Bally Arcade (Montgomery-Ward edition) full restore

Ha ha, I knew your viewpoint on finding a woman, so was just being a tad of a dickhead

You grab whatever goodies you can, while you can..As long as you enjoy what you do, then it's the best thing for you.

Just rejigged my console stand so I can plug everything in and actually easily use it. Managed to lose my Xbox RGB scart lead in all this, one on the way. When I didn't want it, it was the first lead I found in every spot going, now I want it, gone.. Pseuds law.

 

That is the way it goes. My brother likes to joke that it is always in the last place you look, but seriously I always come across stuff I was looking for last week or last month while looking for something currently, which I don't find. I have started taking advantage and not just leaving the stuff where I found it, but getting it more organized in drawers and bins with labels.

Yeah, I some times forget I've practically shared my entire life history with you guys, at least in some areas. And that I would refer to myself as a "confirmed bachelor" except for the Victorian society connotations as to leave wiggle room for doubt when referring to a homosexual man, who would definitely have risked imprisonment at the time! And I am definitely heterosexual and not in denial. And would be happily open about it with you lot, if I was gay.

 

Matt, I have a friend who is exactly the same, he's had his fill with women messing him around, and he prefers life without complications. The last two women he had living with him both tried to make off with the house and bank account. Who would blame anyone for not wanting that crap. Has he started stroking my leg and asking me to shower with him, no.. He's just taking his life in a relaxed way.

And yeah, I'm opened up about parts of my life that have hurt, but it showed I trusted people with the info..

And yes, I also find stuff I don't want and do like you do and put in a proper place but still lose 100 and 1 things daily

 

I have a new blog started on Atari Age upgrading the Bally Arcade into a full-fledged computer, this is not the restoration blog.

https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/e...er-upgrades-to-the-bally-professional-arcade/

new stuff, not mentioned here in it as well.

 

I have added more to the blog in various areas, mostly at the end where I added the tape recorder restoration part. Link above.

 

I added a short video to the blog showing the now working recorder in action. I now have the blog separated into sections, part 1, 2, etc. the video is near the bottom in the recorder repair and refurbish part

https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/e...er-upgrades-to-the-bally-professional-arcade/

 

Just a few pictures of my Bally professional Arcade in it's evolution into a computer. I have a custom mechanical 24-key keyboard I ordered and made a case for it with simulated walnut like the monitor, cassette recorder and Bally itself, and I also have a real walnut wood case and am awaiting the arrival of a custom keyboard (shown simulated in pictures) to go with it. I am wiring up my own keyboard/keypad matrix's to work with the Bally and it's keypad interface. All will be added to the blog eventually.

The keypad has so many labels because it covers the layouts for the Machine Language Manager (labeled in white text with black background and red labels with black text), Bally Basic numeric keypad (labeled in green, got compliment full keyboard) and the built-in calculator keypad layout identical to the original keypad on the Bally (white labels with black text)

It was $85 for that custom real walnut keyboard case! Less custom keyboard (about the same price) so went with faux/simulated walnut on the recorder, TV/monitor and keypad case. It will all be added, with details to the blog on AA eventually (linked in a post above).

 

I've been busy with my work season well underway, and the little free time I've been posting in a Bally Astrocade community since that's what I'm working on, atm, hence my ghostly presence around here of late. Plus, not much going on from other here, so nothing to reply to either...I hope all are well and are just busy like me!

 

Lovely to hear from you, Matt. Great work there on all the Bally Pro brilliance - you've done the old gal proud. What a set-up which just oozes 70s retro juices. I sincerely hope your mum's comfortable and you are all managing to keep things going, keep spirits up and work keeps you occupied and the dollars coming in etc. I'm just over a bad bout of Covid and a/w my heart pacemaker op date but other than that, we've all got to be grateful for our semblances of health, the fact we've got loving families and great friends around us, a roof over our heads/food on us plates - and no desperate dictator smashing the shit out of our communities/homes. Keep safe, peeps and keep smiling through these challenging times.

 

Apologies in advance if these ads have been posted up already but I just "stumbled upon" them and thought of you, Matt. They're not very large/detailed images but they might be useful to print out/enlarge and display alongside this beauty and it's rejuvenated peripherals?

