Cebus Capucinis

I'm personally partial to Full Contact Badminton.

I knocked myself unconscious in a CEC when I was 5-6. I remember a small amount of it, actually. I was climbing around in the tubes, and there was one up near the ceiling with a ladder leading to it (for kids to climb up and into etc.). I had gotten out of the ball pit, climbed up the slide, and was crawling my way down the tube when 5-year old brain forgot that there was a gaping hole halfway through. OSHA would be excited to see that one. Anyway, plummeting down goes 5-year old me, and WHAM, I hit the ground and blackness. Woke up maybe 1-2 minutes later, I guess? Not completely sure but I remember being completely surrounded by giants (adults) who were all speaking tongues at first, sounding concerned about something....as my consciousness faded back in I remember they were worried about me and I then recognized my parents. Fortunately that was in the days before massive pedo issues so I'm glad some nonce didn't see a passed out kid and stuff me in his FREE CANDY van..... Not only did they not do an accident report, but no ambulance was called or anything (in modern times that would be SHOCKING and warrant a lawsuit, I'm sure, but admittedly, I was either completely fine or it has affected me to this day without my knowledge) and my parents just scraped me off the floor, dusted me off, and handed me some tokens to go play Roadblasters or something. Good times, man, good times....

Cinematronics War of the Worlds, both in rarity and in subject matter! Though I'm also partial to Omega Race!

LOL and sweat 50lb off in a day in AZ heat!

I'd think with a proper encoder it would be fine - it would have to be something like "IF the encoder is getting X volts = switch is on = HI gear, IF the encoder is getting 0 volts = switch is off = LO gear" - provided the encoder is sending the right data, I'd think MAME wouldn't know the difference. You might have to get the encoder to just send a single burst of code then nothing rather than a continuous stream indicating status, but that *should* be do-able? (Beyond my skills though!).

Since I'm now in "have to wear a suit all the time" world, the only thing I can get away with is accessorizing. But I do have a nice Space Invaders tie, SI & Pac-Man socks, and SI cufflinks & watch.....

(Apologies for double post but wanted this separate) EDIT: [Also I read that you're an engineer so this is probably a little 'dumbed down' for you actually, LOL, but I figured best to explain it in simplest terms possible!] Also, another key fix that you should check is those edge connectors and the edges on the boards! FIRST, what I do is - take pictures of all the edge connectors (like the little plastic Molex ones etc) going to the board! Most of them are double-sided and if you put it in backward you fry your board! So take a good picture and mark one side with "COMPONENTS" or something on the plastic of the edge connector so you know which way they go back in. I use my phone to take a ton of high-res pics of each edge connector, even if I've done it 10000x (like with my Space Invaders), before disconnecting everything. Even if I have the pinouts memorized, because it's a good habit to have. For most games the edges and edge connectors are the source of the majority of the problems. When you pull the board, grab a regular ol' pink pencil eraser and erase (don't scrub too hard) the edge of the PCB (where the fingers make the little traces where the connectors go in). Just erase it like you're cleaning off the crap that's accumulated. If you can, get some DeOxit or other contact cleaner and give the inside pins on the plastic edge connector a slight blast, then follow up with canned air so it dries out completely. Check the pins on the edge connectors to make sure none are bent, broken, and give the wires a slight tug (not too hard) to see if any are loose. If they're loose, you'll have to replace that pin, which is pretty simple to do. Check the edges on the boards where they meet the connectors (they'll be dual-sided so check both sides). Is there solder popping up, or traces broken? If so, there's your problem, and you'll have to either reflow solder or buy a fingerboard and repair it that way (I think for Pac-Man there's one called PAC-FIX or something like that). If there isn't, reseat them, you should feel them 'grabbing' the board a bit so there should be some resistance. Flip her on and try her out and see if that helps a bit. IIRC, on Pac there's also a test mode switch. Someone you could ask would be @save2600, he's well versed in this stuff and I know he's done a ton of work on Pac. If it's a clone it's probably got similar problems. When the game dies, does it play blind? Like can you hear the sounds and the game still playing, but the monitor is out? It sounds from your post it doesn't, so that possibly rules out a monitor problem. The first thing I learned about arcade game repair is this: "Arcade games seem complex but they're really just 3 things: 1) Power Supply, 2) Logic Boards, 3) Monitor. All repair will center on those three things, so if you can eliminate 2 of those three, you'll be a long way to fixing things."

