In over my head!!

aftershock

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It started out with a pac and a ms pac. Now I have about 35 arcades and very basic skills on how to fix arcade games one year later. I was wondering if everybody went thru this or if it is just me. My wife thinks I am crazy, my friends love it and joke about it. I am still green and looking for some help to fast track repairing these on my own. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.
 
Welcome to the club! :D Hangout for a couple of years and read every repair and tech info you can come across. Bob Roberts has great FAQ's and basics in his page along with klov research will yield you with a wealth of knowledge just there. Find some arcade guys from around your area on here and have them show you the ropes. After no time you'll be repairing your own machines, it just takes patience to learn the Jedi arcade repair skills...
 
It started out with a pac and a ms pac. Now I have about 35 arcades and very basic skills on how to fix arcade games one year later. I was wondering if everybody went thru this or if it is just me. My wife thinks I am crazy, my friends love it and joke about it. I am still green and looking for some help to fast track repairing these on my own. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

You may want to consider getting some Randy Fromm videos too. They are good. The RGVAC newsgroup isn't very good anymore but has a wealth of archived information. Hope this helps.
 
This is one of those hobbies where you start off buying a game for fun, and end up spending more time finding more games and restoring them versus just playing them. I just bought what should be my last game for awhile, yet I cant kick the habit of constant searching.

As far as repair goes, one thing I have yet to do is cap a chassis. I just cant get over the fear that Ill mess it all up for a lack of soldering skills. I did replace a width coil once and found it suprisingly easy. Everything else (at least with the video arcades) is pretty simple stuff, most of the time.
 
I've been buying/collecting these things for a little over 7 years now and I'm still green when it comes to repairs. Some of my questions are very noobie but if you don't know you don't. Unless you are ready to drop some coin and spend a lot of time learning board repair you are best off to just send them out anyway. I will swap out a monitor, redo a control panel but I don't mess with cap kits, or repair and refinishing cabinets. It gets to the point you are paying for the pleasure of working on these games if you don't watch it. Often I can pay someone to fix it cheaper than if I did it myself.

I personally prefer to stay on the side of this hobby that focuses on playing the games/ not the repair side. I'm happy to learn to fix small things to keep the game going but I don't hesitate to just replace or send stuff out for repair. I want to keep my love of the '80's and memories intact and not spoil them with too much actual work.






It started out with a pac and a ms pac. Now I have about 35 arcades and very basic skills on how to fix arcade games one year later. I was wondering if everybody went thru this or if it is just me. My wife thinks I am crazy, my friends love it and joke about it. I am still green and looking for some help to fast track repairing these on my own. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.
 
You'll get there eventually. I've been collecting for just about 4 years now. Last week I replaced a Big Blue cap in my Centipede, and thought it was an accomplishment that I found out how to fix something else on my own. My know-how is limited, but I'm glad I know what I do.
 
It gets to the point you are paying for the pleasure of working on these games if you don't watch it.

And for some of us, this is the most fun you can have with the games. I doubt if I will ever spend as much time playing the games as I do working on them. That's why I like this hobby so much, there is something for everyone.
 
i think we've all gone through what you have in one form or another.... i've been collecting for a long time and only just recently started doing monitor repairs. don't worry, you'll learn a lot in time. just don't be afraid to get your hands dirty or ask questions. there's plenty on here willing to help.
 
It started out with a pac and a ms pac. Now I have about 35 arcades and very basic skills on how to fix arcade games one year later. I was wondering if everybody went thru this or if it is just me. My wife thinks I am crazy, my friends love it and joke about it. I am still green and looking for some help to fast track repairing these on my own. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

I started out with a Asteroids and now I have over 1000 games, it is bad very bad. Stop while you can.
 
If you can get the basics of cab wiring down (Bob's site).

If you can get a working knowledge of how to read and interpret a schematic.

And if you can get nominally acquainted with soldering for cap kits and repairing connections....

You can basically fix most arcade cabs. The key is if you can get those 3 skills worked out, you can spend your money on sending out your pcb's for repair or just buying working pcbs off eBay. That's what I do.

I couldn't fix a pcb to save my life, but I can test continuity, solder in new connections and replace fuses, and solder capacitors all day long.

