Grail acquired!!!

itetcboo

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Well I finally got a Qbert. In fact I have been chasing this exact same Qbert for over 3 years. Its a long story but the short of it is as follows. 3 years ago I seen that someone was selling a Qbert on CL just 50 miles away from me. I called and sure enough someone snatched it up same day just a hour before I had called. It has a monitor issue the guy said. A day late and a dollar short thats me. LOL Fast forward about 6 months later and again I see a Qbert for sale also with a monitor issue also 50 miles away. I called ASAP and again I just missed it. Then about 1.5 years ago I placed a ad on CL saying I was looking for old arcade games like Qbert ect. What do you know a guy emails me and says I have one with yup you guessed it some kind of monitor issue. I emailed him back and asked if this was the same unit sold a year or so earlier since he mentioned it had monitor issues. I don't know if it pissed him off knowing exactly what he paid for it or if he didnt get my emails or if he changed his mind but I never heard from him again. Then the other day I seen that there was a Qbert for sale again with monitor issues. It had been up for nearly 18 hours on CL so I thought it might have been sold. I texted him and the next 30 minutes I was so anxious I was pacing back and forth waiting to find out if it had been sold or not. It hadn't been so I tried to play it cool and I told him I would like to drive up and see it tonight if that was ok. Now my soon to be Qbert was 90 miles away but it was indeed the same guy who had quasi offered it for sale a year and a half earlier. Anyways I tried to talk him down in price (knowing full well he paid $300) for it a couple of years back. But he would not budge and even after walking out after showing him that I had cash I ended up only being able to talk him down $50 from $600 paying a total of $550. More than I have ever paid for any of my other video games. But I figure the $20 Joust I got last year evens things out a bit.

I paid the guy his money while grumbling about paying to much for something with a monitor issue and quickly drove home. I ordered a cap kit from Bob Roberts and I recapped the monitor but that did not fix the horizontal syn issue I was having and which had clearly afflicted this machine for at a minimum of 3 years. Thanks to the help of the good folks here on the KLOV's monitor tech section I fixed her by reflowing several solder joints on the filter board. I also adjusted the PS output voltage to the proper specs and turned on dip 6 as the knocker didn't work (it was off) and now I have a Qbert. The joystick works well but could probably use a re-centering grommet and it has no right side side art (go figure) and I need to put new locks on it but I think she looks pretty sweet, pretty low mileage and maybe $550 isn't to bad for a grail :)
 

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I did add a new video signal cable (which I need to shorten) and I also need to move the monitor physically upward as its sitting low. The marquee light actually works which is a first for me as all my other arcade machines they didnt work.
 

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It is amazingly satisfying to finally grab that elusive game that you have wanted so badly. After scouring Craigslist and Ebay for the same few games, it almost seems impossible when something I want finally pops up in the area. It makes it all the more exciting.

I have been keeping my eyes out for a Q-Bert lately as well. Looks like you've got a nice Super-Pac to keep it company. :) Congrats on your score!
 
The story about chasing it for 3 years is worth the extra $250. Nice acquisition.
 
Well if it's a game I really want, I am going to go through it all the way anyway. So even if there were a slight monitor problem, it woud get fixed. And I would be happy (as I'm sure you are) to have a rare game like that. Congrats!
 
Its is glass and it appears to be original. I have been pretty lucky as far as glass goes in my machines.
 
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