“I’m gonna buy me an arcade machine!” exclaims the young man. Greeaaat says his beautiful young fiancée. Or wife. Or whoever realizes that owning these is insane. Some are known to catch fire (cough, Star Wars; it’s the monitor, that’s all!), some are known to be very unreliable (Baby Pac Man….run like its Godzilla. Seriously). Other than the fact they are several hundreds of dollars/pounds/cubic feet of space, it’s a GREAT hobby to be in. Here are some of my thoughts on getting started……

CAUTION! I am not responsible for any injuries/damage resulting from following these directions! You are dealing with an antiquated piece of electronics, and there is always a chance of damaging anything you are not familiar with. I offer these bits of advice free of charge, but will not be responsible if you blow up your (or someone else’s) game. This is my BLOG from 6 years of fixing them. I am not a trained professional, just a hobbyist.

I’m Pickin’ out an arcade for you…..

Ok. Good for you. I assume you have space? Most arcade games are about 2 feet by 2 feet, and stand in the 5-6.5 feet tall range. Light ones are 150-175 pounds up to some 500 pound monsters. Look at the thickness of the cabinet, that should help you tell the weight. Some have wheels, and some other should not have wheels (Tron will kick out on you if you are unloading it from a pickup by yourself.).

What do you need to get one home? A good dolly. Sears sells an appliance dolly that works GREAT. Has a strapping mechanism and a stair climber set (lets you get up and down stairs). Its heavier than the aluminum ones you get on the Internet, but will last forever. DO NOT GET THE ONE FROM HOME DEPOT!!! It is too short, and you will lose your advantage when you tip it forward (unless your arms are three feet long). Trust me, this is the one to get.

You need to check your path before you get it there. Pole Position DOES NOT go down a staircase with a 90 degree turn in the middle. Unless you are trying to redecorate the hard way, measure and account for needed clearance when you are muscling the game around. The monitors all weight about 30 pounds, so you could take that out if you wanted to reduce weight. Some games are easy to get them out (early 80’s Midway cabinets are a breeze. Some Atari’s actually stay mounted on a piece of wood, and you remove them like a shelf.). I try never to move games down a flight of stairs with glass in them if I can avoid it. The forces of RACKING will cause the game to shift as it is; and the glass is NOT flexible.

Think about whether it fits in the door you are trying to go through. Some games will fit with an oomph, and some just ain’t going. Know the difference. A big HydroThunder is not going to fit into a basement doorway. Maybe a backdoor, but not an interior doorway. Check, check, check. I bought an Environmental Discs of Tron once, and sold it because it literally would not FIT into my house. No way, nuh-uh. Forget it.

Ok. So its in. Now what?

Get online, and download/buy the manual. That is now your required reading. Think of it as a history lesson. Learn how to change the settings on the machine (how many men, lives, time, whether it calls NORAD!). See where the Interlock switches are..these are important! -----History Lesson------- In the days of the mighty arcade owner, the games were set up to turn off if you broke into them. Hence, the use of interlocks. -----Fin’------------ Push them in (and hold them in) and the game will work. Pull them out and the game will work. In the middle? NADA! Game is dead. That’s supposed to be that way. Don’t get worked up over nothing. Promise that’s ok. Now get a beverage of your choice, and start reading.

Get your hands on the Atari “The Book”.pdf. I am planning on uploading here, but we will see. Its about the best explanation on a human being level reading I have ever seen on arcade repair. There is another book that Randy Fromm put out called Big Blue Book of Really Useful ….something like that. www.randyfromm.com and you can get it. Worth every penny. Now you’re armed with knowledge, son. Word up.

Remember that He Man thing, and that cat? That was cool. Power of Grayskull is not what we talking bout Willis. You need a 120 Volt outlet with a ground plug. Does your game have a ground plug? No? Change the plug end then. It should, and it really does save your game. If you are going to put it on the same circuit as, say, a washing machine, make sure you do not do laundry at the same time you play Pac Man. I would imagine you would be fine. It will never happen in my house. That’s a big draw on the circuit. Spikes could get to your little baby. Come on, laundry can wait until you get to the 256th board, right?

Damp= EVIL! Heat=EVIL! Fireplaces=EVIL! Ok, well, only if you expose the games to the heat coming out of one. Games like Ms. Pac and many early Atari games (mid 70’s) were just painted plywood. They age and shrink, leaving a sort of striated appearance to the cabinet. Best bet; keep them dry. No seeping basements. If you think the basement is musty, its too damp to have a game. Get a dehumidifier. That’s good advice for property value, too. They are not expensive and do a GREAT job. You will be amazed how well one really does work. Keep the games out of direct sunlight. I usually keep the backdoors off of all my games (just to keep them cool….dont forget there is an interlock switch in there you have to pull OUT to make the game work without the door!). If you have sunlight on exposed chips, the little EPROM windows can erase data. Will it happen in a day? Not a chance. In the four years you rent that Cape Cod? Count on it. Blinds are cheap, and they keep the sunfade from the art, too!

Know what stuff is. That way, when it breaks, you have a better chance of finding out what is wrong. Know the difference between:

• Monitor Chassis
• Arcade PCB
• Power Supply
• Isolation Transformer

  Those are the Must Knows. When the game is unplugged, the only thing that could hurt you is the Monitor Chassis. See that big wire sticking out of a suction cup on the backside of the glass monitor tube? That’s the big boy right there. No touchie-touchie. If you need to service the monitor, you need to discharge that. I use an insulated flat blade screwdriver and a piece of 10 gauge wire with alligator clips on both ends. The monitor frame is made of metal. Clip one end of the alligator clip to the screwdriver metal shaft and the other to the metal monitor frame. Now, being careful to only hold the rubber part of the screwdriver, slip the blade under that suction cup. POP! You are done. That discharged the monitor.

  Now you can safely disconnect that. I usually tap the screwdriver blade in there a few times, just to be sure. I also do it once more before I reconnect….just in case. Now there are other opinions about this….some say you will blow the Horizontal Output Transistor this way.. Ok. Then don’t do it my way and have a broken game (you were disassembling it because there was a problem, right?). I have NEVER had that happen (of course just saying that means I will@!!! Ha! I kill me J ). The other suggested method is the same as mine, only you add a 100ohm resistor in-line somewhere. Same deal, just more savvy I guess. Now you can safely touch everything in the game. Yaaay! Of course, this is with the game UNPLUGGED, not just turned off!