Videokarma.org

Go Back   Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums > Game Tech & How To

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 09-15-2009, 12:32 PM
JBL GUY JBL GUY is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 138
Hello out there...

Hello Group....

As a former pinball...juke box...pool table...video game shop manager and lead technician and since no other posts in this forum...Just stopping by to see if there are any others out there.

And this forum just plain looked sad with the "Never" in the postings box.

So I decided to be the first to post in this forum just kinda a "Seed" post.


It has been years since I was involved in this...My last stint was as a contract service provider for a local game shop operator. It was just a part time gig but the money was good...He had a lot of older games that no one wanted to work on...So I named my price and he bit...The conditions were kinda crummy...But like I said the money was great...

Last edited by JBL GUY; 09-15-2009 at 12:35 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 09-17-2009, 12:40 PM
RDusel RDusel is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 121
JBL guy,
You must have enjoyed what you did. I've often dreamed of doing pinball/video game repairs as a professional but around my area (NYC suburb) it pays almost nothing..
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 09-17-2009, 01:30 PM
JBL GUY JBL GUY is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 138
Quote:
Originally Posted by RDusel View Post
JBL guy,
You must have enjoyed what you did. I've often dreamed of doing pinball/video game repairs as a professional but around my area (NYC suburb) it pays almost nothing..
Thanks for the reply...Yep it is that way around here also if you work full time for them not much money in it.

But this was just a part time gig and I told him that the only way I would do it was on a per unit basis and he had to supply the parts...

IIRC and it has been a long time...I charged him $50.00 a piece and I could usually knock out 8 or 10 on a Saturday afternoon...Most of them just had simple common problems...But he had not been able to find anyone with any experience...Bad for him good for me.

Thanks again for the reply.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 09-17-2009, 02:02 PM
grumpy's Avatar
grumpy grumpy is offline
Admin
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Michigan
Posts: 379
Welcome to VK. I would have never gotten any work done in an arcade
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 09-17-2009, 02:16 PM
RDusel RDusel is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 121
Grumpy,
Doesn't part of you want to play the game and part of you want to open it up and see how it works?
Seeing the clever implementations of basically standard equipment is always fun for me..
Rob

Last edited by RDusel; 09-17-2009 at 02:16 PM. Reason: fixed mispelling
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #6  
Old 09-17-2009, 03:06 PM
JBL GUY JBL GUY is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 138
Quote:
Originally Posted by grumpy View Post
Welcome to VK. I would have never gotten any work done in an arcade
Grumpy thanks for the welcome.

The "New" does wear off after awhile. And although I enjoyed working on them I have never been much of a gamer.

My ex was a big gamer and I used to spend time with her...but it was not my favorite way to spend time playing video games.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RDusel View Post
Grumpy,
Doesn't part of you want to play the game and part of you want to open it up and see how it works?
Seeing the clever implementations of basically standard equipment is always fun for me..
Rob
My fist gig doing this was a long long time ago and some of the games like...

"Tankers" were actually made up of all TTL logic chips...Before any CPU games. And it was kinda cool to open the game and see a big old card cage with IIRC 4 or 5 18" by 18" cards all fully populated with SN74xx series chips. (Not to mention huge 5 volt supplies...this was in the days before widespread use of switching supplies).

Actually that was one of the common problems on those old games...

The cards plugged into edge connectors and the connectors could not handle the current.

Of course those games were used in places where back in the day smoking was allowed..And the residue would do a number on the card contacts and joy stick contacts.

