Partial Resto on my Cento part I

This will be a short entry in this journey because tonight was all about ridding the machine of antiquated wiring, loose screws, nails, dust bunnies and the like.  I opened up the back of the machine and unbolted what I have to assume is the power supply.  At first glance it looks like a brick or one of those mouse traps for live catch and release of rodents.  It is surprisingly heavy for the size of it.

As you can see, this is the nerve center. Someone had wired a standard orange extension cord into it and it connected to the light bar behind the marquee as well as the speakers.   All of these cords were trimmed away from the walls of the cabinet and discarded.  It was really difficult to crop them and I felt like I was cutting the umbilical cord in a way, but since this machine will have modern components in it (i.e a computer tower, monitor, and desktop speakers) the need for the outdated wiring is zero. 

From here, I took a shop vac to the inside of the cabinet to get rid of 30 years of dust, cobwebs, fallen screws and God knows what else was lurking in the dark recesses of that hull.

After the back was taken care of I turned my attention to the front of the cabinet (namely the marquee/speaker area).  I took the marquee off and removed the housing for the speaker (which is genius in its design), removed the old school speaker and cleaned the marquee (it had glue all the way around).  Last, but not least, I cleaned both sides of the bezel glass and what was once a dusty weathered looking display area was now clean and vibrant looking once more.

I bought a tube light during our travels today that I had hoped would work behind the marquee, but unfortunately it was a little bit too big and as I do not really want to alter the inside of the cabinet (structurally) I think I'll hold out for one the right size.

Some final notes I want to make about this machine before wrapping this up:  while cleaning the inside of the base of the machine I discovered that the coin catcher was still there and the previous owner had left a quarter behind (maybe for good luck... like not giving a wallet as a gift without some money in it?)  Just for authenticity it was from the early '80s.  On the right wall of the cabinet was a typed note that from the tone of it sounded like a checklist for construction on the cabinet or a primer for what things to look for in a defective cabinet.  And the last little bit of awesomeness was that the coin box had two counters still attached and the combined count (if I am doing the math correctly) implies that this machine made someone about $30,000 in quarters (or a sore thumb from adding credits on free play).  Would love, in an alternate universe, to see a montage of all the action this Centipede game saw in its heyday.

  

For the purpose of score keeping and later scrutiny the stats on this project thus far are as follows:

Hours into the project (1)
$$ into this project   ($120)
Cups of coffee consumed during this project thus far  (2)