Vapor TRX, produced by Atari Games and a fine example of racing ingenuity. You fly a hover craft through cities and canyons, gather power ups
and blast any opponents that get in your way. All this in a pseudo Star Wars flightstick with built in force feedback. This is a sweet game.
Ever since I picked it up I thought to myself how cool it would be to get another one of these and link them up for some head to head racing.
My dreams became a reality sooner than I thought, as I found out the same gentleman who sold me my first Vapor TRX had another one on location
that started acting up and was therefore selling it. He sold it to me for a good price, but I knew off the bat when I saw it running that it
had a board issue. That was going to be expensive. Also, I learned some lessons since I dropped the last one on the pavement when unloading it from a truck.
I picked this one up in my van which sits low to the ground. Furthermore, I used a table to horizontally slide this thing out before I tilt it onto
the floor.
So after unloading the game I realize the flight controller has a broken spring and the game definitely has a bad board. So the search was on for a replacement
board, and none was to be found... cheap that is. After selling some stuff I finally buckle down and pay a premium price for a working board but it was worth
it. I installed the new board and bingo, the game works perfectly again, minus the sloppy controller.
I have an online source for New Old Stock late model Atari parts so I order new springs for it and also a new TRX name plate since the old one was rusted up.
After getting the parts in I didn't realize how much of a struggle it would be to take apart the flight controller to put in new springs. It took me 2 to 3 hours
to disassemble, install, and reassemble everything back together again. What I have now is a nice working second Vapor TRX game.
For the finishing touches I was going to link these games. I pull out a spare 5 port ethernet hub that I have and connect both games into it. I turn everything on
and I get the coolest message ever on both arcade screens at the same time: "This game is linked. There are 2 games on the Net". Awesome!
Repairs and Restoration
Removed bezel and cleaned dirt and grime for a brighter picture.
Removed and cleaned marquee.
Had to adjust monitor controls for optimum picture, brightness and clarity.
Installed new fuser FS-2 in to make the marquee light work again.
Replaced main game board to fix graphics issue.
Replaced flight controller springs with New Old Stock springs.
Replaced TRX name plate with New Old Stock name plate.
Replaced hard drive with a flash drive for reliability.
Vapor TRX, produced by Atari Games and a fine example of racing ingenuity. You fly a hover craft through cities and canyons, gather power ups
and blast any opponents that get in your way. All this in a pseudo Star Wars flightstick with built in force feedback. This is a sweet game.
Ever since I picked it up I thought to myself how cool it would be to get another one of these and link them up for some head to head racing.