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Attack From Mars
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Omega Race
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Omega Race cabaret

This is the second game I have picked up from Rich down in Etters, PA. He's a great guy to deal with... very down to earth, sells games at a very reasonable price, and you can talk "games" with him and tell he gets just as excited as you do.

He didn't want much for this Omega Race cabaret since it had a bit of delaminating wood grain around the edges, was missing the PCB, and had an unknown condition monitor and power supply. This is the first cabaret cabinet I have owned in the 10 to 15 years I've been in(and out of) the hobby. I have to say... WAY easier dealing with these little cabinets than the full size. When we went to lift the game in the back of my truck I couldn't believe how NOT HEAVY it was!

Omega Race

It took about 2 weeks for us to both get free time for me to pick up the game... in that time I purchased a PCB set off of eBay from Bill Burger. It was supposed to be free of battery acid damage... but it wasn't. I tried working with Bill to see if maybe I got the wrong board(because he sells tons of stuff on eBay)... I'm not sure if he was having a bad day or bad week even, but things just didn't work out. He finally was going to let me send back the board but I decided it was still a decent deal because the damage wasn't as severe as I've seen elsewhere so I thought, "What the hell!".

Omega Race - acid damage

I started by removing the damaged components and sockets. Then I took a flat head jewelers screw driver and very, VERY carefully started to flake away the damage. I also put some 800 grit sandpaper to work by barely touching it to the board. I wanted to get all the damage off the board before I tried to neutralize the remaining acid... even though I'm 99% sure there wasn't any.

Everything went very well(for once) and the traces were all still intact. It almost appears that there was only a very minute amount of goo that leaked from the battery because only the very top layer of the PCB appeared to be damaged in most areas. I did have to scrape down to copper in a few places, but it wasn't too bad at all. I spent around 3 hours doing this step while enjoying 3 or 4 beers and some '80s music.

After it was clean, I replaced two 2114 RAM memory chips(with new sockets), some resistors, and some capacitors.

Omega Race - repaired PCB

It was time to fire up the game for the first time. The power supply was putting out the correct voltages. Nothing on the screen. The speakers were putting out a tone every so often with the game in test mode... almost seemed likes something was working... which is a great first try!

The monitor neck was glowing... but nothing on the screen. I started reading the XY monitor portion of the Omega Race manual since I'm such an X-Y noob and after about 20 minutes I thought... brightness... lets just try the brightness since I'm getting a glow from the neck.

Omega Race - errors

Succuss!!! So let's get this straight... I got a working monitor, power supply, controls... everything except the PCB. 100% GREAT deal in my book.

I swapped in a 2114 RAM to take care of the P RAM 1 error... swapped in a 5101 RAM to take care of the BBU RAM error... and swapped in another two 2114 RAM to take care of the V RAM 4 error.

Omega Race - screen shot

I was soo excited it worked, I took a little video... you can hear the wifey in the background being... well... the wifey!!!


After playing it for a few days and not having the high score save, I dug out an old 5.5v, 1F battery backup capacitor I had from my Berzerk/Frenzy/Baby Pac-Man days. A little soldering, a little hot glue to hold it in place... and our Omega Race can now remember the high score and booking stats.

The last thing I did was scrub the control panel with a Magic Eraser. I know I have said it before, but these are truly magic! The control panel now looks almost new except for the slight bit of cracking on the edge. There is only one small "scratch" on the overlay where the original material doesn't look perfect. The "scratch" doesn't go down to the metal or anything like that, it is just a mark on the overlay.

Omega Race - cleaned control panel

I also took a small amount of time to repaint the black metal bracket that goes between the control panel and the monitor bezel. Speaking of the monitor bezel, the first day of ownership I took care of some minor paint flaking... it doesn't look too bad at all...

Omega Race - monitor bezel

Omega Race Fun!

UPDATE: 07-10-2009
Added this page.
UPDATE: 07-26-2009
Added a digital replacement spinner to our Omega Race and boy oh boy is it an improvement. You can read more about the replacement spinner named ORDS HERE.
UPDATE: 09-28-2009
Our Omega Race lost it's picture yesterday so I figured it was a monitor problem. I'm thinking it may not be though because when you are putting your head into the back of a game looking up(at the monitor) and you feel a little heat on your chin and smell something burning... IT'S NOT FUN!!!

Omega Race Fire!

Ok, don't let me fool you... it actually IS fun!!!
UPDATE: 01-26-2011
Back in August the Omega Race went down and I haven't had time to look at it until this past weekend. Good news was the PCB was still working as I verified the XYZ output on our o'scope. The bad news was the deflection PCB had a couple resistors fry to the point of getting down to the PCB substrate. I'm waiting on some parts from Bob Roberts now but I ended up throwing in a spare 19V2000 deflection chassis and the game is back up and running. Once the parts come in I'll trouble shoot the defective chassis.

One interesting note, the 5.5V, 1F battery backup capacitor kept the high scores from August even though the machine has remained off since then. 5 months is longer than I thought they would last without power.
UPDATE: 05-29-2012
Installed cap-kits to the power supply and game PCBs a couple weeks ago. I also had to replace the Molex connectors on the power supply since there were a couple burned pins.
UPDATE: 06-14-2012
Since this game is at the end of a row of games, I figured I'd try to spruce it up a bit...

Omega Race Caberat with Sideart!

The sticker itself isn't perfectly printed... the sticker isn't cut perfectly round at the top... but man, this sticker looks perfect on the game! I absolutely love it!

There are some more pictures showing off the sideart HERE.
UPDATE: 04-29-2013
Forgot to add an update that I bought a brand new tube for this game a few years from VDC. The tube is a 15ST4730R and back then cost around $50 plus shipping. Their website currently says they are out-of-stock but be sure to give them a call to make sure since their online inventory isn't very accurate.

Pretty sure I'll be swapping this tube in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to take some pictures and post my results when I do.
REPAIRS TO DATE:
(AS OF: 04-29-2013)
  • Cleaned and vacuumed cabinet
  • Stabilized flaking monitor glass in a couple areas
  • Repainted metal monitor glass trim
  • Repaired acid damaged PCB
  • Added 5.5v, 1F battery backup capacitor in place of battery
  • Cleaned control panel with some Magic Erasers
  • Installed cap-kit on monitor
  • Replaced defective TL082CP
  • Replaced defective deflection chassis
  • Installed cap-kit on power supply
  • Installed cap-kit on main & aux PCBs
  • Installed custom side art from GameOnGrafix.com
  • Bought new tube for monitor

TO BE DONE:
  • Re-paint all black surfaces
  • Repair original deflection chassis
  • Install new tube in monitor

Site maintained by: Jeff
Last update: 04-29-2013
Page Created: 07-10-2009