re: Battlezone
Centering, but it didn't go into much detail. I've already pulled the left
fabric "tab" out from the yoke ring (oops)...and I don't want to go any
further until someone explained this in a little more detail.

2. Like most of my dead games, this one was missing its back door, and along
with it, the very back artwork piece. I noticed today that the Omega Race SD
listed on Ebay right now
(http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1177155284) has a
background pattern different than the sides on my UR's artwork. It's almost
like a Tron background. Were the UR and SD different, or did the space
pattern merge into this yellow grid pattern on the UR. I'd love to see a
better pic of either one so I can attempt to repro it (probably using
posterboard and Day-Glo poster paints).

3. What was the original color of the OR monitor overlay? Mine is currently
something close to sepia, but it looks pretty foggy. I'd like to replace it
with something close to the original color.

4. Anyone have a WG19V2000 deflection board for sale? My motivation is up,
and I want to get started on my Asteroids Deluxe soon.

Sorry to be so long winded. Thanks to everyone for all the knowledge that
I've gained through lurking on this mailing list for the past couple of
months.

Tom Baddley
Wichita Falls, TX

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Received on Sat Aug 11 22:18:42 2001