Price Check: Tempest with problems for sale or trade. Please read.

morbidboy

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Price Check: Tempest with problems for sale or trade. Please read.

So after having this expensive paperweight here at Rusty Quarters, alejandromad and I have been trying to make this POS work. The screen would turn off and on (power throughout the cabinet). Sometimes the game would work but the monitor wouldn't turn on. So we put in a new power supply and a fixed board and BOOM! Tempest worked... for two days.

Today, at 7 the screen was fluctuating when the spinner was spun around (thought the vibration was wiggling a loose wire in the cabinet). Later around 11pm, you could hear and see the screen click on and off. Now all I got is power to everything but the screen won't turn on and the game will not play... and for some reason the 1 & 2 player buttons are lite up.

So I emailed alejandromad (I'm still learning but I am still a novice at fixing big problems) hoping to fix it, but I'm to the point if it's not a Quick fix, I'm got to have to get rid of it.


Ok so now you guys know the back story, I would like to know how much should I be able to get for it? I would say the cabinet is probably in a 6.5-7.0 condition? The cabinet wood is solid but artwork and speaker and control overlays are faded and cracked at corners. Since the power brick isn't mine (alejandromad let me borrow his), I would have to sell it with one that needs repairs. I was hoping instead of cash, I would like to do a trade for a working upright game with no repair issues. I would like to entertain any offers of cash or trade.

I love tempest but it's been nothing but a headache and since I'm running an arcade I need a working machine that will make me money, not an very expensive paperweight just wasting space.

Thanks for reading,
Sage James Spirtos

Rusty Quarters Retro Arcade & Museum
Minneapolis, MN
 
If you are going to run a retro arcade and museum then you can't give up that easy on a machine.

You say the power brick needs repairs. What kind of repairs could a power brick need ? Unless the transformer is bad, it's pretty basic stuff. If your start buttons are lit solid then it sounds like a board issue, not a monitor issue. Did you even check the voltages to the board ?

If you are going to run these games all day every day then you need to do some preventive maintenance on them. I am willing to bet the game needs a new edge connector too.

Not trying to be harsh. I love the idea of what you are doing but you won't last long if you don't maintain the machines.
 
I couldn't agree more. FWIW a little advice..

I've just 'started' to fix my own games..at least what my knowledge will allow me to in the last year or so. You'll be extremely surprised on once you start digging into this..how fast you learn.

When I pick up a game (obviously depending on where it comes from)...the very first thing I do is rebuild the PS and monitor. It both cases it's really just the same thing...desoldering and soldering components and in most cases..super cheap. Mostly caps...maybe a transistor or 2...reflowing some stuff. You really don't need to know that much about electrical circuits, if anything, to rebuild these. But..after a few..you'll be surprised on how much you start learning about them by accident. Especially when you get done with one that doesn't work anymore

The goal here is to eliminate (as much as possible) PS and monitor failures. I'll venture to say that a good amount of board failures probably start at bad power supplies and voltage issues. I then do a little research on connectors. Some games are notorious for bad edge connectors. With the right crimping tool..these are easy (and cheap again) to replace.

Now you're at the board level. This is where the talent comes in. I personally have learned enough from monitors and PS over the last year to give basic board problems a shot. Get's yourself a logical probe and start playing with it. Of course at this point there are klovers that specialize in certain board repairs. Once I exhaust my limited knowledge (which is steadily growing) I'll make the decision to sent it out or shelf it, then come back to it in 6 months..when I've learned more.

I would venture to say that you should really start tackling some stuff on your own. My games only run a couple hours a week..yours are probably on 10+ a day. You're bound to have failures on 30 year old hardware.

So even though I think your Tempest has a board issue. This is a great place to start. Pull the ARII PS and rebuild it...it would be cool if you had something to practice on fist. It's super easy board to rebuild. And if you really mess it up..they are cheap to be had for a replacement. And as scary as people make out the 6100 to be...isn't a difficult rebuilt at all. In fact they are quite easy. Add the LV kit and you should be good there for a while. But PLEASE read up on discharging a monitor properly. If you don't before you do your first monitor rebuild...you CERTAINLY will before the second =)..cuz that shit hurts!

