Only 38% of my Games are Working

ThatGuy

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Just venting a bit here but only 5/13 of my games are working 100%. It's frustrating because I'm a complete novice at fixing most things let alone my games. Here is a breakdown:

Ms Pac -- one of the 13 that works great. Nary an issue since I bought it from Mike Snider three years ago.

Galaga -- Bought the cab with no PCB and PS for $25. The board I bought was re-built is now being stubborn. Turned on the game yesterday and garbage came up. Turned on again and played again but after around 30 min more garbage came up. Most likely just a seeding issue (is it seeting or seeding? Never knew).

Star Wars Trilogy pin -- Works just fine. Fun stuff and fits the room perfectly.

T2 pin -- works just great. Hunter/Killer ship keeps getting knocked around though.

Theatre of Magic -- for some reason the free-play stopped working and now the GI lights are out. Not much of a big deal.

Gyruss -- works great with no problems.

Defender -- board now shows a ROM error.

TRON -- sounds only works half the time but gameplay is fine.

Star Wars cockpit -- works beautifully. Thanks to Gregatron for re-building the monitor.

DKjr -- not the prettiest of cabs but worked perfectly for over three years until last week. Blocks of color are now surrounding each moving character.

Centipede -- has worked fine but monitor still needs around 5 minutes before it works properly. Works good after that.

Asteroids Deluxe -- light in marquee went out. Not a big deal but I don't have the correct tool to unscrew it. Are they called security locks?

Asteroids -- the humming has now officially become annoying and I don't turn it on anymore.

I've planned on an Arcade Party/Competition with prizes for over 8 months now and can't seem to get all these bad-boys working at the same time! I'm frustrated because I know I can't fix these myself but wonder how you guys that fix your own games feel when most are working correctly.
 
I've planned on an Arcade Party/Competition with prizes for over 8 months now and can't seem to get all these bad-boys working at the same time! I'm frustrated because I know I can't fix these myself but wonder how you guys that fix your own games feel when most are working correctly.

Best thing to do is take the issues one at a time on here and I'm sure you'll find plenty of support from people to help figure out and fix your issues.
 
Don't feel bad Paul!

I think my Gyruss is the only game I have that doesn't need anything. All of the little warning signs on the other ones have turned into real issues. I am going to start going through them, and hopefully have them all working by the end of summer.

It is depressing. If I ever get them all working at the same time, I will let you know how it feels. :)
 
You CAN fix them yourself with help from the guys on here. As said, just take them one at a time and work through it patiently.

It's called Seating. Seeding is something altogether different.

You can get a complete set of security bits with a driver from Harbor Freight for like $5.
 
This is no help now I realize, but I try to never buy anything new until all my existing games are working and done.
 
Just venting a bit here but only 5/13 of my games are working 100%. It's frustrating because I'm a complete novice at fixing most things let alone my games. Here is a breakdown:

Fixing is half the fun :D

Galaga -- Bought the cab with no PCB and PS for $25. The board I bought was re-built is now being stubborn. Turned on the game yesterday and garbage came up. Turned on again and played again but after around 30 min more garbage came up. Most likely just a seeding issue (is it seeting or seeding? Never knew).

Probably a Power Supply or Edge connector issue. Does it have the original Power supply or a Switcher?

Theatre of Magic -- for some reason the free-play stopped working and now the GI lights are out. Not much of a big deal.

Check for Burnt Connectors. Fixed an Indy awhile back that had GI lighting issues and the connectors were burnt.

Defender -- board now shows a ROM error.

Check the Power Supply and Ribbon Cable between the ROM board and the CPU board. Power Supply is very common failure with Defender.

TRON -- sounds only works half the time but gameplay is fine.

Again, check the power supply. Might be caps too.

DKjr -- not the prettiest of cabs but worked perfectly for over three years until last week. Blocks of color are now surrounding each moving character.

Take a look here, this might be helpful.

http://www.brasington.org/arcade/tech/dkj/

Asteroids Deluxe -- light in marquee went out. Not a big deal but I don't have the correct tool to unscrew it. Are they called security locks?

They are called Security Torx. You should be able to find a set from Bob Roberts or some place like Harbor Freight. I usually replace them with regular screws.

Asteroids -- the humming has now officially become annoying and I don't turn it on anymore.

Not sure, but as with all games, the best place to start is with the power supply.

I would recommend starting a thread for each game. Describe what your symptoms are, and what you have checked. Someone will be able to help you more at that point.
 
Galaga -- Bought the cab with no PCB and PS for $25. The board I bought was re-built is now being stubborn. Turned on the game yesterday and garbage came up. Turned on again and played again but after around 30 min more garbage came up. Most likely just a seeding issue (is it seeting or seeding? Never knew).

