Game which is the toughest to keep running and repair

Tornadoboy

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Game which is the toughest to keep running and repair

Thought this might be an interesting topic, which is what is the most unreliable and toughest to repair game out there? Games that if you see them chances are they're dead and have been sitting that way for years, either because they're incredibly tough to figure out or have parts which are next to impossible to find?

I don't have a huge amount of experience with different games but for what I hear Exidy's Victory drops dead left and right is a nightmare to debug, and is why they're so rare these days. Also Sundance I guess had a huge problem with a poorly designed and unique monitor that were nearly impossible to find replacements for.
 
Anything with severe battery corrosion:

Gameplan pinball games
Omega Race
Pole Position

and more...
 
Yep those batteries are EVIL, why the hell do you always have to design the damn things so the battery is up-river of the most vital parts?? I hear Q*bert is one with a terminally bad battery problem also, as well as Robby Roto.
 
Q*bert sound boards due to the fact that the supply voltage for the audio amp is 2V higher than the max rating of the amp.

Pole Position.
Williams CPU boards.
Q*bert main board.
Omega Race board.
MCR power supply boards.

The above 5 due to acid damage.
 
We've had a few of these threads before, and I think I have always said Pole Position or Q*Bert until now. Now I say Tempest. I've had problem after problem with mine, and I've been to 2 different collectors homes where that game went down while I was there, including Brentradio's Jack Daniels BarCade. (RIP) Just last week I moved my Tempest gently from one side of a 12 foot room to the other, and had all sorts of issues and failures pop up. That's after replacing the big blue, big edge connector, boardset and having the monitor rebuilt. I've heard the spinner optos can be finicky as well. Not looking forward to maintaining this bitch, but I love the game and ever true arcade must have one.
 
the Midway card rack games like Gorf and Wizard of War also have a lot of issues, mostly stemming from the vast number of connectors and separate cards.
 
I believe the answer from the previous thread was "whichever game you are working on right now!"

ken
 
Don't you cringe when you have to move 25 to 30 year old games once you have them working....that just plain sucks!

My spy hunter gets iffy sometimes when moving it.

DAMN
 
Don't you cringe when you have to move 25 to 30 year old games once you have them working....that just plain sucks!

My spy hunter gets iffy sometimes when moving it.

DAMN

Better make sure everything is actually bolted down/connected snugly. Or your machine has a soul and doesn't like being touched. :p

I bit the bullet on a working PP a month or two ago. I told myself I'd avoid this game because of it's reputation, but I couldn't resist (it's Pole Position for crying out loud!). It seems pretty solid with a switching PS...but I'm always thanking the Arcade Gods anyways every time I turn it on and it is working.
 
I wish I could put pinballs on this list =P for video #1 for us is Defender. That thing has always been the devil.
 
Video Games:

Old School = Pole Position was the worst for me.

New School = Anything made by Raw Thrills and that POS Johny Nero In-Action Hero (everyone we had sucked).
 
Another vote for Q*Bert and Pole Position. It's no surprise those are 2 of the 4 games in my collection that are not working right now. Also a vote for the projection tv/monitors used in a lot of 90's games. Virtually no documentation on them and not a lot of people have even worked on them. The chassis are also friggin huge and have a lot of connectors to undo before you can even take them out.
 
Video Games:

POS Johny Nero In-Action Hero (everyone we had sucked).

There is one at the local mall arcade. It has to be rebooted frequently as it seems to lock up whenever it wants to. Its a terrible game, too. About the suckiest gun game I have ever played.
 
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