The Next Game Coming to the Dumb Arcade

[jeffradon2000]

Mario bros is ready to come in, just waiting on Mr America to pick up the SF2 machine he bought. I just replaced the power supply on it last night as it was borked.

I've been very busy working on all the games. I have 2 candidates for what the next pinball might be, just depends on which gets done first. Both have been completely dead. I made a lot progress on one, it is actually working now and playing, but there are still sound issues and some cosmetic stuff to fix.

Road Kings is the other pinball and it's still completely dead. I decided to buy a new mpu board for it since the current one just looks too corroded to fix. It's weird as the traces are all fine, there is no corrosion on the actual board from batteries or anything. It's just that every metal component attached to the board is rusty or corroded like it was stored in a damp area for a long time. But it's the only board that has this problem. Makes me wonder if someone swapped out this crummy board for an originally good working board from the game. I can't imagine anyone at arcadia doing that and selling the game off as just a small project (sarcasm). Well the new board costs $600 so basically this game went from a good deal to I'm probably going to lose money on it when I eventually sell it. Hopefully once the new board is plopped in that will be all it needs other than some cleaning and playfield updates.

Lately a lot of games have been breaking in the arcade and I finally had time last night to work on them. I fixed Godzilla, Gunblade, and SF2. I still need a part to fix the latest issue on Dredd and Asteroids continues on its streak of being the most broken machine in the arcade. I have a few more components coming in for Asteroids and then we'll see if my latest attempt to fix it hits the spot. I've narrowed its problems down to the hi voltage section of the monitor but there are still multiple things that could be the cause, and I have to have special hi voltage tools in order to actually trace the problem. With the absence of that I'm just shotgunning board repairs by replacing pretty much every component on each circuit until I eventually stumble on the fix.

I could also start working on the next arcade machine which may be space invaders, which would replace asteroids once it's finally fixed. And once I'm caught up on all that I could probably start poking at Demo Man pinball.

Also I should mention Mousin Around is really nice now. Over the last couple weeks I installed new wolfpac displays that I assembled myself, replaced the bracket for the center targets, and rebuilt the flippers, which is making a big difference getting the ball up the ramps. 

[jeffradon2000]

I've been spending a whole lotta time fixing games lately

Last night I finally fixed Dredd, replacing the broken flipper plate. I see now after I took out the old one that its been broken for a while, someone had attempted to weld it back together, just not very well.

My latest attempt to fix Asteroids was unsuccessful. I replaced a bunch of monitor components but it's now worse somehow. The neck connector is now arcing electricity and giving me a good scare in the process. I'm putting up the white flag on this one. I could take it back to my basement and look for a replacement monitor but I don't really want to move this back down there as these atari cabinets are really heavy and I just don't want to mess with it anymore. Maybe someday I'll get another asteroids with the cool owl-eye coin door. I think that would be rad. I still like Asteroids as a game even tho Brian doesn't. This asteroids is now on Marketplace for cheap, hopefully someone will drag it away soon.

Mario Bros started having another problem. It doesn't always boot up all the way after it's been off for a couple days. It appears to be a B+ voltage problem. I have a pretty good idea what can be replaced to fix it. This might also make the last of the little screen jitters go away too. I was hoping to get this into the arcade soon, but now maybe it will be ready next week.

I'm trying to work on Space Invaders as the game to replace Asteroids. I'm not sure how much work it's going to need. Not much is happening right now when it's turned on. It may just be a power supply problem, hard to tell if there are other problems yet.

I tried turning on Omega Race and Gorf as well. Omega Race is showing no signs of life and Gorf's lights and monitor came on but it started smoking. I found there are titanium capacitors on gorf pcbs that are prone to failing spectacularly and that appears to be what happened here. These seem pretty easy to replace with modern caps.

And I've made lots of progress on the next 2 pins for the arcade. Road Kings seems to need just about everything replaced. I rebuilt the power supply and installed the new MPU/driver board. It's now able to boot and play, but the flippers need rebuilt, and there are some other coils not firing right. Also 2 of the displays are out. So next I get to pick between rebuilding flippers, re-sleeving and testing all other coils, and building new wolfpac displays. After all that I'll still need to strip and clean the playfield and change out all the bulbs with LEDs. Overall it needs just about everything and I'll definitely have more in it than it's worth when I'm done.

The other pinball is almost ready, it just needs a sound problem worked out which might be complicated. I ordered some ram chips and a new cpu for the sound board to see if I can swap those in to fix the issue.

