The $300 Paperboy

whitefox

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Donor 5 years: 2016-2019, 2024
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Found in the classified section on NextDoor, posted 2 days prior to me seeing it. Literally 5 minutes away. Seller has a Tekken 3 and Capcom bowling also at good prices, but I had to message him...

Is the Paperboy still available?

That line will never gets old. :p

Even better, he has a contractor's Express van to move it! I just needed to go over and help him get it out of the basement. Hardest thing I've done so far collecting these games.

I've moved a few games at a friend's first house with a similar basement staircase that involves a 90 degree landing turn midway. My friends staircase was wider, as was the landing. This guy's was just wide enough to fit a game down facing you. Turning it on the landing was just painful even with 3 people helping out. The walls took some abuse (and probably a whole lot more when he tries to move that Capcom Bowling out of there, how the hell did it get down there anyway).

I ended up on the top of the moving effort near the end, the game having to be angled oddly to get it into the hallway and the back door was facing me. Once we got it onto the main floor, I just slowly sank back and down onto the floor, with Paperboy on top. Didn't hurt, wasn't a quick fall, and they got it up off of me quickly, but my body (legs mostly) just gave out after all that.

So yeah, I earned this damn game. :D

Overall the game works, plays fine, monitor is incredible (and as I found out after opening, it's a relatively new tube and chassis) and only has minor dings and stuff along the edges.

  • Controller "centers" with a slight turn to the right.
  • A support beam under the top of the control panel is broken.
  • Was able to pry the back door open and found keys behind the coin door!
  • It doesn't look like a Championship Sprint conversion to me.
  • No jumped or bypassed fuses!
  • Test mode shows ROM Fail at 2D
  • Right speaker has no sound
  • Odd vertical streak on left side of display

So far I've only opened it up to assess everything and do a quick vacuum & wipedown. Normal corrosion on the power block and other metal, but no disasters. 5v on the game board read at 4.9something so that's good news, but I may replace the two big blues anyway when I go to clean and rebuild the power block.

Going to go with the Paperboy beta sideart from TOG, I think that looks stellar.

First photo is seller's posting, second is in his basement.

On with the photos. Repair questions to follow. :)
 

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Crt

Photos of this you-can-eat-off-it display.

Last photo shows the vertical distortion thing, any ideas on this?
 

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That is awesome, congrats on the score!
 
Found in the classified section on NextDoor, posted 2 days prior to me seeing it. Literally 5 minutes away. Seller has a Tekken 3 and Capcom bowling also at good prices, but I had to message him...

Is the Paperboy still available?

That line will never gets old. :p

Even better, he has a contractor's Express van to move it! I just needed to go over and help him get it out of the basement. Hardest thing I've done so far collecting these games.

I've moved a few games at a friend's first house with a similar basement staircase that involves a 90 degree landing turn midway. My friends staircase was wider, as was the landing. This guy's was just wide enough to fit a game down facing you. Turning it on the landing was just painful even with 3 people helping out. The walls took some abuse (and probably a whole lot more when he tries to move that Capcom Bowling out of there, how the hell did it get down there anyway).

I ended up on the top of the moving effort near the end, the game having to be angled oddly to get it into the hallway and the back door was facing me. Once we got it onto the main floor, I just slowly sank back and down onto the floor, with Paperboy on top. Didn't hurt, wasn't a quick fall, and they got it up off of me quickly, but my body (legs mostly) just gave out after all that.

So yeah, I earned this damn game. :D

Overall the game works, plays fine, monitor is incredible (and as I found out after opening, it's a relatively new tube and chassis) and only has minor dings and stuff along the edges.

  • Controller "centers" with a slight turn to the right.
  • A support beam under the top of the control panel is broken.
  • Was able to pry the back door open and found keys behind the coin door!
  • It doesn't look like a Championship Sprint conversion to me.
  • No jumped or bypassed fuses!
  • Test mode shows ROM Fail at 2D
  • Right speaker has no sound
  • Odd vertical streak on left side of display

So far I've only opened it up to assess everything and do a quick vacuum & wipedown. Normal corrosion on the power block and other metal, but no disasters. 5v on the game board read at 4.9something so that's good news, but I may replace the two big blues anyway when I go to clean and rebuild the power block.

Going to go with the Paperboy beta sideart from TOG, I think that looks stellar.

First photo is seller's posting, second is in his basement.

On with the photos. Repair questions to follow. :)

I hear you. My Champ Sprint destroyed a friend's dolly, completely bent the tongue. It is a VERY heavy game and it's awkward, too.
 
We need more power, bring in the logic probe!

Photos of the power block (i'm becoming an expert on making these shiny and new), 5V PSU, Audio/Regulator.
 

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Main Board, PCBoard, Motherboard, whatevs

Need to retake full photos as they were blown out but in the meantime, closeup of Rev. A
 

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I love finding the keys inside. It was easy to pry the back door open, it's been done many times. I need to fix the wood on that part on the back door.

Also the damaged support under the control panel.
 

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Super cool find and what a terrific price- clean can- NICE������
 
Heavy game?
In basement?
Awkward stairs?

>> solution - take it apart, remove monitor and CP etc
"lighten the load" (even if there are three to move it)

Regardless, congrats on the buy ... nice. :)
 
Doing some research on fixing the right turning controller issue this has.

It appears from the photo attached that the spring has worn a groove into this side of what is labeled as the bearing. Is this common and is there a replacement available?

Also wondering what people's experience is with getting replacement springs from arcadefixit, is there a noticable difference with this rebuild?
 

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Reproduction EMI cover from markrl installed.
 

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Something is messed up with the high score saving. I did not put that 79k score up there or the 82k score. Who's playing my damn game behind my back!

Any thoughts to this odd behavior?

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Zounds!

After reading up on all the sound issue threads here, I poked in the back of this to check a few quick things concerning the right speaker not working.

Inspected & tested some components on the sound circuitry on the A/R and fiddled with J8 connector (removed, cleaned) and wires. That was enough to get the right speaker making sounds for a couple rounds of play before it went out again. I'll reflow the connector headers this weekend and see about the wires in this molex thing, they're probably working themselves out of it.

So here's a quick list of sounds I now hear with the speaker working:
  • Sad oboe when you lose a customer on intermittent screen
  • All car noises on right side of road, including horn honks & motor sounds
  • Kick drum, I guess it's an echo or delay effect, doesn't change the music much
  • Intermittent stereo chord in the music between scenes. Doesn't change the music without it, but it sounds much fuller
 
2D error fixed

The Rom 2D failure error is now fixed thanks to hobbyroms.com! Thankfully he knows how to get mame roms with the info I sent him, made it very easy to get one sent out.

I now get the full soudtest at the beginning of test mode, this did not happen before.

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Atari_Kee/Paperboy/Paperboy_TM-275_1st_Printing.pdf

Looking in the manual page 5-24 (Page 68 of the pdf) it is:
23128-3 300ns Part Number: 136034-220

I highlighted the location in the schematic in the manual as well as a real photo of the board since the board is upside-down compared to the manual.
 

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The metal mount for the volume pot & test switch was pretty rusted on the back and underneath. After a naval jelly bath, it was left pretty pitted. Decided to try this Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing stuff on it, I want to do my Star Castle chassis metal with this stuff like Biltronix did.

A lot of complaints about this is that it scratches very, very easily. They're right. So I hit it with a top coat of Crystal Clear Enamel and that did the trick in hardening the stuff up from a simple fingernail scratch, let along bolts and screws.
 

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