The restoration of a 1980's Williams Defender arcade machine
Archive for March, 2012
Connecting it all back together…
Mar 26th
The eagle eyed of you may have noticed that the wiring loom (basically all the wires that connect everything together) was disconnected from all of the boards as the previous owner’s intention was to sell it for parts. There are a number of ways to fix this and reconnect everything correctly: 1. Follow the schematics…
So What Have We Got?
Mar 23rd
Everything is taking a little slower than planned, but hey I’m in no rush and this thing was built over _30_ years ago (so it’s obviously in no rush either) so let’s start by taking a few photos of what we have. For those who aren’t familiar with Williams machine setups suchs as Defender, it…
The Unwrapping
Mar 16th
It feels like Christmas at Skywire Studios as we’ve finally managed to de-crate the newly acquired Defender machine, and with the help of the team we’ve carried it up 2 floors (4 flights) of stairs and into the office kitchen. The cabinet looks like it has been wrapped by a very large airport suitcase wrapping…
The Journey (Part 2)
Mar 8th
So the boat is delayed in reaching Texas, and I’m playing email/timezone tag with the guys organising it as they are in the US, I’m in the UK, so the concept of _where_ London is when it gets to the other end is an interesting one… 25th January 2012 The “Heidelberg Express” docks in at…
The Journey (Part 1)
Mar 7th
Payment made, a few friendly emails backwards and forwards with the vendor, and the unit turns out to be located in Austin, TEXAS – so way down south in the US! Undeterred, I start with website uShip to see if I can get any reasonable quotes back for shipping it to the UK and after 5…
The Beginning…
Mar 7th
Every journey starts at the beginning, and where else with the restoration of a Williams Defender arcade machine to start with where, what, how and who (blame eBay). December 2011: I’d been looking on and off for a Williams Defender cabinet in the UK for about the last 18 months as it’s always been an…
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