What is the dumbest thing you have ever done working on or around an game?

[mopar5150]

I have done some of what others have listed.
Most recent and painful was accidently knocking a 25" tube off of a table and had it fill my legs with glass shards.
That was months ago and I still have little pieces of glass working their way to the surface.

Oh, and of course it fell on the neck side smashing a 6100 yoke and rings.

 

[sabrewulf69]

I have done some of what others have listed.
Most recent and painful was accidently knocking a 25" tube off of a table and had it fill my legs with glass shards.
That was months ago and I still have little pieces of glass working their way to the surface.

Oh, and of course it fell on the neck side smashing a 6100 yoke and rings.

That sucks, not only loosing a monitor but getting fragged by it as well. Luckily I've yet to damage a monitor *knocks on wood*

 

[jawhn]

I will never ever again leave uncut capacitor legs on to know which ones had been replaced during a capkit. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, until I spaced on snipping them all before smoke testing it.

 

[ArcadeDanger]

putting a 19-in-1 pcb in a converted Defender cocktail.
was tinkering with the idea of adding a switching power supply to run the LED's under the control panel.
with the game off, I plugged in a new power cord to run from the receptacle to the switcher, measured a few feet and cut it with my diagonal cutters. POW!
found out the hard way to always unplug the game when working on power. derr

I ruined a good set of cutters this way too. Also got named Captain Zzztt-Pop as a result of it.

 

[DeLuSioNaL29]

I've struggled with shutting down power, where I "thought" I did...

1) I once discharged a monitor while it was still powered on. Nothing happened though. Just got a constant zapping sound from under the anode cup with my screwdriver in there and the grounding strap attached. When I had done it, my TPG was off so the screen "appeared blank" so I thought it was off. Then I realized that I had left it powered on after it wasn't discharging. Lesson learned.

2) I once tested a fuse while the game was shut off, but still plugged in. Got a nice numbness in my arm up to the elbow. What rhymes with numbness? Dumbness! Can't believe I didn't unplug it. LOL.

Del

 

[pcjohn]

Grabbed the two ends of a live neon transformer in a redemption game. Unplugged the game but
didn't realize I unplugged the wrong plug. Didn't double check. Hurt worse than the one and only
time I got hit by a live flyback.

 

[Scott C]

I've been electrocuted twice in rapid succession by the same game.

So sometime back I had an indie game developer approach me to make a handful of prototype cabinets for his indie arcade title. As with all the games I build I put a service panel with the power switch directly behind the coin door on top of the coin door metal bucket cage and a electrical gang box to the rear to handle most of the common AC power output.

I fired up the game and noticed I got nothing on the screen and apparently no AC power. I open up the back door to trouble shoot the switch, reaching in to fiddle with the power switch.

Only a handful of people here on KLOV have ever seen me in person but I'm a borderline midget and i had trouble reaching in that deep so I figured I'd simply crawl into the cabinet and mess with the power switch. Just as I get in there, crouch down and touch the power switch, The hot wire from this crappy switch snaps right off and The hotwire lands right in my hand.

So here I am being turned into pork rinds and just as I get that stupid wire off of me, I lean back in a panic while still inside of the cabinet. I end up losing my balance and almost rolling out of the cabinet. Instinctively I put out my spare hand to either hold onto the cabinet or break my fall backwards. In doing so I unintentionally grabbed the gang box and my finger slid into the space between the outlet and the box ( It had no cover) and I get electrocuted for the second time in as many seconds finally falling out of the cabinet.

I'm not sure if this was a Tom & Jerry or Dumb and Dumber moment. Don't be me.

Oh, that post made me both hurt and laugh at the same time! I'm so glad you are OK. Wow!

Scott C.

 

[Radford119]

Went to replace a power cord on a game, grabbed my wire cutters and snipped it off...it was still plugged in. I think I pissed a little. Also, G07 filter caps bite me more than I care to admit.

 

[sabrewulf69]

Went to replace a power cord on a game, grabbed my wire cutters and snipped it off...it was still plugged in. I think I pissed a little. Also, G07 filter caps bite me more than I care to admit.

Just wanted to say your Flapjack profile picture brought back some forgotten memories lol.

 

[PhoenixStar]

About 20 years ago I picked up my first grail, it was Altered Beast. I wanted to adjust the monitor controls and balance the colors, but I was having difficulty with no mirror to reference what I was doing when turning the knobs. My poor mother just so happened to be home, so I asked her for help. I told her which knobs to turn while I stood in front of the cabinet, and also told her absolutely do not touch anything else. After about 3 adjustments I ask her to make 1 more. I hear a loud pop and the screen collapsed, followed by a scream. She was in excruciating pain and the side of her one fingertip had a dark char or burn looking mark on it. She claimed she never touched anything else.
So regrettably, I got my mother zapped by Altered Beast. Had she been killed, it would've been an appropriate opportunity to rise from her grave.

