Atari Firefox Part 3: Repairing the Phillips VP-931 Laserdisc Player!

[@andyphillips3518]

I love these videos so much. I actually get excited when I see there’s a new one out. 😎 👍🏻

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

Excellent work. This series has given me a large desire to play this game.

[@walterglassett3637]

Amazing work! Nice job

[@retrobotics]

Thank you!

[@voorheesretro8129]

That was absolutely fascinating, both in terms of the mechanics of the game technology and seeing the game for real after years of it being a kind of urban myth. I've never actually seen a Laserdisc player (or a Laserdisc) in the flesh, so it was really interesting to see one for real (they're huge!) and also see how it compares to smaller optical disc drive setups, as I've done some troubleshooting with those both on PS2 and Saturn consoles. Thank you so much for sharing the process and developments with this insanely rare game, hope you both have a lovely weekend!

[@retrobotics]

Thank you! We had never owned a laserdisc anything before this either, so it was a tremendous learning experience to go from never having actually held a laserdisc to trying to fix one of the apparently finickiest players out there. Glad we've got a couple good ones now! Hope you have a lovely weekend also!

[@voorheesretro8129]

​@@retrobotics I can entirely imagine! The complexity of any single component whether it be the monitor, laserdisc, board arrangement has been mind-blowing, and it's been really fun seeing you both bring such a historic and rare machine literally back from the dead. All the best and as always thanks for sharing these awesome vids!

[@edlowry1]

Great explanation and camera work, subbed

[@sturkrazee288]

Awesome! I had faith in you two!! Thanks for bringing this game back to life in full OE hardware! I love the inginuity by the way😎. Thank you so much for the breakdown and tutorial. It is definitely helpful to other collectors. You 2 riock👊 Have a great weekend and enjoy the game! Put many a damn dollar in this in the arcades back in the day

[@retrobotics]

Thank you! Yes, very glad we didn't have to resort to a Dexter or something like that. It's going to be a main feature of our arcade for many years to come. Luckily we have it on free play so we don't run out of quarters!

[@markderoller7645]

Nice work. I restored one of these a while back. I was never able to reglue the magnets and successfully calibrate the player. Instess I bought a player that was repaired and

[@retrobotics]

Yeah, the players are difficult to take on. We tried three, and only had success with two of them. Sam's 3D printed jig makes everything easier though!

[@adrianpurser]

Thank you so much for this video. I have a Firefox cockpit in need of restoration and this will help a lot when I get to the LD player. I actually was not going to attempt to fix it but now I think I'll dive in and give it a go. I have a VP931 manual and a copy of a lot of internal memos regarding Firefox that my friend got from the Atari Ireland factory many years ago. Let me know if you would like a scan of them

[@retrobotics]

That would be awesome! We've seen some of the memos stored on Jess Askey's site regarding Firefox. Weren't aware there are others! The laser disc player is definitely fixable and very worth it. The cockpit Firefox has got to be the best looking classic arcade cockpit ever made. If you finish that restoration, post some videos of it and good luck!

[@adrianpurser]

It's currently waiting for me to clear some space. It was converted to a driving game so was gutted. I've found a lot of the parts so I'm looking forward to getting it working. I haven't seen Jess Askey's site so I'll see if there are any docs that I have that aren't on there

[@arcademoica1627]

impressive on so many levels

[@darthv72]

You can take that 40w laser and make a phased plasma rifle. Skynet converted all of these Philips LD players to plasma rifles because of their 40 watt range.