And don't forget your fellow KLOVers...just start reading through he repair section. You'll understand what I mean...these guys are great

Either way..GL!

If you are going to run a retro arcade and museum then you can't give up that easy on a machine.

You say the power brick needs repairs. What kind of repairs could a power brick need ? Unless the transformer is bad, it's pretty basic stuff. If your start buttons are lit solid then it sounds like a board issue, not a monitor issue. Did you even check the voltages to the board ?

If you are going to run these games all day every day then you need to do some preventive maintenance on them. I am willing to bet the game needs a new edge connector too.

Not trying to be harsh. I love the idea of what you are doing but you won't last long if you don't maintain the machines.
 
Did you even check test mode? Could just be bad ram. Man, if you're going to run a classic arcade you're going to need to learn fast on how to fix these things. Sourcing the game is half the battle.

So after having this expensive paperweight here at Rusty Quarters, alejandromad and I have been trying to make this POS work. The screen would turn off and on (power throughout the cabinet). Sometimes the game would work but the monitor wouldn't turn on. So we put in a new power supply and a fixed board and BOOM! Tempest worked... for two days.

Today, at 7 the screen was fluctuating when the spinner was spun around (thought the vibration was wiggling a loose wire in the cabinet). Later around 11pm, you could hear and see the screen click on and off. Now all I got is power to everything but the screen won't turn on and the game will not play... and for some reason the 1 & 2 player buttons are lite up.

So I emailed alejandromad (I'm still learning but I am still a novice at fixing big problems) hoping to fix it, but I'm to the point if it's not a Quick fix, I'm got to have to get rid of it.


Ok so now you guys know the back story, I would like to know how much should I be able to get for it? I would say the cabinet is probably in a 6.5-7.0 condition? The cabinet wood is solid but artwork and speaker and control overlays are faded and cracked at corners. Since the power brick isn't mine (alejandromad let me borrow his), I would have to sell it with one that needs repairs. I was hoping instead of cash, I would like to do a trade for a working upright game with no repair issues. I would like to entertain any offers of cash or trade.

I love tempest but it's been nothing but a headache and since I'm running an arcade I need a working machine that will make me money, not an very expensive paperweight just wasting space.

Thanks for reading,
Sage James Spirtos

Rusty Quarters Retro Arcade & Museum
Minneapolis, MN
 
Since you mentioned the game acted up with movement, I'd say this screams inter-connect header pin issues.

On Tempest and a few other Atari titles, there are two long rows of header pins with a sub-harness going between the boards. If those haven't been resoldered, then I guarantee you they will have cold cracked solder joints and you'll see all kinds of erratic and thermal failures until they're fixed.

The first troubleshooting priority with any Atari vector title is giving attention to those header pins, either on the logic PCB, the monitor boards, or both in some cases. Even with a working game, I always go over those to ensure a good solid connection. The old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply to Atari header pins- they always need to be resoldered.
 
Sage, don't give up on these repairs. Call Andre, he bulletproofed mine and I never had one problem with it. Here's his link: http://www.arcadesolution.com/

You're gonna have other games break, just leave 'em sit until you get the repairs made. Use the "pinball" deal you were telling me about to fill in for the money you might be losing with the 2 or 3 "paperweights". There's always going to be some games broken. Once its fixed, you'll be all the wiser and you'll have a game everyone wants to play.
 
Did you even check test mode? Could just be bad ram. Man, if you're going to run a classic arcade you're going to need to learn fast on how to fix these things. Sourcing the game is half the battle.

Agreed. Especially if you insist on leaving them on 24 hours a day. I can't keep my Tempest on for longer than one hour without some sort of issue.
 
I took my Tempest home after it broke a couple times. Always works at home now when I want to play it but I'd never leave it on full time at the store. The only games that have given me trouble due to time left on are that and Spy Hunter. Everything else does pretty damn good for being on about 9 hours a day. There's normal breakdowns, of course, but you have to expect that..
 
I to have had the same problems with my Tempest. The interconect cable needed to fixed by reflowing the solder points. I would get both player buttons always on and the game would show 40 1/2 credits, monitor coming on and then going out, clicking like someone was putting quarters through the mechs.