 

Hello @Andy Barr ! I read your post above, liked it and saved the images you posted, but I didn't have the time for a proper reply.

I want to thank you for those ad images. Two of them, if not all three I haven't seen before. I'm not sure about the first one. But I am most excited about the Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog ad, which is of course my branded model; The Montgomery Ward Bally Arcade. Released similarly to what Sears did with the Atari VCS in their store version Sears Video Arcade and the cartridge games labeled under the Sears Tele-games brand.

Anyway, that's not the part that got me so excited. The Bally pictured in the ad is an unreleased model with unique colouring to any other Bally, including my released version of the M-W Bally Arcade. Though the red reset button and red Bally cassette cart release mechanism were seen in other revisions or models of the Bally Arcade/Astrocade, the eject button was always black with gold lettering on every model but the one shown in that Christmas catalog ad, which appears to be grey.

But the most drastic difference is the Bally's face plate. With a tan coloured outer trim and wood grain panel surrounding the keypad and cartridge port, never seen in a released model. I find that a shame, as I think it's arguably the best looking version I've seen, including the all-white Bally Library Computer editions.

With all the wood grain matching peripherals and TV I've assembled to match the Bally I have already, I just might custom paint it and give it the wood grain panel to match! Sort of a homage to what could have been, like my white Atari 800CX system to the vaporware design of the IBM 'Atari' PC.

Thanks again!

 

Now that I've thanked Andy and covered the images he posted, it's time for a pictorial update of my Bally.

The parts for my custom keyboard, to go with the real walnut wood keyboard case have started trickling in. All from different vendors as I searched for exactly what I wanted from several.

Yesterday the metal keyboard chassis arrived. It'll make a nice rigid backing to hold the keys. Though once the wiring harness matrix is installed I will be reinforcing it with some more stand-offs. Normally there wood be another backing to the metal chassis to better support the keys, but I'll need room to run my rat's nest of wiring. As you can see, it's a perfect fit and the screw stand-offs all match up properly to the spots made for them on the metal chassis.



Today I received the red and black custom key caps, with translucent lettering for LED back lighting, which I don't know if I'll do or not. I can see the text in real life well enough even if it doesn't show in pictures very well. And my keypad is opaque and so I couldn't do a proper back lighting on it to match.

I set up the key caps how they will be when the keys are installed. I'm still waiting for the Cherry keys to arrive, and the support parts for the larger keys and the space bar. Each coming from different vendors as well.

 

Mate,
I am so so impressed with the way this Bally baby gets better and better and better.
You're attention to detail, care and skills have transformed this grand old machine back from virtual obscurity to complete love, appreciation and putting her top of the pile in terms of making her look GREATER THAN EVER!
So glad to hear that some of those ads have ticked the box too and given you fresh impetus with ideas and finishing schemes etc.
It's amazing what you stumble upon online and before you started this thread, Matt, I'd never even heard of this amazing little wonder.
Long may you enjoy this hobby of ours and do the great things you do that brighten all our days and make us want to carry on enthusing about retro-computing and seeing what we can get up to next to improve something or another we've got kicking around in a dusty corner somewhere in need of a little TLC etc...
Cheers, Matt.
Keep the superb project images and updates coming - they are much appreciated on the forum.

 

Just saw this posted on YouTube yesterday

 

There are plenty of instructions and documentation for upgrading DIY Z-Grass to a full 64K and the high-res graphics the video chip is capable of too, and use the Machine Language or Z-GRASS languages with it too. But that is a large project to undertake when I have so many on different burners now, and I'm not sure how fond I will become of the Bally, so I decided to hold off on that upgrade for a while.

Instead buying a 32K ram expansion for that parallel port hidden behind the plastic in the video and with the Bally BASIC and Machine Language Manager cassettes I have a full-fledged computer but with only medium-res graphics. Though the built-in keypad is a joke to use for computing, hence the real keypad and keyboard I'm making myself based off of old DIY instructions.

 

But I'm also not sure there is a point for me to upgrade to 100% ZGrass computer system with the extra 32K, high-res graphic modes and ZGrass arcade games language since there is absolutely nothing that makes use of it software wise beyond the ZGrass language and then I'd have to learn it and program any software to take advantage myself. And of course it becomes CP/M compatible, but I already have 3 drives and a Fujinet on 2 Atari's that already make them CP/M compatible.

