For those that don't know, I repair arcade games as a sort of hobby/business. I used to do it full time for an operator, but got out of that operation roughly a year ago.
So about a week ago while repairing a Lethal Enforcers, a guy comes in and starts poking fun at me for working on the machine instead of working on the cars there (it was @ a repair shop). I tell him that I don't work for the garage, this is what I do. He immediately gets quite interested. Tells me that he has a Pac-Man that stopped working a few years back, and that he'd like me to take a look at it. His place is in the same building, just around the corner.
I swing by and take a brief look. It's filthy, been in a corner unused for a very long time. I can already see wiring hacks and wires that are too tight, likely why it's not working properly. He said that his nephew had broken into the machine, and that one of the mechanics that had worked there had attempted to get it working again.
It's in a dark corner of the warehouse, surrounded with stuff. He says he'll have one of his guys bring it out to the shop floor. I tell him I'll be there on Saturday to get things going.
I get there today, and the game is still in the back, surrounded by stuff. Hey, no skin off my back. If you want to pay $45 an hour for me to move your stuff around, that's your prerogative.
I dig in. First thing...disconnect *everything.* I can already see a blown fuse, wrapped in aluminum foil, and though I know it belongs to the monitor I don't want any more problems if I can avoid them.
Replace the fuse, fire it up. Doesn't blow...good. Disconnect power, hook up the PCB. Plays blind...excellent. Check the input voltage on the monitor...120VAC. It's a K4600, so I make sure the "cards" are plugged in securely, especially since it was the monitor input that was the wire bundle that was so tight. Things look okay, so I hook the AC up to the monitor and fire it up again.
Fuse holds. Good! That's when I hear the sound...kind of like a mosquito. I see a small bolt of lightning around the flyback area. Crap! I kill the power. Just what I need, a cracked flyback. Wait...no...one of the wires on the focus pot has completely corroded off. The wire end was right next to the other wire on the pot and a spark was jumping right to it. I hook the end around just to test, and fire up again. I get a picture this time, but it looks weird, things jumping around.
Cut the end off, cleaned the connector on the pot and resoldered it. Then I make sure to check the PCB for chips that have "walked". There are several. Fire it up...perfect picture. Well...almost. The focus is just a tiny bit off. I try and tweak it, but the knob feels like it's just spinning around freely in the pot housing. So I leave it alone.
Clean up the CP because the buttons are sticking. Clean the monitor, plexi and glass since it doesn't look like it's been cleaned in about ten years. It's really shaping up.
One coin switch works, the other doesn't. Hmmm...maybe because some damn fool decided to cut the wire, then changed his mind but didn't reconnect it properly. Soldered that back to working order.
Play a game, and promptly get my highest ever Pac-Man score. Kick-ass. I walk to the office to show the owner his repaired game, and give him my invoice.
I worked for nearly two hours, but only charged him an hour and a half. And he raised his eyebrows at that. He was really surprised that I charged him $68.50. I thought it was more than fair, and pointed out that most techs charge around $70 an hour. I suppose when you have nothing to compare it to it can be surprising. I don't know why.
We go back to the game because there are several things I want him to note about it. When we face it, I note that it's...dead. Completely. It's one of those moments where you say "crap...this doesn't make me look good!" I thought maybe a breaker had blown, but there was power at the outlet. I start poking again. I find the culprit: the other monitor fuse had blown. It was supposed to be a 2A fuse, and had been replaced with a 1A. Once that was replaced, everything was good to go again.
Told him to keep it running, check it once an hour, and to call me if anything went wrong with it during that time. He plans on putting it in his waiting room and collecting quarters.
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Topic: Had fun today repairing a Pac-Man (Read 5424 times)
