Where and how to learn more about fixing and restoring arcade and pinball games

stevenk

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Hello! My name is Steven, and I live in northeast New Jersey. I just turned 35 years old. I hope that this is the right subforum for this. I'm certainly looking for advice in this thread. I would love to learn more about how I could get started repairing and maintaining arcade and pinball games, perhaps even turning it into a career. I'd like to give a little bit of background about myself and my experiences first.

I'm diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I don't think that that's required to be said, but it might help explain some things. I really struggled with college. My program had to be applied for me to get through it. I went through a few universities before graduating a few months ago with a bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity Technology from University of Maryland Global Campus. I ended up getting my student loans relieved through the federal government. Now, I can't work for three years because of that relief. Because of this limitation, I'll be starting a master's program at University of Maryland Global Campus in October.

I'm terrified of an office setting because of my own personal limitations. I have it in mind to do remote work when the time comes. I really like to work with my hands, though. I enjoyed time playing arcade and pinball games growing up, whether it was in hotels when on vacation, at Sports World in Paramus, New Jersey, or in France visiting my relatives for the summer. I tend to enjoy the technical aspects of things just as much as playing the games, too!

Two years ago, I got in contact with Billy over at Billy's Midway in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Billy is an absolutely fantastic, kind, and empathetic person. I wanted to learn more about repairing these kinds of things. He tried to think of what he could do to offer me "observing" because he knows the rules of work and I was clear that I didn't want to jeopardize my eligibility for student loan relief. Billy and I ended our conversation that day with him telling me that he could help if I wanted to turn that into a career. Unfortunately, though, my mental health was in a terrible place then. My father had just died, and a previous university wasn't working out for me. I continue to talk with Billy via email and to visit his arcade sometimes, but he has health difficulties and he's been dealing with a low volume of customers at his arcade.

To be honest, seeing the houses down the block from Billy's Midway when I visited with a friend two weeks ago got me started with a dream of buying a house within walking distance of Galloping Ghost. The idea behind that dream was that I could have my other hobbies that require less maintenance in that house and that I could go to Galloping Ghost for my arcade fix. But then, I told another friend about how there's not much pinball at Galloping Ghost, all things considered. As a result of the discussion with my friend, I looked up "pinball repair Chicago," and I ended up with at least three search results of businesses that I assume are mostly operated by one person and that offer pinball repair in the Chicago metropolitan area.

So, anyway, I'm not afraid to move someday if it would help turn this into a reality. Given my current circumstances now, though, where I cannot work for the time being and where money is tight, would anyone have any suggestions on how I could learn to fix and restore arcade and pinball games? Thank you so much.

P.S. I looked up "Sega Hikaru" for my avatar and I found a photo of a PCB on Sega-Retro. I picked a Sega Hikaru board because my father took me to Sports World in Paramus when things were rough for me at the age of nine. I played Star Wars Racer Arcade there that day.
 
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There's a market for board repair if you can get good at it. I heard Chris Hibler stopped repairing pinball boards (is that true?). He made great videos about his board repairs. You could watch a couple of those and see if that's something you'd like to to do full time or part time. Then get really good at soldering and diagnostic techniques and specialize in board repairing. People can mail you their boards wherever you are living and you can send then back. Eventually you can find a place in Chicago or wherever there is a large arcade and either work there, volunteer, or at least visit while you repair people's stuff. House calls are a big market too where they just want you to come diagnose and fix their stuff at the house.

Your career could branch out in other areas, but FYI, the longevity of the field depends on how good you are, and how many people find it's worth spending money fixing stuff.


Good luck!
 
There are no 'places' where you can take classes or anything similar, to learn this skill.

Everyone who does it is self-taught. However everything you need to know is online. It just takes years of study, and constant practice.

