Could I walk away? Sure, with an arcade game strapped to my back after the divorce.... JK. Or am I? But seriously, if I had to, I could downsize... ok, fine. It's just a hobby, so yes, if the circumstances were such.

I check Craigslist everyday unless the wife says I am cut off....of course if there is a game she wants then I will look for it. Currently I have no room until the next stage of our basement is done.

I buy games that are cheap and that I want. Sure, I want a Tapper, but I'm not paying $1000. But if it popped up for $300 you better believe I'm going to go get it. I'm still new into this hobby so I'm at the stage where I am just trying to get games and will take the free and broken game in hopes of getting it working.

Arcade collecting is improving my life and keeps me at home. Seriously. Sure I go out and get games, but prior to this I could be found at the bar 2-3 times a week. Now I'm there once or twice!

If my spouse game me the ultimatum...well at first it felt like I was getting one after every other game pickup. Then, like Netropolis, my wife likes to tell people at work what I'm doing and then somehow earns the credit for it....what the heck?! But if she gave me a serious ultimatum, we would come to a compromise. I understand that I will never fit 40 games in my basement....well I could, just not with her in my life. I will try to make a modest game room out of 10-13 games and rotate them as needed.

Every hobby in my life has come and gone. I keep tabs in some of them and others I let go completely. Video game collecting has been going on for almost 20 years. Sure it hasn't always been arcade games, that's just the next level. Other hobby's like RC airplanes have come and gone pretty quickly. It was fun and I think about it, but I'm not rushing out to buy another setup.

For the record, we have all dedicated cabinets for: Ms. Pacman, Avengers, Final Lap, Pole Position, NBA Jam, Space Invaders (cocktail), (cocktail), Virtua Cop, Atari Badlands

Good luck! I had errors too and it ended up being a bad socket for one of the Z80 processors on the CPU board. 

I had some sort of similar issue with one of my games. I started tracing back from the problem with my multimeter on the continuity setting...turns out a wire had just come loose during transportation but was still attached so everything appeared to be ok. Check for the fuses, see if you're getting voltage out of the power supply.  I'm not familiar with Virtua Fighter...does that have an interlock switch somewhere?

Looking pretty cool man. I can't wait to see the finished product.

That's a pretty big basement, holy cow.

What he said! I like seeing how people lay their basements out. We're getting close to finishing ours! Might I suggest losing the wall to the TV/Media room?  It might be nice if it's open?? But then again it is a large enough space that it could be an intimate area with the walls or perhaps double french doors or something.

Is there a bulkhead or anything? You might have a horrible time getting the skeeball down if you are taking it through the stairs in the main living area.

Ram 73 Error (as well as 126, 127, and 40)




Bad Z80 socket with corroded pins...that fell off when touched 




Turns out it was a bad 40-pin Z80 socket. Corroded pins, pins that fell out when we removed it. Now to try and get it in the house so I can test the board in the cabinet!

http://imgur.com/a/MSIi1

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems

I just came across this and found it quite informative. I could have used this as a beginner.

Came here to say, "pics or it didn't happen." But then there was a picture!  Rob does rock!!!

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=498

I collect console stuff as well. Granted, most of my stuff has been packed up since we have begun our basement project. Originally the basement was going to be a place for me to go to play console games and with perhaps a billiards table. One thing leads to the next and I now own 6 arcade machines (how did this happen!?). The worst part is they aren't even setup. They are just being stored in various parts of the house just like the consoles. I'm currently in the process of going through some of my NES stuff because I have duplicates (things I got in lots). I mean, who really needs 4 NES systems? I should sell those. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm keeping the titles that are important to me and sifting through the rest. Not all of it, but some.

My first cab was $50 and I wasn't even able to drive yet. Flash forward to 2014 and 2015 and I try to keep my finds still under $300. The average price per game is $87.50. Granted several of those were not working. So getting your first cab is entirely reasonable if you don't mind it being a little rough around the edges. You could sell a few of your things on eBay and easily get into your first cabinet.

That was fun!  Keep the CS:S going. Some other easy thoughts: Team Fortress 2, Wolfenstein ET (free).

That's a thought... I've even see a few pop up lately in the $300 range.

Anyway, some paint is up:

Picked up another one with some motivation from those who are better at troubleshooting this board than I am. I'm really enjoying this learning process (despite that 20EZ being extremely rude to me).  When I picked it up the guy said it came on with some error message and the monitor worked. I haven't turned it on yet since it was in his below freezing garage and now it's in my below freezing garage until the snow melts.  The board is out and will get tested soon hopefully.

[Items replaced:]

Ok. So. I've got a 13" 20 EZ out of my cocktail. I've gone through with the help of some other forum members on here the troubleshooting guide and flow chart for this monitor. I just want to narrow down with a new thread what has been done. Yes, this is the one I have been working on for a while.


Items replaced:

• cap kit
• flyback
• HOT
• B+ Pot
• B+ filter cap
• IC601 voltage regulator (x2 -new one and one off another board has been tried.)
• Q901 transistor (x2 -new one and one off another board has been tried.)
• IC401

The area of the board that has most of this stuff has been reflowed. Diodes D601-604 check out, but I could still replace them all from the ones off of another board. H-Hold pot has been checked and tests ok.

Symptoms:

• No picture
• You can hear the flyback come on
• you can feel static near the tube
• There is a "pop" when the tube is discharged
• TP91 reads 130+ volts
• AC at the transformer reads 108v
• adjusting B+ pot does nothing
• adjust H-Hold does nothing to the B+ value
• Pin 9 of IC401 reads 0.6v

Based on the troubleshooting guide it says to check the power reg., hold-down, and high voltage circuits.

Questions:

Have I addressed all of the things in the trouble shooting guide? What are the hold down and high voltage circuits?

What else should I check?

So I have still not gotten this thing working despite replacing IC401, IC601, etc

I have tried a total of 3 IC601s (original, new, and from parts board). I brought it to a weekly arcade gathering for another set of eyes and it appears as if everything is working as it should, but it's not. I left with a parts chassis to try things on. I may try to see if I can get the parts chassis to work, but that's for a 19" monitor and not a 13". I just don't know what the subtle differences are other than the adjustments knobs for the picture and volume aren't on the chassis and are on a remote board instead.

http://youtu.be/RuO2rFrJXwU?list=PLbHiYDImGdzCvhVYmfFw_2AlTjtyc6wVV

The lights and electrical are done! LED Flood lights on a dimmer. Plus some poor mockups

The wife has said she is ok not doing a pool table but I'm still torn. Not to mention that saving for a nice one is still a few years out. In the mean time she said, "arcade machines would be cooler."

http://imgur.com/a/MSGbp
Thoughts? Ideas? I can't layout a room to save my life.