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The Quest For TRON It's not often that someone takes a serious interest in a video game, simply because of its cabinet rather than for the game itself. But in the case of this particular owner (me), the first sighting of the "glowing" TRON cabinet made it a must-have on my list.
Before we go down that road though, let's talk a little about TRON the MOVIE first.. The movie was released in July of 1982, and really caught a lot of folks off guard. Prior to the release of TRON, Disney's delvings into the realm of Science Fiction were a bit rough and out-of-place, with examples like The Black Hole and The Cat From Outer Space. The desire was definitely there, but with movies like Star Wars and 2001 already taking special effects to a new level, Disney just seemed like a child playing in a place where they didn't belong. They really needed some help from a 3rd party who had a little more of a grasp on true scifi. And with a little help from a guy named Steven Lisberger, they got where they needed to be. Here is a great original trailer for the film. The movie was released on July 9th, 1982 in the USA. On the day it hit theatres, Disney went full-out and had a further surprise lined up for the film's promotion: since the movie's plot takes place within a video-game world, what better way to kick off the release than with a real corresponding arcade game- this marketing plan was a brilliant move, since society was at the height of overall arcade fame and popularity at that point. The pic below shows one of the TRON games at one of the premieres on July 7th, 1982:
Also, for more great fan TRON-formation, the original TRON costume is hanging in the Planet Hollywood in FL. The actual arcade game architecture is designed almost exactly to the game shown in the film. And for dedicated movie fans, there's nothing better than having the actual game as the ultimate movie collectible. The creator of the cabinet was George Gomez, and you can read some of his reflections back on developing the cabinet at Peter Hirschberg's blog. So now, on to the details regarding my personal TRON cab- this little journey started when an ad popped up on the local Craigslist page, reading "TRON: $100, not working". The date was Friday, November 2, 2007. Before you read on however, I must forewarn you that this runs a little long- that being said, all that you read below is 100% true, and is pretty much the streak of luck I have with virtually anything I do. I just try to remember that in the end it's all worth it- at least that's what my therapist and I choose to believe. (Now that part's a joke) THE FIND: I contacted the seller, and didn't hear back for 2 days. For any game collector out there reading this, you know that means one of 3 things: 1. the seller has
been bombarded with multiple email requests from fellow arcade game
collectors just like yourself, who are trying to schmooze a deal, offer
more money than the item was listed for, or anything else to close the
deal In this particular scenario, example 1 above is what had taken place- another person came to look at the machine and decided it was a little more trouble than they were willing to challenge, so they passed on it (you might think that would have been a huge hint for the person typing this review- but it wasn't…….) In that timeframe, I believe I emailed them easily over 10 times hoping for a reply. After 2 days passed, they replied to advise me that the game was still available. The response was extremely elaborate, and consisted of the following: "Yes" The seller was very brief in communications, however they did indicate that plugging in the unit would make some of the lights come on; just no game power-up. I managed to get time scheduled with them to go down that night and pick up the game. It was going to be a 2 hour trip from my home, but that was irrelevant.. I was getting a TRON!!! THE EXTRACTION (11/4/07): I packed up my ratchet straps, my little dolly (no, the thing with the 2 wheels..), tarps, all I would need to make this trip a success (or so was the plan at least at that point). I had my directions, and was all set to go- if I remember correctly, the person wasn't going to be available to meet me until after 5PM. No worries, again this trip is for a TRON! So around 3PM EST, I headed on my way down. They had also indicated that they weren't going to have anyone to help me with getting the machine to my truck…… I'd brought all my other machines to date home on my own, so at this point I could not see this being an issue at all. Man was I wrong.. Upon arrival to the seller's home, I actually learned that I would be working on this deal via the seller's wife.. The seller apparently was nowhere to be found. I was directed to a set of concrete appliance stairs- they would be the exit point of bringing the game out of the home. There were approximately 12 or 13 steps, leading downward to a cement pad, about 4 feet by 4 feet in size- a standard in/out point for appliances like washers and dryers.. only problem is, "appliances" doesn't include ARCADE GAME CABINETS in the definition. This didn't concern me a whole lot, as I'd gone through a similar experience acquiring my KICK and Q*bert games. So I prompted the seller to lead on to where the game was located. There, sure enough, sitting like the golden idol in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a real, true to life, TRON cab! The first glance had me almost floating off of the ground. The game was in a room along with a slew of other arcade games and pins, all in a variety of conditions. I noticed toward the base of the cab that there had been some contact with water in its life, since the sides were a little waterlogged and bowed. This didn't concern me one bit, since the game would be in a lineup amongst the others at my home. The side art, although tired and