Wizard Of Wor
Removed Wells Gardner 19K4635 from the Wizard Of Wor
After we got home last night, I got around to taking the Wells Gardner monitor out of the Wizard Of Wor. I took some photos, and labeled the one hook up in particular. Still no expert, I need to help remind myself.
It has been over 95 consistently the past week, so I am not sure when I will get the motivation to go out into a sticky garage, heat up an iron, and switch out the caps. But, hopefully soon. It would be good to get on with the simple task and onto figuring out any sound issues with the game so I can sell it.
Cap Kit for Wizard Of Wor
I finally got the capacitor kit for the Wells Gardner monitor today. Last week, when I had the whole week off I had intentions of going up to get the Wizard Of Wor Cap Kit, but wanted to combine a trip with something else, or take a bike ride. Well, needless to say, I never got around to it.
So, I got stuck with it this week, and it involved two long trips to Meunier (Indianapolis) to get it. One day to drop off the list, and then another day to go get it. It was significantly cheaper than getting it online though. I think without gas it cost about $6.75, and if you count my gas, maybe another $2. Not to mention, they didn’t have one of the caps, so I had to then run over to King’s Electronics down the street and get the last one. (Their prices suck, usually they are about 3x higher than Meunier)
Now it is Thursday, and I don’t know when I will get to do it. It is so hot outside and we have guests this weekend. Hopefully I will get to take the monitor out of the Wizard Of Wor at least and discharge it before the weekend is up.
Photo of Wizard of Wor PCB
Got a photo today from a collector of their Wizard of Wor PCB. They have a cabaret version of the game, however, and after looking at the photo and looking at the owner’s notes, the Wizard of Wor PCB for a cabaret is a little different than the dedicated upright version.
Here is the photo if you are interested.
Replacement Capacitors for Wizard of Wor PCB
Got my order from Bob Roberts tonight as planned. I did end up getting some sort of replacement for the original glass caps used on the Wizard Of Wor PCB, here are what they look like.
What I had been reading on the original ones on the board was a little off. On these caps you’ll see printed AVX 104 M5J 911. I don’t know what most of that means, other than 104 is synonomous with the .1 on the schematic. However, they don’t have the typical signs for polarity, and since they are caps and caps have always had polarity in my experience I will have to figure that out before putting it on the board.
Bob emailed me back right away, he is so great like that, and let me know that these caps don’t have a polarity on them, so either way is fine. I did just that and soldered the cap onto the board.
I powered up the game, and it seems to be working fine. It didn’t reset on me when I played, so that is great news. However, it does still have the lines through the screen so the next step will be a cap kit. I also thought that the one and two player buttons were a bit sticky, and the game voice seemed a little weird, like it was repeating. I have to test the Mame version and see what that does, hopefully that will give me a good indication. Otherwise I can go to Robert’s and test his Wizard of Wor to see how the voice piece works in his.
Sorting out Wizard of Wor Caps
Well, stopped in at Menuier today and the microfarad cap I had described to her on the phone wasn’t what I needed. Based on what I told her I needed
in person, she pulled out these capacitors that were more radial than axial, tiny in size, and not a glass / ceramic combo like the capacitor I had on the board. I took a couple just in case I needed them, this is what they look like.
So I stopped at King’s electronics, and they couldn’t help me with my Wizard of Wor PCB either. I was able to see with a magnifying glass that the other caps had a label of 50V on them, and what looks like an underlined U and a 561.
So, I came home, frustrated, and emailed Bob Roberts because I knew he knew. I just didn’t want to have to send away for one tiny part like this. I also emailed the collector who had helped me before and he sent me a link to a thread about these glass ceramic caps on the KLOV group.
A couple of things I did take away from the thread was that these caps were generally associated with the power of a game, and they were unreliable to some extent, so that is good news for me and fixing the game. More than likely the exploded charred one I have is the problem. Also, the thread said they haven’t been made in over ten years, which is also why I can’t find them now. Supposedly searching “glass encapsulated ceramics capacitors” in Google will give you some good background information, but I will wait on that to see if the game works first.
Bob got back to me right away. He called what I needed a .1UF 50V Axial Ceramic / Mylar Cap. I trust him, he knows his stuff, so I just did a combo order and had them sent to me. Hopefully I’ll get it on Thursday or Friday. In that thread, the contributors also think you should replace them with something different and more reliable. I don’t know why Bob didn’t suggest something else, I asked about appropriate replacements, but since I am selling it and it was free, I am not going to worry about it.
Where I got the Wizard of Wor
Kind of an interesting story. Back in November of 2006 there was a post for a free Wizard Of Wor machine on craigslist Bloomington, IN. I emailed the guy to see if it was available, because I think I saw the post a few days after it was online. He said it was already spoken for, and apologized. Well, that was the end of that. Or so I thought. Then, in late March I get an email from him saying that the other guy never came to get it, was I still interested. I told him I was, so I emailed him asking him when he was free.
Well, we kept missing each other. He would get back with me very sparatic, so we sent something like 20 emails back and forth over the course of the next three months trying to make arrangements. Usually he was only free for a couple hours on a Saturday and that was it. But finally, June 24th, I made arrangements and went down to Bloomington to get the game.
Wizard of Wor .1 microfarad capacitor
Called over to Menuier with my new found information. Once I said my Wizard of Wor PCB needed a “.1 microfarad ceramic cap” she knew right away what that is. She said they did have them. So hopefully I can make it over there on Monday to get a couple.