I think the term you're looking for is "seating." Galaga PCBs have a number of common ailments, discussed here: www.arcadecomponents.com/Galaga_Renewal_Kit.pdf

Asteroids Deluxe -- light in marquee went out. Not a big deal but I don't have the correct tool to unscrew it. Are they called security locks?

Every Atari cab I own has regular Phillip's head screws on the marquee. But if yours isn't, you'll want a set of "security bits." There are many different sizes and types of "security" drives; Torx, Torx and with a pin in the center are pretty common. Sets of bits can be had for under $10. Try a local supplier, or many places online sell them too.

Asteroids -- the humming has now officially become annoying and I don't turn it on anymore.

A common Asteroids ailment. Often either due to bad connections, or a bad audio amplifier IC on the AR board.

Pick a couple and come on over to tech support sub-forum. If you're interested and willing to work on 'em, we'll point you in the right direction and help you along.
 
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I try to never buy anything new until all my existing games are working

Me too. It has helped keep me from a houseful of projects, and a ton of junk everywhere. Besides, when something doesn't work it bums you out. I love turning everything on and having it all work. Its a beautiful thing.
 
Galaga -- Bought the cab with no PCB and PS for $25. The board I bought was re-built is now being stubborn. Turned on the game yesterday and garbage came up. Turned on again and played again but after around 30 min more garbage came up. Most likely just a seeding issue (is it seeting or seeding? Never knew).

I think it's seating like as in to take a seat. Since you are referring to the chip sitting out of place and needing to be place back so it sits properly or is properly seated. I'm not familiar with galaga boards but I would test to be sure the ps is putting out the correct voltages. If ps is fine then test voltage across a chip to be sure the board has correct voltage on the board itself not only coming off the ps. If all that is fine it could be a number of things. Maybe try test mode if the game has one in hopes that will tell you something. Another common thing I've found when a game will not boot or boots to garbage or plays a bit then locks up or turns to garbage is a failing timing crystal.


Theatre of Magic -- for some reason the free-play stopped working and now the GI lights are out. Not much of a big deal.

you should probably cut your losses before things get worse and just sell this to me. lol

Defender -- board now shows a ROM error.

if it tells you a specific rom check the manual and see which one it is and possibly clean and reseat it. Don't know much about defenders.

TRON -- sounds only works half the time but gameplay is fine.
When the sound goes out do you still hear hum from the speakers or is there no sign of sound whatsoever? If no hum at all then I would suspect the amp board. If the speakers have hum but the game sounds just go away or are not present I would look into the interconnecting ribbon cables on the board set. Probably should also check that you have continuity on the wires that carry the audio from the board set as well as check to make sure the pins on the connector make good contact with the pins they plug to on the board. If the game boots and does not give an error message I would tend to lean more towards the issue being a connectivity issue rather than a board failure. If none of these things bring results you might try swapping out he z80 on the sound board and see if that changes anything.

DKjr -- not the prettiest of cabs but worked perfectly for over three years until last week. Blocks of color are now surrounding each moving character.

look here. This might help
http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/repairs/dkjr.html

Centipede -- has worked fine but monitor still needs around 5 minutes before it works properly. Works good after that.

monitor rebuild might help but this may be a tube issue so if a rebuild does nothing your options would be to keep things as is, try a rejuvination which may help or on a dying tube might actually kill the tube, get a new monitor.

Asteroids Deluxe -- light in marquee went out. Not a big deal but I don't have the correct tool to unscrew it. Are they called security locks?

pretty sure you mean security bits. You can get them from harbor freight pretty cheap or a number of other sources.

Asteroids -- the humming has now officially become annoying and I don't turn it on anymore.

rebuild the AR board and probably also replace the big blue and there is a good chance it will at least help if not solve the hum. At least that's where I would start with this type of issue.
 
Me too. It has helped keep me from a houseful of projects, and a ton of junk everywhere. Besides, when something doesn't work it bums you out. I love turning everything on and having it all work. Its a beautiful thing.

But but but....how do you say no? I don't believe you.
 
I can absolutely sympathize. I've been doing this forEVER and the only time I had 100% of my stuff working is when I only had one cabinet. My advice is to attack one machine at a time and +1 not taking in cheap/free projects until everything else is good. I have a garage full of stuff that doesn't work because I kept loading up on cheap/free stuff and honestly, some days I feel like I have a bunch of garbage. That's a shitty feeling.
 
It seems I fix/restore one and two break :-( Its very frustrating to keep ~30 year old electronics going.
 
Well that sucks, Paul. It does seem to be very difficult to get all your games working 100% at the same time. Currently four of my cabs are down. When I have a problem, I'll do a quick search here to see if there are any threads with something similar. This doesn't always solve my problem, but you'd be surprized how much troubleshooting info you can pick up just by reading through the repair section. Consider yourself lucky that you don't own a Pole Position, lol.
 
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