The Next Game Coming to the Dumb Arcade

[jeffradon2000]

Wow big month in the arcade. Brian and I moved the next shooting game to the arcade last night and it was the hardest game to move ever. Even tho it could be separated into 2 big pieces, it was still very large heavy and awkward. We even had trouble trying to get it into the big green van! I'll say that's the last non-standard arcade cabinet I'm ever going to attempt to move. Of course the real kicker is getting up and down the stairs in my basement, it took every muscle we had to push it up the stairs and outside.

Still I think new shooting game is going to be a hit and hopefully won't break down for a long time since it has a new lcd monitor installed.

Now to pick up more games and get ready for swapping 2 pinballs next month.

[jeffradon2000]

Got the next racing game home yesterday. It was a little bigger and heavier than I expected. I had to take out the big heavy control panel and monitor out of the cabinet before getting it down to my basement. I expect it will be a while for me to fix it up and have it ready to move to the arcade. I did notice it has tax stickers from 2021 so it hasn't been sitting around unused for a long time. I think this game will be pretty fun once it's ready.

Next week I plan to pick up Robb's pinball and then that should be it for a while on picking up more games. I have quite a list of games to fix right now.

I'm still planning on trading out 2 pinballs next month, so more excitement to come!

[jeffradon2000]

After Halloween I'll be listing Fishtales and cueball for sale. Pinbot and Judge Dredd are all prepped and ready to come to the arcade once those other 2 are gone.

I did pick up Robb's game, which is a Raven. It's got some pretty major problems so will be a while before it's ready to go. Raven is not the most exciting game ever, but will be fun for a little while before it gets traded for something else. I'm not sure what game I'll switch out for it just yet but a good chance it will be Mars. It's going to be a while tho as I have other games to trade out first.

I need to get next racing game working. Right now it has a dead PC power supply which needs replaced before I can see what else is wrong with it. Also mystery pinball still doesn't work 100% but I think I have a lead on what's wrong.

[somejabroni]

I feel the need
The need for racing game 3

[jeffradon2000]

Well darn it, Fishtales and Cue Ball have been on the market for a week and I still don't have a buyer. Plenty of people kicking the tires and sending bad offers and also wondering if I would fix their game, the usual stuff.

But I'm not in a big hurry to get these sales made, so I'll just bide my time. I marked them both down by $50, I'll keep doing that every week or so until they sell. More than likely they will both get sold and picked up on Black Friday when all heck is going on.

Meanwhile I had told myself no more deals until I get these 2 pins sold and the next 2 pins in place in the arcade, but in reality I'm going out this Saturday to the Chicago area to pick up 2 more pins. Nothing too exciting as these are both EM pins from the 60s but each one has something interesting going on. It seems these have been sitting in an elderly couple's basement for a long time and the rubber has disintegrated, but otherwise these look in very nice shape and I could not pass up the bargain prices. My basement is going to be getting very full.

Also if all goes well today I may be installing a pretty snazzy mod on Godzilla that I ordered back in April and finally has come in.

I haven't made any progress lately fixing up my 3 game projects in my basement as I've been too busy working on assembling all the photos I've ever taken for my wife's Christmas present. She has asked me to make photo albums and I've decided to make one for every year we've been married minus this year since it's not over, so basically 14 photo albums and sifting through hundreds of pictures that I've saved by different storage means over the years. It's been a big project. As soon as that's done I'm hungry to get back to game repair.

[jeffradon2000]

I guess Robb is getting the Cue Ball Wizard but I need to make a couple minor fixes to it first, so hopefully after black friday we can get that out of the arcade finally. Fish Tales is still on the market, jeeze.

Meanwhile my dealings with the old man record barn have been bothersome as I was hoping to offload Asteroids over at the Barn but it broke down so I had to trade it out with SPACE MISSION PINBALL instead. Now Asteroids is back in my basement needing fixed again. Once I get that fixed I'm just selling it straight from my basement.