The key when you're new is reading. You'll have to do a LOT of it. Just start by googling basic questions, and read as much as you can, from as many places as you can. Once you start researching, you'll find sites that are goldmines of information. This forum is one of them. Learn to use the Advanced Search page, which is the key to digging up the decades of gold bars of knowledge that exist in the archives here. Every problem that you could have with just about any game has been posted about and discussed in the archives here. I spent years reading and studying the archives before I registered and made my first post here.

In order to learn how to repair things, you need to learn how they work. There are many resources for this as well. For example, this site contains an entire library's worth of knowledge about repairing all sorts of consumer electronics. It's also the 'bible' of monitor and CRT operation, and you can spend months just studying how monitors and TV's work. I got much of my basic knowledge here, when I was new:


Also, search youtube for tutorials about basic electronics, and how to use tools like DMM's and logic probes. There are thousands of good videos.

In addition to learning how things work, you'll need some basic tools (basically a good DMM and a soldering iron), and then the next best thing is to just dig into stuff. Find broken things and google their model numbers and their problems. Most problems anyone has had with any piece of electronics has been documented and discussed somewhere on the net. Spend your time researching, then apply what you've found to fixing something real. You will make mistakes and screw things up, that's part of the process. But the faster you suck at it, the faster you'll get better.

You learn this skill by studying, and doing. And then you repeat that process for decades. It's a gradual learning curve, you don't get good at it overnight. But as you grow, the challenges will grow with you. And you'll never really be 'done', you just keep getting better, the more you work at it.

Good luck.
 
Thank you so much for all the assistance thus far!

In order to learn how to repair things, you need to learn how they work.

I definitely feel that this is true. And most of my IT knowledge is self-taught. So, I could definitely teach myself this kind of stuff, too. I don't yet know how to read schematics. One good thing is that I still have access to O'Reilly through my community college. O'Reilly offers technical training books, such as IT certification training books, so I could see what books on electronics are available through that. My Google Chrome screen reader extension with voices from Amazon Web Services works wonders for me for things like that. Having the books read to me through a screen reader helps with processing and retention for me.

From 2021 to 2022, I worked on a project with my community college converting an electric pickup truck into an electric vehicle. That was my first real exposure to things like seeing a digital multi-meter and soldering iron being used, having schematics explained to me, et cetera.

Also, I noticed house calls being mentioned on the websites of those businesses, so thank you for that suggestion, @Bobwiley!

I follow a community on Reddit called Console Repair where people buy broken game consoles and they repair them.... Of course, I'm scared of all the roaches in the consoles that I see in that community. Maybe, buying a game console that's less prone to being roach-infested than a PlayStation 5 with a broken HDMI port could be good. I still feel that I'd have to first open any and all consoles that I'd receive outdoors.

Thank you so much for the advice thus far! Having this kind of knowledge would've been beneficial when I replaced my parents' wireless router with a spare router that I had because the issue was purely mechanical. The power button wouldn't stay pressed.

Edit: Because my background, even though I haven't worked in it, is IT, I understand the concept of "never being done." That's especially emphasized in security.
 
Hello! My name is Steven, and I live in northeast New Jersey. I just turned 35 years old. I hope that this is the right subforum for this. I'm certainly looking for advice in this thread. I would love to learn more about how I could get started repairing and maintaining arcade and pinball games, perhaps even turning it into a career. I'd like to give a little bit of background about myself and my experiences first.

I'm diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I don't think that that's required to be said, but it might help explain some things. I really struggled with college. My program had to be applied for me to get through it. I went through a few universities before graduating a few months ago with a bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity Technology from University of Maryland Global Campus. I ended up getting my student loans relieved through the federal government. Now, I can't work for three years because of that relief. Because of this limitation, I'll be starting a master's program at University of Maryland Global Campus in October.

I'm terrified of an office setting because of my own personal limitations. I have it in mind to do remote work when the time comes. I really like to work with my hands, though. I enjoyed time playing arcade and pinball games growing up, whether it was in hotels when on vacation, at Sports World in Paramus, New Jersey, or in France visiting my relatives for the summer. I tend to enjoy the technical aspects of things just as much as playing the games, too!

