Alien Syndrome Has Arrived

Alien Syndrome Restoration

 I'd been wanting this game for quite a few years.  It's a fun game to play, and an interesting game to have in a collection.  When these are fully restored, I feel they are right up there with Tron as far as quirky artful presentation goes. Put simply, it's just a very cool game, with a great cabinet design.

A few weeks ago, one of these came up for sale, just over in Tampa, and I contacted the seller as soon as I saw it.  The listing had been up for two days, so naturally it was already spoken for, bummer.

I logged into the local collectors forum "theVillageBBS" and posted, asking who had snatched this game from my grasp.  Turns out it was the guy I had purchased a Battlezone from just last year.  As luck would have it, another collector, had one and since he was more of a pinball kinda collector, he offered to sell his.  Only catch, the game was in Jacksonville.

So I arranged to drive up, planned to meet with my daughter Kylie for dinner, since she's a student at UNF, and head back, all on a Wedneday afternoon.  This went as planned, and by Midnight that evening, having braved the perils of Interstate 4, I had the cabinet sitting in my shop.

So while the game is complete, and working, and the parts are primarily original, there was very little that wouldn't need some attention. 

Cosmetically it just looks better in pictures than in person.  It's just rough on all the edges. 

Starting with the control panel, there are little plexiglass windows, which when lighted from behind, serve to illuminate the instruction panel and the Sega logo.  The top plexi window had been pushed in and broken.  Then someone screwed a clear plexi onto the entire top surface of the panel to protect from further damage.

The front and sides of the cabinet have the usual scars from decades of being moved from place to place and generally being in public places.  While the side art is largely intact, it is torn off in places and there are several deep gouges. From the looks of it, there were either ashtrays or drink holders attached to the sides at some time.  There were also lock bars added, and the power switch had been unscrewed and mounted inside. 

The inside of the cabinet looks to be original.  The original power supply was in place and still working after 32 years.  Upon powering up the game, I could hear the power supply making a loud hiss.  I'm assuming the sound was coming from two large leaking filter capacitors, just visible through the dust.

Lastly the game circuit board, a Sega System 16 B Type, was still working, with it's original battery backed FD1089 suicide chip.  There are fixes for this, which involve replacing the FD1089 with a standard Motorolla 68K processor, and swapping out some of the ROM chips with non-encrypted versions of code.  If the battery dies on the current processor, it takes the encryption key with it, rendering the game dead.  This will need addressed, since after all these years, that little coin cell battery could go at any moment.

R2-J8 at Yuri's Night Space Coast

This year R2-J8 was invited to attend Yuri's Night at the Kennedy Space Center.  How could I pass up the chance to get some photos with the Space Shuttle Atlantis?!

To be honest, J8 wasn't the only droid invited.  My local R2 builders club "Southern R2 Builders" was there, along with some very talented Wall-E builders.

Our event organizers suggested we arrive early to get set up, as the party was set to begin at 8:00 PM.
For this event, I was determined to show up early and get some good pics, as it turned out, so did everyone else in our group.  We had nearly an hour to drive around the Atlantis Visitor Complex and take photos, and while the lighting wasn't exactly ideal, we managed to make the most of it.

Driving on the glass smooth floor was a droid wranglers dream.  Once I even took J8 to the 3rd floor just to see how well he handled the incline.  Out of fear of back charging the control circuitry rolling down to ground floor, I decided it best to take the elevator back.

Basically the entire place was transformed into a space age night club, with shuttle Atlantis suspended overhead, unbelievable!  Guests were actually better behaved than some of the Disney events I've attended.  There was a groovy DJ, a first rate laser light show, and special effects a plenty.

For most of the evening I drove J8 around, and through the crowd, often out onto the dance floor.  Once he even scooted into the VIP section, just under the nose of the bouncer.  My biggest concern when taking the droid out to an event is keeping him from running into people or hitting things, and I wasn't entirely sure a full on party would be possible.  Needless to say, all went well.

For me, it's always great to see a person completely startled at the site of an astromech droid, and this night had plenty of those moments.

  There were some awesome Star Wars, and Star Trek costumes, as well as other various space themed outfits.  One of the best outfits of the night was a 60's style engineer, with pocket protector, short sleeve button up shirt, and skinny neck tie, so classic Apollo era.

Anyway, even though I got home very late, and I mean 3AM late, I have to say I had a nice time, and I'd do it again.

If you're looking for a unique and nerdy night out, check out Yuri's Night, it's an international party, held on April 12th each year to celebrate space exploration.