Tony's Arcade

The Chicago Coin Rodeo Shooting Gallery is finally finished!

This has probably been the most time consuming game I’ve worked on and yet the easiest. Rodeo was my first electro-mechanical (EM) game that I restored and was a lot of fun. Don’t get me wrong — the restoration process had the requisite headaches that come with restoring any classic arcade game. Compared to solid state games, repairing an EM game was like looking at giant logic chips that you could see working. Watching the score reels reset to zero was like watching electrons moving along at five volts, except at 110 volts with solenoids ker-chunking circuits through different states! I’ve been told that most arcade hobbyists like restoring EM games because all the workings are “there”. I know what they mean — you can see what is stuck, what is dirty, and what is gummed up. No logic probe or oscilloscope needed — it’s great.

MEAN GREEN

After reading the very thorough and excellent EM restoration guide at This Old Pinball, I decided to get two of their videos. I ordered TOP #2 (EM pitch and bat games) and TOP #8 (EM ball bowlers and shuffle alleys). TOP #2 was great for overall EM restoration and TOP #8 was good for restoring Chicago Coin EM games. The TOP guys loved using Mean Green to clean almost everything. Mean Green is a degreaser. I found some in stock at the local Family Dollar.

I followed TOP #2′s recommendations for cleaning the mechanics. I went through all the stepper and contact plate assemblies and cleaned them with Mean Green , Scotch Brite pads, and paper towels. Cotton swabs helped when cleaning the solenoid sleeves. I also cleaned all the metal pins on the bakelite connectors with fine grit (around 200 grit) sand paper. The cleaning took many hours, as I had to take a pictures of each unit, disassemble them, make sure I counted the number of spring windings when taking off springs, clean each component, and re-assemble it according to the pictures. I also cleaned all the leaf switches with flexstone from the Pinball Resource.

I cleaned the outside of the cabinet with Mean Green. There was a lot of dirt, grime, and old cigarette smoke on that cabinet! The dirt was thick from being in that old barn for 20 years. I didn’t use the Mean Green inside the cabinet as the inside artwork was too delicate. I did, however, use Mean Green sprayed on a paper towel to clean the trip targets (the “bad guys”) and the carousel targets. I was amazed at the difference before and after cleaning with Mean Green.

To clean the plastics, I used Novus #2 plastic polisher. I found it at my local Harley Davidson store.

Flash-O-Matic

The flash and miss shot unit was stuck and I didn’t know why. I found out the answer after watching TOP #8 — the cork that was attached to the friction plate (5) on the “Flash-O-Matic” should slide freely when the armature (8) stops the ratchet and finger assembly (20). (The numbers in parentheses indicate part numbers on page 17 of the Rodeo parts catalog.) The cork uses friction to spin the Flash-O-Matic ratchet and finger assembly unless the armature is engaged to brake the ratchet and finger assembly. A little twisting pressure with my hands and the cork was no longer stuck.

Missing Fingers

The shot count stepper unit wasn’t working properly. I found some broken fingers in the bottom of the cabinet. Upon closer inspection of the stepper unit, it looked like it was missing some of its fingers. (The “fingers” are metal tabs of varying length with a rounded button on the end that move over a contact plate assembly to close circuits.) I purchased the schematics and parts manual from eBay and those documents didn’t help too much. By purchasing some Chicago Coin stepper units from eBay, through trial and error, I was able to figure out the correct configuration of the fingers on the shot count stepper unit. Even though the eBay stepper units were older (maybe from the 1950s or 1960s as the fingers and button contacts were wider) I was able to use them with the Rodeo shot count stepper unit. I had to bend the wider fingers just a little bit so I could retrofit them properly.

Some of the traces were worn on the unit. To repair them, I used desoldering braid from Radio Shack. Using a good amount of solder to soak up the braid and solder it to the worn spots did the trick!

Below is a picture of the completed shot count stepper assembly to display the finger configuration. Note the three repaired circuit traces on the bottom. The transplant fingers (from the older Chicago Coin stepper unit) are copper in color. The fingers are different sizes, so it was a matter of trial and error to figure out which length was the right size.

Sealing the Glass

I wanted to seal the artwork on the glass marquee as the paint was already peeling a little bit. To make sure I didn’t spray anything on the part of the glass to view the targets, I cut a paper template and taped it in place. I also cut some small paper rectangles to block the score windows. To seal the artwork, I used Krylon Triple Thick as suggested by This Old Pinball. I had to order the Triple Thick from an online retailer as I couldn’t find it locally. When I sprayed the first coat, I used the “Saran Wrap Method” to push down any curling artwork while the Triple Thick was still wet with Saran Wrap. After the first coat dried, I removed the Saran Wrap. The artwork stayed in place and was firmly pressed against the glass. I couldn’t believe it.

New Stock

The gun stock was very beat up and had lots of graffiti in it. I took apart the gun and handed over the stock to my buddy, Doug. He is great with woodworking and made the stock look like new. Doug first used a coarse sandpaper on the stock to remove the varnish, stain, and carved graffiti. Then, he used finer grits of sandpaper to smooth the wood on the stock. To stain, he used a “gun stock” color of stain then applied a coupe of coats of shellac. After the shellac had dried, he rubbed the stock with beeswax. Like I said, he is great with woodworking. The stock looks brand new and add so much to the game. I hate guns but in the name of classic arcades and woodworking, I was stoked.

To match the stock in its greatness, I stripped and repainted the gun barrel and base. Since the gun and base was apart, I soaked the barrel and base in Pine-Sol overnight. The Pine-Sol cleaner softened up the paint. Then, I used a cheap wire brush attached to a drill to strip the paint off. After the parts were dry, I painted them with a couple of coats of Krylon black satin paint. I also stripped the cigarette holder. (A place to put your Lucky Strike while you shot at some bad guys and bulls. Imagine that!)

Bullseye

To finish the game, I installed #47 bulbs for all the lamps. I also installed a new power cord, which was badly needed. I’m amazed at how many games I find with power cords that are missing a ground pin. I also had to replace the two fluorescent 15W T8 18″ (F15T8BL) blacklights. Unfortunately, the game didn’t have an 8-track player like I was hoping. After reading Rodeo’s marketing flyer, it appears the 8-track player was optional and meant to play music of the owner’s choice. That’s ok — I don’t know how anyone would be able to hear the 8-track’s music above the blaring 45s in the jukebox. Now I have a piece of history — a rootin’ tootin’ EM gun game. It’s neat how it all works. As the gun is aimed, a stylus under the gun base traces around a contact board. If the stylus is touching the right contact and the target is lined up, a circuit is completed and the scoring motor advances your score. It’s like magic.

Speaking of magic, smoke, and mirrors — as you might be able to see in the above photo, the player looks into a mirror. This gives a perception of depth. All of the targets are about waist-high (that way when a relay releases them, they fall down with gravity. This gives the illusion that they’ve been hit back.) The carousel is actually at your feet in the bottom of the cabinet.

One thing I noticed off the bat is that you can’t aim directly at anything to hit a target, of course. If you could do that, the game would be instantly boring, I suppose! Instead, you have to learn where the “sweet spots” are. Overall, this is a fun game and weighs heavy on the nostalgia. As you can see below, the black lights add that special touch to make Rodeo Shooting Gallery seem like you’re in a rodeo, far, far away…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Rodeo Shooting Gallery (1972). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.