Stupid stuff you've done working on games

Tornadoboy

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Stupid stuff you've done while working on games

I took all the glass out of my Boot Hill and did the second most thing I swore I wasn't going to do, which was to break the F'n mirror! At least I haven't wrecked the marquee/bezel yet, which was the first thing I promised I wouldn't do. I think it's still usable as it only took like an 1"x4" piece off a corner which I think won't be in the visible area, but I'm still quite pissed at myself and I'll probably start looking for a replacement once I take care off all the other issues with the game.

Take a moment to whine with me... how have you managed to break important parts while working on your games?

Also as a side question are these mirrors tough to get? Do most of the Midway games of that genre like Space Invaders use them and are they interchangable? And is this a type of glass that's tough to get from glass shops?
 
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Was selling a game....was it Defender or Joust?....anyway, the people were there looking at it with cash in hand and wanted to see inside the cabinet. I showed them. They agreed to buy it. As I was putting the door back on it slipped and hit the neck of the monitor and snapped it off. They decided they would pass.
 
bought a monitor which worked great when I first purchased it. When it got home, and plugged it in, it didn't work. I thought it didn't need a transformer, and apparently it did. oops.
 
I sneezed one time when I putting on a neck board and cracked the little plastic piece that the pins go into....I was SO freakin mad at myself!
 
mmm lets see. I was debugging a power supply problem on an asteroids and the on off switch was rigged up with some alligator clips due to the switch being broken. Saw they were not connected and that was my problem and went to just clip them back on.

I forgot the power was actually on when I grabbed them. I still remember the squeal. I sounded like a little girl when it zapped me.
Luckily I had a safety switch in the garage and that flipped the power off when stupid me did that.
 
mmm lets see. I was debugging a power supply problem on an asteroids and the on off switch was rigged up with some alligator clips due to the switch being broken. Saw they were not connected and that was my problem and went to just clip them back on.

I forgot the power was actually on when I grabbed them. I still remember the squeal. I sounded like a little girl when it zapped me.
Luckily I had a safety switch in the garage and that flipped the power off when stupid me did that.

i've done similar. replacing fuses in my pac with it plugged in and got zapped.

worst i would say i've done is guessing on switching yoke wires on a vision pro and popping the vertical deflection ic on it.

or, moving a super breakout down a step on a dolly into my garage and the shock from going off the step onto the garage floor made the cabinet separate into 2 pieces.
 
Surprisingly, I went 10+ years without really doing anything harmful to any of my games. Then the other day, while changing a bulb in my newly-acquired X-Files pin, I caused a short under the playfield, breaking the damn thing.

I can't wait to find out what that r-tarded mistake is gonna cost me.
 
i pulled the glass over the translite marquee on my newly-purchased Galaga 88 to try to clean some junk off the glass. i thought oh, i'll clean the translite very carefully while its out. as i'm running the cleaning cloth over the back of the translite i'm telling myself to go slow but there's a tough spot which of course i swipe over a little harder and "pop!" the translites cracks almost in half, almost shattering at the crack.

$40 and two weeks later i have a slightly-nicer (better color) translite and i'm still kicking myself. ugh.
 
This weekend I decided to move all my project games to the basement.

"myself"

up 4 steps into the house using a ramp and straight down ~15 steps into the basement.

First 4 empty cabs went no problem. Most of the parts were already in the
basement. Then a fully populated Foodfight.. Dam those Atari cabs are heavy.
Zaxxon.. Holy Crap, Uggh Heavy, arms getting REALLY tired.

I take a little break and relax.

Last cab to go. Galaga. I have been using a blanket near the top of the steps
to avoid scratching up my hardwood floors. I start Galaga down the basement
steps and I slip on the blanket and fall on my side still hanging onto the
dolly.

Its like that movie "the Good Son" where a mother has to let go of her son to
save another..

I had a 200+ lb game laying a 3rd of the way down the steps being held by 1 arm. No way to lift it up, no way to stand up, there is nothing I can do but...

Let go.. thump thump thump thump thump thump thump and it slams into the concrete basement wall.

The dolly is a little bent and plastic monitor bezel came
loose, otherwise the cab was okay. luciky the game fired up.

Note to self.. ALWAYS have help moving games into the basement.
 
I've done a ton of stupid shit, not sure where to start, lol.

I busted the neck of a burn free 25" monitor as I was reaching into the back of a cab.
more than once I have wired control panel molex's wrong (always pisses me off)

lifted traces when soldering

stop there I guess, I am certain more will come to mind at some point
 
Probably my worst was plugging in my Atari Football board backwards. A close second was dropping a Paperboy off of a Dolly. I wasn't actually the one using the dolly, but all I could do was watch it hit the ground. Not a good feeling.
 
I have more but the worst was when I was cleaning the interior of my Dig Dug. I had the monitor sitting on the floor and the control panel was on my bar stool. One little bump and "Pshhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Goodbye Mr. G07!" Fortunately, I had another working monitor to use but I did manage to scare the hell out of the wife with the crashing noise and ensuing profanity.
 
After bringing home my second Multicade project (Superman), I took off a couple panels from the back of the cabinet to gain access to the rear of the coin door to unlock it. After I was done, I pounded the staples in to put the panels back on temporarily, but forgot to actually screw them back in as well. Later that night, I went to move the machine and grabbed onto the rear handles (which were one of the panels I had to take off) and pulled the machine backwards onto my dolly. Needless to say the panel popped right off and knocked me square in the nose while I stumbled and fell flat on my ass.

Oh, and while playing Asteroids one day, I was getting a really good score and I was in the zone when the small alien impossibly shot me point blank. In a fit of frustration, I stood up straight quickly and racked my head on the marquee overhang that I forgot was above me.
 
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