scratched in places, was in tact. For a machine that was over 25 years old, I wasn't disappointed at all. The seller plugged in the cord, and the waist-height light came on, as did the back light above the monitor. It was great to see the machine had some vital signs.. Nothing happened at the marquee level, nor at the blacklight area in front of the joystick. Again, at this point I was not surprised at all. Life was good. I would soon have a TRON home, that I could bring back to life in my leisure. And then, it seemed as though Sark himself reached his hand into my chest and corrupted my moment of joy.. I walked around to the back of the machine, to find that the water damage had actually impacted more than just the sides of the cabinet- the entire base of the unit had apparently been exposed to moisture, to the point that the baseboard had actually come detached from the rest of the machine. The wiring inside was all over the place, and it was then that I realized why the game wasn't powering up: the PCBs were gone! Aside from the PCBs, the power supply board was also missing, which wasn't too big of a deal- except the person who removed it must have been related to a YETI.. The grey plastic clips which normally hold the power supply board happily in its place, had been smashed into pieces from someone literally ripping the board from its holders. I said to the woman, "well here's why the game's not powering up- none of the boards are in here.." She said "uh-oh-uh-uh-really?" It was suddenly then that things seemed like someone had just let go of a nice hearty Taco Bell fart, because the deal started to stink to high Heaven. The first communications with the seller were cryptic and almost to the point of binary. The other potential buyer backed out. And now here I was, looking at a TRON that might not be savable. In my life I've managed to resurrect quite a few things from certain death (cars, other electronics)- so, knowing that I would probably never find another TRON for 1 Franklin, I decided to take on the challenge. I wheeled the cabinet and the quickly detaching parts to the stairs I mentioned above. It was then that I realized that a TRON machine was probably one of the heaviest I'd ever tried to move (and what a time to figure that out). I got the game out the door, and the plan was to lay it on its back on the dolly, and pull it up the steps to the top. After about 15 minutes, I realized that plan wasn't happening with the rinky-dink dolly I'd brought with me. The woman knew her husband had a dolly, but she couldn't locate it anywhere. I decided at that point that maybe I could lay the cab on its back, and push it up the stairs. The woman had some cardboard boxes that I was told I could flatten to sit the game on, as well as 2 long 2x4s that I thought maybe I could position under the cab and push it up on like a slide. The plan worked, but after almost an hour, I got the cab to the step just before the top, and I had nothing else to give when it came to pushing. I tried to find it in me but it just wasn't there. The result? I had to lower the game all the way back down to the bottom, push it back in the seller's house, and decline on the opportunity. I left that house so mad that I could have spit bullets. I'd tried to see if the woman could contact a neighbor, have a brother in law come over to help me, hell anybody. She had nothing. I drove all the way home absolutely livid, and not to mention that it was a 2-hr trip home with nothing in hand. It had been a long time since I'd been that disappointed in myself. For 3 days after that experience, it ate away at me. My wife tried to console me with the "it wasn't meant to be" bit, but if I'd stopped at hearing that every time I ever wanted anything in this life, I wouldn't have half of what I have today. On that 3rd day, I decided to reach out to the seller and his wife once again, to see if the game was still there.. Sure enough, it was. The woman replied and claimed that she'd had a feeling I'd want to come back for it. She indicated that she'd make sure there would be someone to help me the next time around to get it out. We planned to reconvene on Saturday, 11/10. My excitement was up once again, refusing to be beaten on my quest for a TRON cab. And it looked like it was going to happen this time around…. On Friday, 11/9, out of sheer paranoia, I contacted the woman to confirm everything was still a 'go' for Saturday. At that point, she advised me that I could come back, but that unfortunately she wasn't able to secure anyone to help me get the machine out. And to be honest, I got the inkling that she hadn't even tried to. At this point, knowing that there wasn't much help being sent my way for this machine, and now knowing about the parts missing, I asked what the best offer was that they would take for the machine- not budging, she reaffirmed $100. I wanted so bad to tell her I found a new place for her TRON, but that she was going to have to bend over for me to get it there.. But once again, if I went down that path, who knew when I would see another TRON opportunity that I could afford. I kept my cool, and confirmed that I would be back for it on Saturday 11/10. At this point, I
put out an APB to every friend I could think of, trying to get someone
to help me unearth the machine from this person's basement. I knew that
there was no way I'd be able to pull it off solo after my last "adventure"
with it. To my disappointment, not one person I knew could assist. It
was really starting to seem like it wasn't meant to be, as my wife had