The pcb's are where you really need tech knowledge and thankfully we have plenty of people willing to work on em, or we have eBay to turn to.

That's how I tackle game repair.


.
 
green too!

I too am very new to this.
About 3 months back i bought my first 2. (Mr Do cabaret and Rolling Thunder)
and while those 2 games might be 2 of the most boring games i personally had ever played,
it didnt stop me from having 2 more delivered 3 days later.
This time,.i got another 2 boring boring games, in a Kangaroo and a Vindicators.
Being very new to this hobby,.i thought i had a great 4 game collection,.so wanted to add to it!
Kept buying and trading,.(slowly,.im broke!)
After finding this site,.and trying to sell/trade those games,.i realized something,..
Just buying and having games isnt what its about,..no matter how many,.if they suck and you dont want to play them,.
I traded the Original dedicated Kangaroo (i found out HERE that all Kangs were dedicated and mint, because they suck, and nobody paid to play it!) for a non original Final Fight,. but i like it,.i play it...it isnt dedicated,.it isnt pretty,.or restored,.but i play it!
So i quickly realized it isnt about buying cheap games for quantity,.but having games ,.. however many ,..that you actually enjoy and want to play!
I traded the Mr Do for a Beastorizer...again , a game i like,.and play a lot.
Sold Vindicators and Rolling Thunder for $220 each and began a quest for more games i wanted,.
picked up a Mortal Kombat (non original,.not in great shape,.but works great!)
Picked up a Indy Heat.,got a Phoenix and a World Series baseball (again, games i like and wil actually play)
and a Double Dragon...always on the hunt for my grail game,. Street Fighter Movie edition
but i now dont try to just buy games to buy games.
I appreciate the honesty, when people say they dont restore, or put money into cabs.
I am the same way. I would rather have 10 old average looking cabs that work great and are ready to play,.than to have 10 original cabs, that dont work and need restoration.
I am not trying to impress anybody. Nobody is coming in my garage and saying "wow dude,. you are so cool,.you have such nice looking games..you win man,..yours look best!"
I just want people who come over to want to play them... and maybe like the game,. not how the game looks.
I personally dont understand (please dont get mad at me,.im a noob,.and im trying to understand) the Atari lovers.
I understand the games all look good,.very colorful,.very sturdy cabs,.very original stuff,.
but the games to me are downright boring.
Like i said,.i had a Kangaroo,.Vindicators and Rolling Thunder and those are the lamest games ive ever played.
Just find what YOU like. Dont care about what others are collecting..and make sure what you buy and have you enjoy!
 
It started out with a pac and a ms pac. Now I have about 35 arcades and very basic skills on how to fix arcade games one year later. I was wondering if everybody went thru this or if it is just me. My wife thinks I am crazy, my friends love it and joke about it. I am still green and looking for some help to fast track repairing these on my own. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

def crazee, only way to become not crazee is by driving 2.5 hrs south to cbus and bringing me all your good games, so what are the 35 machines you got?
 
Like i said,.i had a Kangaroo,.Vindicators and Rolling Thunder and those are the lamest games ive ever played.
Just find what YOU like. Dont care about what others are collecting..and make sure what you buy and have you enjoy!

While I really like Rolling Thunder and never have played Vindicators,I can say that Kangaroo and Mr.Do both totally suck balls.Those are the exact opposite of what you should get as a "starter game".Those games are bad enough to drive someone out of the hobby.
 
Like i said,.i had a Kangaroo,.Vindicators and Rolling Thunder and those are the lamest games ive ever played.

Although I enjoy kangaroo because I played it as a kid I acknowledge that it's not a great game. As for the other two they are not good games IMO. So basically the 3 atari games you owned are some of the weaker titles by Atari IMO. Try games like centipede, millipede, tempest, asteroids, 720, paperboy, champ sprint, marble madness, gauntlet. These are more popular titles and I would say much better games hands down. All made by Atari BTW.
 
Oh yeah- have fallen in deep...

Had my JPark for the pool patio area. It blended nicely with the tiki theme. But had no plans to get any deeper than that.

Early March got a Centipede for 300, thought it was a damn good deal- had no idea I could pick up classics for that kind of price. That was #2 and now I'm at 18.

I love the internet for this kind of stuff- it really feeds an obsession well.

Jeff
 
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