M.A.C.H. 3 / Us vs. Them

  • Manufacturer: Mylstar
  • Year: 1983 / 1984

Useful info

  • Cabinet type: Arcade game - Cockpit
  • Dimensions (LxHxW): 64.4 x 150 x 300 cm
  • Working voltage: 220V
  • Power consumption: 112.0W 0.635A
  • Technology: This game uses a raster color monitor in horizontal position and a laserdisc player for the background scenes. Audio is mono

“MACH 3” is a game in Laserdisc technology made in 1983. A videodisc containing real videos of a flight with interludes of soldiers talking about the mission intertwined with overlapping computer graphics to create an extraordinary game that was light years ahead of the time of competitors. His second part “Us vs. Them” (1984) overlaps alien enemies and space bases, adding runs in the woods and fantastic places. Particularly famous are the panic scenes inserted during the gameplay played by actors in different funny situations: from the Amish couple to the ornithologist with his assistant or the family during a picnic …

The cabinet in the collection is a quite rare Cockpit or Sit-down version which reproduces the plane cockpit. Built by the American Mylstar, it uses a 19 ” monitor whose image is enlarged by a Fresnel lens so that the film “wraps” the player. The cabinet is in excellent condition and completely original.

Once upon a time in the East

11 May 2017
This restoration is not so detailed as I use to do, because I did it in my spare time during 4 years and I couldn’t document all steps. I’m sorry for that.



Yes, year 2017, I went to a smoll town in the deep east of Italy, close to the custom with Slovenia. There I picked up this huge cockpit. Stored in an old warehouse for years it was in quite good conditions but converted into a racer game by Konami.

Initial conditions

12 May 2017
The game was complete with the exception of the control pane. With my great surprise who made the conversion used the same original monitor remounted in vertical position recycling the Fresnel lens too. I found the original transformer used for the monitor but the power supply has been changed with an Hantarex.

Splitting the cockpit

12 May 2017
In order to split the cabinet in two parts I had to remove the plastic covers on the internal sides, then few screws. THe first thing I did was to replace the wheels.



Front panel and Controls

12 May 2019
The first serious part buil has been the front panel. The original one has been cut in several parts to install the Konami control panel and the pedals group

Then I needed a couple of years to find the original parts all around the world. I mixed a joystick installed on a wrong panel with a right panel with a wrong joystick :). Obviously I had to rewire all buttons and joystick switches. 





Monitor and Boardset

12 May 2019
I removed and cleaned the monitor, then I assembled the original frame in order to be mounted in horizontal position instead of the vertical one needed by the conversion. I had to remove everything from the cabinet cleaning all parts of course.
More than 10 years ago I prepared a complete boardset (with transformer and power supply board) for this day… I had the laserdisc player to but a friend of mine helped me to recalibrate it (after so many years…)

 

Testing the boardset and the monitor…


Inside the cabinet before cleaning…

 

Cabling the cabinet anv US Vs. Them conversion

11 February 2020

PCB set had been cabled in the UR setting and I didn’t want to change the board position in the cockpit version. In order to complete the conversion I needed the laserdisc of course and a set of EPROM. I found the disc some years ago, while I burned the EPROMS just the day of conversion.

Some videos

11 December 2020


Testing the Fresnel lens


Switching on the game and (again) monitor test



Us Vs. Them Attract mode