I'm getting closer to fixing the next mystery pinball in the backlog as it's been a real tricky issue. I think I've figured out where I'm losing -12v in the sound power supply which is hopefull the cause of the distorted sound and I've ordered new components to hopefully get that fixed. I still haven't even setup Robb's Raven to start working on that one. And I still have the next Racing Game waiting to be fixed. I ordered a new computer power supply for it which has arrived, I just need to plop it in and see what else is busted on that game.

Also I noticed yesterday in the arcade that Gunblade is down again! This issue has me nervous. I'm hoping I'll find a loose wire that I can solder back on but it could turn out to be a board problem and then I'll really be in trouble on that machine.

And I've also decided to nix my big Tunnel plans in January since it seems a lot of our shows are getting congested with equipment and people, putting a pinball machine in the tunnel is just going to make that problem worse. It will also save me some money if I don't go forward with those plans anyway as I've been spending a lot more money lately than I expected. I was thinking instead maybe we plaster the walls with old show fliers? Maybe add a few more interesting lights. I'll probably move the chicken machine to where the empty pinball cabinet is and take the empty pinball cab home to save on more space.

[jeffradon2000]

Well after a lot of buildup things are moving rather quickly now. I finally sold Fishtales on Tuesday to a new pinball collector who is very excited to get it. It will be his second game, his first being a counter force. He brought his kid with him who is also very excited about pinball. Fishtales has definitely gone to a good home.

Judge Dredd and Pinbot were also moved into the arcade Tuesday night. I'm glad Jim is excited about Judge Dredd, everyone else is mad that Fishtales is gone I guess.

Over the holiday weekend I really focused on getting the next mystery pinball fixed up and I finally did it! It's 100% working now and ready for the arcade whenever I sell the next game. This was a really tough game to work on and I learned a lot in the process. I even sent boards out to be professionally serviced and that still didn't do the trick. I finally figured out the problem with the sound power -12v circuit. I replaced every component on that circuit and it all started working.

I still need to fix up the next racing game, which is definitely going to be a tough project. I still haven't touched Raven, and I also have a couple EM pinballs waiting to be fixed up as well. I think my main focus next will be on Asteroids, once I get the parts for it. I had loaned it to the old men at the Record Barn but nobody liked it there and it developed a problem with a really bad buzzing sound and the monitor is pulsing. I think the problem is in the audio/power regulator board. I bought a rebuild kit for that so I'll be replacing a bunch of components there once that gets shipped in.

Oh and Cue Ball is going to Robb's house tonight.

[jeffradon2000]

Last week was a big week. Cue Ball made it to Robb's house and I even got Gunblade working!!!

Now everything in the arcade is working!

Now to get everything in my basement working

[jeffradon2000]

I was busy in my basement over the weekend fixing up games. I've mainly been working on my next EM pinball, which is almost done. I also fixed Asteroids and made a video about it on my facebook. I'm thinking I may do this with my projects going forward as it gives me extra incentive to get things done. I've been documenting my EM pinball as I go so that will be my next video.

I'm not sure what game is going to the Dumb Arcade next. If it all works out it might be the next racing game, however that project is really not going well at the moment. If it's still not ready by January then Asteroids may be returning the arcade once Galaga gets hauled off by the State Museum.

[jeffradon2000]

I'm thinking right now in January I may bring in Mibs pinball and Asteroids. If Roy continues to be a problem after I replace some parts next week then I may need to bring that home so it's not sitting around taking up space. Galaga will be going to the state museum.

[jeffradon2000]

wow I have a lot of games to fix in the arcade right now. Both Dredd and Roy have been down for a bit. Shrek is pooping balls and it sounds like Mars may be acting up as well. We'll see how much of all of that I can get fixed tonight.

I haven't had much time at home lately to work on games but I did work a little on the next racing game for the arcade and last night I was actually able to play a game on it! It still needs a lot of work, the speaker in the seat isn't working, and the screen is very dim. Also the power supply looks sketchy. I'll be working on this one for a while yet.

