Games you bought supposedly "non-working" that worked

About ten years back, I sold a Ms. Pac to a laundromat that had a small game room(10-15 machines) for the customers to play in while they waited for their clothes. I nearly crapped my pants when I noticed that one of the games in the game room was none other than a Duramold Blaster that was turned off. The owner said 'If you knock $100 off of the price of the Ms. Pac, you can have it'. Brought it home to find one of the screw terminals on the power plug had come loose. Powered it up and it showed Ram Error. Reseated the rams and the game worked fine. I'll never ever find another deal like that again!!
 
yaryar said:
About ten years back, I sold a Ms. Pac to a laundromat that had a small game room(10-15 machines) for the customers to play in while they waited for their clothes. I nearly crapped my pants when I noticed that one of the games in the game room was none other than a Duramold Blaster that was turned off. The owner said 'If you knock $100 off of the price of the Ms. Pac, you can have it'. Brought it home to find one of the screw terminals on the power plug had come loose. Powered it up and it showed Ram Error. Reseated the rams and the game worked fine. I'll never ever find another deal like that again!!
Click to expand...

You might, since most of the really rare and valuable games in the hobby are games normal people have never heard of.
 
$25 - Robotron, fully restored. Needed a monitor adjustment
Free - Asteroids, loose edge connector

Friends Asteroids Deluxe Cocktail - bad solder joint
 
I wanted a gun game and found a revolution x 2-player for $125,... 2nd gun not working. it came with a complete set of manuals. first I tried to calibrate, but it was set for 3 player. set it for 2 and it calibrated fine. the game was boring as hell and I had my garage at its game limit. listed it for $350 and really wanted it gone. then I found a spyhunter way out of my way, so I relisted as first $300 takes it. while picking up spyhunter I agreed to meet a buyer at 11pm. he beats me to my house, I pull in with a tarped cab. I gladly accepted his offer of $250 on the condition he helped me unload my spyhunter. he asks which one to move first? I said "yours,... I need that spot."
 
It doesn't happen often for me, but:

Paperboy with a unplugged monitor video cable
Vs. Red Tent with a loose daughterboard
MVS 2-slot with a dirty cart slot

I've had tons of games come my way that were just simple fixes though.
 
X-Men 4 player $100. Guy couldn't get it to power on and thought it was broken. Got it home and looked in the back. Kill switch needed to be flipped. Game works perfect.
 
I bought a broken Q*Bert. It was the interlock inside the coin door. Pulled it out and it fired right up.
 
I've had this happen a several times.

Most recent:

TMNT (right around last new years): Game had power cord chopped off. Got it home, looked it over, wired up a new power cord, and plugged it in. Nothing. Checked voltages and determined kill switch was bad. Bypassed it and I was waking my wife up to the theme song as I sung along...loudly! :D

But my best, most recent experience was a lot of "non working" machines that I bought. The funny part is the guy advertised them here on KLOV but people really didn't bite...at least not like I did. I picked up the following:

- Qbert ~ Supposedly didn't work. Tbbk helped me unload it to my garage. Afterward we looked it over and plugged it in. We heard Qbert speak but saw nothing on the screen. Monitor was dead. Sometime later I wired in a replacement and I was playing Qbert. Works well with only the minor issue of some of the sounds being off.

- Pac man ~ Was missing the monitor. Connected up a new one and it fired up just fine. Worked 100%.

- Battlezone "mini" ~ Seller said before I came down there that he had two Battlezones and one was a mini. It was really just an upright that had the bottom chopped off :(. That said, I got it home, fixed a couple loose connections, and it fired right up. The other unchopped upright is missing the monitor so I haven't tested it yet.

The best part is I paid only $300 for all 4 games. The Qbert is in B+/A- shape (needs new CPO and dust removal). Pac man is in pretty nice shape as well. Very little fading at all.
 
I picked up a combo Blitz / NBA on NBC Showtime in really nice shape a few years ago.

Guy said it was broke

I get there and he said, I'll show you what is wrong.....
Turns on the game, I hear "BONG" I'm thinking thats a good sign!
Monitor fires up with a beautiful picture! I'm thinking what the hell at this point.
Attract mode starts then he says to me, The buttons are broke and we can't start a game.

He even helped me carry that heavy SOB out of his basement!
 
Went to purchase a non working Roy Clark cocktail pinball machine for $100. I tried to get it for $90 but he wouldn't budge. So I paid the $100, loaded it up and took it home. I had to drill the lock to open it too. When I turned it on it actually worked 90% AND their was almost $10 in the coin box. :)

Also purchase a $100 On Beam pinball machine that hadn't been on in 20 years. Went to go look at it and it was dead. Loaded it up, took it home and set it up. Plugged it in and it fired right up. his outlet obviously didn't work.
 
$150 Outrun 2 ... the switch was bad. That said, the monitor was also bad (one color was dead in the monitor) but it DID fire up and run after I bypassed the power switch.
 
I picked up a Super Pac Man over the weekend. It was non-working and the pictures didn't completely show the sides. I get there and the bottom of one side showed some water damage - but the rest of the artwork seemed in surprisingly good shape. I would have passed but I had already driven out of my way.

I get it home. Clean it up. The water damage was superficial. Cabinet is solid. BUT, no signs of life. Not even the marquee. I check the fuses and reset the connectors and it comes alive. A couple adjustments and it's running. The wiring will need a bit of cleaning up. I took off the marquee to see if it was just a blast or bulb - turns out the was no light fixture at all. It's going to take some minor work, but all in all, better than I expected.
 
Two stand out for me.

$100 Capcom Big Blue with Street Fighter Alpha 3, supposedly non working. Monitor was simply disconnected as was the Jamma harness. Plugged both back in, fired up instantly. Had $64.25 worth of quarters in it too.

I also recently picked up a Missile Command with the infamous interlock switch causing the machine to be "broken", although it needed a ram replaced after 24 hours of stability testing.
 
One of the first games I ever bought was a HUO Burgertime for $100 that "didn't boot up." The guy was kind enough to save it for me till the evening and when I picked it up, it was just on test mode. I didnt say anything and I loaded it up and took it home, turned the test switch off and blammo, everything came to life!
 
went to go see a non-working Lethal Enforcers with no plug. found another plug in the dudes garage.
turned the game on to an error about push the test button, it was of course upside down and backwards. i told him "i dont know, its gonna take some time to fix.", and shut off the game before he located the test button in the coin door. 60$ and i was on the road.
got home to a party well under way, found the biggest drunkest meatballs there to help me bring it down the basement stairs. pushed the test button, flipped and flopped the screen, then i let the party animals have the first game.
 
very nice $100 Scramble i picked up from a pinball guy. the outer plastic cover on the coin door interlock had broken off and of course it wouldn't power on. got it home and used a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull the switch out and it fired right up with the second-nicest GO-7 i've ever owned (virtually no burn and a really sharp picture.)
 
Mine was a Centipede cocktail that was some insane price on CL. I offered $150, he countered with $500. A few weeks later he told me to get it for $150....and when I got there it didn't work.

This guy was strung out and needed a fix bad....he also claimed to be an arcade repair guru and all the game needed as a new bulb. I could grab one from the Lowes down the road dirt cheap.

I left with the game for $50....got it home, drilled out the lock and found the harness was not attached to the PCB. I just had to plug in the harness and the game worked.

Only down side, I have been working on restoring that game for a few years....just don't have the time to get around to that project.
 
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