Arcade Repair
Dig Dug Repair – Submitted Question
I constantly get questions through this arcade game blog about repair. Repairing your arcade game is an absolutely necessary skill to have if you plan to have a gameroom in your home, or at least the basics. Here is a question I got recently from a guy who just bought a Dig Dug arcade game and its showing a white screen. I did a little research and here are a couple of first step suggestions. (more…)
What the flux? Lesser known facts about solder’s little friend.
One of the most simple repairs that an arcade collector will perform is a ‘cap kit’, where you desolder most or all of the electrolytic capacitors on a monitor chassis board to fix a myriad of display issues on your game. Some solders have what is known as ‘flux’ in them, which is an agent to prevent oxidization of the metal joints. Here are some tips for cleaning flux off of a printed circuit board, and why you should do it. (more…)
Starting to fix a Ms. Pac-man playing blind
Sometimes its knowing how to search. If you have a popular game like Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, or a myriad of others they may have a Electrohome G07 monitor. There are plenty of materials online for how to fix a monitor, you just have to know the right question to ask to direct a search – you’ll want to start by searching for “G07 flow chart”. (more…)
Tools needed to repair arcade games
Interesting post from the Klov arcade game forum from the week, tools for repairing arcade games.
The original post was titled ‘Which tools should be on the ultimate test bench?‘ and there were some awesome contributions for tools that are needed for diagnosing and repairing arcade games from monitors, to power supplies to PCB (game boards).
Have suggestions to add to this list?
- Should it be broken up by section – meaning should we list the tools needed under ‘Monitors’, ‘PCBs’, etc.
- Should it be categorized by beginner, intermediate or advanced?
- What tools are missing?
- Can we add links for best place to buy these tools?
- Can we add definitions of the tools and how they’re used?
Even tools you might make yourself. Leave a comment and I’ll add your suggestions so we can fill out this list for anyone interested in trying to repair their own favorite classic arcade. (more…)
Is Wagner Gameworks Closing?
Wagner Gameworks (Doc Pinball) is one of two or three local arcade shops that I know of that build and service coin operated machines. But if you were to read his Craigslist posting this week, it seems as though he is going out of business. But Wagner is still doing business. Read on to see what inside information I know about whether his arcade shop is actually closing up shop or if his choice of wording was just exceptionally poor. (more…)