After all of this, I just got myself into an interesting pinball trade deal, so we'll see what happens there.

[jeffradon2000]

well I think we know now what the next game is coming to the arcade. Not exactly what I had planned at the beginning of the month but sometimes a deal is hot and you gotta take it.

I did finally fix Mario Bros for real this time so maybe we'll see that in the arcade next week.

[jeffradon2000]

Today we're moving in Mario Bros, and moving Asteroids back to the repair dungeon. I said last time we moved Asteroids that it was going to be the last time we moved it, but here we are.

I worked on arcades all weekend and made progress on Space Invaders. It still needs a couple things and then it will be ready for the arcade.

Mr. America still needs to stop by and pick up SF2, and I imagine Troy wants to take back Wizard of Wor. I still have 2 more arcades I'm slowly making progress on and I expect I'll be receiving even more to work on.

I haven't touched the 3 pinballs in the repair dungeon in a while.

[jackparanoia]

A fat bearded man who coincidentally dresses like Mario might be making an appearance tomorrow during the day

[jackparanoia]

I think I added an image?


I guess the image didn't load or something, but there was a fat bearded Mario at the store today. 

[jeffradon2000]

Sept 6, 2023 20:46:08 GMT -6 jackparanoia said:

I think I added an image?


I guess the image didn't load or something, but there was a fat bearded Mario at the store today. 

wow the REAL Mario!

[jeffradon2000]

We're at almost a week and I still haven't seen any official announcements of Mario Bros being in the arcade. I suppose Brian is waiting to see if it breaks right away as is usually the case. We've also been a bit busy lately with other events.

I worked almost the whole weekend on Space Invaders. I was chasing down an issue where the screen would wobble a lot with any slight nudge to the machine or even loud sounds. I rebuilt the power supply board, I built a new edge connector on the game boards and I took out the monitor chassis multiple times to make adjustments. I thought I had it figured out when I took out the hi voltage diode and cleaned it up. I finally happened across the issue when I was poking things in the monitor chassis with a plastic screwdriver with the game turned on. Mind you it was a plastic screwdriver so I didn't get zapped to death. I was trying to poke at the neck wires to see if there was a loose connection when I accidently bumped a capacitor on the board which really made the screen go nuts. I narrowed it down to the capacitor next to it which turned out to have a cold solder joint. With the chassis out of the game I could definitely tell it was cold as the the joint was moving from underneath when I wiggled the component. I thought I had already resoldered all the components on the board in my desperation but must have missed this one. Finally once back in the game, no more wobble! With this experience I've learned a new skill, the poke method!

At least all the work I had done to this will help the game keep running good in the long run. It could still use a new cap kit on the monitor chassis but since it's not my game I'm not going to go that far. Also I replaced the black light and starter which lights up the neat diorama inside the machine. Also one of the feet broke off the cabinet and I glued and nailed that back on. This baby is ready to go! 

I know it's real soon after Mario Bros coming to the arcade. I expect SF2 and Wor are probably going to leave the arcade in the next few weeks so this and Galaga will be taking their spots.

After finally completing Space Invaders, I went back to work on Road Kings pinball. I didn't have much time left. I started working under the playfield to clean all the coils and resleeve them as outside the pop bumpers, all moving parts on this game are very grimy. I need to rebuild all of that plus the flippers, then strip, clean, and install new rubbers on the playfield. Then after updating lighting to LED this one will be ready as well. It is refreshing working on a System 11 again. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to work on pinball machines with my old Pinbot. These pins are just so easy to work on as everything makes sense. Maybe Road Kings will appear in the arcade next month, will be taking Hollywood's spot.

After road kings I still have 2 arcades and 2 pinballs in the repair dungeon to go through next. Most likely I'll be getting 2 more arcades to work on soon too.

[jeffradon2000]

Wizard of Wor has gone back home, kind of suddenly yesterday. I'm going to stop by the museum tomorrow to see if they're ready to send Galaga back to us. I thought I would have heard from them by now. I figure Galaga will take Wor's place.

Then Mr America has agreed to come pick up SF2 on Oct 2. That will probably be when Space Invaders comes to the arcade.

Also I've been working on the next pinball, Road Kings, this weekend. It only needs a couple more evenings and it will be ready. I'm in the middle of stripping down the playfield, cleaning, adding new rubbers and bulbs. I had to order a new coil for the right flipper as it was completely busted. I'll be gone this coming weekend, so it will probably be completed the following week, ready to enter the arcade in October. Of course I need to sell Hollywood Heat first.