Reflowed the cable points. The game is rock solid and the screen looks great. Good Luck and be patient, read.....read.....and then read more.....
 
I was reading that the Reagan Years in Los Angeles closed because the games were costing the owner $1200 in repairs a month. I have no idea if it's true, but if it is, it means he was not fixing them himself. $1200 would buy a TON of parts. I just made a $500 Bob Roberts order and got it in and that was a huge amount of parts. I can't imagine spending $1200 a month to keep games going.

Once power supplies are rebuilt, cords replaced, monitors are capped, EDGE CONNECTORS REPLACED ( can't stress that one enough), the only thing that "should" be crapping out is the boards.

You should get to the point where you can do everything but board repair and send boards out to the experts. Replacing old parts with more old parts is a band-aid. Rebuild kits for power supplies and most monitors are cheap. Maybe a local klover will help in return for being able to use the arcade for his own private party or something.

Barter for the win !

We are rooting for your success and here to offer help and advice. Take a deep breath and don't panic. Just come on here and ask for help.
 
We've been at it for 3 months... if I can't fix it, then its time to move on.

If you are going to run a retro arcade and museum then you can't give up that easy on a machine.

You say the power brick needs repairs. What kind of repairs could a power brick need ? Unless the transformer is bad, it's pretty basic stuff. If your start buttons are lit solid then it sounds like a board issue, not a monitor issue. Did you even check the voltages to the board ?

If you are going to run these games all day every day then you need to do some preventive maintenance on them. I am willing to bet the game needs a new edge connector too.

Not trying to be harsh. I love the idea of what you are doing but you won't last long if you don't maintain the machines.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement but please understand that I need to run a business. I have limited space and I need working machines.

I know how to do simple repairs, which I do consintly on my current machines. Most of if is just due to daily wear and tear (Bad Connection on a button, Faulty coin mech, Wavey screen due to v-hold, etc.) at an arcade that I work 10+ hours at, 6 days a week. Other than that, I'm refurbishing game consoles or just helping customers.

The only time that I can troubleshoot or do any major repairs is before or after hours. I do try to fix problems but if I get stumped I ask some of my KLOV friends to come down for help.

Even though I love video games, if it's a game thats been sitting their for a almost 2 months, I have to consider swapping it with a working game. I only have 22 machines and I need all of them to work. Tempest just sitting there is not only costing me $$$ in repairs but $$$ that I'm losing everyday because it's not being played.

So ya, if this was a just a hobby, I would have to time to do more tinkering and one day get it fixed... but it's been off and on for 2 months (Got it before we opened) and only made me around $40 in game plays.

Like I said, if it isn't a quick fix at this point, I need to replace it with something that works.
 
I was reading that the Reagan Years in Los Angeles closed because the games were costing the owner $1200 in repairs a month.

The Reagan Years was in Fullerton. I hope that's not true because, if it is, that means it closed due to lousy management rather than lack of interest.

(Actually, maybe I'm looking at that the wrong way. Glass half-full, perhaps.)
 
Just take it out of there, put something in its place, and then bring it back after you have gotten it working reliably. Keeping all those games running will be constant battle, especially with them on 24 hours a day. You should have a couple of spare games to bring in when others crap out on you. Make them duplicates of your most popular games or the ones that break the most often.

Re: 24 hours a day. Back in the glory days before most games had high score save capability, there were two things done: 1) a high score board or 2) on each machine they would use one of those little guns that prints letters and numbers on a thin stript of plastic that was stuck at the bottom corner of the marquee with the name and high score of the person who had the record on the game. Leaving these games on 24 hours a day is not a long term option.
 
Also since we know that tempestis temperamental, we turned it off at night.

Turn the rest of them off every night as well, or you're gonna be out of business sooner than you think. Its like getting home from work at night and leaving your car idling until you come to work the next morning...makes no sense. I just want to see you succeed in the long run because your place is awesome.
 
I've had more problems with the games from turning them off and on than just leaving them on 24/7. Also it lights up the store after hours, which is good to draw peoples attention when they get out of the neighborhood bars and for security. Would-be burglars can see that all the of the machine doors are open with no $$$ in them. Also some of the machines don't have high score save kits.

Wait.. you keep your other games on all night? Why?
 
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