A testimonial- thanks to all KLOV members

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Donor 2011, 2013
Joined
Dec 10, 2011
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Location
Columbia, Maryland
All of you have helped me, and you don't even know it.

I bought a Galaga cab for my wife for Christmas on CL. A very unexpected surprise Christmas gift, by the way.
Everything worked, but the cabinet itself needed restoration. I am handy, so I leaped.
While looking for new parts, side art, etc. I stumbled onto this forum.
It took a few hours a day for a week...in my best friend's garage so the Mrs's wouldn't see her surprise.

The cabinet came out beautiful.

Now, I had only played the game for a few minutes a night during the cabinet restoration.
Never really put any stress on the machine...

Last Saturday, my wife and I exchanged gifts. The look on her face when she walked into her in-house office to see her new toy was perfect!

A few hours into some heavy two player fun...

And the unthinkable happened.

Stalls, reboots, and then stuck on RAM OK screen. NOOO!

I guess the 30 year old machine was used to being put up in storage, and didn't care for it's new/ over excited owners!
Anyway, I came straight back to this forum. Now let me explain something. I can build anything with wood. I can bondo like a pro, paint, and apply decals like a beast... But electrical motherboards? Looks like a flux capacitor to me or even W.H.O.P.P.E.R from Wargames... I'm no computer guts guy. Let me put it this way- after a little research on KLOV I realized that step one was to buy a soldering iron and learn quick Yup, I had never even soldered two wires together.

I didn't even have to post any questions... There was already a wealth of info. Just took a little bit of trolling to get me started.
Oh my... The Galaga boards/ chips are a nightmare! It seemed the more I worked on it, the more would break! You get the idea. A few days, and a few 1000 $&@$&'s later.... The game was good as new... Except-

While researching I learned about recapping the monitor. My monitor was good... Just a little wavy, and one corner of the image was slightly curled. After the hours of solder work on the board, I felt confident I could bring the monitor back to life.
Got the cap kit, installed it fairly quickly, and felt good.

Put everything back together, prepare for the moment, and wait...no...this can't be happening... Vertical collapse. Frick! I made it worse! Wait... NoOOOoO!!!! The picture just went completely out. Ok, now I'm pissed!

Back to the forums for more research.

To make this long story short, a day later, and 40 trips back and forth with this dang monitor from my work bench to the cabinet, and it's good as new.

A beautiful work of art. The memories my wife and I have of this game... And now to actually own a piece of history- our history. And by GOD I feel like I personally built the dang thing!

So the testimonial...

I couldn't have done it without all of you. I've joined many forums over the years...for a dozen different genres and topics. By far this community is the best I've ever experienced on the net. So helpful. Experts. Willing to share ideas. I feel as if I had a personal professional technician the whole time, right by my side.

Thank you. You all made our Christmas special. I just wanted all of you to know that.

Happy holidays, and cheers!
 
By far this community is the best I've ever experienced on the net. So helpful. Experts. Willing to share ideas. I feel as if I had a personal professional technician the whole time, right by my side.

+1

I couldn't agree more. ( coming from another newbie )
 
What an awesome story! I feel exactly the same...I'm still a horrible hack but this place is amazing. It's easy to take it for granted after a while so the reminders are good to have! Merry Christmas!
 
What an awesome story! I feel exactly the same...I'm still a horrible hack but this place is amazing. It's easy to take it for granted after a while so the reminders are good to have! Merry Christmas!

You too. Be safe!
 
Congrats on getting you and your wife's Galaga working great. Great story. And +1 on these forums. They have helped me get a couple games and monitors working proper.
 
She did good...
I got the digital SLR Canon T3 I wanted.
And I got, I mean, she got a Galaga!

One thing you have to learn here, especially since you got a camera, is the rule of "pics or it didn't happen". :D

Congrats and welcome.
 
congrats on getting it running,chances are none of my post's helped you as i have to come here for the same thing. what part of houston are you in?
 
Pics...BECAUSE IT DID HAPPEN!!! ;-)

1st picture is from 1st day I got it- Removed CP, etc... and applied Bondo to scratches and holes where the security bar was installed accross the coin door.

2nd is fully painted.

And finally finished. New decals, CP overlay, new marquee, buttons, light fixture, t-molding, touched up graphics on monitor bezel glass...
 

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By the way- this is my 1st and only arcade cabinet & restore.

Now I am officially addicted!
I check Craigslist 50X a day looking for a new project, especially since the wife suggested we ditch the dining room table and create a game room!

Wha? Seriously???

I didn't ask a single follow-up question... I figure that was the "O.K. and verbal approval", so now I'M ON A MISSION!
 
Dang i used to work at the Chuck E Cheese in Hosuton right at 1960/249. Didnt realize there were that many KLOV'ers close to my old employer....

Awesome story by the way!
 
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