Introduction:
The color vector game Quantum was released in 1983. It was a very unusual game with a completely original premise. The player is some sort of sub-atomic entity where the goal is to eradicate other sub-atomic particles. Movement is controlled by a trackball. The game has become very popular among arcade game collectors and its relative value has increased according to demand over the years.
Several KLOV forum members have contributed their valuable time, resources, and skill sets, to reproduce key components in order to make it possible to build new Quantum machines from scratch. I decided to make it a project of mine to build a Quantum for my own collection. Such a venture would certainly not have been possible without the help and contributions of many talented individuals.
The Cabinet:
I had considered building my own cabinet from scratch but it quickly became obvious that I was greatly underestimating the task. First of all, I don't have much in terms of wood working equipment. I don't have a detailed set of plans and I don't have access to an original Quantum cabinet to use as a model. Fortunately for me, KLOV member DPtwiz builds to order excellent reproduction cabinets for many games including Quantum. I just ordered one and presto, I had a new Quantum cabinet. As for the cabinet artwork, I ordered new silkscreened vinyl artwork from Phoenix Arcade. The T-molding is standard 3/4" blue ordered from T-Molding.com. The top vent cover came from KLOV member mrbill08. The cabinet was made very well and is accurate in every detail. It was CNC cut and arrived fully assembled. All I had to do was paint some edges black (edges and lock hole of back door, edges of vent and speaker holes, etc.). My personal preference was to also clear coat all of the other wood that was otherwise not covered, neither painted black nor covered by artwork. I did this to seal the wood against moisture and accidental spills. It also helps keep dirt from penetrating the surfaces over time.
<more to come>
The Marquee:
My Quantum marquee is a brand new reproduction. It is reverse silkscreened on 1/4" plexiglass and is a top quality part. It was made by KLOV member joemagiera.
<pics to come>
The Glass:
The glass that goes in front of the monitor, commonly referred to as "black glass", is a tempered piece of "Greylite 14". Most custom glass suppliers will a piece for you custom made to order. I think I paid $80 for mine.
The dimensions are: 23 5/8”(min), 11/16"(max) wide and 18 1/8” tall and 1/4" thick
The Control Panel:
Completed Control Panel:
The hold-down latches came from Bob Roberts. I placed the self-stick wire-tie hold-downs in the factory original locations. Someone might notice that the carriage bolts presently holding the trackball look a little strange. That's because at the moment they are Chicago 10-24 x 2" female bolts retained from the undersides of the trackball by 10-24 x 3/4 machine screws. I had to special order the correct black 10-24 x 3" carriage bolts from Mike's Arcade. When they arrive, I'll install them.
Panel:
The steel control panel and glass retainer bar and speaker covers are all high quality reproductions made by KLOV member TakeMan. This panel sets a very high bar with respect to quality. I'll hand my money to this guy all day long. I don't have any complaints. The only change that I elected to make was to add some small anti-rotation notches to the holes where the push-button switches are installed. I used a simple grinding tool to cut the notches by hand. I prefer not to cut off the anti-rotation lugs on the bottom of the switch cones. In a home use only machine, it hardly matters but I prefer to keep them regardless.
Switches:
CPO:
The control panel overlay is a reproduction, I believe it came from Phoenix Arcade.
Trackball:
For the trackball, I had originally chosen to install a 3" highball model with clear ball (original game trackball was black) that came from Happ Controls. I found out the hard way that it did not fit. The seller had insisted that it would fit anything that the standard model was used in. This is certainly not the case. My second choice was to install the standard height 3" trackball from Happ. The one that I'm using has a red translucent ball that is diffused. It shows the light from a superbright LED very well.
<pics to come>
I am thinking about adding a custom LED controller to the trackball assembly that will make the ball illuminating LED pulsate bright and dimmer. My idea is to use a small microcontroller to monitor the trackball signals and to drive the LED pulsations faster when the ball is moving and slower when the ball is not moving. I plan to build the LED controller such that it simply plugs in-line with the trackball harness so that no modifications to the harness are required and also no separate power supply is required. I may build several units so that anyone with a Quantum or other trackball came can also have one.
Harness:
The wiring harness for the trackball was made by KLOV member Dokert.
<pics to come>
<more to come>
The Game Board:
As of March 2012, I finished populating the reproduction Quantum game main PCB. The PCB was reproduced by KLOV member Tronic. He supplied the PCBs blank. Some parts kits were provided by KLOV member RipTor. I ordered several chips from Digikey, Mouser, and some from Mark Capps <arcadechips.com> including LF13201, X2212, MC68000.
I have zipped together my modified bill of materials along with a bunch of photos of my finished board. I have replaced some of the originally recommended components with my own choices. I believe that the changes that I've made are beneficial for several reasons however you assume any and all risk for your own Quantum game board. Use my list at your discretion and risk.
Summary of changed components...
Download BOM and photos: zipfile 7.6 MB
The Monitor:
The monitor is a medium resolution color vector 19" Amplifone. I don't believe that a standard resolution Wells Gardner 19k6100 would suffice due to insufficient drawing speed. I won't get into any technical monitor stuff here since there's so much such info elsewhere online. Instead I'll stick to the task at hand, mounting the monitor inside the new Quantum cabinet.
As great as the repro cabeinet by Dptwiz is, there were a couple minor issues. First, the counterbore around the back door lock hole was on the outside when it should have been on the inside. Also, as the pictures below show, the upper two monitor bracket holes were about 1/4" too high and at least 1/8" too far to the cabinet's right. I had to drill new holes 1/4" down and 1/8" toward the cabinet's left. I could have filled the original two 1/4" holes with a wooden dowl rod but I didn't bother since I didn't have any dowel rod handy. I might do it later.
Another issue with respect to mounting the monitor is that it's very difficult to hold the monitor from the front and also reach behind it to install nuts and hold them while tightening bolts from the front. To solve this problem, I installed 1/4-20 T-nuts on the four holes that are used to mount the CRT brackets. I did not hammer them into the holes. First I drilled the original 1/4" holes from the inside to 19/64" diameter and to about 3/8" through. I then squeezed the T-nuts into the holes using a large C-clamp as a press.
I mounted the brackets to the CRT first, then while holding the CRT (with its brackets attached) inside the wooden frame, I installed the four 1/4-20 x 1" bolts through the bracket holes and into the T-nuts.
After installing the CRT, I assembled the new black cardboard CRT bezel (from joeycuda). It's not stapled in or anything. I just set it in place. The glass retaining metal rail sets into slots in the wood sides of the cabinet. The new black glass goes in next. The glass goes in top edge first and then tilts back and the bottom edge then drops into the slot formed in the metal rail.
Other Parts:
The Bezel (CRT cardboard surround): This part is a reproduction piece made by KLOV member joeycuda.
Speakers: Quantity 2 : Bob Roberts Parts Page description "8 ohm 15 watt shielded 6X9 speaker $10"
Coin Door, Vault, Utility Panel: <under construction>
Wiring Harness: <under construction>
Power Supply, AR-II Board: <under construction>
<more to come>
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