Yes you heard it right, first it was the Tron upright, now comes the cocktail version!  

Bought these as a package deal, both dead. Just picked them up today at the M.O terminal in Ottawa. Took a quick look and both are pretty much complete, except that one is missing the top glass and graphic underlay. All boards/wiring are intact but currently not working. I have only taken a quick look inside of both and they are in pretty good condition. The one missing the glass looks about the worse with a leaking battery on the power board. But luckily both pcb (game) boards look to be in really good shape.

Man I thought I was finished buying project games.....when will I start buying only complete working games?  

BTW......yes that is the upright version in the background of the first picture  

They are awesome.

Are you willing to part with one of those?  I'd love to put a Tron cocktail in my basement.

Thanks,
newf112

...Still a mystery to me why nobody has picked up the upright yet... It is awesome! Especially with new sideart and inner art for it.

More pics of the progress. Have pretty much taken it all apart. Cleaning out the machine and the parts. Also going to replace all the t-molding, some of it is okay, but not worth keeping the 20 year old stuff. Will spend the $20 and replace it all.

Also a pic of the possible problem why the machine is not working, the famous MCR power board. Famous in the sense that it is well known to fail. I will be ordering a new MCR power supply replacement kit for it. Very hard to see on the pic, but the battery blew and leaked acid over the rest of the board.

More pics.

Jesus Murphy... I saw them just yesterday and you are already at them!!!

Don't forget, I have the big caps for you...

Okay another update on the project  

I finished cleaning the cab out, and took apart the transformer board (the piece of wood with the two transformers, all the fuses and other power related items). Looks really good now, almost like it just came out of the factory.

Been trying to find out why the machine won't work when turned on. The only thing that comes on is the light for the control panels and the fan for ejecting the hot air from the cab. Took my volt meter and have been checking voltages everywhere. Been getting some really weird readings, either really high or really low voltages.

Looks like the previous owner tried switching some wires around from one of the transformers and connected the wires for 115v to 0v and the wires for the 0v to 115v. Switched those around, fixed many of the voltages problems but the machine still did not boot  

Well I re-checked (for the 10th time now) all the fuses to make sure nothing has blown while I was looking around with the volt meter (better to take 1 minute and check now then have headaches for hours later on). Well as I was doing this, it came to me THE DREADED PURPLE WIRE!!!!!!!!!  

This wire runs from the power supply to the main boards to protect them from any problems that might occur (like voltage spikes, etc...). Is the reset wire. If there is a problem (with the power supply, or with age due to the games being 20+yrs old), they will continuously reset the game, making it appear dead. It is very common on ton's for this reset line to cause problems and most people just cut it.

Well I then decided to cut the wire, and turn it back on!!!!!!!!

ITS ALIVE!!!! ITS ALIVE!!!!!! muhahahahahaha

(cough, cough)

Can hear the game starting up, and it registers credits when I put them in. But another problem which I suspected earlier.........the monitor is DEAD  

There is power going to the monitor, but no life, can't hear it power up, and there is no light in the neck of the monitor. Also noticed that it is not the original monitor for the tron. The monitor it has is a later model sanyo, which probably replaced the original when it died. Well now its dead.

Well at least one good point is that the original boards for the game seem to work. Can't see anything due to the dead monitor, but I can start and hear the game, will confirm when I get a new monitor for it.

Well in the meantime I ordered the new MCR power board replacement kits, the new cpos and spinner decals. Ordered them from http://www.arcadeshop.com/parts.htm if your interested. They have tons of good stuff there. You just find what you want, then I would suggest sending them an email to get a shipping price. Once you get the total, you just call them up with you credit card number, and you should get your order within 1-2 weeks. By the way, the 1-800 number on their site is only good for US customers, to call them from Canada, you have to call them at 229-491-2506.

Oh well, enough for now. Your probably all tired from reading such a long post  

Another update. I got the new monitors for the machines. Sparky was kind enough to pick them up for me from Amusement911 (Denis). The monitors are perfect, and were adjusted really well by Denis. If you are looking for parts for your projects, Denis is the man to talk to

Before installing the new monitor in the cab, I had to remove the chassis from the old, dead monitor, and put it on the new monitor, a nice WG 19". That took about 15mins. Once that was done, I just had to slip it into the top of the machine, screw it in place, and ta-da a new monitor is installed.

I then flipped the top of the machine open, connected the singal and power wires from the machine to the monitor and then turned on the machine. The result..........

What's next you say? What else is there to do to the machine now that it works? Well like any project, you are never truly finished......

I should be getting the new cpo's and mcr kits for it soon. The new cpo's should really make the machine look even better, and the mcr-kit will keep it running smoothly for years to come.

I also have to re-install the underlay for the top of the machine, and get a new piece of glass cut for the top. The original glass that was sitting on the other machine is okay, but full of scratches and is chipped in once place. I will use the old glass for the moment, but as soon as I get some free time, I will make a trip down to the glass place and see how much it will cost to get one cut. But if it is too expensive (some people had told me that it will cost about $150 per machine), I might just buy some lexan for the moment as a replacement, and get the glass done when I save up some money.  

Now back to work. Still have to make a few adjustments, put the top back on, and get a few games in....Hey I am not wasting time playing games, I am.....hummm......testing equipment, ya, testing equipment! You believe me don't you?  

It's funny that you mention glass... I had to repalce the glass on my cocktail machine. I went to M&T Glass and they cut it size using the old corners as a template and it cost $90 including tax. I would bring the old piece down so they can match the corners and the type of glass.

Thanks for the advice heinekenlvr. There is an M&T glass in ottawa, and I will go see them with my old glass top.  

Well, another update.

I got the MCR replacement kit in the mail today from arcadeshop.com. The kit was very straight forward to install and pretty much only required a screwdriver to install.

The new MCR kit works great. Not only does it have a newer high score and settings backup module that runs from a chip (no more dead battery that loses high scores or blows and dumps battery acid all over the inside of the cab), but it also got rid of that damn humm in the speakers. Before with the old MCR board, any time the game was in attract mode there was a very loud constant humm from the speakers. It is now gone and the game runs just as great as before.

I also got the new cpo's too. They look great and installed quite easily compaired to installing a cpo on a standard size upright game.

Well the restoration of my Tron cocktail machine is pretty much complete. I now only have to get that new piece of glass cut for the top. This was a pretty straight forward restoration. Luckily what made it easy was that unlike many of the machines I have restored in the past, this one was never converted and pretty much complete, so I didn't have to spend all my time hunting down parts.

Now I am off on my next project.......who would want to buy a fully complete game that needs no work when you can have fun bringing something back from the dead. The guy I bought the tron from thought that it would probably only be good for parts and that it was likely totally dead. No better feeling than bringing something dead back to life.........ITS ALIVE ITS ALIVE MUHAHAHA.............

What will my next project be you ask........well something anyone who knows me never thought I would do......I am going to..........well maybe I'll tell you later  

I would love to see some finished pics. I remember when Tron first came out and the number of lousy quarters I squandered on that game.

Quoted from heinekenlvr

I would love to see some finished pics. I remember when Tron first came out and the number of lousy quarters I squandered on that game.

I will try to post some pics soon. The batteries in my digitial camera are dead and I have none left to replace them with. As soon as I get some I will take a few pics and post them