This is a little off the beaten path, but perhaps someone has one. I'm looking for an older EM pinball backglass - something with score reel holes rather than digital scoring. I don't need the reels (well, I do, but if separate that's fine). I'd prefer something Western themed but anything will do, in fact, because this is a proof of concept or prototype, I should probably not use a good Western backglass yet! It's for an art project / concept for my new office. So....I don't need (nor do I want) one that's in good/perfect shape (cheaper the better obviously!). Repro would work too. If it's flaking a bit or needs touch up etc. all the better! Also, if someone knows where I can get repros or plexi versions for less than a king's ransom I'd do that too. Problem is I'm not keen on shoveling $500 into something that won't be used on the actual pin in question.

My guess would be you've got a capacitor issue. First thing I'd check is make sure you're getting the right voltages out of the power supply. Should be +5V, +12V, and -5V going to the game board (as close as you can get them). Once you've done that, if you know what the game is, see if you can find how to get it into test mode. Some games boot with a RAM test, others you have to remove the ROMs to see a pattern. What I wouldn't do is start replacing ICs yet. Sometimes doing that can create new problems and a user ends up not knowing what's going on anymore, and sometimes pros won't work on a board like that so you lose an option to repair. IMO what you should do after confirming the proper voltages are going to the board is pull the main game board, get a magnifying glass, and go meticulously over everything on the board. Look for cracked, bulging, or leaking capacitors, burned out resistors, cracked or pulled traces on the board, and chip legs to see if they are making contact, and solder joints to see if there's cracks. The fact that it worked for a couple days then didn't after that tells me that it's probably a socket connection to the board that's gone wonky, and cleaning and reseating made the connection but it lost it after a while. Especially check the tantalum capacitors (the funky looking little blue and orange guys on the board) to see if those are cracked etc. Also, those ribbon cables between boards are a HUGE break point for Pac-Man style games. Try pulling that and reseating it and seeing if it has broken pins etc. Also, are those top four ICs on the bottom board in your pic mask ROMs? If they have windows on them, and you can see them (they don't appear to be covered with a sticker), it's possible that those are exposed and have lost data. I'm not 100% on that though, and can't tell from the pic.

I PMed him thanking him for my lovely "new" profile pic LMAO.

Everyone who says their initials weren't ASS is a liar.

1942. Dumped so much money in that I could have bought one 10 times over, I'm sure. Then I got a Scramble conversion and almost broke the TG world record for it.....then sold it in a move to Detroit. Of all the games I've ever sold, I'm still kicking myself for that one - and it's not even a rare game! I've just never gotten around to getting a new board and making a new cabinet.

Do they make you provide proof of insurance or post a bond or something for those? LOL great idea in practice, cool to see that option but I just wonder how they vet people for it, I could see someone getting one and beating it to hell and back!

LOL, thank @Sauron for it, he dragged me back here (though not kicking and screaming!). Things are good! I'm an attorney now, so that's pretty crazy. Graduate in 2 weeks but I'm already working under COVID emergency rules. Only took me....10 years to finally get off my ass and actually get around to doing it. Been halfway across the country and back now, permanently in Phoenix area. Out of everything in all the moves, I've still kept all my Atari stuff so I've still got my kinda small-ish collection. Though I've moved to 70s arcade games as my new obsession....

Thanks! You can kind of see the sheet-covered Space Invaders in the background. I've decided my new goal is to snag all the Midway 8080 machines, which will be a ridiculously long and probably expensive endeavor. LOL

I got this, does this count?