SPACE INVADERS DELUXE: To restore or MAME?

[ChadTower]

A worklamp is a necessity anyway... just get a cheapo desk lamp with a rubber tipped clamp, the type you'd get for a dorm room.  That's what I use, had it since I bought it for my dorm room in 1998.

You bought the Radio Shack DMM and it didn't come with batteries?  Return it, that's used, it comes with batteries.  I don't remember if they were in the package or the DMM itself, but it definitely came with batteries.

[RayB]

That Randy Fromm link has a tutorial on using a multimeter. Print it out and follow along...  :-)

[ChadTower]

Actually, he should read it 3x, then print it out and follow along.  That's one of the parts he wants to know thoroughly.

[AlanS17]

Well I just have so many machines in my garage that it's like a maze. The light doesn't pass around very well. I need to open up the garage door to get enough light in there to work on the machines in the corners.

[ChadTower]

How many of those are working?  With that many machines, you need to pretty much master the entire contents of Fromm's material.  You should get the videos too, they are a valuable complement to the written material.

[AlanS17]

I'd say about half (6 or so) are working. However, only about 3 of those are pretty enough to sell right now.

How expensive are these videos?

[ChadTower]

Not cheap... I wouldn't buy ALL of them, but some are sure worth the money.  If you have any vector games, the XY monitor repair video is sure worth it...

[AlanS17]

Nope, no XY games. The majority are JAMMA standard cabs with 19" monitors (at least they are now that they've been converted) that used to actually be good classic games before they were mutilated. Of course, so are probably more work than they're worth to fix.

[AlanS17]

Well a guy named Pat Danis came over today to check out my monitors. They've been misbehaving and he does repairs.

When he got there, though, he noticed my SID. I explained my situation to him and he took a quick look inside. He noticed that the wire harness is all jacked up. It looks like at least one 5v line was cut at the harness. There might be more problems, but that's a start. I need to check it against that schematic in the pdf owner's manual.

Hopefully we found the problem!

[ChadTower]

If that is the case, either get a new harness or completely replace the connectors, all the way down to a new set of pins.  Also consdier retinning or reconditioning the edge connectors.

[dweebs0r]

Restore it. Space Invaders and Asteroids cabs look stupid with joysticks on them.

I have to disagree at the expense of offending the purists who want to see the thing restored.

It would make a great looking Mame cabinet.



Here is a link to a great Mamed SI cab thats a good example (its pictured above).

And speaking for myself here, sometimes money comes into play and it comes down to best bang for the buck.  As long as you dont make any permanant changes, I say go for the Mame route if its better for your budget.

JMHO,
-Dweebs

[ChadTower]

That thing looks all kinds of bastardized.  It is not attractive.