Repair it instead of replacing it.

ArcRevival

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It's no big secret that I really hate to see nice game get parted out. I think part of the problem is that too many people either give up too easy or don't even try to fix their game before throwing in the towel and just buy a replacement part. This makes it very lucrative for the hack collectors to part out games. So why not try a little harder at repairing your game first ? The sense of satisfaction that comes with it is priceless. I am far from being a super tech and nowhere near the level of some of the guys on here, and yet I managed to repair just about everything i got my hands on this past year. I seriously lost track of how many games I fixed. I tried to buy only what I had to. I think in the end i only bought one deflection board because it was missing completely. I fixed a few boards, some were easy, a couple weren't. The Star Wars was a PITA and so was Omega Race, but I just kept at it and finally got it working. Fixed quite a few monitors too including 3 k6100's , an Amplifone HV board, and several B&W xy's. The Star Castle sound board took some work too. If i can do it, anyone can. Seriously. The key word is patience. It's really rare that a monitor or motherboard just cant be fixed. I don't have a scope or even a logic probe. I hope to add those weapons to my arsenal soon.


Repairing your own game is every bit as satisfying, and maybe even more, than any other part of the hobby. If you just buy a new part every time something craps out, or for every game you buy that is non-working, you are selling yourself short and missing out on one of the best parts of the hobby. Next time at least give it a try. There are tons of people and places on the net to learn from and in the long run you will save a ton of money. I would say that repairing the Star Wars board was my toughest challenge this year, and when it finally came up without any errors, it really made it all worth it. It will be frustrating and aggravating at times, but you will be glad you didn't take the easy way out.
 
It's no big secret that I really hate to see nice game get parted out. I think part of the problem is that too many people either give up too easy or don't even try to fix their game before throwing in the towel and just buy a replacement part. This makes it very lucrative for the hack collectors to part out games. So why not try a little harder at repairing your game first ? The sense of satisfaction that comes with it is priceless. I am far from being a super tech and nowhere near the level of some of the guys on here, and yet I managed to repair just about everything i got my hands on this past year. I seriously lost track of how many games I fixed. I tried to buy only what I had to. I think in the end i only bought one deflection board because it was missing completely. I fixed a few boards, some were easy, a couple weren't. The Star Wars was a PITA and so was Omega Race, but I just kept at it and finally got it working. Fixed quite a few monitors too including 3 k6100's , an Amplifone HV board, and several B&W xy's. The Star Castle sound board took some work too. If i can do it, anyone can. Seriously. The key word is patience. It's really rare that a monitor or motherboard just cant be fixed. I don't have a scope or even a logic probe. I hope to add those weapons to my arsenal soon.


Repairing your own game is every bit as satisfying, and maybe even more, than any other part of the hobby. If you just buy a new part every time something craps out, or for every game you buy that is non-working, you are selling yourself short and missing out on one of the best parts of the hobby. Next time at least give it a try. There are tons of people and places on the net to learn from and in the long run you will save a ton of money. I would say that repairing the Star Wars board was my toughest challenge this year, and when it finally came up without any errors, it really made it all worth it. It will be frustrating and aggravating at times, but you will be glad you didn't take the easy way out.
Well said, man.

Scott C.
 
I hate parting out a game, and the only reason why I did that to my latest Defender was because I was more psyched about using the tube in it to fix my Centipede. Now that I look back on it, I really wish I didnt, because I definitely feel like playing a game of Defender right now.... :(
 
Well said, man.

Scott C.

You know Scott, I will never forget when you loaned me your Centipede mini control panel so i could have it copied and get a few made. You have been around a long time. It's good to see you on these forums more. We need more collectors like you.
 
my latest Defender was because I was more psyched about using the tube in it to fix my Centipede.

i have given away over 20 19 inch monitors this year mostly minimum to zero burn if your in need just ask for another there are a shitload of 19 inch monitors and people will help just to keep people from parting games.
 
Couldn't agree more. I will not replace something that can be fixed. Fixing things is one of the more enjoyable parts of this hobby for me.
 
I haven't had to do all that much repair up to this point, but the attitude you're advocating is the attitude I currently have. I want to learn and hopefully one of these days I'll be a fairly knowledgeable repair guy. :)
 
I can't tell you how many repair parties that I have hosted in the last year leading up to the NW Pinball and Game Room Show. The cost was free other than time and gas to get to my house. We plan on doing this again next year leading up to the Show again.

We repaired several monitors of almost every make and model 19", various power supplies & game boards, rejuved a bunch of tubes, and it all paid off when we had roughly 2-3 games go down at the show for minimal time. We even managed to get some cosmetics time in for control panels, marquees, and a couple of cabs.

So if it is broke, bring it and we will fix it.
 
I can't tell you how many repair parties that I have hosted in the last year leading up to the NW Pinball and Game Room Show. The cost was free other than time and gas to get to my house. We plan on doing this again next year leading up to the Show again.

We repaired several monitors of almost every make and model 19", various power supplies & game boards, rejuved a bunch of tubes, and it all paid off when we had roughly 2-3 games go down at the show for minimal time. We even managed to get some cosmetics time in for control panels, marquees, and a couple of cabs.

So if it is broke, bring it and we will fix it.