And so far, after 45 years of the Bally Arcade/Astrocade/libary Computer being in existence, and the DIY details of the upgrade being available for over 40 years, only two people have ever actually done the upgrade. The guy who did it and published it back in the early 80's and one guy who has been doing it and documenting it in the Bally Astrocade community recently and on-going (there is a currently active thread in the Bally Astrocade forum on AA and I thought the same guy had Youtube videos as well). So it's far less a going concern that might lead to something than even upgrades like the VBXE and Rapidus are in the Atari community.

That doesn't mean I won't ever do it some time in the future, for my favorite reason; because I can,. But I've far too many small and large projects already so until I get all of them completed I'm stopping myself from taking on more. And at the rate I've been going, it may be many years yet before I finish them all.

Though there is plenty home-brew available for 32K Bally (Non-ZGrass and CP/M)computers and most of the community upgraded to that standard and hardware and software for such is currently available to purchase and for free. Only the keyboard and keypad I'm making are still as rare as the DIY ZGrass computer, as most in the community aren't knowledgeable enough to do DIY keyboards like the guys who did build ZGrass computers and myself and one or two others in the community who have upgraded to the same extent as me. T

Though the Bally community does include a fellow who currently designs new computers for Apple, and loves my work, and actually defended my use of heatsinks on IC's in the Bally when many of the long-time owners scoffed at the idea and told me I should take them off, the reasoning for which was feeble in the worst way, and even if heatsinks didn't help much, no harm no foul was my response. I of course defended with my logical reasoning as courteously as possible first and they went DEAD silent without response.

But when he came on the scene and said it was a great idea for the Bally, with it's well known over-heating (though not with every IC) and said my reasoning for adding them was sound, and that in his own research and development of his most recent Apple computer they considered over-heating issues with it and solutions, exactly as I did with the Bally. There was bowing and chanting "We're not worthy" in response to him. Others in the community are now adding heatsinks to all their Bally IC's too! Traditionally most owners merely remove the heavy RF shielding on the motherboard, but this only helps extend the life of the machine and does not fix it permanently. My work should permanently fix or counter-act the issue. I also added a XBOX One fan base to my Bally of course.

I of course got the same kind of scoffing response from FJC a few years back on the old forum about adding heatsinks to all my 1200XL's IC's since it get's quite hot from the regulator heat-sink that's in it already, radiating that heat across the motherboard. The story above reminded me of that and it's good to have confirmation from someone I know has superior knowledge to FJC.

 

Brilliant. Well done, Matt. I hate all that sniping from those who think they know best and make out you're some kind of OTT break with tradition modernist with fancy dan ideas which are uncalled for etc etc.

Sure enough, someone else with similar sound thinking to you suddenly pitches in and agrees with you and suddenly those bleating sheep wanna be yer best buddy as suddenly you're the best thing since sliced bread.

As for that flash twat jazzbat.

Weird.

Got all the social decorum of a fart in a spacesuit.

 

I still can't believe on that last day of posting at the old forum that FJC actually thought I was trying to pick some kind of fight with him by using the word "failed" when talking about his video and tagging him. Like I didn't have better things to do or even cared or thought of him enough to want too. I was actually shocked, but maybe it's a cultural thing and using the word "failed" is much worse in England? Over in the states it seems to be situation based on how serious the word is supposed to be interpreted. I use the word all the time over even the most mundane mistakes or errors and even say "I failed to..." about myself constantly. Like "I failed to dump the rubbish bin before I left for work."

But there was no consoling him so I gave up and did a 180 in my decorum toward him...I'm still sorry it ended up being the needle that broke the forum's back as far as Brenski was concerned.

 

The keys for my custom keyboard finally arrived today. So I'll be assembling it asap, I'll start today as I'm off work due to rain and have been since Monday, but tomorrow the weather finally dries out and I'll be working twice as long and hard to catch up, so it will be a dawn to dusk thing for at least a week. So if I don't finish it today it may be a while.

 

Looking great there, Matt so wishing you well with the keyboard assembly and with the work catch-up when you hit it once more.
As you say, it was dick breath jazzbat who spat out his dummy and had a paddy so I blame him for causing the (I guess, inevitable) death of the old website.

His self-inflated ego will one day be his undoing - what goes around etc.