Q*Bert... Was a $100 Arkanoid.
Peel formica sides off
Sand flat
prime and sand
paint and wait 2 months for bad paint to dry
Sand insides
paint black
sand, paint vent and coin door
strip control panel
($50+ many days of work)
$100 for new side and CPO art almost a decade ago
$50 for used bezel
$30 for better less flaking bezel after first one was misadvertized and didn't recover anything
$30 for control panel (since ark had extra holes
$150 for board set, arrived broken due to no packing, recovered nothing from seller
$75 for second board set, better condition
$25 for third sound board that actually worked
$10 for used joystick - damage not disclosed, another loss.
$25 new old stock joystick that looks great but is too stiff, tons of complaints from everyone that plays it
$10 new tmolding
$25 marquee
$15 knocker
?? Misc other parts like fuses, rebuilding power supply
$??? swap chassis and tube. Tube broke randomly a year later, swap another tube
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$595 added, plus $100 base = $695 + whatever the tubes and chassis were worth from other games
Then I added the $185 Multi-Qbert to it = $880. Plus then the ArcadeShop adaptor ($55) = $935.
So about $1000 into the dang mutli-qbert now w/monitors. Looks nice with only some light marquee and bezel damage, and of course front CPO edge already cracking
Luckily I went back and fixed 1 sound card and 3 CPU's and have a spare harness too. Given their value, that could bring me around $400-$500 if I decide to sell them, bringing an end to the money eating conversion that is Qbert.
I'd never restore a qbert agin unless it had everything there to start with. But as Arkanoid it was completely stripped, only cab, transformer and coin door was salvageable basically.