proclaimed. THE AUTOPSY (11/11/07): As mentioned earlier, repairing the base was priority 1. No game with a damaged base was going to be worth having. I cut a piece of ¾" plywood to replace the original base, and transferred the power brick from the old dilapidated particleboard over to the new wood. I then reinforced the sides of the cabinet and tied them into the new wood. After a couple of hours, TRON was vertical again, and safe to be around. SEEING THE LIGHT (or not.. 11/12/07): If you recall at the beginning of this whole story, it mentioned that I fell in love with this game because of how great the cabinet looked when "in action" in an arcade, rather than with the gameplay itself. What makes this game so magical is that, found within a small space in front of the joystick, lies a blacklight responsible for making not only the joystick itself glow, but also all of the iridescent paint found within proximity of it. As logic dictates, if there is no blacklight, there be-ith no glow. When I first brought the game home, I wasn't overly concerned regarding this issue, simply because I thought maybe as with what happens with many of these game lights, either the bulb is bad or the starter within the assembly has burned out over time. Therefore, I never really gave it a second thought at that time. But below is the post I made on KLOV regarding this issue as of 11/12/07: "OK so the plot thickens... I got the plastic access plate off to assess the issue with the blacklight and I think I found the problem: THE WHOLE F'N ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN REMOVED! Guess that explains why that light didn't come on when the others do So.......... next steps- do I hunt down an original blacklight assembly? Or start going down the dark path of BUBBA? I keep thinking about the poker face the wife had while I was checking this machine over, not saying a word.. I now know that this machine was parted out- but for what reason I've yet to learn.. I also checked the power supply and don't see a ballast on it that I would need to replace. There is a silver square thingy that the wall plug feeds into, but nothing else resembling a ballast on the supply. It does have a TRON tag on it (the transformer), so I'm hoping it's the original one, AND from an upright and not a cabaret machine. Questions questions... "
It's always sad to see one of these arcade classics "taken out of the game" because of an easy fix. Below is a post that I'd made on KLOV on 11/22/07: "If this was all that was wrong with my TRON, I'm gonna be shellshocked.. I mentioned in a prior post that when I got my TRON home, it was missing all boards and the transformer had a fuse holder that the top wouldn't close on. The fuse inside was even still good.. Upon testing the power of the machine w/o the missing parts, the monitor neck glowed and all of the marquee lights lit up but there was no other activity that I could notice (didn't really expect any either). I received a PM from someone last week telling me they had the power board, and the original BLUE unit from a working TRON for sale. I bought the parts and they came in the mail yesterday.. Tonight I thought I'd take a peek at the machine since I had some time and see what I could do- I installed the power board, and all the connectors in the cab went right onto it (thank God the prior owner didn't part out the harnesses too). Since I don't know the condition of the original transformer, I knew it would be easier to swap out the fuse holder than the whole transformer- so I did exactly that.. Once I had the fuse holder out, I noticed that the ring-shaped piece inside that is connected to one of the prongs on the bottom had snapped inside. Therefore when you pushed down on the cap that normally locked into it, the whole broken piece just spun with the cap and didn't work as an anchor anymore. For giggles I hit the kill switch and this time not only did I see the marquees light up and the monitor neck glow, I heard the speakers 'pop'. Right then I was like, "don't even tell me this machine had to die and be parted out over a blasted FUSE HOLDER!!!!" That would just be blasphemy if it's the cause of death for this poor cab. I'm out of cash most likely until the new year, but once I get the last 3 boards I'll get to see if my theory proves true. And if it IS true, shame on the lazy b!tch who didn't swap out the fuse holder."
With a little help from the crews over at KLOV and Google Groups, I was able to secure a working board set for the game The boardset came in the mail, and I hooked it up to the power brick that was in the original base of the game, hooked it up to the power supply board that came courtesy of a KLOV member, and hit the switch.. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see any flames or explosions that might possibly come next.. after about 10 seconds, I never heard any pops or crackles (ie a roaring fire), and it felt like I was still alive, so I opened my eyes. I was still at the back of the game, and everything seemed to be OK. I wiggled my way around to the front of the cab to see if anything was happening and…… TRON WAS ALIVE!!!!!!!! It was such a relief to know that after all this cab had been through, it still had life left in it. LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL: Now that the game was breathing on its own, it was time to return to the depressing mystery as to why there was no blacklight assembly in the game, and what I was going to do to resolve the issue.. As for the reason why the blacklight assembly was removed, it seemed pretty obvious that this machine had been used as a donor machine for another TRON, with so many parts missing from it. However, the good thing was the connector that mated the assembly to the wire harness was still there, so at least someone took care in removing that. Thank God for small favors.. However, now was the dilemma of where to locate another light assembly that would work? Well it just so happened that, a KLOV member named Darth Vader (ironic eh?) was parting out a TRON, and soliciting parts hunters on the site. I put in the order for the blacklight, and the seller shipped the part. It was coming from the Midwest, and via UPS, so I didn't expect a long delivery time. However, after over a week had passed, there was no sign of the blacklight assembly. Upon contacting the seller, I was disappointed to find that the part had been returned to the seller because UPS had damaged it. Lucky me! My money was refunded, and I was back on the hunt once again.. A second guy from KLOV named zfcamaro kindly donated an assembly that he had in his arsenal that he thought might work, for which I was extremely grafeful- it even had the right connector to match up with the one already in the machine! JOY! I did a test of the assembly by connecting the wires through the coin door and it worked perfectly! I was euphoric and proceeded on to install it into the machine……………… After further inspection however, it was apparent that the assembly WOULD NOT FIT in the space allocated for the correct OEM part.. @#$()@($*!