Two years ago, I got in contact with Billy over at Billy's Midway in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Billy is an absolutely fantastic, kind, and empathetic person. I wanted to learn more about repairing these kinds of things. He tried to think of what he could do to offer me "observing" because he knows the rules of work and I was clear that I didn't want to jeopardize my eligibility for student loan relief. Billy and I ended our conversation that day with him telling me that he could help if I wanted to turn that into a career. Unfortunately, though, my mental health was in a terrible place then. My father had just died, and a previous university wasn't working out for me. I continue to talk with Billy via email and to visit his arcade sometimes, but he has health difficulties and he's been dealing with a low volume of customers at his arcade.

To be honest, seeing the houses down the block from Billy's Midway when I visited with a friend two weeks ago got me started with a dream of buying a house within walking distance of Galloping Ghost. The idea behind that dream was that I could have my other hobbies that require less maintenance in that house and that I could go to Galloping Ghost for my arcade fix. But then, I told another friend about how there's not much pinball at Galloping Ghost, all things considered. As a result of the discussion with my friend, I looked up "pinball repair Chicago," and I ended up with at least three search results of businesses that I assume are mostly operated by one person and that offer pinball repair in the Chicago metropolitan area.

So, anyway, I'm not afraid to move someday if it would help turn this into a reality. Given my current circumstances now, though, where I cannot work for the time being and where money is tight, would anyone have any suggestions on how I could learn to fix and restore arcade and pinball games? Thank you so much.

P.S. I looked up "Sega Hikaru" for my avatar and I found a photo of a PCB on Sega-Retro. I picked a Sega Hikaru board because my father took me to Sports World in Paramus when things were rough for me at the age of nine. I played Star Wars Racer Arcade there that day.
to andrewb's point, I've mentioned it before, but you're new... I've had some great moments over the years introducing myself at weddings and whatever and telling them what I do just to get the inevitable "did you go to school for that??" and the shock on their faces when I say "no". "but how did you learn??" "I learned it by doing it."

as much damage as this occupation has done to my life and me, it's probably what I was always destined to do.

my real ambition is to teach people how to fix games. the thing that concerns me is how long the bubble will last or more specifically, the hardware. at 30-40+ years they've much outlived their use. that's the benefit of the community though, and why I continue to support it with my knowledge and experience, because they keep it going.

was there any area in particular you wanted to know more about? this is my switching mode power supply guide: https://www.arcaderepair.net/mechas-essential-power-supply-guide-remastered/ and there's a lot of other things on my site. I haven't really had the inspiration to add more posts lately. :(

we really need to form the Arcade Expendables.
 
I had a difficult night before sleeping because stress earlier in the day gave me some pain that I was experiencing. I wanted to clarify that it's not because of the loan relief that I'm starting a master's program in October. I always intended to get that. It's just that it'll be done more slowly because I'm no longer receiving any financial aid.

I see school, for me, as more of a way to gain credentials than a place to learn. Most of the classes for both my associate and my bachelor's degree programs mapped to industry certifications, which is all stuff that I feel that I could've learned on my own....and that I feel that I did learn on my own. So again, I can totally understand being self-taught.

was there any area in particular you wanted to know more about?

One thing that I wanted to learn more about was CRT repair, not because CRTs are trendy, but because I know that that has to be done safely. Also, Billy at Billy's Midway repaired an HP/Compaq CRT monitor for me one day putting fresh solder in places where there were gaps. The image on the monitor would contract horizontally. I was in the middle of building a Super Socket 7 PC to more reliably play Windows 9x and MS-DOS games. repairfaq.org was already linked to for me, and I'll certainly be looking through that resource! Thank you for the link to your guide on switching mode power supplies!

my real ambition is to teach people how to fix games. the thing that concerns me is how long the bubble will last or more specifically, the hardware. at 30-40+ years they've much outlived their use.

