Price check: The Simpsons (Data East)

[Ripweade]

$275 is a fantastic deal, even with what you had said earlier. I've been seeing nice, fully working ones sell for $800-$1200.

I bought my Simpsons about 12 years ago and my girlfriend and I just played it again Friday night. In all that time, it still is fun to me and can be challenging. It won't be for sale for a loooooong time.

Good find!!!!

Bill

 

[stangbat]

$275 is a great deal. Hopefully the problems will be simple fixes. But even if you need to spend a bit to get it going, you'll be fine. Good job.

 

[jehuie]

Thanks guys. Here's a few more pics. Not sure what the deal is with the burn mark on Maggies eye. I think that's her name, right? I asked the guy and he said he thought it was a "syrup burn". So I said "How the heck do you get hot syrup on the playfield through the glass" and his response was that "a lot can happen at parties".

 

[JeepMonkey]

Nice score. Have you powered it up?

 

[back2the80s]

Sweet score John! Where did you find it? Craigslist? I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how your scoring all these great deals in the Bay area? Your not holding these people at gunpoint? Are You?

 

[jehuie]

Nice score. Have you powered it up?

Yeah it powers up be both displays are dark and I can't actually start a game. It makes the startup sounds and plays the song and then just sits there with the lights flashing. I haven't done any diagnostics at all other than to verify that the old nasty batteries were out and there was no corrosion.

Sweet score John! Where did you find it? Craigslist? I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how your scoring all these great deals in the Bay area? Your not holding these people at gunpoint? Are You?

It was a CL deal yeah. He lives right down the hill from me, maybe a mile away from my house so it was really just dumb luck I guess.

 

[mcplus]

Congrats on the score. I am sure once all is said and done, you won't get hurt at all on this deal.

 

[jehuie]

Congrats on the score. I am sure once all is said and done, you won't get hurt at all on this deal.

Hopefully. Almost certainly I will need new displays...so Pinscore ones are about $200. And I can see that I'm missing some cooling towers....$60 to $80 it looks like. Rubber rings and balls and all that....another what...$50? Plus who knows what else. I'll keep the tally and see how I do.

 

[kencinder]

Dim display doesn't necessarily mean you need to replace it. If it's equally dim across the entire thing, I would highly doubt the display itself is the problem.

Check the voltage(s), check the cables/connectors...wiggle em(Careful, HV), look for burnt ones. Don't jump on the "I need a new display" wagon just yet...

 

[jehuie]

Dim display doesn't necessarily mean you need to replace it. If it's equally dim across the entire thing, I would highly doubt the display itself is the problem.

Check the voltage(s), check the cables/connectors...wiggle em(Careful, HV), look for burnt ones. Don't jump on the "I need a new display" wagon just yet...

Yes you are right and I'll definitely check them out first. But they aren't just dim...they are completely dark. No sign of life. A deceased parrot, if you will. But it could be a PS issue or who knows what else. I don't know much about pins in general and even less about DE pins so it will take some learning.

 

[kencinder]

Ah I assumed by dark you meant on, but you couldn't see em very well.

Best to make sure you don't just have HV issues or bad cables/connectors...hell it could just be a fuse!

 

[jehuie]

Ok so I checked fuses and 4 of them are blown. So I pulled them and checked the ratings and they are not correct so someone has been changing them randomly.

Stupid question of the day: I see in the manual that some fuses are rated for AC and some for DC and some say they are rated for very low voltages (Like 5A 6.3 Volts AC and 8A 18 Volts DC). I don't believe you need to match the voltages exactly correct? But could I put say a 5A 250V fues in place of that first one? And will like radio shack have fuses that are specifically for DC voltages? I never thought to look since most of my games have always used AC and higher voltages.

 

[stangbat]

You are generally okay going with a higher voltage fuse, but you don't want to go lower. What you'll typically find are 250v, so use them and you'll be fine. The reason you want higher is because a lower voltage fuse when used at a higher voltage can arc when failing and still conduct electricity as it blows, potentially doing damage.

Your displays may be good and the problem could only be with the high voltage section of the power supply. Hopefully that is what is wrong as power supplies are easy and inexpensive to fix.

 

[kencinder]

You won't tend to find DC rated fuses unless they're specialty and rated for that.

AC rated fuses are fine, just know that under DC their voltage rating is halved. ie; a 250v rated AC fuse will be good for a 125v DC or less circuit, so if your DC circuit is over 75v, don't use a 125v AC fuse, use a 250(Which is all you'll really find in glass fuses anyway)

Short story...250v rated fuses, match amperage.

 

[jehuie]

Ok good....that's what I was going to do but I wanted to be sure. I swapped out the fuses and all that and started it up and after a moment there was a pop and flash at the fuse block on the PS so I immediately shut it off. I thought I had blown a fuse but I checked them all and they are fine. Weird. And I don't see anything in the vicinity that could have flashed like that.

But in any case the displays did not come on. And worse, the PIA light comes on and stays on. I think that means I have a bad PIA. I haven't read the big long repair faq on Data East machines yet so I've got some heavy reading ahead of me now.

One thing I've never been good at is replacing large chips like those. Twice now I've screwed something up taking them out. Maybe I should have the board sent off to be worked on.

 

[stangbat]

That's too bad. It does sound like you have some work ahead of you.

For the large chips, if you don't need to save it, it is best to cut it off and remove the legs one by one. However the pins are often bent over on DE boards, and that makes removing them a PITA. And having a good desoldering tool such as a Hakko really helps the success rate.

 

[Lindsey]

Well I couldn't resist. I broke down and offered him more though and picked it up for $275.

Holy crap that is a good deal!

 

[Lindsey]

But in any case the displays did not come on. And worse, the PIA light comes on and stays on. I think that means I have a bad PIA.

Seems extremely unlikely that your only problem is a bad PIA. I would start by isolating the power supply and ensuring that there is good voltage going out to everything. Then I would pull the MPU out of the machine and go through it on a bench with a test ROM. Then put it back in and start going through everything else.

You'll have to look at the schematics to determine which connectors to connect/disconnect to isolate the power supply and add everything else back in one piece at a time. It might also be covered on pinrepair.

When you get a basket case it's best to just take a systematic approach and check/fix everything starting at the power supply.

I really like that game. Hopefully that "stain" is actually syrup and will come off. Looks like a burn caused by a stuck on lamp or something from underneath to me but I hope I'm wrong. Even still... it was a steal.

You should also start a new thread for the repairs. Typically I would never have looked at this one but I like that game