@)#(!@# I tried my best to cut and modify the bracket currently on the assembly, to get it to fit into the little 2" slot. The result? I damaged the housing for the starter during the alteration, making the assembly no longer power up. I was right back to zero on the blacklight issue. You can imagine how painful this was with a game you bought specifically because of that blasted light, and yet I could fix everything else but this problem!! I could swear I heard God laughing at one point. Finally, after about a month, a guy on eBay appeared who was parting out a TRON machine. And lo and behold, once again a solution presented itself! I sent payment to the seller, and the part arrived. To be honest, I was scared to death to even open the box. Nonetheless I did and….. the part was there and in-tact! It was even still mounted to the wood panel that is found within a TRON machine! I'd finally gotten what I needed! And then…. Further inspection revealed that either during the removal of the assembly from the donor game, or during packing, the bottom of one of the bulb holders had been broken off. This was the section where the wires mount into the bulb holder, to send juice to the bulb.. I just sat looking at a moment, trying to figure out if I should throw it across the room, or just smash it on the wall next to me. After staring at it for a few minutes, I realized I could probably repair the bottom of the bulb holder and make it work. At this point, what other choice did I have? Needless to say, I managed to make the repair successfully, and the blacklight shined beautifully out onto the cab, making the iridescent paint dance in a wholesome TRON goodness! I'd finally achieved success! Now all I had to do was put the decorative cover back on, and I'd be good to go, right? WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED (4/2/08): TRON was working.
TRON was glowing! FETT was glowing! Life was good. All I
had to do was reinstall the cover plate and the rest would be history..
I returned the cover plate to its original location on the game, reinstalled
the control panel as it was to be, and shut off the lights so I could
see my TRON glow in all of its blacklight loveliness……….
But instead of seeing what I'd hoped to see, the light looked awfully
dim- so dim that it was barely even making the TRON joystick glow. I
wondered at first if maybe since the light assembly was damaged upon
receipt, if maybe it wasn't pushing the right amount of wattage to make
the light as bright as it should be.. But when the cover was off, the
light looked fine so……… WAIT! Something must be up with
the COVER!! I immediately got online and started hunting for pics of
fellow collectors' TRON cabs, and every blasted one showed the light
cover being CLEAR in the middle, so that the blacklight bulb could shine
through and do its celestial work.. I went back to the cab and removed
the cover plate, to find that mine was TINTED from one end to the other!
What are the chances??!! Why would this happen??? WHY??!!! The pic bellows
shows what I had, versus what I needed.
Being as close to
the finish line as this, I waited it out and sure enough, a correct
light cover appeared on eBay. I placed my bid and watched it until the
final day.. I was still in the lead, Life again was good. I went to
bed, got up the next morning and………………. I conveyed the bad news to the folks at KLOV, simply because it was the closest thing I could find to an arcade-related version of AA. Shortly after I posted the bad news, I received a private message from KLOV member John Drzal.. he indicated that he had one in a parts bin that he could send me. There was just one 'small' problem with it: "If I remember correctly the cover is not perfect. Someone installed an overlay over it when the game was converted. Part of the overlay has been removed, but the cover still has adhesive on it. I have not tried cleaning it because I didn't need it. I'm guessing Goo Gone or something mild like that will clean it right up." I thanked the Maker, and told John to yes please send it. It arrived to my home on 4/2/08, and below is how it looked:
I knew this would be a tedious job if I tried using anything mild, and since the actual TRON graphic was on the underside (thank God), I broke out the big gun: ACETONE. Within about 20 minutes, I had the part clean as a whistle and ready to install! SPINNING WHEEL, GOT TO GO ROUND (4/7/08):
The last thing my TRON cab needed to be complete, was the correct spinner decal that seems to be missing from many a TRON game. I don't fully understand the reason(s) why: cheap adhesive on the original decals? overly destructive children? all of the above? who knows- but as you can imagine, yes my TRON was missing this decal. Thankfully, a call to ArcadeShop Amusements on Friday 4/4/08, and it was in our mailbox on Monday 4/7/08! Now THAT's service.
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the crew at KLOV,
including (but not limited to): John Drzal, Darth Vader, zfcamaro, Robran68 |