Ah...The memories....
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 09-17-2009, 11:07 PM
Kamakiri's Avatar
Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Buffalo, New York
Posts: 5,109
Quote:
Originally Posted by RDusel View Post
JBL guy,
You must have enjoyed what you did. I've often dreamed of doing pinball/video game repairs as a professional but around my area (NYC suburb) it pays almost nothing..
My friend Levi Nayman does pretty well at it, around NYC

http://www.crazylevipinball.com/

My old Firepower is in his personal collection.....
__________________
"Restoring a tube TV is like going to war. A color one is like a land war in Asia."
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 09-18-2009, 05:51 AM
AUdubon5425's Avatar
AUdubon5425 AUdubon5425 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Picayune, Miss.
Posts: 1,769
Hey there -

I'm working as a service technician for a local amusement company, working in the field on a few arcade games, CD & internet jukeboxes and (mostly) video poker machines. I took the job to learn more about modern electronics and am enjoying it so far.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-25-2009, 06:36 PM
ChrisW6ATV's Avatar
ChrisW6ATV ChrisW6ATV is offline
Another CT-100 lives!
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Hayward, Cal. USA
Posts: 3,464
Hi, JBL Guy and others.

I repaired Electrohome monitors for the game manufacturers in the early 1980's, and I have done repairs on pinball machines (mine) and jukeboxes. At home is a Rowe AMI MM5 jukebox awaiting further restoration when I have the time.
__________________
Chris

Quote from another forum: "(Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did."
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-31-2009, 07:52 AM
timofred's Avatar
timofred timofred is offline
AK Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Port Macquarie,NSW,Oz
Posts: 7
Once lived above a general store and in the laundry out back was a tabletop Pacman.
Raced that thing upstairs and pryed open the door (does that count as tech ?),to get free games. Enjoyed that for over a year.
Put it back in the laundry when I left, as much as I would have loved to take it with me, I just couldn't do it.
__________________
Project 6.1 tt,Marantz CD-40,CX3400,C-2x,B-2,PM-82,SA-1055,StaxSR-3,411-8A,MS 35Ti.
"I'm virtually unrepentant, and I just don't care." - FZ
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #11  
Old 11-07-2009, 08:14 PM
mbates14 mbates14 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,003
I am not that great with video game repair, but i know a little bit about it. I got a casino video poker V2336 i think it is. none of the lights work. lol. the tower light is dead, and the button lights are dead. everything else works. the bulbs are powered from a 6.3v AC supply and each bulb gets pulled down to ground via TRIACs on the control board. 6.3VAC is at all the lamps, and i changed the triacs. no bad fuses. i guess the actual logic ICs on the main board is bad. heck i dunno.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 11-07-2009, 10:10 PM
RDusel RDusel is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 121
A few years ago I found a Tron upright video game next to a dumpster for a restaurant that was being remodeled, it had been rained on for days.
Dried it out, replaced the lower 12" of the case (which had been ruined by the rain) with black melamine board and the game came on and worked perfect. It's living in my friend's game room. Amazing how hardy the early circuits were.
Mbates,
I once repaired an early digital pinball game with a lot of failed lights. Turns out that a lot of the triacs were toast. When I changed them I found that there was also a driver transistor between the logic circuits and the triacs that were blown (from long term excessive heat). After changing the driver transistors I got all the lights to work.
Perhaps you have the same situation?
Rob
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 11-07-2009, 11:24 PM
mbates14 mbates14 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,003
yea i looked for that. if i remember correctly, i believe the triacs were interfaced directly to a 74HC chip. there was 8 of these chips total. i think they were 8 bit tri-state buffers.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 04-28-2010, 04:01 PM
MarkingTime MarkingTime is offline
AK Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Chicago, IL (Skokie)
Posts: 5
Is there a listing anywhere of favored mechanics/techs for various regions? I found a solid one --CWA up in Waupaca, Wisconsin [http://www.cwass.com/ ], but was shocked when they said they serve the Chicago market alot (~4 hours away). In the orig. home of Williams pinball, and I think Midway, it's sad to see knowledgeable fixers are so few and far between.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 12-26-2010, 01:33 PM
julianburke julianburke is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
Posts: 644
I'm in Knoxville, Tn. Although I hate working on many brands of monitors, I am very good on the Electrohome G07 series. I have plenty of parts for them as well as many parts chassis. If anyone needs a little help on these let me know. They rarely need a CRT and can be made to work excellent in a Pac Man or Galaga!
__________________
julian
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:15 PM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©Copyright 2012 VideoKarma.org, All rights reserved.