Fixing your Arcade Machine 101

[Bibin]

A quick tip for those of you with old 80's dedicated arcade games. If your game isn't responding to input, has odd video, or won't boot, you should probably clean the edge connector. It's a bother with these though, so here's a tutorial.

Open up the back of your machine, and look for your board. It'll be MASSIVE (pictured is Atari Dig-Dug), and will slide out. Slide it out a bit and gently disconnect the plug from the board. Slide it out further.

Be sure to support it on the LONG sides on the edges, as being large it WILL flex which is bad for it.

Lay it down on a clean surface, like so.

Look around for smudges, leaking capacitors or backup batteries, burnt out chips, "goo" between chip legs, dust, etc. Use rubbing alchohol to clean off the board, and make sure it's shiny. If you find broken traces, it's easy to fix them, as commonly there is nothing covering them. Just solder a bridge as you normally would.

For the edgecard, use rubbing alcohol, and if you need to, lightly scrap on them with a metal tool (so lightly, do not mess them up!) to expose fresh metal. If you see any burnt out pins (like on mine), don't fret, as they might be redundant (the one on mine is identical to another one, so it's okay.) You should still clean it, as resistance caused the burn in the first place.

After all this, put it back in, and plug it in.

Mine was booting fine, but would not coin up reliably and the controls cut out sometimes. Works great now! Next episode: monitor fixing.

 

[epicelite]

Where am I supposed to get a arcade machine?

 

[eurddrue]

Where am I supposed to get a arcade machine?

I just noticed that your name was epic elite, not epice lite

Ebay has some with local pickup only, or you can buy them from stupid people XD

 

[Bibin]

Where am I supposed to get a arcade machine?

...Do I have to respond to filth such as this? This thread is to help people who already own them. A lot more than you seem to believe do own upright arcade machines, and this post is the pinnacle of useless. Please refrain from content-free posts like this, Dr. Killgood.

It's "an" arcade machine, by the way.

For the record, I got mine for $158 on eBay, and got it via local pickup. The guy said the monitor was broken, but some tweaking got it to be usable. Once I get a cap kit it should look fantastic, as the board works as you can see. Pretty good deal for a machine that is valued at about 800-1000 dollars fully working!

 

[BoFoSho]

Bibin. I'm In need of some monitor repair.

 

[BoFoSho]

Bibin, Update this thread already.

 

[oniak]

Bibin. I'm In need of some monitor repair.

Whats the matter with your monitor? I own a handful of machines(used to have 6 or so down to 4 now. I have a fair amount of game boards too ) and have repaired them as well.

Also Bibin an issue like odd video could also be a monitor issue like the Pots not being adjusted correctly or blown capacitors/capacitors that are going to go.
There are a few people online that sell capacitor kit's for most monitors, but PLEASE do not mess with an arcade monitor or ANY Crt device without knowledge of the dangers they bring. They are rated at a high voltage, usually around 20,000-26,000 volts and that is not a friendly shock. Touch the wrong spot and your at a risk of injury. The safest way to deal with Monitors is to use a grounded tool to prod underneath and Anode cup and discharge the anode while clipping it from the CRT. Always treat the anode like it still has a charge as even though you discharged it, it could be dangerous. You should also make sure that the anode hole is discharged as well. CRT boards use some large capacitors that can hold a nasty charge, be aware of their presence. If anyone has an arcade question feel free to hit me up with a PM.