Parts acquisition can be a bummer

wastedyouth

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So an operator gave me a few machines, two of them were San Franciso Rush Alcatraz Ed cabs. Missing monitors and main PCBs, the machines are nothing super special, but I figured I'd try and put them back together.

The main PCBs don't pop up on Ebay much, and the one I've seen a few times has an asking price of 500 bucks (with the other PCBs). Ouch.

So a friend was at the last Mesquite auction and he called on his way back, noted he picked up a complete working San Fran Rush Alcatraz Edition for 175 bucks. Crap.

It's kind of a bummer when it's cheaper to buy a complete machine at auction rather than try and put one back together that's slightly disassembled. Worth more in pieces than whole, it seems, moreso on Ebay where prices tend to be inflated.

Again, I know the games aren't rare or anything special, just thought it'd be cool to fix 'em back up. Maybe I'll stumble across the boards for cheap someday.
 
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Agreed...you start to understand why op's sometimes burn or otherwise destroy cabinets. Sometimes they can be more of a liability than an asset. In a sense, it would be like getting ahold of the chassis to a classic car...cool, but in most cases a negative value unless you can find a buyer that specifically needs it.

If you have the space, however, you never know when or where you might find cheap boards to fill those guys up.
 
Big heavy drivers and other deluxe cabs can go for real cheap at auction. Particularly if they are incomplete. Last auction I went to had a dozen dedicated Golden Tee 200x cabinets missing monitor and boards consistently selling at 37.50 each.
 
I'm running into this very same issue right now on my Dig Dug restore. If I didn't already have tons of hours into restoring the original side art, I'd have scrapped the cab by now. Alas, I'm too far into it to stop now...
 
Yeah I drove too far for a $200 Mario Bros, I already have another $230 into it and still need a bezel that I can't find. I should have waited until I found a complete working one for $300 :p
 
I personally do restores only when I know the final game is going to be worth it to me to keep, and I'd rather make it look exactly how I'd like to.

Having said that, my one restore that I've attempted so far worked out great -- a dedicated Carnevil, that after all was said and done got the upgraded compact flash kit and a nearly new monitor for about $300 in total. Just glad it didn't have any other issues hiding!
 
Given how hard some of these parts can be to find, there's obviously a huge benefit to be able to save them or reproduce them. Everything I know about 3D printing still seems like science fiction, but does anyone know how hard it would be to start reproducing microparts like grommets or even full repro joysticks? If there was a way for people to easily replace the little things like plastic washers, I'm sure it would make it a lot less frustrating to try and restore something. Given where tech is today, one would think that it's possible.
 
Given how hard some of these parts can be to find, there's obviously a huge benefit to be able to save them or reproduce them. Everything I know about 3D printing still seems like science fiction, but does anyone know how hard it would be to start reproducing microparts like grommets or even full repro joysticks? If there was a way for people to easily replace the little things like plastic washers, I'm sure it would make it a lot less frustrating to try and restore something. Given where tech is today, one would think that it's possible.

Two words: 3D Printer.
 
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