Worst Arcade Week Evar

Phetishboy

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So, since I have been collecting, there have always been minor setbacks. Usually though, little triumphs also occur and they usually balance each other out. Unfortunately, I finally hit a week where NOTHING is going right. Seriously, have you had this week yet?

-Left 5 of my games on all day long while at work yesterday. Got home, 12 hours later, and realized it when I went to switch the laundry. Ran to turn them off, but the rebuilt 6100 in my Tempest now has severe vertical collapse. AGAIN. Rebuilt monitor, replacement board, no idea where to start. Other 4 games (all raster) perfectly fine.

-My Multi-Williams build is still stalled because I can't get the control wiring to do what it is supposed to. I only get 10 minutes to look at it every 3 days and I am still stuck. That was after my MW overlay got nearly ruined by faulty bolt heads underneath it.

-I had all my Gorf wiring and RGB boards looked at because I lost video signal right after I restored the machine. All new connectors were crimped on, RGB board checked out, IO board checked out. Installed everything, still no video, and the game still plays blind.

-Lost sound in my Q-bert, again, but this time restarting it doesn't get it back like it used to. No sound, not even stuttering or I'm Turned on. Fuck. Qbert is no fun to play in silence.

-My Pole Position died. My boy's favorite game, dead. Haven't had time to do much to it, but at least one fuse in the transformer block is melted. At least it's not a board issue this time. ARII's will have to be rebuilt just to be sure.

-My idea of a game room addition has been voted down by the resident building official, my wife. Due to a new baby on the way, I may lose the Outer Limits in a little over a year, forcing 8 games out into the cold.

-trying to rip DVD's this week of cartoons I haven't seen in 31 years. Both discs I tried have had bad sectors so far and won't play the last episode of 6. Annoying.

-got a replacement hard drive for my megatouch that hasn't worked right for over a year. The replacement drive worked great for 2 days, then started locking up and resetting, just like my old one. Kids got sad. 2nd replacement arrived yesterday, no time to install it.

-Sea Wolf started showing graphic garbage on the right side of the screen. Thankfully it goes away after the game warms up a bit, but I'm sure it will get worse as time goes on.

-Tried to get a new DK Cocktail instruction card printed, but found out that the vector file on Localarcade was never completed and has unfinished portions everywhere. No time to clean it up, so that ends that idea.

-Saw one of my last wanted games pop up on the other side of the country in what may or may not be a false ad. Frustrating.

-Got my menu board and began setting it up with high scores in the plastic letters and numbers provided. My HSS initials are SEX, and I realized that only one X came with the letter pack. SEX holds 80% of the HSs down here, so I'll have to source a shit ton of Xs.

Overall, been a bad week.
 
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Oh yeah, I also found out that Cap'n Crunch is being phased out, which makes me sad. I like that cereal line and have been impressed that the cartoon commercials are still around.
 
i'm right there with you...

qbert - showing bad graphics and knocker is going off every other second

pole pos - running with bad graphics - prolly sockets coming loose

Marble Madness - tries to install the sideart yesterday and came out with creases on both sides..

sold a couple g07's on ebay to people who don't know how to install them or adjust them, so they think they are broke..

and if i dont get this zoo keeper today it may be the final straw..


when it rains, it pours
 
Could be worse. Cheer up.
 

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sounds like the typical scenario of people like us trying to preserve electronics that are pushing 30 years old. Always gonna be something going bad/wrong. Just gotta keep ur head up. At least they are neat to look at lol
 
You have more issues with games than I have games period. Things could be worse.
 
They can be fixed, hang in there soldier. At least you weren't pulled from the innards of some big gator.
 
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the rebuilt 6100 in my Tempest now has severe vertical collapse. AGAIN. Rebuilt monitor, replacement board, no idea where to start

The deflection circuit on the 6100 is well documented and simple. IIRC, it comes down to replacing 1 or 2 transistors in most cases.

A quick Google reveals our very own Vector Junkie giving an excellent treatise on this very subject:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=857561

Keep your spirits up, you will have the tech issues fixed in no time.
 
