What's the worst arcade related screw up you've ever made?

I've done all three of those. Well, not pulling out of a Gauntlet, but necked a monitor.

Hooked up connectors on a 20EZ audio board wrong and fried a DK Jr. PCB.
 
Dropped a monitor straight onto the pavement while taking it off of the tailgate of a truck, then repeated the performance three monitors later.
 
Made a trade of my Centipede UR for a Stargate UR.
Was moving the 'pede to the truck and hit a dip in the asphalt and the game got out from under me and landed on it's front.
The result was broken wood at one side of the CP. But some putty on it to make it less obvious and hoped it would dry during the drive to the "buyers" home.

But that's NOT the worst screw up part of the story ...
I later found out the "buyer" kept that almost perfect game (except for the above) out in the rain and it got ruined.

So, my worst screw up was trading with that guy. Grrrr. :004_stongue: (though I still have the SG and it's pretty nice)
RIP unlucky 'pede.
 
Tripped on the curb carrying the back box to an electromechanical Freedom into the house . The backglass of course shattered into a million pieces on the driveway . The back box itself half came apart but I was able to glue it back together and it still works fine although it's not nearly as cool staring at light bulbs on a plain white board .
 
Made a trade of my Centipede UR for a Stargate UR.
Was moving the 'pede to the truck and hit a dip in the asphalt and the game got out from under me and landed on it's front.
The result was broken wood at one side of the CP. But some putty on it to make it less obvious and hoped it would dry during the drive to the "buyers" home.

But that's NOT the worst screw up part of the story ...
I later found out the "buyer" kept that almost perfect game (except for the above) out in the rain and it got ruined.

So, my worst screw up was trading with that guy. Grrrr. :004_stongue: (though I still have the SG and it's pretty nice)
RIP unlucky 'pede.

What is this rain you speak of? :D In the monsoon season we got to make sure everything is inside, those storms hit with a vengeance.

Worst arcade related screw up wasn't with a machine but with the arcade itself. A guy was trying to retrieve a plush- crane prize toy from behind a game. A old wall sized mirror was resting on the wall next to the game he was reaching behind. He put a small amount of weight into the mirror and the entire mirror shattered into large sections. One of the sections hit his head. A large flap of skin was still attached by 6 inches, right above his ear. A lot of blood was pouring onto the blacklight carpet. There is not many nerves on your head, so I'm told. He didn't know how bad it was.

"Dude, I think you need to go to the hospital"
"Really?" (as he rotates is head, the skin flap.. is flapping all over the place)
"Oh, um.. Yeah"

He used his t-shirt to try stop the bleeding. 4 hours later. + a very bloody shirt. He was fine, got stitches. Took about 6 months for the scar swelling to go down. We promptly removed the rest of the mirrors to prevent that from ever happening again. We found they are difficult to break when we were disposing of them. The mirror that cut his head must of had an imperfection in it. F-ing plushy toy.

Good news from all this, blood doesn't show in the rug.
 
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i pulled a hard-to-get-to stand-up target loose of the playfield to clean and test on my Gottlieb Arena, then promptly bumped it so it swung on it's wires (still connected and energized) and touched a coil nearly. one quick zap and the main board and PS board were fried. i ended up passing the game on instead of trying to repair it.

i've also necked a couple of really nice tubes (one K4900 and one K7000 25".)
 
dropped a g07 chassis on a dig dug cocktail and shattered the topglass. I was in a operators warehouse and I moved a game of his and necked a tube he had on the floor.
 
Bench testing my Star Wars Multikit on the kitchen table at 3 in the morning.

Too many beers and too late at night, you tend to plug things in backwards.

And POOF!

There goes my Star Wars boardset!

The smell of that smoke SUCKS at 3 in the morning...
 
Using the wrong spacers on the back of a pinball playfield and then continue to screw through the playfield and poking out the front, four times.
 
Cap kit gone bad

Forgot to plug in the RGB plug after a cap kit, had it looped around the tube. Instant tube burn, a center dot never to be the same again. What makes it worse was that it was for a friend.
 
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