Nice to get something relatively unmolested. I would rather get a broken machine that is complete and original that one that's all hacked to crap and working.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Nice to get something relatively unmolested. I would rather get a broken machine that is complete and original that one that's all hacked to crap and working.

So true!

Nice find Bish, Owen Sound is a long way to go for you, but obviously worth the drive. Did you know that this was going to be in the auction before you went all that way????

Quoted from Bally Boy

Nice find Bish, Owen Sound is a long way to go for you, but obviously worth the drive. Did you know that this was going to be in the auction before you went all that way????

McMean told me about a week prior that he had found it while doing some online searches.  I never would have seen it, as they were auctioning off all kinds of household goods, tools, etc....

So...off I went.  I got stuck in traffic in Toronto (really bad online directions) and ended up calling the auction house to put in a proxy bid, as I knew I wouldn't make it for the start of the auction.  

When I got there, more than an hour after the auction started, they still hadn't auctioned the game off.  They withdrew my proxy bid, and it came up on the block about 15 minutes after I got there.  I bid for it in person, and won it from against several other bidders.  

The auction employees were really interested why I had come all the way from Peterborough to pick it up.  Did I repair them?  Did I collect them?  Had I ever bought one from an auction before?  I think it was likely the first game they had ever auctioned off.  They wanted to know if I thought I had gotten it for a fair price.  It was actually pretty funny.

All in all, it's still not as big of a trip as going down to the US would have been to get one.  I'm quite pleased with how it all came together...and thanks to other people who purposely stayed away from the auction, because they knew I really wanted it.

So..now I'm  in the process of tearing it down.  I'm going to order some of the artwork, and repaint the inner cabinet area, which is quite worn down by people gripping the edges of the game, put new inner sideart, plexi (above and below CP) and a new CPO & spinner cover and t-moulding on it to start.  Outer sideart, translite, and shroud art will wait for another time.

A couple of Christmas' ago, I was given a repro Tron joystick and insert.

Here is the difference that 28 years can make.   The original is on the left, the repro is on the right:



It's a little hard to see, but the original is quite a yellowish-blue.

Please post your progress. Great looking game.

Sounds like the experience of all those previous restores is going come in handy. Keep the project pics coming.

I found the link to the "GroovyGameGear" Repro TRON Joystick.

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=91&products_id=319

They say:

This item is not a copy, reproduction or replica. It's the real deal. The actual materials and injection molds were used. The original color chip was even unearthed and meticulously matched. And, as you can see from the photo, it glows like crazy next to a black light. This is the first time anyone has seen a part like this fresh from production for over 20 years!

I'm going to carry on this thread in the "Projects" section (since there are now three different threads running on about this one machine!)

http://archive.maaca.org/s107351202.onlinehome.us/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1278525020/