Been gone on vacation for a while, good to finally have some time to be back on here.
The story: This guy calls me up and asks if I'm the one with the ad looking for arcade machines... I say yep what you got? (I get quite a few calls, but people tend to think their precious machine is worth far too much) He then tells me he has a Centipede. Hmm, now I'm interested a bit more, so I start asking questions. Does it work? "Well it did when we put it up" How long have you had it? "About 15~17 years" Hmm... What kind of shape is it in? "Well it was in good shape, but when we were moving it we got caught in the rain" He then tells me he remembered seeing my ad and rushed to get it under a tree when it started raining.
So now I'm thinking okay, this thing is trashed, maybe good for some parts, so I ask how bad is the water damage? "Well, I don't know much about these things, but it got hit with some rain" (We have monsoons here in AZ, about 3-4" of rain in like 20 minutes)
He then recalls that "the picture was kind of shrinking when they last played it like 10 years ago". Alright, I'm still interested enough to ask the big question, how much are you looking to get for it? "Oh, I saw your ad a few weeks ago and didn't call you then, but I remembered when we had to move it again, but since it got wet I wasn't going to ask you for anything, I just wanted to see if you wanted it"
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?..... I'm on the way.
I get there, and there it is sitting in his yard under said tree. 100% complete, artwork is cherry. It has some dirt on it that splashed up from the rain, and a VERY LITTLE bit of water damage at the top corners. Missing one piece of t-molding. I start talking to the guy about the hobby, etc. etc. While we're talking, I open the back panel and take a peek. Dry as a popcorn fart in July inside there. Not one single drop of rain entered this cab. I confirm that he just wants to get rid of it and he tells me yes, he is tired of moving it from one storage unit to another. I'm off for the hand cart. Not an easy yard to recover from, had to wrestle with the cart, but I got it loaded and back home.
I let her sit in the garage for a couple days just to get a good chance to dry out. Here in AZ, the garage is kind of like having a large oven or kiln, also good for drying paint... In the meantime, I opened the CP and removed the button and trackball, as well as the two original cone buttons. The fire button felt a little sticky and so did the ball. Disassembled and cleaned (a little bit of grit in there), and after reassembly all feels nice and smooth. Time for test drive.
First attempt, plug it in and hit the switch. Nothing.
Second attempt, reset the security switch on the back panel. She crackles to life!!! Cone buttons light up! Played around a little and it functions perfectly! Right down to the coin slots and the click of the counter.
The one problem is, yes, it appears to be suffering from screen collapse, the whole game screen is appearing in a 3" strip down the middle. Looks great, just really skinny.
I read some of the other threads, and it sounds like I should be off to Bob Roberts for a cap kit and resolder the joints.
I wanted to check if there was any possibility that it could be something fixable in the adjustment pots on the monitor PCB. There's like 5 or 6 pots on the PCB and 2 more right behind the flyback. Looks like it's an Electrohome G07.
If there's nothing else that it could be, any suggestions on doing the cap kit/resolder would be gladly welcomed. How difficult is it to do? I've read through two different guides already and two more about discharging and it doesn't seem to be all that hard. Anything else to watch out for?
Sorry for this being such a long post, just wanted to share my excitement after reading about everyone else's big scores.
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Topic: *EDIT* NOW WITH PICS Finally got my *JACKPOT* (Read 2191 times)
