The repair that started it all for me was my first Centipede board. After figuring it out with almost no tools or experience.. I was hooked. I bought 5 more just to ‘fix’ them. I spend years as a teen coding 6502 assembly language and my first real job I coded in a low level language that was one step above assembly language.. All of these boards are my kind of puzzle. I’ve repaired many boards the others couldn’t figure out.
My earliest repairs are likely to show my learning process. Repairs at the end of the logs are recent and really dig into the issues I’ve found and their fixes.
Williams – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** I own a Joust upright and cocktail. Fortunately for me their PCBs were in perfect working order. I did acquire a stack of boards to work through and a friend sent me his Joust set. I’d built the beginnings of a bench harness to test a while back. All that…
Star Wars – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** I was very fortunate to pick up a Star Wars locally for a great price. It was reported as ‘it worked sometimes’ from the owner. He had it for nearly 20 years and his kids were not interested. He wasn’t a collector and decided it was…
Tempest – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** When I picked up my Tempest cabinet – I was fortunate that it came with two sets of boards. Both in unknown working condition. At some point I picked up third set to work on and later a fourth. At the top here are some of…
Atari Pong – PCB Repair Logs
I got a request to repair an original Pong from a repeat customer. I said I’d take a look – but wasn’t 100% sure about it. It would be my ~first bronze age repair and I knew nothing about the PCB. This first writeup is going to be a little different than usual. I normally…
Missile Command – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** I’d picked up a handful of Missile Command PCB’s a while back to add to my repair list. My Atari Bench Power Test Rig has made creating adapters for each board I work on relatively easy. I can typically build one in a couple hours. Swapping…
Pole Position – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** My plan had always been to work on Pole Position PCBs. I have 4 or 5 sets myself, I just never got to them. My test bench adapter was rather easy to assemble as compared to some other ones I’ve built. The video board is just…
Atari Sprint 2 – PCB Repair Logs
A repair shop that I’ve done some work for asked me if I would take a look at Sprint 2. I’ve only worked on a few bronze age games. One thing about them is you can see how the golden age games evolved from the earlier ones. Ex: All of the power conversion and regulation…
Xevious – PCB Repair Logs
I was asked if I’d take a look at some Xevious boards. Fortunately they had 2 sets. Having 2 sets of a non-working board is infinitely better than having 1 set when you have never worked on one. The chances of them both being dead identically are near zero. It allows some comparison so that…
Black Widow – PCB Repair Logs
Board #1 – Friend asked me to look at their board This is one of the Atari repro boards that was built up.. This is my second repro board repair, my first was this Star Wars set that needed a LOT of work to get running. This particular board ran, but the text during the…
Ms. Pacman – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** I picked up a Ms. Pacman mini – surprisingly the board worked at first.. but it deteriorated after a few hours of use. Board 1 – The Origin board Here is the board that came with my Ms. Pacman Cabaret. It actually powered up and worked…
Atari Bench Power Test Rig
My first full bench harness was for Battlezone since I do not own one. I knew when I made it that it would not be very well designed or efficient. I’ve also been repairing boards all curled up behind my cabs (Asteroids comes to mind..) and after making a slightly better DigDug bench harness, I…
Nintendo – PCB Repair Logs
I’ve always planned to do some Nintendo repairs and did a little on my own Donkey Kong board when the sound failed. I have a couple of them in my stash and even a couple of Punch Outs that I plan on working on.. Just never got to them.. That changed when one of my…
Kung Fu Master – PCB Repair Logs
I never planned on repairing this PCB.. I’d never even heard of it actually. But an arcade customer asked me to take a look and see if I could get it working correctly.. So why not… Kung Fu Master has a unique pinout an needed a bench adapter made. I keep the wires and heat…
Galaga – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** Had some good timing on this one. I while back an operator I do some work for now and then was planning on sending some Galaga boards, so I built up a bench harness. They never showed. My Galaga decided to stop working and I had picked…
Frogger – PCB Repair Logs
Board #1 – In for repair Board reported as not booting Step 1 is to build up a bench adapter for my test rig. Takes a couple hours but once complete, I can switch PCB’s in seconds and I’m always certain the power, video and controls are 100%. The PCB had minimal prior work, but…
Battlezone – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** Visited a buddy on the west coast and helped get his Battlezone cab up and running. (wow.. this was years ago….) We did a fair amount of work to the cabinet, got the monitor functioning, rebuild the controllers and replaced missing parts. Once we got the…
Asteroids – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** Received a board in for repair – not my first one, just the first one since I started documenting them. Initial inspection: This board also had an interesting mod. Someone replaced the 4 RAMs @M4, N4, P4, R4 with a 6116 @R3. Here are a few…
Dig Dug – PCB Repair Logs
*** Newest Entries always added to the bottom *** Working on Dig Dug boards started a little by accident. A single board came up for sale a few months back for a really good price so I picked it up and added it to my stash. Then a board with this description popped up: “Offering…
Asteroids Deluxe – PCB Repair Logs
