Mid last week Omega Race went down again, one of the several times since I bought it barely working in 2007. This time it was a component in the high voltage cage that powers the vector monitor (a Wells V2000). After I got the monitor working again, I went ahead and threw a cap kit on my spare game PCB set and it all ran well for 45 minutes. Turns out something else died on my spare set, the same one that I had to send to England and payed out $200 total to get working. It seems there are only 2 people that work on these sets and they are both outside of the US.
So, what is a collector to do when your favorite game gets to be unrepairable without a massive injection of cash?
Right now I get the feeling I'm sitting on twenty ticking time bombs, waiting to test my limited technical abilities. I can't be the only frustrated collector out here, what has worked for you in the past? Let the games die naturally? Do preventative maintenance (done)? Never turn them on? Sell them while they are working at less of a loss versus a totally dead machine? Get more reliable, but less cool games?
A good friend has already helped out by basically saying, "you own vectors, which are harder to keep running than most other games. Not only that, you own one of the most problematic vectors of all. Sell it if it becomes too much."
In the end, the game is running again, I put my original set back on and it works fine. No telling if it will last 5 years, or 5 minutes though....And I am not selling it. I grew up in the JAMMA age, and seeing this game made me realize how much I missed of the classics that came before. You could say that because of this game, I have a good mix of dedicated classics and JAMMA-ish games. I guess I'll throw my backup set in a box and try not to think about it? Google images of dead Omega Races for motivation? Sigh....
So, what is a collector to do when your favorite game gets to be unrepairable without a massive injection of cash?
Right now I get the feeling I'm sitting on twenty ticking time bombs, waiting to test my limited technical abilities. I can't be the only frustrated collector out here, what has worked for you in the past? Let the games die naturally? Do preventative maintenance (done)? Never turn them on? Sell them while they are working at less of a loss versus a totally dead machine? Get more reliable, but less cool games?
A good friend has already helped out by basically saying, "you own vectors, which are harder to keep running than most other games. Not only that, you own one of the most problematic vectors of all. Sell it if it becomes too much."
In the end, the game is running again, I put my original set back on and it works fine. No telling if it will last 5 years, or 5 minutes though....And I am not selling it. I grew up in the JAMMA age, and seeing this game made me realize how much I missed of the classics that came before. You could say that because of this game, I have a good mix of dedicated classics and JAMMA-ish games. I guess I'll throw my backup set in a box and try not to think about it? Google images of dead Omega Races for motivation? Sigh....
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