 

[ida34]

Having a Star Wars UR drop on me, Dropping a Robotron CT on and down my leg, Necking a beautiful Nintendo monitor, Dropping liquid solder on my leg, and grabbing a live transformer output. 27 years and counting.

Scott C.

Thank God it dropped on you. I hope you broke the fall enough to save it from damage.

 

[Fot75]

I destroyed a ton of pads on a Neotec 2701 trying to do a cap kit with a cheap solder iron and nothing to suck or wick the solder. I got zapped after not discharging a monitor long enough. And the one that really kills me is I fried a newly rebuilt (by Zenomorph) k7000 hooking it up to a tube out of a Tv. I crossed up the yoke wires, and released that magic smoke. I still haven't figured out what needs replaced on that one .

 

[Scott C]

Thank God it dropped on you. I hope you broke the fall enough to save it from damage.

The Star Wars, which I still have, survived, but the back door smashed. It slid off the dolly to the side and lunged back at me when I swung over to catch it. Fortunately, the original Amplifone was spared. I made a new backdoor with a built-in fan and my SW still runs cool.

The Robotron CT gave me a scar down my leg and took a while to heal. It was stacked and in a weird angle.

The part of the story I didn't share was I was standing on a two story ledge without railing. If I would have fallen, a SF Rush cockpit would have stopped my fall. The Robotron CT pinned me to the next game and kept me from falling. Let me tell you, it hurt to the point I thought I broke my leg.

Scott C.

 

[sabrewulf69]

I destroyed a ton of pads on a Neotec 2701 trying to do a cap kit with a cheap solder iron and nothing to suck or wick the solder. I got zapped after not discharging a monitor long enough. And the one that really kills me is I fried a newly rebuilt (by Zenomorph) k7000 hooking it up to a tube out of a Tv. I crossed up the yoke wires, and released that magic smoke. I still haven't figured out what needs replaced on that one .

I feel you on the destroyed pads, I ruined many pads with a cheap radioshack desoldering iron, because I was to cheap to get a good one. Speaking of Zenomorp and braid, I learned how awesome desoldering braid was by watching his YouTube channel, I never had seen it in action before I started watching his channel, now I use Chem-Wik religiously lol.

 

[Fot75]

I feel you on the destroyed pads, I ruined many pads with a cheap radioshack desoldering iron, because I was to cheap to get a good one. Speaking of Zenomorp and braid, I learned how awesome desoldering braid was by watching his YouTube channel, I never had seen it in action before I started watching his channel, now I use Chem-Wik religiously lol.

Same thing here. Use the braid a lot, also got a decent desolder gun and soldering station. I learned so much watching his videos on Youtube

 

[wugly]

We need a Tshirt for this stuff

need an illustration of a machine on a dolly going down stairs monior falling out backwards and knocking hands away from dolly. Need a caption like welcome to the hobby

Is this the fun part yet?

 

[LTG]

I know a man who beats the soldering iron problems. He sniffs the tip to see if the iron is hot. Twice while working he's shoved the hot iron into his nostril.

Dumbest thing I ever did was catch a Judge Dredd pinball machine sliding off my lift gate. Business insured, game insured, truck insured. I wasn't insured. About ripped my left arm off. For about a year I couldn't lift that arm up higher than my shoulder.

Not dumb but accident. Pulling a Sega Space Fury on a two wheel dolly off of a trailer. In February, layer of compacted ice and snow in the parking lot. I slipped. Game and cart came down on me and I made a snow angel and couldn't move buried in the ice and snow with everything on top of me. There was a bread truck nearby making a delivery. I screamed for help. The driver looked my way. Got in his truck, and left. That made me mad enough to be able to lift the game off of me.

Honorable mention : If a video game lost picture I'd check the neck of the monitor. If glowing monitor is good, then check power supply. Had an Atari Firefox. Picture went out. No problem, open small inspection door on back of cabinet. Stick my head in. Open flames on the monitor chassis. Didn't get hurt but got my face out of there quick.
LTG : )

 

[Onji]

need an illustration of a machine on a dolly going down stairs monior falling out backwards and knocking hands away from dolly. Need a caption like welcome to the hobby

Is this the fun part yet?

LOL tried getting AI to make this image, and this is what it came up with

 

[jawhn]

LOL tried getting AI to make this image, and this is what it came up with

First thing that popped into my head. Well done!

 

[DonPanetta]

Oh, that post made me both hurt and laugh at the same time! I'm so glad you are OK. Wow!

Scott C.

I've been electrocuted many times in my life. Some of them in crazy situations when I was a little kid.

There was at no point in this situation where I felt it was life-threatening but it was still an absolutely idiotic moment.

I cursed when it happened but now I laugh thinking about it.