minor repairs before parties- do you tackle them or leave well-enough alone?

vintagegamer

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minor repairs before parties- do you tackle them or leave well-enough alone?

I noticed last night while playing my Defender CT that the stick feels like it's missing a spring or something. When you start playing on the player 1 side, the ship goes straight to the top and you have to pull the stick down to bring it lower. The stick is also wobbly.

My concern is, right now, it might be a bit wonky, but it works. Whenever I try to do a last-minute repair on these games, I end up causing some wormhole-wide chain reaction that spawns other problems, ie lights burning out, board issues, all kinds of bally-hoo. So, for the sake of the gathering on the 4th, I think I'm going to leave the stick as-is until after the gathering.

Just wondering if you guys have the same mentality, or if you put on your Superman suit right before a big event to fix stuff, and if you do, if you were happier that you did or if you felt like you should have left things alone!
 
Leaving it broken can give the player the "true arcade experience" but I often enjoy trying for the last-minute fix if it's low-hanging fruit on a game that's already broken anyway. The more popular the game, the more likely I am to try for it.
 
I just tell people, "Moon Patrol isn't working right, right now. I'll get it fixed as soon as I have the time." The worst that happens is that people grub up the Moon Patrol less and spend more time on Donkey Kong.
 
Like in the Solar Quest in the below phewtew..........


(and yeah SuperBee, I bashed Solar Quest again... whatchagonnado LOL)

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I always try to get as many of them working as possible. Of course during the event usually a few stop working...particularly a couple of the vectors. July 4th is my one event a year in my arcade. I might try to fix a couple tonight but I have a lot going on.
 
July 4th is my one event a year in my arcade.

Awesome, post some pics if you can!

If a machine is totally dead prior to the start of the gathering, I will see what I can do to restore her. But if the game is working but a button is sticking or something like that, I may just leave it sticky bc I know if I pull the CP to fix that, then a wire snaps, a leaf switch moves, one of the kids comes up behind me and scares me and I drop the CP.. Uggghhh I could go on and on. :(
 
I am pretty obsessed with having them all working for the party and 1000%. I have been lucky that it has worked out the past few years. Funny, I had my annual party a week or two ago and the morning of the party I turned my games on and the Mad Planets marquee bulb was out and Ice Cold Beer was dead. I fixed them both and in the 20 minutes I had before people showed up. It was stressful, but worth it!

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I am pretty obsessed with having them all working for the party and 1000%. I have been lucky that it has worked out the past few years. Funny, I had my annual party a week or two ago and the morning of the party I turned my games on and the Mad Planets marquee bulb was out and Ice Cold Beer was dead. I fixed them both and in the 20 minutes I had before people showed up. It was stressful, but worth it!

Now datza party! Thanks for sharing!
 
I've done exactly the same thing... year after year, it seems. My wife has one big party per year & I get to "show off" my games. And even with months to try to get stuff working as best as possible, I still beat myself up if even just ONE of the games is down. Even worse is having a game stop working 3 hours before the party, getting it working 2 hours before the party, then frying the game 15 minutes before the party because of a stupid, careless mistake while trying to take care of something that no one else would notice. >:-[

Like a roller coaster of pain.

I'm trying to learn the "leave well enough alone" line of thinking... and also that it's ok if a game(s) isn't working when I have someone over.

A buddy of mine who hasn't been over yet... I told him he & his wife could come over once I have 2 of the games fixed (which would have me running close to 100%) because, I told him, I didn't like having someone over to see the games if they weren't all running... and he replied, "I'd be excited if only 2-3 were working."

I have to remember that.
 
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A buddy of mine who hasn't been over yet... I told him he & his wife could come over once I have 2 of the games fixed (which would have me running close to 100%) because, I told him, I didn't like having someone over to see the games if they weren't all running... and he replied, "I'd be excited if only 2-3 were working."

I have to remember that.

Yes, take this offer and run with it. I was sure a ton of my friends and acquaintances would be wanting to come over monthly to play games, drink beer, and eat pizza. The one who I knew would like them the most ended up moving an hour away, and the others can't come because their wives won't let them leave the house. Fail.
 