Awesome...i'ts just to bad you live on the opposite side of the states :(
 
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It's been a mixed bag for me. I can fix a monitor (most of the time)... I can fix an edge connector or the harness, power supply, etc. One thing I can't do is determine what the problem is on a PCB. There are dozens, sometimes a hundred plus chips that could be at fault... and I just don't have the know-how to determine which one has the issues.

That said, I did pick up a logic probe and will be using it the next time a PCB craps out on me in an attempt to track down the issues with it.

I've repaired a Pole Position... but I ended up replacing a Battlezone mainboard (not from a recently parted cab either mind you). I also ended up purchasing not one, not two, but three untested Wizard of Wor boarsets (7 boards in each) just to put together a single working set. I have a 2nd ALMOST working set (just need the CPU board) as well... but again, all the parts were purchased from folks who had them sitting around... no Wizard of Wor's were destroyed specifically to help me out.

I have a Gallag PCB sitting in the garage... non working. I think I will use it to try to learn how to use the logic probe to determine what is wrong with it and fix it... it seems like a good board to learn with.
 
Having only been in this hobby less than a year. Every game I picked up has had 1 or more problems. If the first one didn't have problems I would have never found KLOV, or met Dokert and the rest of the SMAC group, or tried to fix anything myself. I have alot to learn, but the knowledge I've gaind from many here especially Dokert has been great. So far my "repairs" aren't really "repairs". Capping monitors, tube swaps, flyback replacements, cab rewiring etc. I enjoy doing it and I really haven't parted a cab yet persay. All the cab's I've "stripped" were games that were converted. I got some parts and the cabs went to be converted back to what they were so that's good.

All in all a big thanks to everyone on the boards, well most anyway, for all the help and advice. - Barry
 
You know Scott, I will never forget when you loaned me your Centipede mini control panel so i could have it copied and get a few made. You have been around a long time. It's good to see you on these forums more. We need more collectors like you.
Wow and thanks (somebody tell me if I am blushing). I appreciate that. It was hard to move away completely from RGVAC/M, but AT&T cutting off my access forced me to finally move 100% over. There are still some RGVACers I would like to see join us here as well.

I really appreciate you taking on the project, since there are so many Centipede cabarets out there in need or restoration. The marquees can easily be reproduced and the bezels can took pretty good with a well made underlay. The control panels are a different story.

Happy Holidays

Scott C.
 
Cosmetics and mechanics I can handle, but like Frizz, it's the board level problems that get me. One of my goals this year is to learn a bit more on the electronics side of things, so I can work over a cabinet from top to bottom.
 
I am not setup to do deep board level repairs yet. Still trying to get caught up on building all of the adapters to power up different boardsets for testing.

Repair parties are great for sharing the wealth of knowledge of those in attendance. It is a lot of fun for me, but in my case it is physically demanding. We have had people come to parties that didn't have anything that they needed fixed. They came to help others and or see how to fix things that they may run into in the future with their own stuff.

Any local group can do this kind of stuff, I highly recommend it.
 
So far my "repairs" aren't really "repairs". Capping monitors, tube swaps, flyback replacements, cab rewiring etc.
These are all repairs, don't sell yourself short.
Think about it this way, the average person(and in reality, many collectors) would have no idea how to do those things.
Even the "simple" things like that save a cab from having it's guts ripped out and replaced with a PC monitor and a computer.
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I must say after thinking about it a bit, that one area where people need to watch out is on the monitors. I would hate to see someone mess around on a monitor and get hurt. I can't say I would blame someone for farming that out. If you do attempt a monitor repair, do your homework first.
 
Repair of the games really is one of the best parts of the hobby. My first games were 3 Asteroids I bought for $25 each from a thrift store in 2000. They were missing the PCBs, everything else there but in unknown condition.
A fellow collector gave me a couple boardsets, one of which worked mostly, no heartbeat sound. The other 2 were dead. I bought a $30 soldering iron and a $50 DMM from radio shack and started Googling RGVAC and posting questions.
I still remember the summer night in my garage when I plugged in the board I had been working on, hit the power and all of a sudden I had video. And sound. I coined it up and played for 2 hours. It is one of my fondest memories of collecting games.

I kept the best one for me, finished fixing the other 2 and sold them. Took that money and bought more games. Every game I have except Joust and Spy Hunter were bought dead, and SH needed a lot of cab work since it had been dropped at one point and was leaning about 10* to one side. She sits up straight now. :)

So yeah, everyone should try to fix their games. You miss out on a big part of the habby. But without parts from somewhere, I would have had nothing to repair, so it's neccesary to the hobby. Keeping it to a minimum is good, though!
 
Great thread... and I agree. My problem is that I ALWAYS try to repair stuff myself, which is great, except when the projects pile up because I can't pass taking on another project. Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have some free time to close out a few projects, although getting my arcade finished is a project in itself.

There probably are some times when it's better to buy a working board and sell your "untested" (HA! Just kidding!) board though... especially with compound problems.

DogP
 
I must say after thinking about it a bit, that one area where people need to watch out is on the monitors. I would hate to see someone mess around on a monitor and get hurt. I can't say I would blame someone for farming that out. If you do attempt a monitor repair, do your homework first.

This is exactly what I am talking about. We had a guy show up to one of the repair parties with his rubber dishwashing gloves so that he could discharge his monitor. After pulling his "Man Card", and showing him the correct and safe way to discharge his monitor he felt a lot better about working on monitors.
 
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