Also I'm pretty close to getting Raven pinball fully working. Right now the game works but doesn't have sound. I'm reading some voltages that don't seem right so hopefully replacing some bridge rectifiers and the main filter capacitor will do the trick.

the museum is picking up Galaga on 1/20, so we should probably get the next games moved over next week!

[jeffradon2000]

It's a big week for the arcade starting today. I'm taking Dredd and Roy home and replacing them with Mibs and Asteroids. Dredd will probably take a while to fix as I'm having to send in the driver board to be worked on by a professional. It's a $400 board if I had to buy it new so I'd rather wait.

I'm still having trouble with Raven at home as I'm still stumped on the sound issue. However I thought I'd double up on the craziness by getting 2 more games on Thursday from Shelbyville, IN that are the same model as Raven! One of those games will be going to straight to the arcade and other coming home with me so I can swap parts back and forth to pinpoint my issues with Raven.

I've also been making progress on the next racing game. I've made a little more progress and got the speaker in the seat working, now I'm waiting on parts that will hopefully finish it.

Also I had time to setup my other EM pinball project in the basement to start on next when I have downtime from all the other projects. That pin seems to be working pretty well, just needs thorough cleaning and new rubbers.

[jeffradon2000]

I've been busy with all kinds of arcade projects lately, just haven't finished any for a bit.

I'm trying to get Mars finally 100% working and it's fighting me the whole way. I finally figured out why some of the pops don't work is because the coils have been wired backwards, that's why they keep blowing fuses and pop boards. I have to get more pop boards, diodes and fuses so hopefully next week I'll finally have it all ironed out and the game will be fully working! At least I was able to get some of the non-working lights functioning again. It involved replacing transistors on the driver board, which I'm not always successful at, but worked out this time.

Once Mars is finished, then I'll be posting it for sale along with Pinbot, which will make way for the next 2 pinballs to come to the arcade.

I've also been making tweaks to Hollywood Heat to keep that thing running. I think it's ran for a whole week now without issue.

Also at home I have the new racing game fully working! Now I'm trying to decide if I want to make some further tweaks to bulletproof the monitor more or call it good. Once new racing game is ready, I expect it will take the place of Surf Planet.

After all of that I still need to get Dredd patched up and ready to come back and I've got 2 more pinballs in the works as well.

[jeffradon2000]

Over the weekend I got another pinball fully working in the basement and ready to head over to the arcade. Hopefully I'll finally get Mars completely working tomorrow night and then I'll be ready to put it and Pinbot up for sale.

After having the next racing game on for a while in the basement, I've decided the monitor still isn't working as well as it should and probably would be best to be replaced by a computer monitor for better longevity. So I can't count the racing game ready for the arcade just yet.

I've still got 3 more pinballs in the basement to fix up and also hopefully I'll have the building fixed on Godzilla soon as well.

[jeffradon2000]

Wow I made a lot of progress last night. Mars is finally 100% working including the pop bumpers that have never worked. It's now listed for sale along with Pinbot. Pinbot has already been spoken for and will be picked up on Sunday. So far no bites on Mars yet other than people wanting me to sell Dolly, which will never happen.

Also I had some time to finally fix the building on Godzilla. This time the problem was the opto switches in the top lane that feed the rooftop were out. So this would mean it would never read that the balls were being loaded into the building so it would never start the multiball. I had the building disabled for a few weeks until I was able to figure out this was the problem and got the parts ordered. About $40 worth of new tiny opto boards and now it's working again.

Right now everything is working pretty well in the arcade. There is still a small issue with Shrek where one of the drop targets isn't registering. I have the new opto ready to put in it next week when I have time for fixing stuff again. The targets still work and start multiball like they should so probably nobody has realized it's a problem. Also I need to get around to working on Dolly one of these days as I have new displays for it to replace the bad ones and I need to get back to fiddling with some of the bad light sockets on the playfield.

I've got 2 more pins primed and ready for the arcade so we'll be seeing those soon!