Fix the stick. I always try to make sure my games are working 100% for friends. I HATE it when my shit don't work. I hated it in the 80's, and I won't tolerate it now.

If a game is down, it gets pulled from the arcade immediately. No questions.

Even malfunctioning coin mechs piss me off.
 
Fix the stick. I always try to make sure my games are working 100% for friends. I HATE it when my shit don't work. I hated it in the 80's, and I won't tolerate it now.

If the game hadn't already been like Grace Jones on PMS, I'd fix it. But when I got the game home in Dec (Defender CT), it was dead. I got new RAM and put it in, and it came to life but was acting up and resetting. Come to find out the PS was puking. Dokert does a superhuman job on the PS rebuild for me, I get it back and install it, power up the game and the PCB takes a shat. Had to send the PCB off to retroACTIVE who again, did a superhuman job on the repair work, now the game plays but every once in a while the sound board sounds like it's getting incoming transmissions from LV426 (Alien joke).. But, the game is working. So, I'm leaving the stick alone until July FIFTH. :D
 
If the game hadn't already been like Grace Jones on PMS, I'd fix it. But when I got the game home in Dec (Defender CT), it was dead. I got new RAM and put it in, and it came to life but was acting up and resetting. Come to find out the PS was puking. Dokert does a superhuman job on the PS rebuild for me, I get it back and install it, power up the game and the PCB takes a shat. Had to send the PCB off to retroACTIVE who again, did a superhuman job on the repair work, now the game plays but every once in a while the sound board sounds like it's getting incoming transmissions from LV426 (Alien joke).. But, the game is working. So, I'm leaving the stick alone until July FIFTH. :D

Then I'm not coming to your party.

*phhhhhhhhhht*
 
Yes, take this offer and run with it.

He & his wife are coming over Saturday for dinner and arcade action! Both are very excited... I'm not a social person in real life (long story), but I'm happy because folks who are genuinely amped to check out & play the games are going to be over...

I was sure a ton of my friends and acquaintances would be wanting to come over ... to play games

I thought my 2 best friends & my older brother would be going crazy and excited with all the arcade stuff I do... because those were the people I went to the arcades with back in the day.

One of my best friends is just kind of aloof and indifferent about it... and he recently moved to Ohio. My other guy has helped me move a few games but...I can't remember the last time I saw him get into a game...if ever. My brother, who is much older than me, is the reason I was able to go to the arcades in the early-mid 80s... and he's been over only once, but at least he was excited to play his favorite, Pole Position.

As it turned out, the (majority of the) folks who really get excited about the whole thing are couples that my wife is friends with. She has no interest in arcade games, but she likes the social aspect & that it makes so many of her friends happy. They're always wondering when the next time I'm gonna have the machines up for a night of games.

So... long story short, it's cool that finally someone "I" know is excited, after finding that the guys who I spent countless hours spending quarters with are lukewarm with the idea, at best.

EDIT: Yeah, and I have to remember to just leave minor repairs ALONE on Saturday afternoon...
 
I am pretty obsessed with having them all working for the party and 1000%. I have been lucky that it has worked out the past few years. Funny, I had my annual party a week or two ago and the morning of the party I turned my games on and the Mad Planets marquee bulb was out and Ice Cold Beer was dead. I fixed them both and in the 20 minutes I had before people showed up. It was stressful, but worth it!


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picture-60.jpg

Just looking at these pics I noticed some things. Food on top of the red tent ,courtesy of the kids I assume? Why was the change attendant not around to tell him "no food or drinks allowed" Lol. The other pic has that one guy in the foreground having such an intense game that he's coming out of his shoe,and theres a random tennis ball in the floor that I bet someone almost busted there ass by slipping on it. Sorry,I was bored.
 
For me anytime something needs repair I order parts immediately and try to repair it as soon as they arrive. If I only owned a handful of games I would'nt stress this so much,but when you have a good sized group of games it's hard to see everything turned on and working except for a dark,blank spot in between them that would be the broken game. It just feels so incomplete. You know that gives me an idea!!!
 
F'd up controls kill it for me. When I had all my games... priority 1 was rebuilding controls to 100% new if possible. Everything else on the game can have issues IMHO... monitor burn, scrapes dents whatever... but the controls... gotta' be right!
 
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