Games you bought supposedly "non-working" that worked

Qix for $50

Bad battery on the CPU & the previous owner (owner of a successful game company - www.looneylabs.com - go buy Star Fluxx!) had way too many things going on to fool with it. I still need to adjust the monitor, but it plays fine.
 
Bought a poorly listed Joust off eBay (crappy description, bad pics, and in Idaho). After shipping, I think the total was less than $300. The guy said that he'd be sending a board to me, so I figured he had taken the boards out... I waited to unwrap the game until the boardset arrived. Of course, he never sent any boards to me and stopped replying to email. After 6 months or so, I unwrapped the game and opened it up to find the complete boardset in the game. I reseated the cables and everything worked perfectly. :)
 
I bought a 15 game bulk deal I do believe it was. It was supposed to be 9 non-working and 6 working. When I got them home and tested them, I found 9 working and 6 non-working. Evidently the guy just plugged them in to test. 3 I found with the on/off switch in the "off" position.
 
Picked up an operation wolf from another member here who said " I havent even checked it out" got it home and,nothing. By passed the service switch and bingo.
 
Bought a Tempest that was blooming replaced zd 902 and worked great for 5 years until monitor finally crapped out. Qbert had a bad power cord and reseated coin mech connector on board and has been working great.

Andrew
 
Original Ms Pac cocktail "wouldn't boot". $100.

Actually it booted fine into the info screen. Interlock switch was on. :)
Still needed a cap kit, new fuse holders and a fuse to fix the coin door/cp lights. <$20 in parts and your guys' help got a nice original cherry Ms Pac back in perfect working order.
 
wxforecaster said:
Original Ms Pac cocktail "wouldn't boot". $100.

Actually it booted fine into the info screen. Interlock switch was on. :)
Still needed a cap kit, new fuse holders and a fuse to fix the coin door/cp lights. <$20 in parts and your guys' help got a nice original cherry Ms Pac back in perfect working order.
Click to expand...
Hey, another local collector (in Lee's Summit, MO). :)

Here are a few of mine:
- Picked-up a dead Xevious some years ago and it was literally just a fuse.
- Picked-up an assumed dead Amplifone deflection board and it fired right-up.
- Bought a board for a dollar at auction and it turned out to be a working Rampage World Tour PCB.
- Bought a dead SEGA board from an op after he tested it (was dead), only to have it work fine for me at home.
- Picked-up a dead Space Duel at auction and was delighted to see the WG6102 worked 100%!

Scott C.
 
Atari Football. Was non-working and no keys. Picked the lock and replaced a fuse holder and fuse. Fired right up! :D
 
I bought a Nintendo Arm Wrestling that the seller said the sound didn't work. The sound worked fine, they just didn't know the volume knob was on the monitor chassis.
 
A crusn' exotica for $ 250 - played blind, monitor power cord was unplugged, has worked perfect since.
 
Got a Ms Pac that one of the pins in the power molex came out. Pushed it back in and fired right up. Police trainer that didnt turn on. Got it home plugged it in and came right on.
 
Pacmania for $90, power supply was blown up when the ballast went for the lighting. New switcher was sitting in a box in the cabinet. Wired it up, disconnected the light until I bought a new ballast..all good.

Millipede for free, monitor was way out of spec leading to no visible pic.. can see it now just not pretty, needs a cap kit.
 
Lets see. Once had someone agree to trade me an empty cabinet in exchange for a favor. When they gave me the "empty cabinet" it was a fully working conversion game.

Was with Lanky Kong when he bought the Dig Dug that I now own. The owner flipped the switch on it, nothing happened the price immediately sank down cheap. Worked fine when we plugged it in where he stored it. I eventually traded for it and it has never given me a problem.
 
Another actually.. a DECO cocktail I picked up probably 12 years ago from Ashes1, tape player door wouldn't stay closed leading to an error. Little piece of duct tape and it was good.
 
I usually go the other way. The person almost always tells me it is working. I tell them unless I see it I don't believe it. Then I pay 'em somewhere between $25-50 and load up the cab. Ironically, a crackhead told me this Asteroids DX cab was working. I assumed no way in heck it would be running. The cord was cut and I guess they were just jamming the wires directly into the socket. Turns out the crackhead was right. I replaced the cord with a new one and the game fired right up. The only issue is it no longer saves the top 3 scores. Oh and it looks like it has been housed in a crack den for about a decade. Its pretty rough
 
Just got a Missile Command for $60, swapped out the ARii and it fired right up, so it didn't actually work, but the fix was cheap and easy.
 
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