I’ve worked a couple of Asteroids Deluxe, but haven’t had one in on the bench for a while. Board #1 – Received a board in for repair This board looks like it is moldy. Can’t tell if it is oxidation or some other environmental damage. It got washed, then washed with vinegar, then washed again. Once that was…
Centipede – PCB Repair Logs
Log of Centipede boards repaired to date: My first attempt at repairing a PCB is how I determined my approach to triage and setting a baseline for repair. After watching hours of videos with different people and different techniques – I’ve seen three types in general: There are merits to each of these – For…
Space Duel – PCB Repair Logs
I’d picked up a Space Duel board for myself a while back – it made it to the front of the bench. Board #1 – My board Triage: Started simple and replaced 7815 voltage regulator. Probing around I found the 12MHz clock coming off the crystal no problem.. The 12MHz was clean going into @F3…
I, Robot – PCB Repair Logs
Received a request for an I,Robot repair from someone I had done some work for in the past. On a board I’ve never worked on before – I like to have at least one other PCB as a reference, working or not. That way I can go back and forth and eventually get both working…
Atari Football – PCB Repair Logs
Got a request from an arcade I’ve done some repair for in the past. Could I fix a couple of Atari Football boards? After taking a look at the schematics, I couldn’t see why not.. The way I test boards is to use my Test Bench and Adapters This one was a bit different than…
Gyruss – PCB Repair Logs
Here’s what it looks like when its done.. But it was a long road to Earth.. My real motto for this post is:You can’t learn to swim by reading a book – you have to jump in the water. I started by jumping in the deep end, very deep. When I picked up my Gyruss…
Warlords – PCB Repair Logs
I was asked if I could work on a couple of Warlords PCBs.. I said sure!! First step is to build a new adapter for my Bench Power Test Rig. I start with 18G wire for all the power connections, then use 22G wire for all the remaining ones. Power first, video second and controls…
Lunar Lander – PCB Repair Logs
Received my first Lunar Lander repair request – I’m a little surprised I’d not seen one yet.. But happy to get one to work on.. Initially I thought I would be able to reuse my Asteroids bench adapter and make a bench controller adapter to allow for the analog inputs. After looking at the schematics…
Crystal Castles – PCB Repair Logs
Received a board from a friend – no sound. First think that popped into my mind was LM324 amplifier and I had not even looked at the schematics. That said – I had no way to test it.. Step 1 is to build up a bench adapter for my test rig. Takes a couple hours but…
Red Baron – PCB Repair Logs
Board #1 – My Personal set I accidentally happened across an original Red Baron board set. Overall it is in very good shape. I performed some basic maintenance to it and corrected a few issues. Cold solder joints on the interconnect, the edge connector was really chewed up and the chip legs were all pretty…
Centuri Phoenix – PCB Repair Logs
Board #1 – One of my regular customers asked if I could take a look at a Century Phoenix. Never worked on one and it uses an 8085 processor – So no CATBOX assistance here.. The schematics seemed simple enough and the reported issue was basically loosing sync. Step 1- build a bench adapter so…
Quantum – PCB Repair Logs
I was fortunate enough to get asked to take a look at a Quantum board. Had not worked on one, but was willing to give it a shot! First I had to build up my bench harness which connects into my Atari Bench Power Test Rig. I start with just the power connections and verify…
Gravitar – PCB Repair Logs
I came across a pretty decent Gravitar cabinet that had everything except a PCB and a working monitor. I’ll be restoring the cab a bit soon. I was able to get a Gravitar PCB pretty reasonably priced from an operator I’ve done some repairs for.. Board#1 – My board Triage: First time through it failed…
Major Havoc – PCB Repair Logs
I never really expected to work on a Major Havoc set. But I’ve been pretty lucky with this sort of thing. A good friend always wanted one – but an original is pretty hard to come by. He decided to get the reproduction cabinet and build the reproduction Major Havoc PCB. It’s been a long…
Star Trek S.O.S. – PCB Repair Logs
I’ve been fortunate enough to be helping a friend rescue a Star Trek S.O.S. Captains Chair. The woodworking and restoration phase of the chair is nearing its end and it was time to transfer the electronics from a working upright to The Chair. Once the board stack got over to the chair – it decided…
Tutankham – PCB Repair Logs
I’d never intended to work on one of these PCB’s. But a request came in and it is a very close cousin to Gyruss which I have repaired a number of times. Board #1 – In for repair Triage: Once I got it all connected up: Notice the characters are bad, but the star field…
Millipede Trackball issues
A picked up a Millipede a while back mostly because the price was right. My game is Centipede – but it was too good to pass up. Firing up the game – It ran – but the shooter would just lock up now and then even thought the game kept playing normally. I put it…
Arcade PCB Repair Tips & Tools
My approach to fixing PCB’s – When you are just starting out. Digging into the restoration of my Centipede machine lead me toward fixing the PCB. Once I got going, it was quite interesting and I like that kind of trouble shooting. I picked up a pair of dead Centipede boards from a KLOV’r purely to…
Bench Isolation Power Supply
Working on this CRT (and potentially future ones) was becoming annoying.. Every time I wanted to ‘try’ something – I would break out the Atari Power brick and the Centipede wiring harness, plug it all together and use a Molex connector as a power switch on the Atari brick. It all works fine – but…
Lakeside Arcade 