The Broken Joystick

Star Wars troubleshooting

brianpipa — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:52:25 +0000

I took my Star Wars PCB set over to a local guy named Kip today so he could check them out on his bench. Turns out the problem is with the boardset for sure. On his test bench it showed the EXACT same problem that it does in my cab. Now to get someone to fix it and I’ll have a working Star Wars again!

Tron in the house

brianpipa — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:15:18 +0000

I picked up a NICE local Tron today. I have wanted a Tron for about 10 years to go with my Discs of Tron. I have seen a few locally but they were either too expensive or too beat up. Last week I saw one locally on Craigslist for $1900 (!!!). Only a pic or two and it looked decent – no pics of sideart but he said it worked 100%. I emailed the guy and offered him $400. We went back and forth over email – me explaining that it wasn’t worth $1900, him showing me BINs on ebay for $2200, me showing him completed sales on ebay for $800. In the meantime, the price on CL went down to $1000, then $850. He told me I could have it for $650 – I countered with $600 and it was mine for $600.

So, I pick it up and it’s the nicest Tron I have ever seen in person. There were just a few nicks here and there in the sideart. CPO is perfect except a little cracking on the bend. The stickers on the spinner and stick are perfect and intact. Cool metal Showbiz Pizza Place asset tag on the back. The monitor is bright and clear with only a faint hint of the cone burned in on it. All lights work. It only had 14995 plays on the credit counter. I could not be happier and it looks great next to my DoT.
Pictures of my Tron

I now own a Sega Out Run

brianpipa — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:34:05 +0000

On Sunday I drove to York, SC and I picked up a Sega Out Run for $200. Took me 7 hours of driving, but it was well worth it. The game looks and plays great. I wanted a good driving game for the arcade and Out Run was my #1 choice.

While passing through, I also dropped off all my extra PCBs to the guys from Lyons Arcade. They were glad to take them and I was glad to get rid of them and have some space back in the arcade.

Mini Jamma cab gone… Pachinko and Out Run on the way

brianpipa — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:55:18 +0000

I sold my mini JAMMA cabinet last night. Sold it to a nice local guy and sold it with my multigame PCB so now I have to buy another one of those. Funny thing is, he bought the pachinko I saw on Craigslist a few weeks ago and is going to sell it to me for what he paid – $60! So I’ll get that next week.

I was gonna sell the Pengo but changed my mind. I decided to keep it. The good news is, I finally repainted the coin doors and repainted the bottom kick panel black so those look good now. I’ll be going to Charlotte this weekend to pickup an Out Run. I’ll finally have a good driving game!

Roy Clark “The Entertainer” cocktail pinball

brianpipa — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:01:56 +0000

I saw this on ebay and it was a 2 hour drive away and was at $51 with a day left. I watched it and right before the end I sniped $78 in and won it for $66.

So, for $66, 240 miles and 4.5 hours of driving, it’s mine now. It works 95% and is in pretty good shape. The left flipper is weak, it needs a new set of rubbers all around, needs new flipper buttons (faded), it doesn’t’ keep score (always says 0), and the far right drop target is always down. I’m VERY happy with it.

Centipede Lives!

brianpipa — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:08:04 +0000

OK, I’m a total idiot. I was hooking up the output of my Centipede to my test rig incorrectly – I was hooking up the RGB,GND, SYNC to SYNC, GND, BGR (image above is what you get)! Once I hooked it up right I could see the game playing. No sound or mushrooms though.

I went to bed and tied it again the next day and everything worked as it should. it had sound and mushrooms. WTF? I didn’t touch it. I’m happy it’s working but worried it will die on me again. Sigh.

I also tested the monitor from the bartop and it works great and has an awesome picture!

Qbert sideart as arcade decor

brianpipa — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:03:54 +0000

A while back I picked up a side of repo Qbert sideart with a flaw in it for cheap ($20 maybe?). I had the bright idea to frame it in a poster frame and use it as an arcade wall decoration in a poster frame.

Unfortunately, the paper I used as the background wrinkled and looked crappy. So, I had the bright idea to buy some yellow spray paint…

and paint the wood background to look like a qbert cabinet…

It took only a few minutes to dry and I popped in the sideart. man, it looks good (IMO)…

The lines you see in it now are just reflections in the glass. it looks great, honestly!

Restaurant Booth and NBA Play by Play

brianpipa — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:34:26 +0000

I picked up the restaurant booth today. It’s almost perfect. Just the right size – not too big. I could do without the brown but it will do. Gonna rearrange the arcade this weekend and make room for it.

I also played around in the arcade tonight and I got my Konami NBA Play by Play kit working! Turns out a dipswitch was flipped. Cool. Not as fun as NBA Jam, but I played a few games of it. Cool PCB setup with mini I/O boards to connect P3 and P4 and USB ports to hookup a separate cabinet (I think) and VGA output even.

Restaurant Booth!

brianpipa — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:32:42 +0000

I’ve been wanting a restaurant booth for the arcade for a while and it looks like I finally found one for FREE on Craigslist! He was asking $25 but said he’d give it to me. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow. It’s kind of an ugly brown but it looks like it’s in good condition. I could redo the vinyl if I wanted but may leave it. I need a table now.

Switching power supplies all tested

brianpipa — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:07:57 +0000

I had 5 switching power supplies of unknown state. A guy at work (Scott) who also collects, tested them all for me. Three worked so he kept one and I kept two – so now I have two extra working power supplies. YAY! I may need one to fix Tapper.