Gorf Cocktail restore

[Twigkid]

Hello, my father has had this Gorf arcade for years...in an uninsulated patio, open to humidity and temperature changes...The unit looks to be in good condition, minus the broken glass top, which is now gone. The game however itself, doesn't function properly. There are solid blue lines, about .5" thick, spaced about 1.5" apart, that block the screen in a horizontal manner. And apparently, some programming is corrupted? As soon as you begin, you blow up! even before the enemies finish setting up...And you continue to blow up until you are out of lives...And at Game Over, where it shows small parts from points in the game, even the example ship is constantly exploding! Could this be caused by some short in the computer? I want to see this back to its former glory!

Thanks in advance,
Greg

Pictures:
The lines that are blue, except in the blue background level...


Overhead view of the open box

The broken glass =( A glass bottle of water! hit on the edge of the table, and the whole top shattered...

There are these 2 wires that are not connected to it's destination...the blue one and the green with yellow stripe. They both appear to be grounding wires. The blue one runs to a part of the frame on the coin mech door, and the green with yellow runs to a bolt on the 2nd player speaker...Were they originally attached?

The Gorf intro roll

Any leads from this?


More pictures upon request.

[Twigkid]

Update! It works...somewhat...We pulled out the one of the Ram Cards and cleaned the contacts and put them back in, now there are no blue lines, the video is how I remember it, but present problems are lack of sound, and lack of an operational fire button  :'(

Also, the enemies leave a trail in the screen as they pattern back and forth...






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Update2 while typing the first update!
We pulled out more cards(Ram cards, Pattern Bd, Ram/Rom Bd, all of those in that little case) to clean them and put them back, now there's no video at all...It turns on, and it has a white screen, nothing else...What did I do?!

There is this sticker inside speaking of channels and switches, but I do not know of these switches...

I found these knobs by the base of the monitor

And these knobs and 1 switch on top of the coin storage box



I have no owners manual for this thing, and I have 0 clue what I am doing...My last endeavor to clean it made it worse...I really do not want to tinker further without help... 
Maybe the sound isn't broken, perhaps it is just off? And now just the white screen... >.<

[Spyridon]

Make sure the cards are all seated snugly in the rack and that your wire harness connectors are on good.  And be very careful when handling the cards as the are very sensitive.

You can view the manual here.

[Spyridon]

Put the game in test mode

This switch:


The knobs below it will control the volume.  Don't go messing with knobs until you know what they are, especially with the monitor.

[Twigkid]

Thank you for the manual!

When in test mode, it is still just a white screen, that bugs my eyes...Is it possible that static on me might have fried a board?

[Spyridon]

The white screen almost sounds like something isn't hooked up to your monitor correctly.  Double check you connections.

[Twigkid]

Everything appears to be in order, any specific location you would like me to direct my eyes? And I am apparently not the only one tinkering with this...The Ram/Cpu/Pattern cards have been pulled out a few times...The monitor knobs could have been toyed with...And there is still those 2 unattached wires...I also note that the lights on the coin door and the player control shelf do not come on...And the volume knobs are not affecting the lack of noise...

[Twigkid]

I swear I have the worst luck fixing things...I cleaned the contacts on the various boards, and now the screen doesn't even turn on...In the base of the tube, this little glass bulb has a faint orange glow...After I turn the machine off, the screen flashes a standard CRT shut down despite the lack of bulb light...What am I doing wrong?!?! It seems every time I touch this, no matter how careful I am, it gets worse...