Arcade Restoration Workshop / Party in So Cal

ChaosJohn

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Arcade Restoration Workshop / Arcade Party

When: Saturday, February 19 - noon to midnight
Where: My house in Burbank - pm me for the address if you're interested

As requested by 2-cents, I've decided to have an Arcade Restoration Workshop
(and arcade party). Basically, if you're a newbie to the hobby and want to
learn a few of the tips and tricks first hand, come on by. If a picture is
worth a thousand words, then watching someone do something in person is worth
a thousand pictures (that's a million words, if you're keeping track).

Here are the things I'm planning to demonstrate:

  • Hacking a wiring harness for my Frogger control panel. This will include
    reading and checking a wiring diagram, using molex connectors, and some general info
    about how arcade controls are wired up.
  • What's involved in a cap kit? This is one of the more common repair things
    we do on games. This will include removing the monitor from the cabinet, removing
    the chassis from the monitor (including discharging the anode), and replacing
    capacitors. I'll also show you how to check out a monitor that's not in the
    cabinet (or in another cabinet) using a Bob Roberts monitor extension cable.
  • Bondo work for repairing damaged cabinets (my Star Wars cabinet in this case).

I think I'll leave it at those three for starters, as I'm sure I can demo all 3 in
afternoon. If we get through those and people are still interested, we can debug
my Robotron (probably RAM errors) or my Asteroids (some sort of power supply
issue). No guarantee of success on either of those, but you can see a rank
amateur in action as I fumble and stumble through the process of diagnosing
game problems.

If you're not a newbie and want to come hang out and either mock my weak repair
technique or just hang out and play games, you're definitely welcome.

If you're really good at debugging power problems on Atari games, come by and
help track down the problem with my Asteroids cocktail, so both I and the newbs
can learn something. Or if you have something else that you think would be
worthwile to demonstrate, let me know. The more the merrier.

PM me for address/directions.
 
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Being a new guy in this world. I would actually PAY you to come to the workshop...

Too bad, I'm not out there to do a high quality stream to the net..

It's pretty cool that you are doing something like this..
 
Arcade Restoration Workshop / Arcade Party

When: Saturday, February 18 - noon to midnight
Where: My house in Burbank - pm me for the address if you're interested

As requested by 2-cents, I've decided to have an Arcade Restoration Workshop
(and arcade party). Basically, if you're a newbie to the hobby and want to
learn a few of the tips and tricks first hand, come on by. If a picture is
worth a thousand words, then watching someone do something in person is worth
a thousand pictures (that's a million words, if you're keeping track).

Here are the things I'm planning to demonstrate:

  • Hacking a wiring harness for my Frogger control panel. This will include
    reading and checking a wiring diagram, using molex connectors, and some general info
    about how arcade controls are wired up.
  • What's involved in a cap kit? This is one of the more common repair things
    we do on games. This will include removing the monitor from the cabinet, removing
    the chassis from the monitor (including discharging the anode), and replacing
    capacitors. I'll also show you how to check out a monitor that's not in the
    cabinet (or in another cabinet) using a Bob Roberts monitor extension cable.
  • Bondo work for repairing damaged cabinets (my Star Wars cabinet in this case).

I think I'll leave it at those three for starters, as I'm sure I can demo all 3 in
afternoon. If we get through those and people are still interested, we can debug
my Robotron (probably RAM errors) or my Asteroids (some sort of power supply
issue). No guarantee of success on either of those, but you can see a rank
amateur in action as I fumble and stumble through the process of diagnosing
game problems.

If you're not a newbie and want to come hang out and either mock my weak repair
technique or just hang out and play games, you're definitely welcome.

If you're really good at debugging power problems on Atari games, come by and
help track down the problem with my Asteroids cocktail, so both I and the newbs
can learn something. Or if you have something else that you think would be
worthwile to demonstrate, let me know. The more the merrier.

PM me for address/directions.

Kind of a scary coincidence, as I am hosting an Arcade Repair party on the 20th, and one of the games being fixed is an Asteroids.

I think these get togethers are what make this hobby fun. Meeting like minded people and sharing information.
 
Being a new guy in this world. I would actually PAY you to come to the workshop...

Too bad, I'm not out there to do a high quality stream to the net..

It's pretty cool that you are doing something like this..

Well, there are actually videos of people doing cap kits and bondo repairs on the web (check youtube). There is something tactile about actually being there, though. I'll probably force the newbs to replace a capacitor to make it more hands on.
 
John... my offer to demonstrate how to properly load foodfight for safe transport still stands ;) Sounds like fun, but unfortunately I probably will have to work that day...I might be able to make it in the evening as I wouldnt mind seeing your games firsthand if my wife doesnt get pissed and lets me go....probability 1 in 1,000,000,000 :p please shoot me your address in the event she lets me.

Tom
 
Thanks so much for doing this! Cant wait to meet everyone and learn some sweet techniques! And play games of course!!! See everyone on the 19th!
 
I would like to attend this if my schedule will permit, this is a very nice thing to do, never too old to learn some new things!
I'll send a PM as soon as I can commit.:)
 
Great!

Hey John, just heard about this from joaquim, sounds like fun. Will deffinately make an effort to stop by. Be great to finally meet- we need more socal stuff goin on down here- theres actually alot of us I think!
Jeff
 
Oh yeah, you know I got a heathkit rejuvenator that I havent tried out yet. It came with no adapters though, I just made a g07 adapter for it, but Im looking for a plug to fit the rejuvie side- I can try and look for it this week before the party. But what kind of monitor did you want to do it for, and do you have a spare neck piece to make an adapter for it?
 
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Oh yeah, you know I got a heathkit rejuvenator that I havent tried out yet. It came with no adapters though, I just made a g07 adapter for it, but Im looking for a plug to fit the rejuvie side- I can try and look for it this week before the party. But what kind of monitor did you want to do it for, and do you have a spare neck piece to make an adapter for it?

Hmmm. I think I have two crappy G07 tubes currently (I might have dropped one off at the S.A.F.E. toxic recycling place this weekend, or it might have been a 4900 tube).

Unfortunately, I don't think I have a working G07 chassis to demo the improvement with. If you want to bring the rejuvenator, I'll see if I can pull a good G07 chassis from one of the other machines that we can use to demo the effects of rejuvenation.
 
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