Museum of the Game® & International Arcade Museum® Forums
Sit and listen to the tale of my encounter with klov memeber jmac
A little back ground on me...
I like arcade projects much to the chagrin to my wallet. As you may know, projects typically cost more to build than buying a whole machine. Anyone who has rebuilt a tempest knows this. It is one of the reason why you see empty tempest cab around and almost nobody spends the time or the money to rebuilt them. You can easily sink 800 into a tempest to rebuilt one and yet you can find them around the 350 to 600 mark.
I am typically on the hunt to save cabs, So when I ran across the exidy cabs for free, My first thought is this restoration is going to be an expensive restoration project. This isn't just one cab but three cabs and exidy games parts are just in generally highly expensive.
So off I go to visit this guy, I am thinking to myself were can I find parts for these arcade machines? This project might take me 5 years or more just to find the parts just to rebuild one. 3 of these cabs is going to be a serious investment of time effort and money.
So I get there and I was greeted by this big guy (not big as in fat), We shook hands. I gave him a few space ace marquees and a harbor freight Multi meter. I been collecting them over the past year. Harbor freight gives them away for free with coupon and a purchase of X amount of dollars. I been collecting them since the last zap con show in AZ. I gave away a few meters at the show and still had a few left overs. I gave him one since he wanted to know how to work on these arcade machines. I like to promote and teach others how to fix their own machines. I knew a lot of other people who are way more talented in repairing electronics than I am RIP. Finding those who can repair arcade machines are getting harder to find. While I still see a small demand for repair arcade repair guys, I don't see how someone can make a good living off of it. Most current people do repairs on the side. My solution to this problem is to teach like crazy. Basically teach them how to fish.
So we get to talking about arcade machine, He show me his working machine and he almost working machine. We hit it off. I guess he was like me at one time. Thinking gee I am the only crazy person who collects arcade machines. jmac does something I was not expecting. He is giving me some parts to build up these cabs. Two optical, two gun housing, a pcb board and a power supply that needs to be repaired. This stuff isn't cheap. This is way beyond what I was expecting. He says he believes in arcade karma. OMG I have run across an kinder arcade collector.
We spent a little time and metered out one of his guns. There a loose wire. I told him about the joys of telfon coated wires. I am still a bit stun by this man generosity. I am looking at his game that is almost working. If the PCB works and his power supply works and his gun he bought works. Must be the wires. I am thinking heck the man gave me three cabs. Lets take the wires out of the cabs out of one and make his 2nd game work. 1st time fired it up. It goes into diag mode. He tell me if you press the button down when you turn on the game goes in this mode. Silly repair guy.. Switch the wires from normally open to normally closed. Switch the wires and presto. The game is working. Hot dam.
Now I could have taken all 3 cabs with me that day. I could have just gone down the road. So why did I leave 2 cabs in his garage? So I could visit him 2 more time and see if we can bring to life his 3rd cab. Yes! the man had 6 Exidy cab.
So I am going to spend a bit of my time getting his #3 running. I am going to build a few harness and change some of the connectors to give the game more stability. I am going to teach him how to recap his monitors. k4901 I think I am going to need 6 cap kits.
Currently I am hunting for screws and connectors parts and pieces. He was kind enough to give me a sample of the stuff I will need. Home depot stainless screw is a bit short and it does matter.
I am on a mission. A Mission from GOD. (Blues bros reference)
After my adventure, I am hopping to have his three built, My 3 built and Dean's two rebuilt.
Oh did I mention? Dean reached out to me. If I am repairing that many exidy's machine another 2 machine isn't going to be hard to do.
I am already looking into casting a few extra gun parts.
This exidy project(s) is going to be a blast!
Wish me luck, pity me or call me a fool. I am having fun. Teaching and restoring. It is something that I live for..
Once again thank you generosity and support.
A little back ground on me...
I like arcade projects much to the chagrin to my wallet. As you may know, projects typically cost more to build than buying a whole machine. Anyone who has rebuilt a tempest knows this. It is one of the reason why you see empty tempest cab around and almost nobody spends the time or the money to rebuilt them. You can easily sink 800 into a tempest to rebuilt one and yet you can find them around the 350 to 600 mark.
I am typically on the hunt to save cabs, So when I ran across the exidy cabs for free, My first thought is this restoration is going to be an expensive restoration project. This isn't just one cab but three cabs and exidy games parts are just in generally highly expensive.
So off I go to visit this guy, I am thinking to myself were can I find parts for these arcade machines? This project might take me 5 years or more just to find the parts just to rebuild one. 3 of these cabs is going to be a serious investment of time effort and money.
So I get there and I was greeted by this big guy (not big as in fat), We shook hands. I gave him a few space ace marquees and a harbor freight Multi meter. I been collecting them over the past year. Harbor freight gives them away for free with coupon and a purchase of X amount of dollars. I been collecting them since the last zap con show in AZ. I gave away a few meters at the show and still had a few left overs. I gave him one since he wanted to know how to work on these arcade machines. I like to promote and teach others how to fix their own machines. I knew a lot of other people who are way more talented in repairing electronics than I am RIP. Finding those who can repair arcade machines are getting harder to find. While I still see a small demand for repair arcade repair guys, I don't see how someone can make a good living off of it. Most current people do repairs on the side. My solution to this problem is to teach like crazy. Basically teach them how to fish.
So we get to talking about arcade machine, He show me his working machine and he almost working machine. We hit it off. I guess he was like me at one time. Thinking gee I am the only crazy person who collects arcade machines. jmac does something I was not expecting. He is giving me some parts to build up these cabs. Two optical, two gun housing, a pcb board and a power supply that needs to be repaired. This stuff isn't cheap. This is way beyond what I was expecting. He says he believes in arcade karma. OMG I have run across an kinder arcade collector.
We spent a little time and metered out one of his guns. There a loose wire. I told him about the joys of telfon coated wires. I am still a bit stun by this man generosity. I am looking at his game that is almost working. If the PCB works and his power supply works and his gun he bought works. Must be the wires. I am thinking heck the man gave me three cabs. Lets take the wires out of the cabs out of one and make his 2nd game work. 1st time fired it up. It goes into diag mode. He tell me if you press the button down when you turn on the game goes in this mode. Silly repair guy.. Switch the wires from normally open to normally closed. Switch the wires and presto. The game is working. Hot dam.
Now I could have taken all 3 cabs with me that day. I could have just gone down the road. So why did I leave 2 cabs in his garage? So I could visit him 2 more time and see if we can bring to life his 3rd cab. Yes! the man had 6 Exidy cab.
So I am going to spend a bit of my time getting his #3 running. I am going to build a few harness and change some of the connectors to give the game more stability. I am going to teach him how to recap his monitors. k4901 I think I am going to need 6 cap kits.
Currently I am hunting for screws and connectors parts and pieces. He was kind enough to give me a sample of the stuff I will need. Home depot stainless screw is a bit short and it does matter.
I am on a mission. A Mission from GOD. (Blues bros reference)
After my adventure, I am hopping to have his three built, My 3 built and Dean's two rebuilt.
Oh did I mention? Dean reached out to me. If I am repairing that many exidy's machine another 2 machine isn't going to be hard to do.
I am already looking into casting a few extra gun parts.
This exidy project(s) is going to be a blast!
Wish me luck, pity me or call me a fool. I am having fun. Teaching and restoring. It is something that I live for..
Once again thank you generosity and support.