It all started in the year 1982.  I was 13 years old at the time and my dad was the owner of a medium sized R&D company who did design work for various arcade game manufacturers.  My dad being in the field he was in afforded me certain privileges that other kids my age didn't have.  This particular perk included the chance to see a prototype Atari Star Wars at an industry show before it was released to the general public.  Naturally, I played the machine as long as I could.  I was dazzled by the color vector graphics of a space flight sim.  It was awesome.  I couldn't wait to see the machine appear in the arcades.  At this time in my life, I was already repairing arcade games and helping my dad with R&D projects of all sorts, primarily in the arcade industry.

Fast forward to the year 2006.  The Star Wars cockpit was always one of my most favorite arcade games of all time.  Of course, I'm sure plenty of other collectors would say something similar to this.  Shortly after starting the Star Wars yoke controller project, I decided that it was a good idea to at least consider making a reproduction cockpit cabinet.  Since the original cabinet was officially numbered at 2450 units total and the arcade industry being what it is, there are probably less than 500 of these bad boys remaining in the wild.  My estimates could be way off base, but I've noticed fewer and fewer of these in recent years.  I once made a warehouse raid and picked up a lot of maybe two dozen cockpits all at once.  None of them worked!  Anyhow, the point is that they're becoming more difficult to find at all, let alone in excellent shape.  Not to mention the major hassle of trying to find the custom parts used on this machine.  This machine was a good earner back in the day, despite it's technical problems.  That said, many people hold this machine in high regard and thus has become a "holy grail" among the collectors. 

Even so, many of these cockpits eventually became prey to the conversion blitz of the 80's!  Sadly, you can still find a random conversion game in one of these cabinets.  The bottom line is that there's just not many of these around anymore.  Since this is such a great game AND there's enough demand for this item and it's various parts, it sounds like a good opportunity for a reproduction project!  Pictured to the left is a really nice OEM cockpit cabinet that was for sale on ebay recently.  Yes, you can still find a sweet machine out there!

It took me quite a bit of searching before I came across a completely gutted Star Wars cockpit cabinet.  I forget who I bought it from, but some nice gentleman on ebay sold me the remnants for a mere $50 plus freight ($450!).  Once in the shop, I tried to reassemble the various parts to get an idea if everything (at least as far as the wood was concerned) was present.  It appeared to be complete, so I shoved the parts into the corner until I could find the time to work on it.

Earlier this year, I handed this gutted cabinet over to a local collector who I'm good friends with.  We was willing to spec it out and provide the 3D model for it.  Having a nearly complete gutted SW cockpit cabinet available to closely inspect, the project was off to a great start!  Within a very short timeframe, the cabinet was completely measured and ready to send off to fabrication to run off a prototype or two.

The picture to the left was after the gutted cab was disassembled to relocate and measure up.  Nice pile o' parts, huh?  There's not much to one of these cabs when you break it down. 

Here's the initial build layout for the Star Wars cockpit.  Absolutely beautiful!!  You can open this up in a new window to get a larger view.  Naturally, the file isn't too detailed so as to protect the time investment over here at RAM Controls.  

The reproduction of the cabinet has made it a necessity to also reproduce various parts used on this machine as well.  Such as the plastic cover (canopy) on the top of the machine as well as the special sized control panel which is different from the upright counterpart, the rear glass marquee and the coin door.  Even the special t-molding used on the upper sides of the unit has to be reproduced, not to mention the monitor components (tube, yoke, deflection board, HV board, etc) and possibly the power supply block.

Construction Progress

Updates

05/06/07 - This project BLOG has just been converted  from notes and pics taken awhile back and added to the website for reference.

06/30/07 - The initial prototype cabinet was attempted, however there are some inconsistencies between the 3D modeling software and the actual CNC router.  An attempt is being made to address the issue.

07/08/07 - This project is currently on hold while the software issues are being resolved.  In the meantime, several of the cabinet accessories are being reproduced.  The metal brackets which hold the canopy glass and the backglass are the first being worked on as they're simple parts.  Next will be the canopy itself (two pieces) and the control panel.  However, we need to get an OEM control panel to spec out and draw up.  We need this as well as the edge metal used on the seat.

07/27/07 - The software issues seem to have been resolved, so we made a second attempt at the cabinet which has been somewhat successful.  Unfortunately, a few parts are off by enough to send it back to the drawing board.  

08/16/07 - The special 1.5" t-molding has been sent off to fab.  Some might think this is unnecessary because 1.5" t-molding is available from a few existing sources.  However, the currently available options are nothing like the original t-molding -- the material isn't correct, the "ribbing" is completely wrong and the "leg" which goes into the wood is the wrong size.  Determining the original material used for this item was somewhat difficult, but the challenge was met.  The material was in fact determined with a moderate time investment.  We're running off an order of 10,000' of this material using the original plastic extrusion die from Atari.  We own most of the tooling which existed just before the last of Atari was parted out.  Once the t-molding is completed, we'll sell this part individually, of course.  We'll also stock up the regular arcade suppliers with this material so you can buy direct from your favorite source.

09/02/07 - The various brackets are finished up, just need to be powder coated.  

09/18/07 - We need to get an OEM canopy so we can draw it up and send it off to fab.  Anyone?

10/10/07 - We've got the cabinet project back on hold until we have a chance to update the 3D model with pilot holes, etc.  Stay tuned.

11/05/07 - We have started working on the reproduction Amplifone HV and Deflection boards.  Most of the components have been secured previously, so we're now focusing on making a run of the actual PCB's.  We're also searching for a vendor who can make medium resolution tubes and yokes.

02/05/08 - We are running off a batch of control panels.  We're also running off a batch of cockpit version CPO's to go with our panels.  When we have the controllers done, we should be able to offer a complete ready-to-use control panel as well.

03/29/08 - The run of special 1.5" t-molding has been completed.   We are planning to make this available, but this will have to wait until David is back from his contract in Australia.

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