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Sounds like a tough one for sure Phet. I know how it feels not having the time to react to problems. With a newborn son and a 5 year old daughter, I only get minutes each day to address just about anything in my personal life. I have had a machine or two act up over the last month or two, but without having time to look into them, I have had a couple more act up. So now I am stuck with 4 or 5 that need little things done, much like yourself. I need to start chipping away at the issues soon or things will quickly get overwhelming.

Good luck getting those things resolved, I am sure you will knock a couple out quickly, and a couple others may take a bit more, but you will get them all done. Not sure what to tell you about the addition- that is a tougher thing to push through!
 
Shawn,
Sorry to hear of your troubles... I dont wanna sound rude - but "welcome to this hobby"
Everyone here that is a serious collector has had this happen from time to time. These games are 30 years old. If we want them to last the best thing to do would be to NEVER turn them on. We have all been there.
I was working on some games the other day (minor stuff) while my wife was playing Space Zap, Mr Do and Frogger. Then she says - what is that ticking sound? Turns out its my Qbert that just decided to stop working. Why? No idea!
It happens all the time - and the funny thing is (at least for me) I can tell if there is a sound in my arcade that isnt right... and then it starts... where is the noise coming from. Then when you find the problem game - the first question is - why is it doing that?

And how about this - when you have a game that doesnt work - why does everyone you have over gravitate to that machine? I had a bunch of ppl over during the Packer playoff games and during halftime we would go down in my basement. My baby pac was giving me trouble back then - and there are at least 30 other working games in my basement. Yep sure enough - 2 ppl standing around my baby pac with a black screen trying to get it to go.
And then the question - why is this one not working??? Annoying!
 
Shawn,
Sorry to hear of your troubles... I dont wanna sound rude - but "welcome to this hobby"
Everyone here that is a serious collector has had this happen from time to time. These games are 30 years old.

Im no serious collector, but Ive had games stop working. Do I count?
 
Oh yeah, I also found out that Cap'n Crunch is being phased out, which makes me sad. I like that cereal line and have been impressed that the cartoon commercials are still around.

Love that cereal too, even though it cuts the roof of my mouth.
 
Holy shit Colonel, Dishonorable Discharge for you. As to the transistors on the 6100, just replaced them all 4 months ago.
 
I can't compare to that list. However, I just had a new neon I purchased show up broken this week. That means I am 2 for 4 with neons now. Out of 4 shipped to me over the years, 2 have showed up broken. Hopefully the seller comes through with a refund or replacement.

With your Q*bert I would be suspicious of that power supply. They are quite flaky. The maximum I could get mine to crank was 4.7 volts. Someone on KLOV used to sell Q*bert power supply rebuild kits. I bought one and it fixed it right up rock solid. I'm only throwing that out there because I think the sound board uses 27V+ from the power supply board to power an audio amp. With the power supply rebuild kit you get a better spec'd diode that provides the audio amp voltage that doesn't fry as easily. My first guess would be that voltage is low or bad, or you need to replace the U23 (LM379S) audio amp.
 
I can't compare to that list. However, I just had a new neon I purchased show up broken this week. That means I am 2 for 4 with neons now. Out of 4 shipped to me over the years, 2 have showed up broken. Hopefully the seller comes through with a refund or replacement.

With your Q*bert I would be suspicious of that power supply. They are quite flaky. The maximum I could get mine to crank was 4.7 volts. Someone on KLOV used to sell Q*bert power supply rebuild kits. I bought one and it fixed it right up rock solid. I'm only throwing that out there because I think the sound board uses 27V+ from the power supply board to power an audio amp. With the power supply rebuild kit you get a better spec'd diode that provides the audio amp voltage that doesn't fry as easily. My first guess would be that voltage is low or bad, or you need to replace the U23 (LM379S) audio amp.

Qbert checklist

-restored machine...........check
-rebuilt 4900............check
-replaced sound chip on CPU........check
-Rebuild power supply.......check
-rebuild sound board.........check
-replace chip at U17.........check
-add Doyle's multi kit.........check
-replace chip at U16..........not yet
-replace power supply with AS version........check
-replace big blue cap with new version.......check


So the only thing I have yet to try is replacing the chip at U16 on the soundboard. I will then replace the U17 chip (again), and if the problem still persists, I'll replace the sound chip on the CPU. If that doesn't fix it, I will fall down and fuck myself after pushing the machine off of a clock tower.
 
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