This is also a concern in the retro computing community.

I've always gotten along well with things that are community-based and though information security is a community, it has rock stars and "the community" is very overwhelming for me. I never intended to participate in it, but just to do my job. Things seem to be very different for me there, in a positive way, with this community. Oh, and retro computing is full of go getters and people trying to latch onto the hype, but I don't know how many people can be employed in that outside of YouTube and museums.

I found a book on O'Reilly. It's titled "Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics, 4th Edition."

Edit: I'm looking through your website, arcaderepair.net. I feel that my personal website would be a great way to document progress. I have something on that website indicating license that I chose for anything on the website. I was trying too hard then. I should totally change that so that I make it clear that "my material" could be used when I'm no longer around. Anyway, that website is stevenkorvin.com.
 
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As others have said, this is mostly a passion hobby that you will have to teach yourself most of the skills.

My first piece of advice is just know right from the start that you are never going to know everything. I have been working on arcades and pinballs since the mid-90s and even today I am getting advice about PCB repairs for things I have never seen before.

It really depends on what aspect of things you want to work on. I started off with doing general aesthetics and repairing obviously broken things, but didn't have a clue how the PCBs worked so didn't touch those. As time went on I added pinball shop outs to the mix, and then learned how to use a soldering iron. Over the last 8-9 years I have slowly learned how the PCBs worked and when I felt brave or had a PCB I didn't care about I would practice with replacing sockets and the best way to clean up the boards, that kind of thing. Over the last year I have really gotten into learning what ICs do and how circuits interact with each other.

I am just a hobbyist, so I am not in this for profit or gain. I very much enjoy sitting at the workbench and stretching my mind to figure out problems. Sometimes I get stumped and the people here at KLOV have mostly been very kind and helpful with giving advice when I am unable to figure things out on my own.

---

Now to answer your question, how do you learn? Lots and lots of reading and videos, but mainly just find something that needs fixing and dig in. You have to set aside your fear of the unknown or that you might fail and just get cracking. You are going to break things, you are going to fail, you are going to swear a lot. All of this is ok, just set the fear aside and get to it.

For pinballs, I started with early Bally/Stern solid state machines as they are very easy to work on and there is a metric boatload of info out there. The best place to start is at PinWiki: https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Bally/Stern

For arcades, YouTube is your friend here. There are tons of videos on how to repair just about anything. Be extremely careful with the CRT/monitor part, there are voltages there that can hurt you badly. Give that red anode wire a lot of respect until you know how to discharge it properly.

You are welcome to message me directly, I have tons of links to guides and manuals. Also do a lot of research on the KLOV forums, many of your questions have probably been asked before.
 
Thank you! You doing this as a hobby helped reaffirm to me that if I find a remote IT job that works for me, then I might be able to do this kind of thing on the side. Of course, I'll see. I have less than three years until I can search for employment, but each day, I get a little bit closer.

I keep bringing up parallels but not being able to know everything is something brought up often in information security.

And trust me, I've failed a lot in my life. So yes, I understand that I will fail at first.

I'm probably someone who's very utilitarian. My best friend told me that she believes that I'm probably utilitarian as well. I'm certainly not artistic. So, aesthetics is the aspect that I feel most wary about!

I found Chris Hibler's YouTube channel. He's still uploading videos. I'll be checking a good amount of those out today!

Also, thank you for the link to the solid state pinball repair guide. I had previously seen the PinWiki's guide on Pinball 2000 because Star Wars: Episode I Pinball is something else that I played along with Star Wars Racer Arcade. Revenge from Mars was probably the better game, and it was right next to Star Wars: Episode I Pinball at Sports World, but I was on a Star Wars fix then.
 
I wanted to post an update here. I don't know if double posting is allowed. The past few weeks were very stressful for me. For now, I'm just going to try to relax. I won't even say that I'll focus on what I know, which is the information technology stuff.

I'd like to thank everyone again for the information, the resources, and encouragement thus far.
 
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